Welcome to Tubman Class –  Year 3

Named after Harriet Tubman (and exploring the value of individual liberty) – Born into slavery in 1820, she grew up working in the cotton fields.

She witnessed another slave escape and when she was older, escaped herself.

It was a long and lonely journey to freedom.

However, when she reached the border with Pennsylvania, she realised she needed to help others escape too.

A network of helpers, known as ‘The Underground Railroad’, helped over 70 slaves on their way to freedom.

Mrs Charlotte Reddecliff – Class Teacher

Mrs Emma Lingard -Lane – Class Teacher

Mrs Linda Turner – Learning Support Assistant/HLTA

Mrs Nikki Stubbs – Learning Support Assistant

Welcome to Year 3: Tubman Class

Autumn Term 2021

Welcome back! We hope you have had a lovely summer break and feel refreshed, ready for the new academic year. It has been so lovely to have the children back in school and begin our learning together. We will all be working hard this year to ensure the children enjoy learning and make great progress. We will, also, be expecting the children to become more independent in Year 3 but do, please, support them to bring in all that they need on the correct day.  The times of the school day have returned to normal so doors open at 8.40 am with the register being taken at 9am, your child will need to be collected each day at 3pm. The class will be taught by Mrs Reddecliff 4 days a week and Mrs Linguard-Lane on a Wednesday.

This year the class is named after Harriet Tubman, reflecting the British value of individual liberty. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland USA in 1820 and her sense of independence led her to escape in 1849. She devoted her life to helping slaves, including her family and non family members, to escape. She worked with the ‘Underground railroad’ which included hidden routes and homes to let escaped slaves move from location to location, offering food, shelter and clothes as they headed to freedom. Over 10 years she made 19 trips and helped over 300 slaves escape.

Learning Experience

This term we will begin with our topic Rock and Roll, learning about the Stone age to Iron age period of history and the way life changed for people throughout this early period of history. We will end this unit with an exciting trip to Stonehenge (more details to follow soon).

English

At Niton, we believe reading for pleasure is essential. Your child will be sent home with a reading book to help them develop their decoding, pace and comprehension when reading aloud. We ask that you hear your child read at least 3 times a week and send their book into school each day. We would also encourage you to read aloud to our child, take them to the library or find books/magazines that they enjoy to help develop a lifelong love or reading. 

We will begin out writing by looking at the book ‘The Barnabus Project’, writing descriptions of characters and instructions to help them escape. We will also look at other texts throughout the term.

Maths

The Maths curriculum will be divided into units of work that will cover place value, addition and subtraction strategies, shape and space and statistics. We plan to use written methods and practical resources to help the children develop a deep and secure understanding of these areas. Learning in each area will focus on securing year 2 understanding before we move onto the year 3 curriculum. By the end of the year, your child needs to be able to tell the time to the nearest minute on an analogue clock. They often find telling the time quite challenging and we have found it more effective to apply the ‘little and often’ approach to telling the time so would appreciate your support with this at home. They are also expected to know their 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10 times tables, and the related division facts, by the end of the year. We will practice these in class through games, songs and activities. Each child will also have a login for Times Table Rock Stars. At the end of year 4, children are required to complete a times table check assessment so it essential that these skills are developed as early as possible to support with this.

Science

This term’s topic is ‘Rocks, Fossils and Soils’. We will be finding out about different types of rocks and soils as well as exploring their different properties. Through our work on fossils we will think about how they are created and look at the life of Mary Anning. If you have any examples of fossils at home we would love your child to bring these in to show the class.

Art

We will be exploring prehistoric art using the Lion Man sculpture and cave paintings. They will be learning colour mixing and pencil skills to create their own final piece of work.

RE

Following the Living Difference III Hampshire curriculum, we will be looking at the concept of Good and evil, focusing on the Hindu celebration of Diwali.

MFL

We will be learning French throughout key stage 2. This term we will be learning how to meet and greet each other, how to count, say our age as well as being able to identify colours in French.  

Music

Mr. Mulhern will be teaching Music to the children. These lessons will take place on Tuesday morning.  

H.P.E

We will be having two sessions a week, one on Monday (with the PE coach) and the other on Wednesday (with Mr Woodhouse). Please make sure your child comes into school in the correct PE kit on those days. Long hair must be tied back and earrings removed, alternatively please make sure that your child has a roll of micropore tape (cheaply available from the chemist) in school at all times, too.

Homework: Homework will consist of daily reading (independently and to an adult), a piece of work linked to their Maths, English or topic learning and regular practice of weekly spellings and times tables. The homework will be sent home in a Homework book. Please make sure the week’s homework is completed by Thursday and returned to school on this day so that the work can be reviewed and the homework book can be sent home again on Friday with any new work in it.  Spelling tests will take place on Thursdays. 

If any of you have any ideas to support our learning, have any talents that could help us with our topic work or would like to hear readers, we are always very appreciative of this support. Please contact me through the office, and I will get back to you as soon as I can. 

Voluntary Contributions.

Providing quality resources for topic work can become expensive. Occasionally, we would like to be able to ask for a voluntary contribution towards topic resources. This will not be always be monetary but perhaps the contribution of a bag of flour or sugar for cooking etc.

Please also be aware of the school Amazon wishlist, as we try to develop and update our class libraries. More information on this can be found on the school newsletter and the link can be found on our school Facebook page.

A final note to remind you that, as the children are beginning to move more freely around the school it is easy for them to misplace their belongings. Please ensure jumpers, water bottles etc. are clearly named or we cannot guarantee we will be able to relocate these for you.

I am always available if you wish to speak to any of us. You could catch me at the end of the day or as above, please contact the office by telephone or email so that we can arrange a time to talk to you.

Year 3 Team, 

Mrs Reddecliff, Mrs Lingard-Lane, Mrs Turner and Mrs Stubbs

Homework