Welcome to our fabulous class for Year 3 and 4 pupils!
A bit about us…
Class 3 is made up of year 3 and year 4 pupils, who are transitioning into KS2. Mr Vincent is the class teacher and he is supported by Miss Frazer. 
In Class 3, we do a lot of fun activities throughout the year in all of our lessons, which you will see on our regularly updated Class Dojo Story. This is also an important time for year 4 children who complete the multiplication check, to assess their recall of multiplication tables to 12. In years 3 and 4 we spend plenty of time preparing children for this assessment.
As children move into KS2, they develop their confidence and independence. Although we work extremely hard, we have a lot of fun too with our exciting, engaging curriculum. To find out more about our curriculum, you can view our Long Term plans below or read the whole-school curriculum offer by clicking here.
Things you should know:
*Each child is given a reading book to read at home. Children will be listened to reading during shared reading sessions, as well as by different adults in school. Reading at home is expected and encouraged; we aim for at least 3 times a week as this will really help your children’s progress.
*Your child will bring home ten spellings each week to learn for a spelling test on Friday.
*One of our key focuses in numeracy is times tables, ensuring children are ready for the multiplication check in year 4. Every child, from Year 2 onwards, is expected to complete 20 minutes of multiplication practise each week on the TTRockstars app.
Class Three’s Planning Documents
English Long Term Planning
Y3 & 4 Cycle A Y3 & Y4 Cycle B
Foundation Subjects Long Term Planning
Class 3 Cycle A Class 3 Cycle B
What have Class Three been up to?
October 2024
This month we have been continuing to work hard in class. Everyone has kept up their positive attitude from the start of the year and we are all working towards the first half-term of the year! So far this month we have continued working on place value in Maths, practising our football skills in PE, exploring magnetic and non-magnetic materials in Science and experimenting with the use of charcoal in Art as we’ve been looking at the work of Laura McKendry.
In Maths, we’ve been working on adding and subtracting 1, 10, 100 and 1000 more or less than a number. We’ve been using place value charts, base 10, multi-link cubes and counters to make sure we know exactly what doing this looks like in practice. We’re really good at using physical apparatus to help us, now we need to move on to using more abstract and problem solving based skills.
In PE we’ve been looking at new skills associated with playing football. We’ve been doing a lot of work on passing to moving targets and dribbling with the ball under very close control. We’ve talked about using little, gentle touches and not letting the ball get too far ahead of us. Everyone has shown excellent skill and we are all looking forward to the Year 3 and 4 football league after Christmas!
In Science, we’ve been doing a lot of work looking at magnetic items and then thinking about how we can test the strength of magnets. We began by working out what made an item magnetic. We grouped and classified items based on whether they were magnetic or not, by doing a junkyard challenge style activity. Next lesson, we thought about how we can test the strength of different magnets. We were shocked to find out that it wasn’t always the biggest magnet that was the strongest!
In Art we’ve been looking at the work of Laura McKendry and ‘gestural drawings’. We’ve been experimenting with charcoal and thinking about how we can use our arm in different ways to make small, detailed drawings, but also how we can use our arms to make big drawings with more expressions and gesture. We created some fantastic pieces by using charcoal in different ways, such as rolling or printing rather than just drawing.
September 2024
It’s been a fantastic start to the year for everyone in Class 3. Everyone has been working really hard, and come back to school with a fantastic, positive attitude. We’ve begun the year by looking at the picture book ‘Tuesday’ in English and learning about the place value of different numbers in Maths. The first few weeks of term are always really busy, and sometimes worrying for some of us, so we’ve done a lot of work in PSHE about uncomfortable feelings and how we can use different strategies to build our confidence and overcome tricky situations. We’ve also celebrate European Day of Languages by learning key facts about Romania and trying some Romanian food.
In English we’ve been exploring the picture book ‘Tuesday‘ by David Wiesner. We’ve come up with some excellent ideas about what is happening in the story and we’ve had good fun thinking about how different animals could take over the world! We begun our work by answering questions about the text. We worked in groups to answer the questions, based on different pictures, and then we picked one person to move around each group to share and compare our answers.
In Maths we’ve been looking at place value. We’ve been doing a lot of practical work exploring the value of each digit in numbers up to 10,000.
In PSHE we’ve been looking at uncomfortable feelings, and different ways and emotions we might experience when we are feeling uncomfortable. We had a go at doing some freeze frames which showed different situations when we might feel uncomfortable.
We finished off the month by celebrating European Day of Languages. Our country was Romania, so we created fact files based on the country and we also tried some Romanian food as well as learning heads, shoulders, knees and toes in Romanian!
June 2024
As always, we have had such a busy month of learning and having fun!
This half-term, our art topic is ‘Festival Feasts’! We have been exploring art from Class Oldenburg, a sculptor who likes to create everyday objects on a large scale. We looked at one of his exhibitions of a BLT sandwich and saw how all of the different ingredients were layered. We decided to draw the individual ingredients before layering them in the sandwiches. They were excellent!
In music, we have been exploring changes in pitch, tempo and dynamics. We listened to and appraised the song ‘The River is Flowing’ and used the river as inspiration for our music. We composed our own piece of music, in groups, based on the sections of a river: source, upper course, middle course, lower course and mouth. We used instruments for different sections, as well as ostinatos, which are a repeated phrases or rhythms. Our final performances were fantastic!
We’ve been enjoying using laptops and iPads this term in both our computing and DT lessons. In DT, we have designed and created our own traffic light system, inspired by Garrett Morgan. After designing them, we used micro:bits to program them and then evaluated them to see if they fit the design criteria. In computing, we have been exploring search engines. We used Google to answer a range of questions within the time limit. We had to think of the most effective search term that would give us the correct answer.
We have been blessed with some lovely weather this month, and have taken the opportunity to spend it outside for various different activities! In PE, we have been practising our fielding skills and enjoyed a game called ‘roll it football’, where the aim was to roll the ball past your partner and into their goal. As always, it was very competitive! In maths, we have been exploring geometry. Year 3 children went outside in search of right angles. They labelled them using the Skitch app. In English, we have recapped the different types of conjunctions. We went on a subordinating conjunction hunt outside; there were some sneaky coordinating conjunctions in there to trick us too!
This month, we also took part in an Ultimate Frisbee competition. We used our throwing and catching skills and have a fabulous time. Earlier in the month, we took part in some first aid training and learned all about what to do in an emergency. After exploring what a pulse is and how to take a pulse, we did some quick exercises and thought about how this affected our pulse. Then, we learned the acronym DRABC which can help if we find a casualty. We practised giving 30 chest compressions to our teddies. It was very informative and everyone listened well!
May
Class 3 have had another busy, fun filled month!
We have continued our learning about electricity by testing a range of materials to see whether they were electrical conductors or insulators. First, we made simple circuits that would light up a bulb. Then, we connected extra wires to the circuit and put different materials in to see whether the bulb would still light up. We came to the conclusion that objects made of metal make good electrical conductors.
Our new geography topic is ‘All Around the World’. We recapped our prior learning by naming and locating the continents and oceans of the world, using atlases. We continued our learning by exploring what the Equator, northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere are. We named and located countries in both hemispheres before creating fact files about countries near the Equator.
In history we have been learning about the Windrush generation. We explored reasons why people may have wanted to come to Britain, linking it to our prior learning. Then, we investigated landing cards and thought about what this information might tell us about the people that came to Britain.
April
April has been a very exciting month for Class 3, starting with a trip to the Washington Wetlands centre! When exploring the centre, we found lots of different types of birds, watched the otters being fed, watched the flamingos being fed and learned lots of interesting facts! We also met Ava, who taught us how to be ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’. This helped us understand how we can take care of our world and the creatures in it.
Mrs Cooper kindly organised a visit to Willington library for Class 3. We had an absolutely fantastic time, and many of us have been back to visit since then! After learning about visiting times and how the library cards worked, we completed a book scavenger hunt around the library. Some of them were very well hidden! Everyone also had the opportunity to sit and read some interesting books.
We began our Science topic on Electricity. After exploring different appliances that run on electricity and batteries, we had a go at making our own simple circuits.
We have had an exciting start to our DT lessons! We are learning all about frame structures. We used small sticks and marshmallows to create a range of different frame structures, starting from the base and working our way up. There were some very creative ones! We then began designing our own frame structures to create during our upcoming parent event. 
March
March was a winning month for Class 3! We created a huge collage to celebrate women for International Women’s Day 2024. We entered our collage into a competition ran by Vision for Education… and we won! We are really looking forward to our prize – a coaching session from the Durham Women’s football club! During March, we attended a tennis festival at Parkside. We learned lots of new skills and had to show determination and resilience. One of our teams came first place out of 10 schools!
In March we held, World Book Day, Careers week and British Science Week. To celebrate World Book Day, we came to school in pyjamas or clothes that we love. We read the story ‘Small’s Big Dream’ which is all about dreaming big and being ambitious. We thought about what jobs we would like to have when we grow up and what our strengths are. We also had to stop, drop and read throughout the day and had some delicious hot chocolate!
We had lots of visitors for Careers week, including Ms. Barron (a children’s nurse), Ellie Featherstone (a BMX racer), Joe (our sports coach), Ms. Midgley (a hairdresser) and Claire (a police dog handler).
As part of British Science Week, we learned about Katherine Johnson, a mathematician who worked for NASA. We decided to learn about the planets in our solar system and then completed a pattern-seeking investigation. We wanted to see if there was a pattern between distance from the Sun and time it takes a planet to travel around the Sun.
February
February has been another busy month for class 3! We have been doing a lot of cooking and baking this month, both as part of Children’s Mental Health week and our DT topic. For Mental Health week, we competed against the other classes to create balanced, healthy meals. We made a starter of bruschetta and a main of spaghetti bolognese. In DT, we have been making basic biscuits and looking at how we can adapt the recipe further in our topic.
As part of our learning in RE, we visited St. Stephen’s Church in Willington. We learned the names for different things in the church, like altar, pews and lectern, as well as having a chance to ring the church bells! We learned all about communions that take place at the altar and got a sneak peek in the vestry to see the different robes worn for different occasions!
In science, we’ve been learning about animals, including humans. We conducted a fair test to answer the enquiry question: Do people with longer legs jump further? After planning our fair test in groups, we carefully measured the length of each person’s leg and then the distance they could jump. Our results showed there was no pattern between the length of leg and distance jumped.
A New Year!
2024 has got off to a flying start with an incredibly busy January! In art, we have been exploring the importance of plinths. We designed and created our own plinth people. Using a cork as the plinth, we used an additive technique, in which you build from the bottom up. We shaped the wire into that of a person and then started to add material for the clothes. Everyone showed lots of resilience. As part of our learning in DT, we have been evaluating biscuits. We looked at six different types of biscuit and described the packaging, texture and taste. They were very yummy!
We have been reading The Firework-Maker’s Daughter by Philip Pullman. In the story, Lila is determined to become a firework maker. We used persuasive techniques to write our own firework maker job advert. Our new geography topic is all about natural disasters. We began looking at the different types of flooding, and then explored the factors that might encourage flooding. We drew some diagrams to illustrate this, and then used our key topic vocabulary, like vegetation, to explain why flooding could be encouraged.
We started our topic on animals, including humans, by exploring skeletons. After looking at the names of bones and the structure of skeletons, we discussed why we need bones (for support and protection). We explored the different organs that bones might protect, for example, the skull protects the brain and the ribcage protects our heart and lungs.
The Festive Season in Class 3
We always have fun in Class 3 and the learning never stops! December has been a really busy month-here’s what we’ve been up to!
In art, we have been designing our own tessellations. We created stencils and then drew around them to create a
repeated pattern. Then, we thought about complementary colours and rules we could apply to our work, such as colours of the same cannot touch.
In computing this half-term, we have been using 2Logo on Purple Mash to code. Once we had
become familiar with the coding abbreviations and how the system works, we were able to make shapes. Then, we created procedures for different shapes and repeated the procedures to make patterns. They looked really interesting!
In December, we learned all about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah! We decorated lolly pop sticks with blue pens and gold paint, then glued them together to create the Star of David. We’ve also heard lots of new poems in December, as our reading ambassadors read us a Christmas one each morning!
Having fun in November!
Class 3 have had a blast this month. It’s been action-packed, full of fun, laughter and lots of learning! We have worked with Jack Drum Art to create costumes for Crook Winter Light Parade and some of the children wore our costumes and took part in the parade on Sunday 26th November. It was a magical night. The costumes were fantastic and the music was outstanding.
In Science, we’ve been looking at rocks and fossils. We’ve learnt that the Earth’s crust is made of rocks and soil and how fossils are formed. In Art, we have been exploring pattern and shape.
October
It’s been a busy month in Class 3. In DT, we have been designing and creating our own slingshot cars. After building and attaching the chassis and axles, each group designed the body of the car, keeping in mind what we know about air resistance. Then, each group took a vote on the car design they thought was the best and began creating the body. After, we tested each car to see which would travel the furthest distance. Then, everyone evaluated their finished product and thought about what could be done to improve it.
We love Science in Class 3 and we’ve been enjoying getting out and about for our plant topic! We took a visit to the nature area and pulled up some weeds to have a look at their roots. We took measurements of the roots and discussed how different plants may have different lengths of root depending on their needs, for example a cacti would have very long, wide roots as they live in deserts. We also conducted an experiment to see how water is transported in plants. We put some flowers in dyed water and left them over night. In the morning, we could see that the water had travelled up the stem to the petals and leaves!
The First Three Weeks of School (22.09.23)
Welcome back to our new school year! Time flies in Class 3 as we learn lots and have fun doing it! Art is always one of our favourite lessons. This term, we are looking at famous illustrators. So far, we have created an artist profile for Laura Carlin, illustrator of King of the Sky and Iron Man. Then, we’ve looked at a comic artist called Irina Richards, who creates stories through everyday experiences and poetry. We chose a well-known poem to make our own illustration booklets, using pencil and charcoal. Look at our creations!
In music, we have composed our own piece of music in groups, using the notes C, D, E, F, and G on the glockenspiels. After listening to ‘Night on the Bare Mountain’ by Mussorgsky, we sketched out a story to match the piece of music. As it had such a quick tempo and diverse dynamics, we decided that the story should be fast-paced, and maybe include a chase. In small groups, we each took a section of the song and acted out how this might look.
Computing lessons are always a firm favourite too. We have been exploring how to format different text types. So far, we have formatted a newspaper article (which involved editing the font size and style), and created a book cover (which involved changing the font size, style and alignment). We have also been exploring how images can be used within different text types.
Archived Class information
You can view our archived Class Information on our website.
