It's the start of a new term and Year 3 are ready to get down to business.

This term we will be studying ancient civilisations and specifically the Ancient Egyptians. Historical enquiry will be at the centre of everything we do in the topic, so strap yourself in and get ready to answer questions like:

-How can we discover what Ancient Egypt was like 5000 years ago?

-What evidence of life has survived and how can we study it?

-What was life like for children in Ancient Egyptian times?

-What did the Ancient Egyptians believe about life after death?

-What did the Ancient Egypt have in common with other civilisations at that time?

-How did a rock help us to read?

-Why did some Ancient Egyptians need a visit to the dentist?

Along the way we will hope to do some mummification, build a shaduf and produce lots of interesting writing. 

Manchester Museum has a fantastic range of Ancient Egyptian artefacts so please take your child there if you get the chance. It will definitely further their understanding of this fantastic subject. 

Also, please watch the mindset video we created as a class. We've had a big focus on growth mindsets at The Firs and it's been great to see the children challenging themselves, growing in confidence and believing in their own abilities. We hope you enjoy it.

Mr Silk and Miss Kenneally

In English we will be writing a newspaper report, an explanation on mummification, traditional tales, poetry and lots more topic-based work.

Pupils will be taught to:

Plan their writing by:

• discussing writing similar to that which they are planning to write in order to understand and learn from its structure, vocabulary and grammar
• discussing and recording idea

​Draft and write by

• composing and rehearsing sentences orally (including dialogue), progressively building a varied and rich vocabulary and an increasing range of sentence structure
• organising paragraphs around a theme
• in narratives, creating settings, characters and plot
• in non-narrative material, using simple organisational devices [for example, headings and sub-headings]

Evaluate and edit by:

• assessing the effectiveness of their own and others’ writing and suggesting improvement
• proposing changes to grammar and vocabulary to improve consistency, including the accurate use of pronouns in sentences
• proofread for spelling and punctuation errors
• read their own writing aloud to a group or the whole class, using appropriate intonation and controlling the tone and volume so that the meaning is clear

Grammar will also be an important focus this year. Children will be learning how to use conjunctions such as, when, if, because, although. They will also be learning about pronouns, commas, apostrophes, and, speech marks.

Handwriting expectations remain high, for further information please see our Penpals support for handwriting, on this page.

Children are expected to listen to and discuss a range of texts including, fiction, poetry, plays, non-fiction and reference books or textbooks. They will be using dictionaries to check the meaning of words. Additionally, children will be preparing poems and play scripts to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone, volume and action. We will be discussing words and phrases that capture the reader’s interest and imagination.

We expect children to read daily and record which pages and books in their reading logs.

We understand that going into the juniors can be big transition for children, our aim is to ‘Inspire, Believe, Achieve!’ we wish for all children to feel happy and safe in school, please,  if there is anything that you need to know or you have any worries or concerns about your child, or school life in general then please don't hesitate to contact me.

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Thank you for your continued support.

Mr Silk (Class Teacher) and Miss Kenneally (Teaching Assistant)

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