Life in Year 3 continues...

We have had such a lovely week together. On Monday, it was lovely to reward the children with their cake for their fantastic behaviour last week. Today, we span the wheel of fortune again and the children will now have an extra break on Monday. Well done Year 3! The children were very excited as from Monday our trim trail will also be open again for the first time this academic year and we are the first class to get to use it!

The children have done some great learning this week…

-Maths: we have ordered numbers up to 1000, counted in 50s, done an end of unit check and started to add and subtract 100s.

-English: the children finished their second set of instructions and also wrote a lovely story set in the past. This is to prepare them for us starting our new unit of work on Stone Age Boy next week.

-Science: we learnt about the food pyramid and the 5 different food groups.

-R.E.: we discussed the seven sacraments and re told the story of The Paralysed Man.

-History: the children created their own cave art.

-Music: we have started to learn ‘The Dragon Song’ - with actions!

What a busy week!

I’m so proud of the children, however, the following children received our awards this week:

-Golden Award: Chase

-Writing Award: Emelia & Charlotte

-Maths Award: Frankie

Well done, keep up the great work!

Homework is now on Class Dojo for your child to complete and is due in on Tuesday.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'Through water and the word you have become a child of God and are sealed as Christ's own forever'

Time seems to be flying in Year 3! We are now starting to settle down in to the routines and expectations that life in the juniors brings. I am really proud of the children. They have been working very hard and I am starting to see the progress they are making. Well done!

Here is what we have been doing this week…

-Maths: we have been focusing on finding 1, 10 or 100 more or less than a given number. We started with two digit numbers and then moved on to three digit numbers. We then moved on to comparing numbers using the greater than, less than and equal symbols.

-English: the children have written their how to wash a woolly mammoth instructions. I was very impressed! They have also started to write a second set of instructions based on how to wash an animal of their choice.

-Science: we learnt about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores and classified animals based on what they eat.

-History: we learnt about cave art and why this is an important source. Next week we will be creating our own cave art.

-R.E.: we had the opportunity to go over to church this week so that Father Jim could show us what happens at a Baptism. I am so glad that we could still do this as it is a great way for the children to understand why Baptism is so important. Next week we will be looking at the 5 symbols used in Baptism.

It has been a great week, and ended with us finally being able to spin our wheel of fortune! On Monday, the children will receive their reward of…cake!! They are very excited as you can imagine!!

Our award winners this week are:

Golden - Bobby

Maths - Oscar Op

Writing - Lexi Rose

Congratulations to all of our winners.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Week 2!

It’s been a busy week in Year 3! We have had to really use our growth mindsets this week as some of the work we have been doing has been quite tricky! We have spoken about how we must keep persevering and overcoming any challenges we face and that way our learning will come on in leaps and bounds!

Here is what we have been learning about this week…

-Maths: we have had a big focus on number lines. The children are great at counting in 10s and 100s on number lines but can struggle when counting in 1s and 2s (especially when the number line starts at a random number instead of a multiple of 10). Any practice you can do at home on this would be greatly appreciated!

-English: we have continued our instruction text work with the book how to wash a woolly mammoth. We created our own mammoths from milk cartons, looked at the different features of instruction texts and then role played our own version of the book.

-Science: this week we focused on the skill of asking questions as that’s how scientists are so knowledgeable! We started by drawing our hands, and coming up with questions as we went along. The children came up with so many questions, such as why do we have nails? How do our hands move? How many bones do we have in our hands? I was very impressed!

-History: this week we learnt about how early man were hunter gatherers and what that meant. The children then explored the school grounds to find three things that would have helped them survive in the stone age.

-Art: the children created some beautiful leaf rubbings.

-R.E: we wrote about an occasion where we have visited church.

Notices:

-Can I please remind you that our PE days are Tuesdays and Thursdays. If your child usually wears earrings they will have to be removed in order for your child to take part.

-Homework is due in on Tuesdays.

-Our golden award this week went to Avie, well done!

-Our writing award went to Amelia, fantastic!

-Our Maths award went to Ola, great work!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Week 1!

I have really enjoyed our first week together as Year 3. It has been so lovely to have all the children together and doing some fantastic learning. School is different to what the children remember, but we are trying to keep things as normal as possible in the class room. The children have embraced our new normal and I am so proud of them for this as change isn’t always easy!

Here is what we have been learning this week…

-Maths: we have had a big focus on place value and how we represent three digit numbers. We have used base 10 equipment, place value counters and place value grids to do this.

-English: we have started to look at instruction texts through the book ‘how to wash your woolly mammoth’. The children are really enjoying this book! As part of this work we have learnt about imperative verbs and prepositions this week.

-R.E: we have started a topic called ‘The Christian Family’. The children will be learning all about our Catholic family with a particular focus on Baptism as that is how we all enter God’s family.

-History: we started our topic on The Stone Age by placing this period of time on to a time line.

-Science: our topic this term is animals including humans. We created a concept map for this topic and tried to work out what knowledge we already have about this subject.

It really has been a great week, and it has flown by!

Notices

• Please can you send me a picture of your child’s Baptism, either on Class Dojo or to my e-mail address: year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk

• Can the children please bring in to school (for Monday) an empty 4 pint milk carton clearly labelled with their name.

• Homework will be put on to Class Dojo tonight and is due in on Tuesday. Please don’t worry if you don’t have a laptop or ipad to complete this on - the children can always write out their work and you could upload a picture on to class dojo for me to see it, or you could e-mail it to me. From next week, homework will be uploaded on a Thursday.

• Our golden award winner this week was Amy! Well done!

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Heim-Sarac

Welcome to Year 3!

It has been a delight to welcome your children back to school this week. They have all took it in their stride and they have been little superstars. We are all looking forward to Monday when we can all be together as a class. I would like to take this opportunity to reassure you that we are doing all we can in school to keep your children safe and we will continue to do so.

This week we have done lots of activities around the book ‘The Colour Monster’ which is all about the different emotions that we feel. The children have really impressed me with how they have managed to recognise the different emotions in the book, such as being calm. They have also been able to share times when they have felt these emotions. The children have created sand jars and feeling clouds which are now on display and look wonderful.

Notices

• Our PE days are Tuesday and Thursday. Please ensure your child comes to school in their PE kit on these days.

• The children need to bring their water bottle in daily, already filled with water.

• Homework will be set via Class Dojo. I will set the homework on a Thursday evening, and it will be due in on the following Tuesday. If you have any questions about how to use Class Dojo please get in touch. Homework will be set for the first time next Thursday.

• If you need to contact me, please either send me a message on Class Dojo, or send me an e-mail to: year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk

• The children will be bringing home reading books. Please ensure your child is reading daily and record this in their reading record. They will be awarded a sticker for their bookmark each time they read at home. Once the book is returned to school, it will be placed in to ‘Book Jail’ for 72 hours before another child can read it. The children will start bringing books home next week.

I’m really looking forward to the week ahead!

Thank you,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Thank you!

Year 3, thank you so much for my beautiful video. I will cherish it forever! I have posted it here for those who haven’t seen it yet.

I hope you have a wonderful summer, you deserve it! Well done on all your hard work this year, I am very proud of you. Thank you also to your parents for being so amazing whilst you’ve been at home. What a year we’ve had!

Stay safe,

Miss Heim-Sarac xx

'Goodbye? Oh no, please. Can't we just go back to page one and start all over again?' - Winnie the Pooh

Year 3, I don’t even know where to start! I am sat here reflecting on our year together and I could never have imagined it to turn out the way it did. I was very hopeful that I would get an opportunity to teach you again this academic year but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. I am so proud of each and every one of you and I never want you to forget that. I feel extremely lucky to have had you as my class as each and every one of you are fabulous. You have worked so hard at home and made me smile daily with your wonderful pictures and posts. You are a credit to your parents! It has been a privilege to be your teacher this year and I can’t wait to see you all this week when I come and do my doorstep visits!

Parents - THANK YOU!! You have been amazing throughout the whole of this year. You have all worked so hard with your children at home and ensured that they have been happy during such a difficult time. I can never thank you enough for this. You have all tried your very best and that is all that matters! As a parent myself, I completely understand the stress and strain that home schooling has brought, but you have all risen to the challenge and I am so grateful to every single one of you.

As this is our final week, the home learning project is focused on transition. I would urge you all to take a look at this and attempt some of the activities with your children. Or, if you are struggling for time, you may want to complete some of them over the summer holidays. We will attempt one of them this week as our creative task on Class Dojo. Here is the link:

Transition Learning Project

The tasks on Class Dojo will continue as normal for this week and then you, and your children, can enjoy your well deserved summer holidays!

Thank you also to the children who took part in Sports Day last week. You all did a fantastic job! Please see the PE page for pictures and results! http://www.ourladyassumption-sch.co.uk/pesports-news

Finally, your child’s end of year report will be sent to you this Thursday at 9am. If you have any questions or queries about this, please contact me via e-mail or on Class Dojo.

Year 3 - it has been a joy to be your teacher this year. I will miss you all so much but this isn’t goodbye. I will see you very soon and I will keep a close eye on you in September to make sure you are settling in to Year 4 okay! You are all superstars!

Miss Heim-Sarac xxxx

Week 13 at home...(and Year 2 transition activities)

Usually at this time of year we would begin to reflect on our time in Year 3 and all the things we have learnt, and start to look forward to the challenges September and a new year group will bring. We would have our transition morning with our new teacher and take part in Sports Day…these things can’t happen this year (not in the traditional sense anyway!) and unfortunately there are lots of things we have missed out on together this year. If I think about it too much I get a little bit sad, so I try to stay positive and instead think of all the wonderful things we HAVE done together! What we can do though, is carry on with our wonderful home learning (for only 2 more weeks!) and embrace this new normal for now! One thing is for sure, I will never forget my lockdown class of 2020! You are all stars and I am so proud of you all.

What we have tried to do is come up with ways of still allowing the children to take part in the things they would usually do at school but at home. That’s why, as mentioned in my blog last week, Miss Dixon has arranged a Sports Day for the children from home. This year’s 'Sports day' will take place starting today, Monday 6th July, until Wednesday 8th July. If you have not already done so, please take a look at the sports section of our school website for further information about our sports day from home and school. It is important that everyone participates as you will contribute to your house team possibly winning! You will need to complete the challenges within those days and email me your entry with one photo of yourself completing a challenge by 4pm on Wednesday. Any after 4.00pm will not be counted. After the event, photos will be displayed on the Sports page of our website: http://www.ourladyassumption-sch.co.uk/pesports-news. You will need to e-mail your entry to: year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk

As I also mentioned last week, Mrs Ormerod and Mrs Parker will be setting the children a transition activity this week. Please see this week’s Year 4 blog for more details. I had a sneak preview of this task and it looks fantastic! I know you will enjoy it Year 3. Mrs Ormerod and Mrs Parker are very lucky to be having such an amazing class next year, and I know they are very excited. Show them just how fabulous you are children!

On top of this activity for Mrs Ormerod and Mrs Parker, the children still need to complete their Class Dojo activities for me as normal. This week’s learning project is ‘Under the Sea’ and there are lots of lovely learning opportunities on there for the children to do. Here is the link:

Home Learning Project - Under the Sea

Please note, if you have siblings in other year groups they may have a different topic for their learning project as we are currently going back and using ones that we may have missed along the way. We are happy for you to choose one topic for all children if that is easier for you.

Another resource I wanted to share with you this week is a creative writing/drawing/poetry week designed by the author Cressida Cowell and the Book Trust:

The event is running all of this week, please follow this link for more information and a schedule of events:

Cressida Cowell Summer Camp

Have a lovely week Year 3 - work hard, have fun and remember how proud I am of you all and how much I miss you!

Miss Heim-Sarac

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Year 2 Transition activity

Hello Year 2! Can you believe that it is nearly time for you to join me in the Juniors! Mr Whetnall has told me some fantastic things about you, it sounds like you are a wonderful class. I can’t wait to meet you properly. You might think that coming upstairs to Year 3 might be a little bit scary but I can promise you it isn’t. We have lots of fun but we also work very hard too.

I don’t know many of you that well so I wanted to set you an activity where you could tell me a little bit about yourself. So, the activity I would like you to complete for me is:

Create me a poster which tells me all about YOU! (Things you might want to include are: a picture, your favourite colour, who your friends are, what subject you like the best, your favourite thing about school and what you think you need to work on in Year 3)

Make your poster as colourful as you like! Once your masterpiece is finished please send a photo of yourself and your poster to year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk. You might want to send me two pictures: a picture of you with your poster and a close up of your poster so I can read what information you have put on there. Please make sure I have received your pictures by this coming Friday.

I will respond to your e-mail with a picture of a poster that I’m going to create which will tell you all about ME! Then you can get to know me a little better too.

Thank you Year 2 and I can’t wait to see your posters.

Miss Heim-Sarac

Week 12 at home!

Good morning and welcome to week 12 of home learning! The weather is looking very miserable today, I hope it improves for you all as the week progresses! I can’t quite believe how close we are now to the end of the academic year. What a year it has been! Time really does fly and I couldn’t be prouder of you all. You have made me the proudest teacher in the world during lockdown and I will never forget my Year 3 class of 2020. I am so grateful to your parents for all their hard work over the past few months - I am in awe of you all. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Today (Monday 29th June) is the Feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Over the weekend, Father Jim celebrated this Feast with a Mass which you can watch here on the church website. Father Jim has also put together a Mass (as he did for Ascension) especially for the children which should be available today on the children’s page. It features readings, drawings, hymns etc from children across all Blackpool Catholic Schools.

Please continue to prioritise the tasks on Class Dojo for your home learning this week. The learning project this week has a focus on food (which as you can imagine I was very happy about) so please feel free to dip in and out of that if you need any further work! Here is the link:

Home Learning Project Week 12 - Food

Please note, if you have siblings in other year groups they may have a different topic for their learning project. We are happy for you to choose one topic for all children if that is easier for you.

Here are some further notices that I would like to share with you:

• This year’s 'Sports day' will take place between Monday 6th July - Wednesday 8th July. Please take a look at the sports section of our school website for further information about our sports day from home and school. It is important that everyone participates as you will contribute to your house team possibly winning! Children will need to complete the challenges within those days and email me their entry by 4pm on that Wednesday. Any after 4.00pm will not be counted. Here is the link to the sports section of our website: http://www.ourladyassumption-sch.co.uk/pesports-news

• Note about Sumdog - Our subscription to Sumdog ends this week. You will find that once the subscription ends, some access to premium games and content will disappear.

• Next week, as part of our virtual transition days, Mrs Ormerod and Mrs Parker will be setting the children a task on my blog which needs to be completed the week beginning the 6th July. I will still be setting and receiving your weekly work but Mrs Ormerod and Mrs Parker will be waiting for the one piece they set you. More details of this will be in next week’s blog or on Class Dojo!

I hope you have a lovely week Year 3 - keep up the amazing work and remember that I am so proud of you all!

Miss Heim-Sarac

Week 11 at home...where has the time gone!

I can’t believe we are coming in to week 11 of home learning. We really have come so far since the start of lockdown. Can I just start by saying thank you again not only to the children for their extremely hard work, but to you as parents for your continued support during this time. You really have made sure that your children are making the most of their home learning experience, and I could not have done this without you. I will be forever grateful! I know that home learning is not always straight forward, and I can imagine that as time has gone on it has gotten trickier. However, you are doing a fantastic job! I am always here to help if you need anything, either through Class Dojo or e-mail (year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk)

Last week saw more outstanding work by the children, and I loved seeing all of the amazing Neil Armstrong posters and solar system models…

This week, the theme of the home learning project is transport, here is the link:

Home Learning Project - Transport

I have uploaded this week’s tasks on to Class Dojo - as always, please prioritise these activities. The children can also log on to TTRS, Sumdog and Education City for extra tasks to do.

Have a lovely week Year 3 and stay safe,

Miss Heim-Sarac

P.S. I found this quote earlier by Anne Frank. Her diary inspired me when I was a child and I love this quote! We have many reasons to be happy despite what’s happening in the world!

'This is one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.' - Neil Armstrong

This week we are going to be learning about SPACE! I find space really fascinating, and it was only a couple of weeks ago that we saw the SpaceX rocket launching from Florida. I have wanted to give the children a themed week for a while, so imagine how happy I was when I found out that this week’s learning project is all related to space! Here is the link for you:

Learning Project - Space

There really are some fantastic ideas and opportunities for learning included, so please take a look! Our creative and writing tasks this week on Class Dojo will also be space themed. There is nobody more knowledgeable about space than Father Jim, who as you know was a scientist before he became a priest, so please e-mail him with any space related questions that you may come up with this week! His e-mail address is: oladyblackpool@gmail.com!

Church is now open for individual private prayer. Father has uploaded a plan for this on to the Church website so please take a look. He has also uploaded the Mass for the feast of Corpus Christi which was on the 11th June.

As always Year 3, you blew me away last week with your hard work. No matter what task I give you, you always rise to the occasion! I think last week’s creative task was my favourite one yet! Seeing all of your beautiful positive words that you had created really made me smile. Here are your lovely creations:

Please don’t forget that along with the tasks on Class Dojo, the children still have access to activities on Sumdog, Education City and TTRS.

Have a lovely week Year 3, I am so proud of you all!

Miss Heim-Sarac

Week 9 Home Learning!

Good morning everyone and welcome back to week 9 of home learning! I can’t believe we are in week 9! It feels like such a long time ago that we were all together in school. We are now in Summer 2, our final term of Year 3. Today, school opens more widely to more children but unfortunately our year group isn’t included in that yet. We will continue with our fantastic home learning, and look forward to the day when we can see each other again! Due to school opening more widely, I will be in school a little bit more than I was before half term, so that may mean that on Thursdays and Fridays I take a bit longer to respond to the children’s work and any messages I receive.

I hope you all had a wonderful half term - how fantastic was the weather! Hopefully you spent lots of time outside, I certainly did! With the lockdown rules easing slightly, it was the perfect weather for a socially distanced chat or walk with some friends or family that you haven’t seen for a while!

By now, you are all aware of the work I expect the children to complete each week. This is mainly the tasks on Class Dojo, however I would encourage the children to still access Sumdog, Education City and TTRS as I am still setting work on there for them to complete if they can.

Each week, I also post a link to a weekly project that you may also want to dip in to with your child, this week’s theme is music:

Home Learning Project - Music

I would also encourage the children to visit the Church website: https://www.olablackpool.org/children-s-page. This link will take you directly to the children’s page. You can send Father Jim a question through the site, I know he would love to hear from you all. Father Jim also streams the Mass each week - please take part if you can.

Finally, thank you for all your continued hard work and support. It means so much!

Take care and stay safe! I miss you lots!

Miss Heim-Sarac

P.S. I have mentioned before how I believe that hope is so powerful! I found a lovely quote that I wanted to share with you…

Come, Holy Spirit!

Good morning everyone! I just wanted to start my blog this week by saying THANK YOU to you all for all the hard work you are putting in at home. The standard of work that you have been completing is very high and I have been impressed each week. I really am extremely proud of you all. Thank you also to your wonderful parents - you are all amazing and doing a great job of home schooling!

On Thursday it was the feast of the Ascension and Father Jim recorded a Mass for this holy day. If you didn’t get a chance to watch it, please do, here is the link to the website: https://www.olablackpool.org/. Father has recorded a child friendly version of the Mass, so please click the button that says ‘press for the school Mass’. You may even be able to spot some children you know!

As you know, the next two weeks are our half term holiday. Time really does fly! That means that I will not be setting any work for your child to complete on Class Dojo. You have all earned this well deserved break, so please spend some quality time with your family and have fun! I am going to post some links below to some Pentecost related activities, we celebrate Pentecost on the 31st May. Feel free to dip in to these as you please, there is no pressure to complete them all or indeed any.

I will also post some optional ‘fun’ activities on Class Dojo - again, there is no pressure to complete them, but they are there if needed.

Here are the Pentecost activities:

Strandz website

Pentecost Story

Pentecost creative activites

Y3 Pentecost activities

During the half term holiday I won’t be accessing any e-mails or messages on Class Dojo. We have got a busy period of time ahead of us as we prepare the school for the potential re-opening after the half term break.

Stay safe, be good and have fun!

Miss Heim-Sarac

Hope will see us through!

Our country is facing such a challenging time, but throughout it all it is hope that has got me through so far. Hope that one day things will be back to ‘normal’, hope that we can see our loved ones soon, hope that I will be reunited with you all again soon. I am hopeful for lots of things! I feel so lucky that I still get to communicate with you all through Class Dojo and see all of your little faces. You all look so happy in your pictures and I am glad that you are embracing and enjoying your time at home. Thank you to your wonderful parents for doing such a great job! It has been so lovely to see that you are also doing fun things at home as well as school work, balance is so important.

As you now know each week I will post the following tasks on to Class Dojo for the children to complete:

• A writing task

• A reading task

• A tell me about your week task

• A creative task

• 3 Maths activities (white rose)

• A daily LBQ quiz

If you are stuck for time or your child is struggling to motivate themselves to do their work, please try and prioritise the Maths and English tasks. I know that home schooling is not always plain sailing!

Here are the optional tasks for your child to do if they have the time:

• Sumdog

• TTRS

• Education City

• Home Learning Project Week 8

As I have mentioned previously, please continue to access the Church website as Father Jim is on hand ready to guide us through this difficult time. He really does love to hear from the children so please get in touch through the website!

We will break up for half term this coming Friday, so no work will be set for the week beginning the 25th May and the week beginning the 1st June. I will post some fun (hopefully!) activities on Class Dojo for the children to complete over the half term break. I will be spending the majority of the half term writing reports and helping to get school ready for the potential re-opening on the 8th June.

Stay well, I miss you all!

Miss Heim-Sarac

Year 3's message for our NHS and key workers...

'Keep smilin' through, just like you always do, till the blue skies drive the dark clouds far away' - Vera Lynn, We'll Meet Again

On Friday it was VE Day which was celebrated all over the country, and rightly so. VE day marked the end of WW2, and this year was the 75th anniversary of that day. 75 years ago our country was facing a national crisis and now in 2020 we are yet again facing another crisis. This time, we aren’t being asked to send the men in our family to fight the enemy, or to create blackout shelters for when there is an air strike. We aren’t being asked to ration our food or to live with barely any money or means of survival. It certainly puts in to perspective that what we are being asked to do now is not that difficult a task (although it can sometimes feel that way!) We can stay home for a while longer to enable our country to get back on track! We may have days where we are grumpy and sad because we really want to see our friends or family, but on the whole we are all doing so well at following the government advice. Keep going Year 3, we can do this!

One song that I kept hearing on Friday was Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll meet again’. This song was brought out at the start of WW2 in 1939 but it was seen as a symbol of hope that the war would soon end. When I listened to the lyrics I realised that some of them could easily speak to our current situation so I thought it very fitting that the title of my blog this week is a lyric from the song! Vera Lynn is now 103 years old and sang the song again this year to commemorate VE Day.

We are now in WEEK 7 of home learning! WEEK 7! I can’t believe it! 7 weeks of fantastic home learning. I can’t deny that I miss you all very much, but as I’ve said many times, the learning you are doing at home is brilliant. You are working so hard, and putting in so much time and effort, and it’s really paying off Year 3. Some of you are making huge progress in areas such as handwriting because you are taking the time to PRACTICE! I couldn’t be prouder.

Please continue to prioritise the tasks I set on Class Dojo, and please feel free to message me on there or e-mail me on year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk if you are having any trouble with the tasks or any technical issues with Dojo. I am loving seeing pictures of your work and also pictures of the other activities you are getting up to at home.

The children can also access Sumdog, TTRS and Education City for further activities if they have time. There are also the resources on the Oak National Academy and BBC Bitesize that the children can also access. I feel that now would be a good time to mention, again, that we WON our TTRS battle with Year 4 last week :) WELL DONE! It was a big win too! We will now have a break from battling for a little while (I know parents will be happy to hear this!)

Please remember to visit the Church website for updates from Father Jim and also to access the weekly Mass which he streams. I hope some of you are managing to do this each week. Miss Haggerty is also posting prayers on to the school website.

Here is the link to the learning project for this week:

Home Learning Project Week 7

Have a good week and keep well,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'For all those finding it difficult: the sun will shine on you again and the clouds will go away' - Captain Tom Moore

Good morning and welcome to week 6 of home learning! During this strange time there have been lots of things happening that have been unbearably sad; however there have also been lots of positive things happening too. For me, Captain Tom Moore and his outstanding fundraising efforts for the NHS have really stood out as a beacon of positivity. This man, who is now 100 years old, has raised a staggering amount of money for the NHS, from his back garden! When we look back on this time in years to come, I know he will be remembered fondly. As Captain Tom said, the sun will shine on us again soon, hopefully sooner rather than later. Well done Captain Tom!

This week, we will carry on as we have been, by prioritising the tasks set on Class Dojo. I know I have said this many times, but thank you so much for all of your hard work so far. A big thank you also to your parents for supporting you.

I will continue to set tasks on Sumdog, Education City and TTRS for the children to complete if they have time. Please see my blog from last week for the links to the new Oak National Academy and the BBC bitesize lessons that are now available for the children. If you have used any of these resources, please message me on Dojo and let me know your thoughts.

Unfortunately, last week we lost our TTRS battle to Year 4. However, we were so so close! I have a feeling this week is going to be our week! The battle starts at 9.30am tomorrow and ends at 5pm on Tuesday. Good luck! After this week we will probably have a break for a short while from battling! We will need a rest as it’s quite stressful :)

Here is a link to this week’s home learning project if you have been following it:

Home Learning Project Week 6

Please also continue to utilise the Church website - the link is on our school website and takes you straight there. Father Jim has done lots of work on the children’s page of the website to give the children access to lots of interesting information but also to allow them to contact him if they wish. His e-mail is: oladyblackpool@gmail.com. Father loves to hear from the children so please get in touch! He also regularly posts videos on to the page. It is so important that we keep our faith going during these unsettling times!

Stay safe Year 3, I’m sending my love to you all…

Miss Heim-Sarac

Week 5 home learning...

Good morning everybody! I hope you have all had a lovely weekend. I cannot believe we are in Week 5 of home learning. Time has really flown since we entered lock down. I can only hope that we are all back together as a class soon. In the meantime though, all I can say is WOW! The work you are doing at home is absolutely fantastic. You are all working hard and trying your best. That is all I can ask for.

As you are aware by now, I would like the work set on Class Dojo to be prioritised. Each week there will be three Maths activities, a writing task, a reading task, a creative task, a ‘tell me about your week’ task and daily LBQ quizzes. I will continue to set activities on Sumdog, Education City and TTRS for the children to access if they have time. Last week, we unfortunately lost our TTRS battle with Year 4 but that was certainly not because we didn’t try! It was very close towards the end! I have set up another battle for this week, starting tomorrow at 9.30am and ending on Tuesday at 5pm. Let’s see if we can win this week Year 3, I have faith in you!

There are lots of other fantastic resources on the internet now for you to access for further activities. Two of those are the new Oak National Academy which the government unveiled last week and also BBC Bitesize have uploaded lots of new lessons on to their website. I would urge you to take a look at these sites and see what you think (https://www.thenational.academy/ & https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize)

For those of you following the learning project I have been posting, here is the link to week 5:

Home Learning Project Week 5

Further additional resources:

• Lancashire Stay at Home programme - this has some fun physical activities the children could have a go at!

• Church website - this link will take you directly to the children’s page on the Church website. Father Jim would love for the children to contact him via e-mail (oladyblackpool@gmail.com) and ask him any questions they may have, just like our ‘ask Father Jim’ book at school! You will also notice that next to certain items on the website there is a red marker. If you click on the image it will take you to a video which will explain what it is and it’s importance. See how many you can find!

• On our school website there are daily linked prayers from a website we use in school called TenTen. You may want to use these as a way of starting your day together! We are going to start saying these together in school with the children who are still attending.

• Further R.E. activities - this link will take you to a document with many different R.E. tasks for all year groups - take a look at the Year 3 activities.

I know that I have listed a lot of different resources above - please know that these are just for guidance! I think it is helpful for you to know where to look if you are looking for extra activities to do but at the same time I don’t want to bombard you!

Thank you again for your continued support - stay safe and have a good week!

Miss Heim-Sarac

Week 4 home learning...

Hello everybody! Firstly, thank you so much for all of your continued hard work and effort you are putting in at home. You make me smile daily with all of your messages, work and photos that you upload on to Class Dojo. I feel like the luckiest teacher in the world! I also want to thank your parents for their continued support, it must be very tricky for them to take on the role of teacher at home so make sure you are polite and respectful and work hard!

As you now know, each week I would like the children to prioritise the work I set on Class Dojo. If you are struggling for time, please focus on the Maths and English tasks first. For the Maths tasks I use the White Rose Maths resources which are very well put together and include great video tutorials for the children to follow.

I will still set the children activities on Sumdog, Education City and times tables rock stars for them to have a go at if they can. Which brings me on to some very exciting news for this week…tomorrow at 1pm we are going to have a BATTLE with Year 4 on times tables rock stars! The battle will end on Wednesday at 5pm and the aim is to get as many points as possible. We must win! :) It is my understanding that the children can earn points towards the battle from any game on TTRS, whether it be garage, studio etc. There will be a banner at the top of your child’s home page which will tell the children how many points each year group has. Good luck!

Here is the link to this week’s learning project for additional ideas to keep the children busy:

Home Learning Project Week 4

As always, please feel free to e-mail me (year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk) or send me a message on Class Dojo if you need anything!

Sending lots of love to you all,

Miss Heim-Sarac

P.S. Here is a lovely poem I found this week which I wanted to share with you all:

'Accept the risen Jesus in to your life. Even if you have been far away, take a small step towards him: he awaits you with open arms.' - Pope Francis

Good morning and welcome to week 3 of home learning! I hope you have all managed to have a lovely Easter, even under the current circumstances. Thank goodness for the beautiful weather we have been blessed with this past week. I hope you all managed to take a moment to reflect this weekend on the Resurrection of Jesus and the events of Holy Week. It is such a special time for us as Catholics, and whilst we were unable to celebrate in Church, I am sure you celebrated in your own way at home. Father Jim is recording Mass regularly and putting these on the Church website, so some of you may have taken part in his Easter Sunday Mass.

I just wanted to recap my home learning expectations with you. Please prioritise the tasks I set on Class Dojo. In a previous blog I explained what tasks I would be setting weekly (daily LBQ quiz, a reading task, a writing task, a tell me about your week task, a creative task and three Maths activities). I totally understand that we have some parents who are key workers and therefore time is limited for you at home to complete these activities. If this is the case, prioritise the Maths and English tasks if possible. Above everything, I understand this is a tricky time at home in general even if you aren’t a key worker as the children’s routines have changed and (like my son at the moment) their motivation to do school work might be quite low. Please be reassured that if you don’t complete a particular task, there is no judgement on my part. I really appreciate the effort and work that is being done and I am very grateful for your support. I am always on hand for you to e-mail me or message me on Class Dojo if you do have any concerns (the e-mail address is year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk) I cannot tell you how lovely it is to be able to still be in contact with the children and to see what they are up to at home.

I will be logging on to Dojo very shortly to set the activities for this week. Thank you to all who took part in the Easter activities I set - I can’t wait to have a look through those today! The children can also do activities on Sumdog and Education City, and they can also keep practising their times tables on TTRS. I will post a link below to the Learning Project for Week 3 for those who find it useful:

Home Learning Project - Week 3

Sending you all lots of love and stay safe!

Miss Heim-Sarac