Pott Shrigley Class 3 2023 - 2024

October 2023

AUTUMN TERM 2

A warm welcome back to the second half of our Autumn term. The children have done brilliantly so far, tackling the new academic year head-on with a very positive attidue towards their learning.

As always, this half term is very busy during the lead up to Christmas and we are very excited to begin rehearsals for our Christmas Nativity, in which every child in Class 3 will get to take part. Both children and staff are very excited for one of our highlights of the school year!

In English we are starting our new text, 'Hansel and Gretel' by Neil Gaiman. Many of my children were introduced this author last year when we read 'Odd and the Frost Giants' and loved his writing, so I am looking forward to seeing how they enjoy this book. The children will be building upon the writing skills they excelled in last term through composing a dual narrative (from the perspective of two fairytale characters) and penning a persuasive letter. Last term, the children blew me away with their writing, and I cannot wait to see what they produce this term. 

This half term, the children take off their 'Historian Hats' and become Geographers. We will participate in a local fieldwork study, exploring the urban landscape of Macclesfield town and comparing its human and physical features to our local area. The children will develop their geography skills, using compasses, maps and atlases to observe, measure and record the landscapes. 

In Maths, the children will be learning different methods for mulitplication and division, which they will apply to number work and reasoning problems. We will be using concrete, pictorial and abstract resources to secure our knowledge and develop our mastery skills. Please keep an eye out on our Class Padlet for what your child will be doing throughout the week. 

In Science we are looking at electricity. The children will be doing hands-on, practical experiments, constructing simple electrical circuits, using cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers to observe the effects. They will be creating their own scientific enquiry questions to hypothesise and draw their own conclusions. The children will be deepening this knowledge in Design and Technology, where the children will be using their scientific knowledge to create an alarm bell using their own circuit diagrams. 

In RE, the children will be exploring the Book of Proverbs and Computing will be furthering their knowledge on coding, building on prior knowledge of computer programming to design, write and debug their own computer games.

Homework in Class 3 will be weekly spellings, sent home on a Monday for the children to learn and return by the following Friday, ready for our weekly spelling test. There are numerous ways that children can learn spellings to help apply them to their work, so please do ask if you would like advice on how to best support your child with this.

Reading remains a core part of our curriculum. The children have frequent opportunities to practice independent, guided and whole class reading. We would ask that you please read with your child at home as much as possible, to keep their love of literature consistent and contribute to the development of their fluency and comprehension skills, which are invaluable across the curriculum.

The children will continue to be active throughout the week, working with the fantastic AT Sports on Tuesday afternoons, attending swimming at Poynton high school on Thursday afternoons and partaking in Forest Schools on Friday afternoons, so please ensure your child has the correct kit and water bottle on those days.

If parents have any queries or are worried about anything in particular about their child, please do not hesitate to contact myself or Mrs Willis.

Warmest wishes 

Mrs Fairhurst