'This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine'

On Tuesday, February 2nd, the Church marks the feast of Candlemas, or the Presentation of the Lord. This marks 40 days since Christmas and the end of the Christmas period in the Church. The Gospel of Luke says that Jesus was met in the temple by Anna and Simeon where Simeon held the baby Jesus and called him a Light to the World.

The festival is called Candlemas because this was the day that all the Church's candles for the year were blessed. On Candlemas night, people often placed lit candles in their windows at home - I thought this was something that we could all do this year to welcome the Light of the Lord into our homes. Let’s Shine Our Lights for Jesus! In the RE tasks I have set this week, I have focused on Candlemas as a theme so there are some lovely activities for your child to have a go at.

Next week also marks the beginning of Children’s Mental Health Week and the theme is Express Yourself. There has never been a more important time to focus on supporting the mental wellbeing of our children. On this website there are links to assemblies and resources which can be completed and looked at at home to support resilience and mental health discussions. Please take a look. Expressing yourself is about finding ways to share feelings, thoughts, or ideas, through creativity. This could be through art, music, writing and poetry, dance and drama, photography and film, and doing activities that make you feel good. This year they are asking children to ‘dress to express’ and this will be the theme of our creative task on class dojo this week.

A huge well done to you all for your hard work both at home and in school this week. To say that I am proud is an understatement! You are all working incredibly hard, which makes it very tricky for me to choose my two learners of the week; however it was Rion and Jacob who I chose today. Well done boys! Miss Benson has also chosen two ‘Music stars of the week’ and these awards went to Charlotte and Isabella. Well done!

Here are some instructions from Miss Benson about this week’s Music sessions on Yumu/Charanga:

How did you all get on with the ‘Listen Out’ task last week? How many instruments did you hear? Well…there weren’t any! Everything you heard in‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ was Bobby McFerrin using just his voice and body percussion! Do you think you could do that?

This week, I’d like you to start by listening to ‘54-46 was my number.’ Work through the questions under the ‘questions’ tab. Click ‘next’ to see each question. There are 4 questions to answer. This is another example of reggae.

Next is a fun task – yes it’s another ‘listen out’ task! This is on ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling.’ Click on each instrument and really listen to how it sounds. Each instrument has its own sound. Then see if you can pick out which of these can be heard in the short extract. Select the ones you can hear and submit – are you correct?

Finally, please refer to the home learning tab in the Year 3 section of the website for my google drive link where you will find all the resources for this week’s home learning. As always, the matching tasks will be on Class Dojo by Monday for you to upload your children’s work once complete.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'We have a Lord who is capable of crying with us, capable of walking with us in the most difficult moments of life' - Pope Francis

I can’t believe we have come to the end of week 3 of blended learning! I continue to be so impressed and humbled by the effort the children are making with their work and by the support from parents and carers. This is an unbelievably tricky time and so many of you will also be juggling working from home on top of home schooling your children. It’s an impossible task so you should all be extremely proud of yourselves! I just want you to know how grateful I am for your kindness during this time. It makes the current situation a whole lot easier!

We have now established a good routine and you are all aware of my expectations each week for work and also where to find the resources you will need. Each week, I will update the home learning section on the year 3 part of the website with my google drive link where you can find all of the materials you will need for the week ahead. I also post regularly on Class Dojo and that is how I mark the children’s work. I can, however, also be contacted via e-mail (year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk).

We have also established a good routine in school now, and whilst it really isn’t the same without all of the class being there, the children are working hard and are completing exactly the same work that the children at home are doing. I would ask that if your child attends school but doesn’t attend full time, that they complete the home learning tasks for the days they are not in school. The tasks can be found on the weekly timetable.

This week I have awarded my first ‘learners of the week’. I will pick two children every Friday (one from home and one from school) who will be awarded a certificate and 20 dojos. These awards will be given to the children who that week have really blown me away with their effort and the quality of their work. It is important to remember that just because we are not in school doesn’t mean we can’t put 100% in to the work we are doing. My winners this week were Joshua and Charlotte.

I hope you have all had a go at logging on to Yumu/Charanga and that you have managed to have a go at the activities that Miss Benson has set for you. She has passed on a message for you for this week:

This week I want you to listen to “Jamming” by Bob Marley. Like last week’s song, this is an example of reggae. Work through the questions under the ‘questions’ tab. Click ‘next’ to see each question. There are 4 questions to answer. Do you know what a ‘jamming’ is? Click on “about the song” to find out!

Next is a fun task – yes it’s a ‘listen out’ task! This is on ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ by Bobby McFerrin. Click on each instrument and really listen to how it sounds. Each instrument has its own sound. Then see if you can pick out which of these can be heard in the short extract. Select the ones you can hear and submit. This is a really tricky one!

Good luck!

This sounds fun Year 3! Let me know how you get on. Well done to Hallie and Isabella for completing the work on Yumu/Charanga. Miss Benson and I are very impressed! I am going to award you 5 dojos each for your hard work.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and stay safe! Please contact me if you need anything at all.

Miss Heim-Sarac

This too shall pass...

I must begin by saying a huge thank you to you all. Your support is truly appreciated, and I am so pleased to see that you have all established new routines, and have adjusted to your new ‘classrooms’. I have been so impressed with the work I have been sent this week and the work produced by those in school. This week, I am going to try to record instructions to each task I set on Class Dojo. This should give you and your child a bit more information as to what I am expecting.

From now on, Miss Benson will be providing music tasks for the class to complete on YUMU/Charanga. I have sent login details, via email or Dojo, to all parents with each child’s login details.

It is a requirement that we have regular contact with parents/children with regards to work being completed at home. I know how challenging it has been for so many (if not al!) of you parents trying to establish your own routines, now you have your child(ren) learning from home. With this in mind, I am very flexible in terms of when their work is sent. It is, however, important that I have communication with you regularly. As always, thank you for your support with this.

Please find the google drive link, with all resources for this week, on the home learning tab on the year 3 section of the website.

On a final note, whilst we are all going through a very rocky period of time, this too shall come to pass eventually.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Together, we can get through anything!

Thank you so much parents and carers for your support this week while we got everything up and running for home learning. It has certainly been a tricky week but I am so proud of all the children for how well they have taken everything in their stride. They have worked hard and I am so impressed with the standard of work that has been submitted so far. By Monday morning each week the new home learning post will be available on the school website (under the home learning tab) and the activities will have been updated on Class Dojo for the children to complete. If you are struggling to bring some structure to your day, I have also included a weekly timetable on my google drive that you might like to follow.

The children who are in school will be completing the same work that I set for the children at home. That way, when we do all come back together, I know where we are all up to. Each week, there will be the following home learning to complete:

• A daily maths worksheet with a matching video link explaining the concept for that day

• A talk for writing booklet (the whole booklet is to be completed over the week)

• 1/2 RE tasks

• 1/2 Geography tasks

• 1/2 Science tasks

• A creative task

• 2 Reading tasks (this will usually be me asking you to record your child reading). Outside of this, I do expect the children to be reading daily

As I said on Class Dojo earlier this week, I understand that there will be some days where the children are having a bad day or you may have a lot of work on yourself and therefore home learning has to take a back seat for the day. That is absolutely fine - please just let me know. In any case, if you’re in a situation where you are wondering what tasks to prioritise, I would always suggest the Maths and English tasks. I can be contacted on Class Dojo or via e-mail (year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk) if you need anything.

At the start of next week I will be e-mailing to you your child’s login details from Miss Benson for a music website called Charanga which is fun to use and will support their music learning. Miss Benson will be uploading activities on there for the children to do with their recorders and the site also gives access to Charanga Music World which is a fun journey through music with the recorder. I will certainly be taking a look and having a go as I am also learning how to play the recorder along with the children!

I am really looking forward to the time when we can be together again. Please stay safe and know that I am thinking of you all.

Miss Heim-Sarac

Merry Christmas!

Please find below our Nativity that we filmed this week. I am SO proud of all of the children for how hard they have worked to learn their lines and the words to the songs. Well done Year 3! Thank you for all the hard work you put in at home with your children. A big thank you also to Father Jim who put this video together for us.

The Nativity the children have performed was created for a charity called Mary’s Meals by Frank and Denise Cottrell-Boyce. If you would like to find out more about this charity please follow this link: https://www.marysmeals.org.uk/useful-links/about-marys-meals/. The PTA have kindly made a donation to this charity on Year 3’s behalf.

I wish you all a healthy and happy Christmas with your families. Thank you for all your support so far this year and I will look forward to seeing the children again in the New Year.

Miss Heim-Sarac

'Peace is not something you wish for; it's something you make, something you do, something you are and something you give away.' - John Lennon

This weekend marks the second Sunday of Advent - Peace. We have been taking part in daily advent reflections in class based on the story A Christmas Promise. It has been lovely to take some moments of peace and stillness during the day to reflect on what Advent means and to think about the true meaning of Christmas. The children also made their Advent promises and they are so beautiful. The children have thought long and hard as to how they can help others over the next few weeks or improve themselves in some way. We only made one promise as we want to make sure that we can keep it. Ask your child what their promise is!

The children have really blown me away with how hard they have worked this week; and I am starting to see the children maturing and making better choices which is fantastic. Here’s what they have been up to in their learning…

• Maths: we completed an end of unit test and looked at addition and subtraction patterns.

• English: we completed semantic maps of some key vocabulary we are looking at this term, we started to explore a text called The Green Children and some of us did our Star reading tests.

• Science: we learnt about why exercise is important to keep us healthy.

• R.E: we learnt about the sacrament of Reconciliation and why it is important to say sorry.

• History: we learnt about the Iron Age and the hillforts they lived in.

Notices:

• Christmas Jumper Day is on the 11th December.

• Just to remind you that we are asking the children not to bring in individual Christmas cards in for their friends this year but to just bring in one card for the whole class.

• Usually at this time of year we would be preparing our carol service to perform over at Church. Sadly that cannot happen this year but we do have something else planned. The children will be learning and performing a short nativity that we will be recording and sharing on the school website just before the Christmas break.

Our award winners this week are:

Golden: Rion. For such a big improvement in his behaviour and attitude.

Writing: Ola. For working so hard in her RWI Phonics group.

Maths: Joseph. For such an improvement in his confidence towards his Maths work.

Well done Year 3 - you’ve had a super week and I am really proud of you all.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Christmas is coming...

Well, I know I’m early with the Christmas festivities, however I feel this is the year when we can bring a bit of joy in to our lives before December begins! I love Christmas anyway, and I always have my tree up early, so it has brought me great happiness to bring the festive spirit in to our class room this week! The children came in to the class room on Monday to see the decorations up and the Christmas tree assembled and their little faces were a picture! They were so happy. We have since made decorations for the tree and other Christmas crafts which we have all enjoyed doing! I also love this quote that I’ve shared at the start of my blog this week…how important it is that we all have courage for the difficult few months ahead, tenderness for what has happened so far this year and for all those affected by Covid 19 and that we have hope for the future after the craziness of 2020!

This weekend is also the first Sunday of Advent and the theme is hope.

We have yet again had an extremely busy week, and the children have worked SO hard…

-Maths: we have really focused on column subtraction this week and are very close to mastering it. To say I am proud of the children is an understatement. Well done year 3!

-English: we have had a vocabulary focus this week and have explored lots of fantastic words that we are going to be hearing, saying and writing a lot during our unit of work this term. We have explored these words in different ways, including acting out the word, exploring the words meaning using dictionaries and thesaurus’ and using semantic maps.

-Science: this week we have recapped our learning on the functions of the skeleton and compared the skeletons of different animals.

-R.E: the children wrote beautiful letters from Mary to her cousin Elizabeth explaining why she said yes to the Angel Gabriel.

-History: we learnt about grave goods and why these were buried with people from the Bronze Age when they died.

-Music: we have started to learn the note ‘a’.

Our award winners this week are…

• Golden: Lexi Rose. For coming in to school with a smile on her face every day and working so hard despite the challenges she has faced this week.

• Maths: Poppy. For persevering with column subtraction even though she found it tricky to begin with.

• Writing: Ayson. For writing a beautiful letter from Mary to Elizabeth.

Notices:

• Christmas Jumper Day is on the 11th December.

• Thank you for supporting Silly Sock Day, the children looked great!

• Please do not send your child in with individual Christmas cards this year for their friends due to the current situation with Covid. Instead, why not send your child in with one card for the whole class?

• From now on, if your child is isolating at home and is otherwise well, their home learning will now be set through Google Drive. I will post the link to it under the ‘home learning’ tab on the website and on Class Dojo. On the drive you will find a suggested weekly timetable as well as all the resources you will need to complete the work. This should make things easier as everything will be in one place. Once your child has completed their work, whether it is on paper or electronically, please send me copies or pictures of the work to either the year 3 e-mail address (year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk) or upload images/copies to Class Dojo. Either method is fine.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Weekly news (week ending 20th November)

Good evening,

Firstly, I do apologise in the delay in getting this blog to you. Due to a technical issue at home over the weekend, I was unable to upload it when planned! Last week was great, and here is what the children got up to…

-Maths: we did lots more work on column addition and subtraction. We started to focus more on column subtraction where two lots of regrouping is required. This is really tricky but the children are rising to the challenge and I am so proud of them!

-English: we started our vocabulary focus for our stories with gardens topic. We used an online dictionary to find out the meanings of words we didn’t know.

-Science: we learnt the name of the main muscles in our body and where they are located.

-History: we learnt about how bronze was made in the Stone Age. See if your children can remember what this process is called (smelting).

-Music: we are continuing to learn the ‘b’ note on our recorders (I’m learning along with the children!)

-R.E: we retold the Annunciation and made our very own Angel Gabriels.

-P.E: we played a match of handball! We just need to remember all the rules now.

Notices:

• FRIDAY 27TH NOVEMBER - Silly Socks Day organised by the PTFA. Wear your silliest socks for the day - girls, you can wear silly tights, or your socks over your tights for extra warmth! Please can we ask that the children bring in a donation of £1 in a named sealed envelope so no-one has to touch the money when it comes into school. Many thanks.

• CHRISTMAS JUMPER DAY FRIDAY 11TH DECEMBER - we would like to invite the children to wear their Christmas jumper for the day to school - over their usual school uniform. We ask that this is a JUMPER and not a DRESS or SUIT or ONESIE. Many thanks.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted' - Aesop

World Kindness Day was on Friday and we spent the morning preparing our own act of kindness for Miss Haggerty. We wanted to say thank you to her for all her hard work running our school and for keeping us safe. We created an assembly where all the children wrote and presented their own message to her and they were so lovely and thoughtful. It really was a beautiful morning and I was so proud of all the children for how excited they were to do something nice for somebody else. Well done Year 3!

This week we also took part in the 2 minute silence on Remembrance Day. It gave us the opportunity to reflect on and remember those soldiers who have fought for us in both world wars.

It has been a busy week, but as always I am proud of the children for their hard work. Here’s what we have been up to…

-Maths: we have now started to add numbers using column addition with exchanging. We started by exchanging ones in to the tens column, but we have now also been able to move on to exchanging tens in to the hundreds column. The children have truly blown me away with how hard they have worked on this.

-English: we have had a big focus this week on subordinate clauses and how to include them in our sentences. The children also wrote a wonderful story opening based on an image.

-Science: this week the children have learnt about the main bones in our bodies and their function.

-History: we made Stone Age houses and then compared them to our houses today.

-R.E: we have started our new unit of work on Mary, our Mother. The children have learnt about the Annunciation and what the Angel Gabriel said when he visited Mary.

-Music: the children have now received their recorders! For now, they will stay in school but at some point the children will be bringing these home to practice.

Our award winners this week were:

Golden: Zak - for his beautiful behaviour and hard working attitude.

Writing: Elsie - for a wonderfully written story opening.

Maths: Oscar O’C - for his brilliant work on column addition.

I’m looking forward to the week ahead!

Miss Heim-Sarac

'Everything, even sweeping, scraping vegetables, weeding a garden and waiting on the sick could be a prayer if it were offered to God.' - St Martin De Porres

Welcome back to our second half term of Year 3! It was so lovely to see the children back this week after their break. They have come back to school ready to learn and excited for the term ahead. We started the week by watching a virtual Mass for All Saints Day which we would usually celebrate over at church. Father mentioned two particular saints in his homily, one of them being St Martin De Porres, and we decided to do some research in to Martin’s life. We found out that Martin became a monk when he was 15, and he was also a doctor and a barber. God granted him the ability to be in two places at once! He lived a truthful and holy life and always put others before himself. He prayed lots, sometimes all night, and once offered himself as a slave to try and help the monastery where he was living as they were in a financial crisis. St Martin is the patron saint of people of mixed race and his feast day is the 3rd November. As a class, we discussed how we could be more like St Martin.

We also watched an assembly by Miss Haggerty where she talked about the two Jesuit values that we are going to be focusing on this term…eloquent and truthful. We discussed as a class what these two words mean and we are going to try very hard to foster these qualities in ourselves this term.

Whilst it is of course lovely to have the children back in school, it is still important that we all remain vigilant and follow the government coronavirus guidelines such as when to isolate or seek a test. Miss Haggerty has put these guidelines on the general page of the website, and I would urge you to have a read. For example, if yourself or any other family member has coronavirus symptoms or are awaiting the results of a test, your child must stay at home until the results are received.

Here is what we have been up to this week…

Maths: the children have blown me away this week with their hard work as we begin to learn how to add and subtract using the column method. So far, we have focused on calculations where no exchanging is required. We will tackle this next week!

English: this week we have started our new English topic which focuses on stories with gardens. The children have enjoyed looking at images from various books and talking about what they can see as well as making predictions as to what might happen in the story. We have also started to learn about subordinate clauses.

History: we have learnt all about Stonehenge and it’s mysteries this week. The children also made this famous monument out of biscuits!

R.E.: the children created their own Baptismal promises.

Music: the children are going to be learning how to play the recorder this term with Miss Benson. They are very excited!

P.E: the children are going to be working on their team work and communication with George from BFC this term. They are going to be doing this whilst learning how to play handball.

It has been a busy but fun week back!

Our award winners this week are:

Writing: Hallie. For creating some beautiful Baptismal promises.

Maths: Jacob. For impressing me in his work on column addition and subtraction.

No Golden Award was handed out this week.

One final thing…we are collecting toothbrushes, soap, combs and flannels for the Shoebox Appeal this year. Thank you for your donations so far! It is not too late to contribute if you wish - the boxes are not being sent until next week at some point so please send in any further donations at the start of the week if you can. Thank you!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Half term is here!

I can’t believe we have arrived at half term.. and what a half term it’s been! I’m so proud of all the children for their hard work and resilience during such a tricky time. To come back to school after nearly 6 months at home and settle in to the juniors so well is incredible! We almost made it to the holidays without too much isolating being required, but unfortunately we fell at the final hurdle. We have had depleted numbers this week but this hasn’t stopped the children from working hard and doing some wonderful learning.

Here’s what we have been up to…

-Maths: we have been practicing further the skill of adding and subtracting three digit numbers and tens using place value grids. This will stand us in good stead for starting our work on column addition and subtraction after half term.

-English: we have tried to follow the same work that our children who have been isolating have been doing at home this week. This included recapping our work on instruction writing, learning about being verbs and learning about the suffixes -er and -est.

-Science: we learnt about the different types of skeletons - endoskeleton, exoskeleton and hydrostatic skeleton.

-R.E.: we learnt about the promises made at Baptism and what qualities we look for in a godparent.

-History: we conducted some research in to the Stone Age settlement of Skara Brae.

We also took part in the PTA quiz on Thursday afternoon! The children had some treats to have while we completed it.

I haven’t set any homework over half term - please enjoy some family time together and come back well rested!

Have a lovely break,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'Baptism is the best gift we have received. Through it we belong to God and we possess the joy of salvation' - Pope Francis

Next Thursday, the children finish school for half term (normal finishing time). I have been reflecting today on their time in Year 3 so far and I am so proud of them all for how well they have settled in to life in the juniors. It is not an easy step, made more difficult this year by the fact that the children had been out of school for so long because of Covid. The children have adapted to being back in to school very well and it has been lovely to see them interacting with their friends again and doing some wonderful learning. We have managed to achieve a lot this half term, and the children have produced some fantastic work. Well done Year 3 - I am really looking forward to the rest of the year with you all.

Each week in Year 3, depending on the overall behaviour of the class, we spin the ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and the children receive a reward. This week their reward is juice and biscuits which they will have on Monday. The children get so excited when it is time to spin the wheel and it is lovely that I can reward them for their hard work. We are also very lucky because next Thursday the PTA have organised a quiz that the whole school will be taking part in. The children will receive some treats as they are taking part in the quiz; and the winner of each key stage will win a movie and goodies after half term. It should be lots of fun!

Here is what we have been up to this week…

-Maths: we have had a big focus on addition and subtraction of 1s and 10s from 3 digit numbers. This has involved ‘exchanging’ which the children have been fabulous at! I’m extremely impressed!

-English: we have finished our story boards on Stone Age Boy and acted out the story in groups. The children have also described a scene from the book.

-R.E: we have looked at the signs and symbols of Baptism and described why they are used and what they mean.

-Science: the children have helped to plan and evaluate an experiment on healthy eating and whether eating unhealthily affects our weight. The children then had to put the results of the experiment in to a bar chart.

-History: this week the children deduced information from different sources from the Stone Age. Deducing is a very tricky skill but I was very pleased with how quickly the children picked this up.

Here are our award winners this week:

Golden: Amelia - for being kind, helpful and hard working.

Writing: Poppy - for some lovely sentences and word choices in her writing.

Maths: Emelia - for some fantastic independent work this week.

Well done to all - I am very proud.

I just wanted to remind you that next Friday I will be e-mailing to you your child’s first half-term report. Unfortunately, due to Covid, this will be replacing the usual Parent’s Day we would hold at this time of year. I will be available all day on Friday by e-mail/phone/Dojo if you have any queries about your child’s report.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'In times of darkness, holding the rosary beads is like holding your blessed Mother's hand'

This week we were set a very special task by Miss Haggerty. We were asked to say the rosary daily. This is because October is dedicated as the Month of the Rosary as we typically celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7th. Miss Haggerty also told us that the Pope has asked us to pray for our environment when we say the rosary this month. It would be lovely if the children can carry on this tradition at home during October. As a class, we will certainly be making sure we do this at least once a week.

I can’t believe we only have two weeks left before the end of the term. It really has flown by! Unfortunately, due to the current situation with Covid, we are unable to hold our usual Parents Day which would have fallen on the 23rd October this year. Instead, I will be e-mailing to you a mid term report detailing your child’s progress so far this year. These will be sent out to you on the morning of the 23rd October and I will be available that day by phone call/e-mail/message on Class Dojo if you want to discuss your child’s report. The children are not in school on this day.

Here is what we have been up to this week…

-Maths: we have been adding and subtracting ones to three digit numbers using exchanging. The children have found this fairly tricky, but they have persevered!

-English: we have focused on our new story (Stone Age Boy) and created story boards for each event in the book.

-Science: we learnt about nutrients and where we can find them, and also why we need them.

-R.E: we ordered the events of Baptism.

-History: the children learnt some more information about cave paintings with Mrs Gibbons on Tuesday.

We also read the book ‘One Hundred Steps' about Captain Tom Moore and his life. The children then created their own footprints and we wrote different messages on them. We wrote a message to Sir Tom, a message to Covid, something we were grateful for and a time we have shown kindness to others. We did enough footprints so that we had 100 altogether and we will be putting them on display next week!

This weeks award winners are:

Golden - Joshua

Writing - Jack

Maths - Lexi Rose

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

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