🌳Welcome to Green Class - Year 3

Welcome to Year 3! In Green Class, we’re all about curiosity, creativity, and growing independence. We work together to build confidence, celebrate achievements, and make learning exciting every day.

🌍 This Half Term’s Topic: Angry Earth

This half term, our learning is centred around Angry Earth. We’ll explore the incredible forces that shape our planet, from volcanoes and earthquakes to tornadoes and tsunamis. Children will investigate how these natural events occur, the impact they have on people and places, and what makes Earth such a powerful and fascinating planet.

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📅 Year 3 Topics for 2025–2026

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📌 Key Information

• 🏃‍♂️ PE Days: Tuesday & Wednesday
  Children should wear their PE kit to school on these days (jogging bottoms, PE T-shirt, sweatshirt or hoodie, trainers/pumps). They will go home in their PE kit. Please also send their coat and school jumper.

• 📖 Reading Books: Sent home daily
  Children are expected to read every day. Please sign their Reading Log. Bug Club is also available online—login details are in their book bag.

• ✏️ Spelling Practice: New spellings are set every Friday on Spelling Shed.
  Weekly spelling tests take place on Tuesdays.

• 🔢 Times Tables: Focus this half term is on 3× and 4× tables.
  Children should practise regularly using Times Tables Rock Stars and Hit the Button.

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📚 What We’re Learning

✍️ English

This half term, we are learning all about our amazing planet and the powerful natural events that shape it. We will be reading Stranded! A Mostly True Story and using it as inspiration to write our own adventure story about an explorer stranded on a volcanic island.

Using Earth-Shattering Events, children will choose an extreme weather or natural event and write a non-chronological report, learning how to organise information clearly.

Grammar Focus

We will be developing our writing through:

• Varying sentence openers, including fronted adverbials

• Using a “sentence of 3” to build description

• Extending sentences using subordination (when, if, because, that)

We will also focus on handwriting, ensuring children use diagonal and horizontal strokes to join letters correctly, while remembering which letters should remain unjoined.

📖 Reading

We will explore a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, including extracts from:

• The Pebble in My Pocket

• Rocks and Minerals

• Escape from Pompeii

Reading every night at home makes a huge difference. Please sign the Reading Log and talk to your child about what they’ve read.

➕ Maths

This half term we are learning about:

• Multiplication and division facts for the 2×, 3×, 4×, 5× and 8× tables

• Writing and calculating multiplication and division statements

• Length and perimeter, including converting mm/cm/m and calculating perimeters

🌋 Topic – Angry Earth

We will explore:

• The layers of the Earth

• How volcanoes are formed

• The dangers of living near a volcano

• Earthquakes, tornadoes and tsunamis

🎨 Art

We will take part in a special Ink Art Day, creating artwork using ballpoint pens inspired by artists such as Cy Baker and James Mylne. Children will explore line, tone and texture.

🔬 Science

Our science topic is Rocks and Soils. Children will:

• Identify the three main types of rock

• Describe their properties

• Explore layers of rock and soil

• Investigate different soil types through hands-on activities

🧠 PSHE

Our Jigsaw theme is Dreams and Goals, focusing on perseverance, ambition and working towards personal achievements.

🏃 PE

Children will develop skills through invasion games and gymnastics, focusing on teamwork, coordination and control.

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🏡 How You Can Help at Home

• Read with your child daily and sign their Reading Log
• Practise weekly spellings on Spelling Shed
• Talk about what they’ve learned in class
• Explore books and websites about European countries
• Support times tables practice using online games
• Help with weekly homework activities

📌 Please ensure your child brings a named water bottle every day.

 

Look out for our Parent Information Sheet below! 

✏️ Year 3 Spelling List

These words are part of the Year 3 curriculum and help children build strong spelling habits. They include commonly used words, tricky spellings, and words that follow important patterns. Children practise these weekly to improve their writing fluency and confidence.

Each group introduces a mix of:

• High-frequency words used in everyday writing

• Words with silent letters, double consonants, or unusual endings

• Vocabulary that supports topic work and reading comprehension

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🔄 Year 3 Homophones List

Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. Learning homophones helps children:

• Understand word meaning in context

• Avoid common spelling mistakes

• Improve reading and writing accuracy

For example:

• peace (calm) vs. piece (a part of something)

• weather (rain, sun, etc.) vs. whether (if something will happen)

Children practise these through matching games, sentence writing, and spelling challenges.