'This Christmas, when Christ comes, will He find a warm heart? Mark the season of Advent by loving and serving others with God's own love and concern' - Mother Teresa

This Sunday 28th November is the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of our time of preparation for the coming of Christ. The first candle to be lit this Sunday represents HOPE.

In class we have discussed the importance of Advent and how it signifies a time of prayer, preparation and service. With this in mind, we have all made our own Advent Promises, in the hope they will help to spiritually nourish us, and help to closen our relationship with Christ. We have thought carefully about our promises this year, ensuring they are both challenging and achievable. It was so lovely reading these promises, which ranged from being more prayerful, to being more tolerant and patient with those around us.

Our learning this week…

-English: we have been writing complex sentences this week and using point and evidence to justify our responses to a text.

-Maths: we have started our work on column addition this week. The children have picked this up so quickly - well done Year 3!

-Science: the children have learnt about erosion this week.

-R.E: as well as writing Advent promises, we have also discussed how Jesus was both human and God at the same time, and understanding that this is a mystery to us, and something that we will never understand how it came to be.

-History: we learnt about life in Iron Age hillforts.

Award winners

Maths: Zahra

Writing: Harriet

Golden: Tommy

Notices

• We are now in the season of winter colds/bugs etc. I know you are all aware of the current Covid guidelines, but I just wanted to remind you all about our guidelines regarding sickness and diarrhoea. Your child must stay off school for 48 hours from their last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea. This is exceptionally important as they can still be contagious during this time and could therefore easily pass the bug on to other children and staff. With this in mind, we please ask that you ensure your child’s school water bottle is thoroughly cleaned at home, before they bring it back in each day. The best way to kill the germs is to use boiling water.

• As we are having to keep the classrooms well ventilated, it can get quite cold in the classroom at times. Due to this, the children are welcome to wear extra layers of clothing under their school uniform and/or they can bring in their PE hoodies should they wish to double up on top of their jumpers/cardigans.

• The threat of Covid is still prevalent in our school, with a number of positive cases at present. With this in mind, we also ask that you keep your child at home if they are showing any symptoms and take them for a PCR test. Headaches have been identified as a common symptom with children, as well as coughing, sore throats, high temperature and loss of smell/taste.

• We will be having a Christmas jumper day on the 14th December (which is also going to be our Christmas lunch day). We are asking for a £1 donation for PTA funds. Thank you!

Year 3 Nativity

We are now well underway with preparations for our Year 3 Nativity and have spent lots of time this week practicing. Sadly, we are unable to invite parents in to school to watch the performance, however we are having it professionally recorded for you to view on the school website. The children have brought their song sheets home with them, and their homework for the next couple of weeks is to learn the song lyrics for each song as well as they can. Thank you for your support with this.

Advent book challenge

Please can I ask that each child brings in one of their favourite books from home (not too long please, a shorter book is ideal). Each day, I will choose a book to share with the class. These books will be sent home on the last day of term. Thank you!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

‘Reading is a passport to countless adventures’

We have had a busy couple of weeks in Year 3. I am so proud of how hard the children are all working, and they are making wonderful progress. I am enjoying every moment of teaching them and watching them develop into such kind and caring young people. This term, the run up to Christmas, is my favourite time of the year and we get to enjoy some lovely activities together. The festive spirit has already reached us in Year 3 with our Christmas reading challenge. The children have all been put in to teams (with matching badges!) with the aim being to read as many books as possible in the run up to Christmas (they also have to pass the matching quiz for the book). The winning team will receive a book each and a festive goody bag! The children have really hit the ground running with this challenge and have been reading lots already. The team currently in the lead is team Jingle Bells!

We have also started practicing for our Year 3 Nativity. The children have all been given their parts and we will start practicing properly next week. There will be more details to come on this, but for now please encourage your child to learn their lines and the words to the songs when I send them home next week. Thank you!

Our learning this week (and last week!)

-English: we have started a new topic called The Green Children. We started by looking at stories that feature gardens and have now moved on to looking at key vocabulary that is used in the books we will be focusing on this term. We have done this in different ways such as using semantic maps and unpicking various spelling rules. We have also created actions to match many words.

-Maths: we have moved on to looking at addition and subtraction of 3 digit numbers.

-Science: the children have started their Rocks topic with Mrs Ormerod, and have looked at different types of rocks and their qualities.

-R.E: we have learnt about the Annunciation and the Visitation. We have also looked at the Hail Mary and what this special prayer means.

-History: the children have learnt about how bronze was made and they have also learnt about Bronze Age grave goods.

-Art: the children created some beautiful Remembrance Day art last week. I will put some pictures on Class Dojo later for you to see.

Award winners

-Maths: Peter

-Writing: Teddy

-Golden: Lilly

Notices

• We are now in the season of winter colds/bugs etc. I know you are all aware of the current Covid guidelines, but I just wanted to remind you all about our guidelines regarding sickness and diarrhoea. Your child must stay off school for 48 hours from their last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea. This is exceptionally important as they can still be contagious during this time and could therefore easily pass the bug on to other children and staff. With this in mind, we please ask that you ensure your child’s school water bottle is thoroughly cleaned at home, before they bring it back in each day. They best was to kill the germs is to use boiling water.

• As we are having to keep the classrooms well ventilated, it can get quite cold in the classroom at times. Due to this, the children are welcome to wear extra layers of clothing under their school uniform and/or they can bring in their PE hoodies should they wish to double up on top of their jumpers/cardigans.

• The threat of Covid is still prevalent in our school, with a number of positive cases at present. With this in mind, we also ask that you keep your child at home if they are showing any symptoms and take them for a PCR test. Headaches have been identified as a common symptom with children, as well as coughing, sore throats, high temperature and loss of smell/taste.

• We will be having a Christmas jumper day on the 14th December (which is also going to be our Christmas lunch day). We are asking for a £1 donation for PTA funds. Thank you!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'There are the saints of every day, the 'hidden' saints, to which we can all belong' - Pope Francis

November is the month of remembrance and we started our first day back after the October break with the feast of All Saints, which falls on the 1st November each year. This is where we remember all the saints and the wonderful things they did when they were alive. As a class, we discussed how we can all be saints, just like Pope Francis said in the quote I have used for this week’s blog. We spoke about how we can dedicate our lives to helping others and that we must try to live our lives the way Jesus would have lived his. We discussed how we might do this, and the children came up with some lovely ideas. I am very privileged as I get to see daily how the children go out of their way to care for one another and to show kindness to those around them (including me!).

It was lovely to welcome the children back to school this week, I had missed them.

Our learning this week

-English: we have done a variety of writing this week around the theme of remembrance, including a prayer to St Martin De Porres and a comprehension all about All Saints Day. The children also wrote a recount of the Annunciation.

-Maths: we have been recapping representing numbers to 1,000.

-History: the children have started to learn about Stonehenge and it’s mysteries. Next week, we will be building this famous monument out of biscuits!

-R.E: we have started a new topic for this term - Mary our Mother. The children learnt about the Annunciation and created a role play in partners about this special event.

-Art: it was Diwali on Thursday, so we spent some time learning about this festival and then we created our own Rangoli pattern. The children also made a Rangoli window decoration.

-P.E: we started a new dance topic this week based on the traditional country dance. The children learnt some of the signature country moves and have begun to learn how to keep to a beat.

-Spanish: the children have continued their learning on Spanish counting, and have this week learnt how to count to 15.

Award winners:

-Maths: Lilly. I am always so impressed with how hard Lilly works (in all subjects) but particularly when it comes to Maths. She has a great growth mindset.

-Writing: Alexander. This award has gone to Alexander this week for his fantastic independent writing in all subjects.

-Golden: Emilia. What a ray of sunshine Emilia is! She is so positive, kind, helpful and funny. She puts a smile on all of our faces daily.

Notices

• We are now in the season of winter colds/bugs etc. I know you are all aware of the current Covid guidelines, but I just wanted to remind you all about our guidelines regarding sickness and diarrhoea. Your child must stay off school for 48 hours from their last episode of vomiting or diarrhoea. This is exceptionally important as they can still be contagious during this time and could therefore easily pass the bug on to other children and staff. I appreciate your support with this matter.

• It was lovely to meet you all properly at Parent’s Day before the break. Please do not hesitate to contact me either through Class Dojo, the school office or via e-mail (year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk) if you ever need to speak to me.

• Poppies are now on sale in school. They are 50p each. If your child would like a poppy they will need to bring their money in next week.

• We still require some more shoe boxes and stationary for our shoe box appeal. We would like to fill as many boxes as possible so please send in some boxes and stationary if you can.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Happy half-term!

Half-term is now upon us and what a wonderful start to the year the children have made! Thank you all for your support this term, it is much appreciated. It was lovely to meet you all yesterday and discuss your child’s progress so far. I have no doubt that the children are going to have a wonderful year and I am looking forward to the rest of our time together. Our classroom is a lovely, happy environment and it is a privilege to spend each day with your children.

Our learning this week…

-English: we wrote a second set of instructions and the children completed their star reading tests.

-Maths: we have been ordering numbers this week.

-Science: we recapped the eatwell plate and compared two meals to decide which was the most nutritious.

-History: we learnt all about Skara Brae and did some research on this ancient Stone Age dwelling.

Award winners:

-Maths: Olivia S. I am so impressed with how hard Olivia has worked this week in Maths, ordering numbers and finding 100 more or less.

-Writing: Lily. Lily has produced some beautiful writing this term, and her writing is always correctly punctuated.

-Golden: Mia. For being a little bundle of positivity in our classroom. Mia always has a smile on her face!

I hope you all have a wonderful half-term and I will see you soon!

Miss Heim-Sarac

'Don't carry around the hurtful words that others say. Drop them. They are not yours to keep. They belong only to those who said them' - The Proudest Blue

Over the summer holidays I found a beautiful book in my local bookshop called ‘The Proudest Blue’ by Ibtihaj Muhammad who is an Olympic Medallist (Archery). She is also a Muslim and wears a hijab. The story is about two sisters, Faizah and Asiya, and Asiya reaches the age where it is time for her to start wearing hijab. Her little sister, Faizah, is in awe of her sister and how beautiful she looks in her hijab. Sadly, Asiya faces some mean comments at school and Faizah struggles to understand why these comments are made as to her, her sister is her role model and looks amazing in her bright blue hijab. I decided that this would be a wonderful book to introduce the children to the concepts of racism and intolerance. This past week we have immersed ourselves in the book, discussing what racism and intolerance is, and also discussing other people throughout History who have faced discrimination because of the colour of their skin or their beliefs, such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King. We also created a lovely collaborative piece of artwork of Asiya in her hijab (see above).

Our learning this week…

As well as being wonderful artists, we also did all of this amazing work too…

-English: we wrote our instruction texts on how to wash a woolly mammoth. The children did a great job and they were a joy to read!

-Maths: we focused on finding 10 and 100 more or less than a number.

-Science: we consolidated our learning on healthy eating and fitness by completing a quiz.

-History: we looked at different sources from the Stone Age and deduced what they could tell us about this period of time.

-R.E: we spoke about Baptismal promises made by our parents and godparents at Baptism and then we created a poster with all the qualities we would look for in the perfect godparent.

-Art: we created our collage of Asiya, as well as designing our own hijabs and doing self-portraits.

-Spanish: we did a number quiz to consolidate our learning on counting 1-10 in Spanish.

Award winners:

-Maths: Rosie. For fantastic work on finding 10 more or less than a number, as well as impressing me with her knowledge of Spanish numbers.

-Writing: James. For beautiful handwriting, great spelling and excellent sentence composition.

-Golden: Darcy. For being a little star in Year 3 who is helpful, kind and hard working. A true role model!

Important letter from Miss Haggerty

Please read this letter from Miss Haggerty regarding the Netflix programme ‘Squid Games’ and the impact it is having in school.

Miss Haggerty’s letter

Support to set up the right controls and privacy settings on networks, gadgets, apps and sites your children may use, can be found at internetmatters.org to give your child a safer online experience. On this site you will be able to download guides for specific devices.

Active Blackpool Sports Camp Offer

This is a message from Mrs Holden about a Blackpool Sports Holiday Club that you may be interested in…

Active Blackpool are providing sport and physical activity sessions for children and young people who have mild to moderate additional needs within the local community. The Active Lives team will be running school holiday camps and a weekend club. Both provisions are free to children and young people aged 5-18 who have mild to moderate additional needs. Both will take place at Blackpool Sports Centre. Booking must be made prior and a consent form should be completed before the participant can attend.

Inclusion Camp Poster Letter Parent Consent Form

Parents’ Meetings - Friday 22nd October

Thank you to you all for booking a time slot for the virtual Parents’ Day on Friday. I am looking forward to meeting with you all to discuss your child’s progress so far and to discuss their targets moving forward.

I hope you have had all had a lovely weekend.

Miss Heim-Sarac

P.S. Just a reminder that we break up on Thursday, normal finishing time.

'Take care of God's creation. But above all, take care of those in need.' - Pope Francis

EYES OF THE WORLD CAMPAIGN

The eyes of the world are on us this year as Britain hosts world leaders for the United Nations' climate change talks in November – COP26. They will make important decisions that will shape the future of our global family. Our Lady’s is joining the campaign to call on the Prime Minister to support the world's poorest communities affected by the climate crisis. In class we have been designing our own ‘Eyes of the World’ art, and we have been thinking about how else we can ‘go green’. As a class, we have decided that from next half term we are going to do an event each term to raise money for CAFOD.

Our learning this week…

The past couple of weeks have flown by! I do apologise for the lack of a weekly blog last week, I was moving house and the weekend was very hectic! I will therefore let you know in this blog what we have been up to over the past two weeks…

-English: we have continued with our work on How to wash a woolly mammoth, by learning about prepositions and imperative verbs. The children have created posters on the features of instruction texts and acted out the text. We are now ready to start our instruction writing next week!

-Maths: we have been comparing two 3 digit numbers and finding 1 more or less than a number.

-R.E: last week we visited church so that I could take the children through a mock Baptism. This week we looked at the signs and symbols of Baptism and explained what they meant.

-Computing: the children have learnt about routers and how we can connect two schools who live far away from one another.

-Art: we have focused on the artist Julian Opie and we have been practicing drawing in his artistic style using black felt tip pens.

-Spanish: we have learnt how to say goodbye and how to count to 10.

-History: we have been learning about cave art and why the Stone Age people did this. We then created our own cave art on clay tiles.

-P.E: we have been continuing learning how to play Handball, as well as developing our teamwork and communication skills. This week we also did some yoga.

Award winners:

The children below are our award winners from this week and last week:

Maths: Grace & Isaac. Both of these children have worked extremely hard on comparing numbers and finding 1 more or less than a number.

Writing: Lola Mae & Olivia W. Both girls have done some beautiful pieces of writing recently - their presentation is always great!

Golden: Elsie & Yan. Elsie received the golden award last week as she is a ray of sunshine in our class, and her smile brightens my day! Yan received the award this week for settling so well in to our school.

PARENTS’ DAY

Parent/Teacher meetings will be held virtually on FRIDAY 22ND OCTOBER 8.30am -4.10pm. Miss Haggerty will be sending out a text regarding this and how you can book your appointment through Teachers2Parents (Please note you must book these, they cannot be booked through the office.) If we have your email you will also receive an email about this too. The appointments last for 10 minutes - and I would like to see the parent/s of every child to discuss how they have settled and the progress they have made since September so please make sure you book a slot! Be warned though - as they are virtual the meeting will cut out after 10 minutes - so if you have any questions please ask these first! On the plus side, this does mean the day will run to time! I look forward to meeting you all properly and having a chance to talk to you about your child.

Here are some photos of our recent learning…

Have a lovely weekend!

Miss Heim-Sarac

'Time flies when you are having fun' - Albert Einstein

Yet another great week in Year 3 has come to an end! The children have been working very hard to listen and be good role models this week. That means they had the opportunity to spin the wheel of fortune this morning and have earned themselves a treat for Monday. Well done Year 3! I can’t believe we have now been back to school for 4 weeks - time really does fly when you’re having fun. The children are working so hard and have settled in to life in the juniors much better than I could have ever expected. I am a very proud teacher!

Our learning this week…

-English: we have started a new topic based on the book ‘how to wash a woolly mammoth’. The children will be learning how to write a set of instructions.

-Maths: we have focused on number lines up to 1000.

-Science: the children have been enjoying learning about animals including humans with Mrs Ormerod on a Friday afternoon. They have now officially become personal trainers and have been looking at the diets of their clients.

-R.E.: we sequenced the story of the Paralysed Man and acted this parable out in groups.

-Computing: we learnt about the internet and a website’s journey.

-Art: the children created some leaf rubbings using oil pastels.

-Spanish: we learnt how to ask somebody how they are feeling and what we could say in response.

-History :we became hunter gatherers and explored the school grounds to see what we could find that would either have been an asset or a threat if we would have been alive during the Stone Age.

Award winners:

-Maths: Hallie for excellent work on number lines.

-Writing: Corben for an excellent informal letter and for his focus whilst completing it.

-Golden: Olivia W for being a shining light in Year 3 who always does the right thing.

Well done everybody! It is extremely hard to pick the award winners each week as the children are all working so hard!

Notices:

• PE - will be on Mondays and Thursdays so please send the children into class in their PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.

• Class photographs are on Monday 27th September. Even though this is usually a PE day for us, the children can attend school in their school uniform if you wish.

• Water Bottle - we have provided the children with a school water bottle. The children need to bring their water bottle in daily, already filled with water. They will take their water bottle home at the end of each day to be cleaned.

• Homework - your child has now come home with a homework folder which contains their homework for this week (due in on Tuesday). The folders must come back in to school on Tuesdays where I will then collect them in and mark the children’s work. Homework will be sent home on a Friday.

• Home Learning-if your child is having to isolate for any reason and needs to access home learning, this will be accessible from the Year 3 Home Learning page. On the day we are informed of any child needing to isolate, it may mean that it will not be until the end of the day that a full timetable of home learning will be available on the Home Learning tab.

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

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'The only way around is through' - Robert Frost

This week we have been talking about using our growth mindset to face any challenges that come our way. Having a growth mindset is about understanding that it is through our mistakes that we learn and that we need to face any challenges head on and not give up! This takes practice and we will work on this as the year progresses…however I can already see that lots of the children are trying to adopt this mindset which is wonderful to see. Even as an adult it can be hard to stay positive and be resilient, but hopefully by teaching the children these qualities at a young age they will be able to take these in to their adult lives.

It has been another lovely week in Year 3 and I am loving every moment that we are spending together! Here’s what we have been up to…

English - the children have written an informal letter to me based on the book ‘Dear Teacher’.

Maths - we have learnt about place value in a 3 digit number.

History - the children created a pre historic timeline.

Computing - we learnt about a file’s journey in a network.

Art - the children drew peppers using charcoal. They look fantastic!

R.E. - we thought about an occasion when we have visited church as well as learning about the parable of The Paralysed Man.

Music - the children had their first lesson with Miss Benson where they had the opportunity to sing and appraise a song.

Award winners

Maths - Lily - for wonderful work on place value.

Writing - Connie - for a wonderful informal letter that made me laugh!

Golden - Zahra - for her perseverance and for starting to have faith in her abilities.

Well done all!

Notices

• PE - will be on Mondays and Thursdays so please send the children into class in their PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.

• Water Bottle - we have provided the children with a school water bottle. The children need to bring their water bottle in daily, already filled with water. They will take their water bottle home at the end of each day to be cleaned.

• Homework - your child has now come home with a homework folder which contains their homework for this week (due in on Tuesday). The folders must come back in to school on Tuesdays where I will then collect them in and mark the children’s work. Homework will be sent home on a Friday.

• Home Learning-if your child is having to isolate for any reason and needs to access home learning, this will be accessible from the Year 3 Home Learning page. On the day we are informed of any child needing to isolate, it may mean that it will not be until the end of the day that a full timetable of home learning will be available on the Home Learning tab.

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

• Finally, as part of our Christian family topic in R.E., we will be learning about the sacrament of Baptism. Please could you send your child in with a picture of themselves at their own Baptism? If you can pop their name on the back and I will ensure they are returned to you. Thank you!

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Miss Heim-Sarac

Our first week together...

Our first week together as a class has been so special. I am so proud of all of the children for their perseverance and resilience. The move from Year 2 to Year 3 is a huge change in the children’s school lives, they are now Juniors where the work expectations can sometimes worry them and throw them off balance for a little while. I want to stress to you that this is completely normal - and that is what we are here for - to guide them through this time as they adjust to their new place in school. Each year, the children always mention the stairs as something that has worried them or made them think that the Juniors is a somewhat scary place. It really isn’t…we are still a school and class family and the behaviour expectations are just the same as KS1. I can already see that the children have adjusted so well to their new class, and have taken everything in their stride. This is what I love about children the most, the way they adapt so quickly to new situations. So, please don’t worry…if your child does have any concerns or worries they can always come and chat to me or you can message or contact me to discuss and we can figure out a way forward!

A highlight from our first week together has to be our trip over to church on Wednesday. This was the first time we had been to Mass as a school in such a long time. We were there to celebrate ‘The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary’ which on its own is a special occasion for us as Our Lady is our patron saint. Yet this Mass was special for another reason - this was the final Mass that Father Jim will conduct for us as a school before he takes up his new post in Ulverston. As a school we are devastated to see Father Jim go, however at the Mass we were able to present him with some gifts and special words that we hope will be a reminder of how much he means to us.

Here is what we have been up to this week…

English - we are looking at informal letter writing through a wonderful book called ‘Dear Teacher’.

Maths - we have learnt about counting in 100s up to 1000 - forwards and backwards!

Science - we started our new unit of work on Animals including Humans. The children will become personal trainers this term!

P.E. - we have learnt some netball skills as well as starting to learn how to play handball.

Spanish - we learnt how to say hello, goodbye, good morning, good afternoon and good evening in Spanish.

R.E. - we thought about our families at home as well as our Christian family. The children described a special event they can remember with their families.

IT - we learnt about our school network and what a network means. We went on a network safari around school.

Art - this term we will be looking at fruit and vegetables. This week we looked at different artist representations of fruit and vegetables and evaluated them. Next week, we will be drawing peppers using charcoal.

As you can see, we’ve had a busy week and hit the ground running!

Award winners

Maths - Oscar - for wonderful counting to 1000.

Writing - Tommy - for editing his first piece of writing in Year 3 so well.

Golden - Ronnie - for his beautiful listening skills and willingness to learn.

Well done all!

Notices

• PE - will be on Mondays and Thursdays so please send the children into class in their PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.

• Water Bottle - we have provided the children with a school water bottle. The children need to bring their water bottle in daily, already filled with water. They will take their water bottle home at the end of each day to be cleaned.

• Homework - will be set through Class Dojo on a Friday and will be due in the following Tuesday.

• Home Learning-if your child is having to isolate for any reason and needs to access home learning, this will be accessible from the Year 3 Home Learning page. On the day we are informed of any child needing to isolate, it may mean that it will not be until the end of the day that a full timetable of home learning will be available on the Home Learning tab.

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

• Finally, as part of our Christian family topic in R.E., we will be learning about the sacrament of Baptism. Please could you send your child in with a picture of themselves at their own Baptism? If you can pop their name on the back and I will ensure they are returned to you. Thank you!

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Miss Heim-Sarac

Welcome to Year 3!

It has been wonderful to welcome your children in to Year 3 this week! I hope you have all had a fabulous summer and are ready for the year ahead. Your children are all lovely little people and I can’t wait to get to know them all as the year progresses. We have had a great couple of days together getting to know one another and establishing the rules and routines of Year 3. They have settled in so well and they all seem excited to be in the juniors.

Notices

• PE - will be on Mondays and Thursdays so please send the children into class in their PE kits on those days. No earrings can be worn for PE so please ensure that they are taken out at home.

• Water Bottle - we have provided the children with a school water bottle. The children need to bring their water bottle in daily, already filled with water. They will take their water bottle home at the end of each day to be cleaned (starting from Monday).

• Homework - will be set through Class Dojo on a Friday and will be due in the following Tuesday.

• Home Reading - the children have brought home their reading folders with a reading record and a book inside. The book is one the children have picked purely on whether they wanted to read it or not. Next week, the class will be taking their star reading tests to determine their new ZPD for Autumn 1. It is so important that the children are reading regularly at home! Please can you ensure their reading records are signed at home so they can get their stickers on their book marks too.

• Home Learning-if your child is having to isolate for any reason and needs to access home learning, this will be accessible from the Year 3 Home Learning page. On the day we are informed of any child needing to isolate, it may mean that it will not be until the end of the day that a full timetable of home learning will be available on the Home Learning tab.

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

As of next week, I will include details on my blog of what the children have learned that week as well as some pictures of them hard at work!

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'Children are a gift of God' - Psalms 127:3

It was so lovely to welcome the children back to school on Tuesday after our isolation period. This is such a lovely time of the year where we get to celebrate the children’s successes and have some fantastic treats together so I was happy to be back in school and I think the children were too! I have been reflecting on the children’s learning journeys this week and I am just so unbelievably proud of how far they have all come. I am going to miss them so much but I am determined to make the most of our final week together. I have planned some lovely treats for the children next week, very kindly funded by our wonderful PTA. I’m keeping the plans secret at the moment and I can’t wait to see the children enjoying themselves after what has been a tricky and challenging year.

We have been lucky this week to welcome Miss Whitehead back in to our class to deliver some lessons to the children and for her to start to get to know the children a little bit more. The children have welcomed her with open arms and I know that Miss Whitehead is excited for the year ahead.

What we have been up to this week

-English - we have learnt about inverted commas and prepositions.

-Maths - we have been doing some further work on dividing a 2 digit number by a 1 digit number.

-History - the children learnt about the Roman gods and goddesses.

-P.E. - we had a game of football that ended in a penalty shoot out! We also had a great afternoon at our Sport’s Day.

-R.E - we looked at the order of the Mass.

Notices:

• Please remember to bring sun hats and wear sun cream on sunny days as we do spend time outdoors during the school day. Please also ensure your child has a coat in school just in case it rains - not unheard of in Blackpool - so that we may still go outside for play times.

• Please ensure the children bring their water bottles filled with fresh water daily (no juice please!)

• Please can each child bring in a ‘bag for life’ (as they will hold more weight) with their name on it, in preparation for sending work home by the end of this term. This bag needs to be in school no later than Tuesday please.

• On Friday 16th July it is the Teddy Bear’s picnic lunch. Please return the form ASAP if you have not yet done so.

• Your child’s end of year report has been sent home today. Please feel free to message me on Class Dojo or send me an email if you would like to discuss your child’s report: year3@our-lady.blackpool.sch.uk

Certificates

• Golden Award - Jacob

• Writing Award - Isabella

There is no Maths award this week.

Have a lovely weekend and enjoy the football on Sunday…It’s coming home!

Miss Heim-Sarac

Sport's Day 2021

Today we finally managed to have our Sport’s Day! It was a wonderful afternoon topped off with a yummy ice lolly as a reward! Here are some pictures for you all as I know you would have loved to have been here…

Faith as small as a mustard seed…

This week we celebrated the Blackpool Family Schools Year 3 Mass, and the theme was ‘Faith like a mustard seed’ . This mass is usually when all Year 3 classes gather at St. Mary’s to celebrate this special service. However, as this was not possible, due to Covid, Fr Jim recorded the mass so all of the school could join in this special worship. The theme of this Mass helped us to remember that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed…it starts off really small and yet grows into something spectacular. This is just like our faith…where there is a tiny bit of faith, it can grow to immense proportions, spreading its influence far and wide and benefiting those who it comes into contact with. A seed does nothing until it is planted, just like our faith will not grown unless we live our the Word of God, through our words and actions.

A big thank you for supporting the ‘Dress the colour of the rainbow’ own clothes day event to raise money for gardening tools, it’s very much appreciated. The children all looked lovely in their different colours.

We have had another great week in Year 3. There has been lots of fabulous learning taking place. The children are excited for their school trip next week and to meet their Year 4 teacher - Miss Whitehead - next Thursday. Before we know it, it will be time for us to say goodbye ready for the summer holidays and the children starting their Year 4 journey in September. I am so proud of them all and will miss them greatly.

What we have been up to this week

English - we started a new poetry unit on the poem the Spider and the Fly.

Maths - we have learnt to divide a 2 digit number by a 1 digit number.

History - we learnt about Roman roads and drew them on a map.

Science - we conducted an experiment to see if shadows change size the further they are from the light source.

P.E. - we have been practicing for Sports Day.

Music - we learnt how to play Mary had a little Lamb on our recorders.

Spanish - we practiced our Spanish phrases from last week. We were also very lucky as a girl called Carmen (who is Spanish) came in to our class to play some Spanish games with us. We learnt our numbers 1-6 and how to say stand up, sit down, jump and hands up.

Computing - we learnt how to add an attachment to an e-mail.

Certificates

Here are our award winners for this week:

Golden - Riley

Maths - Chase

Writing - Scott

Well done to you all!

Headlice

Please continue to be vigilant and check your child’s hair regularly for any signs of lice.

Notices

• Please remember to bring sun hats and wear sun cream on sunny days as we do spend time outdoors during the school day. Please also ensure your child has a coat in school just in case it rains - not unheard of in Blackpool - so that we may still go outside for play times.

• Please ensure the children bring their water bottles filled with fresh water daily (no juice please!)

• Within the next couple of weeks, please can each child bring in a ‘bag for life’ (as they will hold more weight) with their name on it, in preparation for sending work home by the end of this term.

• We will be holding the Year 3 Sports Day on the 29th June. Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions, we are not allowing any spectators for this event. I will, however, take lots of photographs for you to view on my blog that week.

• Our school trip is this coming Tuesday. I’m so excited! Please ensure your child wears their school PE kit and shoes that you don’t mind them getting muddy. They also need to bring a waterproof coat.

I hope you have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Welcome back to our final half term!

It has been lovely to have the children back in school this week after the holidays. I hope you all enjoyed the break! I can’t believe we are now in our final half term together - time flies! I have really enjoyed teaching your children this year and I am really proud of the progress they have all made.

Today has been very special as I could announce to the children that they have now met their 10,000 dojo target! What an unbelievable achievement. The children will receive a fantastic prize on the final day of term for all their hard work.

What we have been up to this week

English - we have done some writing on the life of Boudicca, the Iceni Queen.

Maths - we have looked at fact families and multiplication.

History - we learnt all about Boudicca and her life.

Science - we designed our own sunglasses or hat to keep ourselves safe from the sun. We also learnt about UV light.

P.E. - we have been practicing for Sports Day.

Music - we played along to Bob Marley’s ‘Three Little Birds’ on our recorders and learnt another note.

Spanish - we have started to learn Spanish this week! We learnt how to say hello, how to ask people how they feel as well as how to say our names.

Computing - we learnt all about e-mails and how to send one.

Certificates

Here is our award winner for this week:

Golden - this week’s Golden Award goes to William who started in our class on Monday. He has settled in so well!

The Maths and Writing award will return next Friday.

Headlice

Please continue to be vigilant and check your child’s hair regularly for any signs of lice.

Litter picking trip

Well done to our eco warriors who took part in a litter picking excursion yesterday. They did a fantastic job and managed to collect lots of litter! Well done! There are some photos of their trip at the end of this blog. Thank you to Mrs Hodgkiss for organising this.

Notices

• Please remember to bring sun hats and wear sun cream on sunny days as we do spend time outdoors during the school day. Please also ensure your child has a coat in school just in case it rains - not unheard of in Blackpool - so that we may still go outside for play times.

• Please ensure the children bring their water bottles filled with fresh water daily (no juice please!)

• Own clothes day is on Friday 18th June and we ask for the children to bring £1 for this. The theme is ‘Dress the colour of the rainbow’. We are raising money for some gardening equipment for school.

• Within the next couple of weeks, please can each child bring in a ‘bag for life’ (as they will hold more weight) with their name on it, in preparation for sending work home by the end of this term.

• We will be holding the Year 3 Sports Day on the 29th June. Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions, we are not allowing any spectators for this event. I will, however, take lots of photographs for you to view on my blog that week.

• There will be no homework this week.

• Yesterday, the school appointed Miss Whitehead as the new Year 4 teacher for next year. Miss Whitehead will be spending some time with the children over the coming weeks to get to know them as much as she can before September.

I hope you have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'And they were filled with the Holy Spirit' - Acts 2:4

This Sunday, 23rd May, we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, when the Lord sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples of Christ to fill them with courage. Those first followers of Jesus showed incredible courage as they went out into the world to spread the Word of God, but they did so in the true and certain knowledge of God’s love for them. I hope that you feel the power and love of the Holy Spirit as we celebrate Pentecost this weekend - may the Lord fill you with the love and strength that you need to go forth and proclaim the love of the Lord.

I can hardly believe that when we return to school after the two week break that we will only have 6 weeks left together before the summer holidays. The children have worked hard this term and we will continue to do lots of fantastic work in the run up to the end of Year 3 to ensure they are ready for Year 4. I’m really proud of all of them for the progress they have made this year - not just academically…they are also maturing in to lovely young people and are starting to understand the importance of treating others how we wish to be treated ourselves.

What we have been up to this week

English - we have done tonnes of research this week in to different aspects of Roman life - Hadrian’s Wall, Legionaries and Education. We also created our own Top Trumps cards.

Maths - we have started to learn how to multiply a 2 digit number by a 1 digit number.

History - we described the three attempts to invade Britain by the Romans and then we had a silent debate as to whether we would have fought back against the Romans if we lived in Britain at the time or whether we would have accepted them as our new rulers.

Science - we looked at some statements about the sun and decided whether the statement meant the sun was a ‘Hero’ or a ‘Villain’.

P.E. - we had a handball tournament and consolidated our ball skills learnt from this term.

Music - we played along to Bob Marley’s ‘Three Little Birds’ on our recorders.

Certificates

Here are our award winners for this week:

Golden - Ayson

Maths - Rion

Writing - Zak

Headlice

Please continue to be vigilant and check your child’s hair regularly for any signs of lice.

I hope you have a lovely break,

Miss Heim-Sarac

"After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God." Mark 16:19

Yesterday we celebrated the Ascension of Our Lord. Although we were not able to go over to church, to celebrate this Mass, Fr Jim brought the Mass to us! He live streamed the mass over to school so all classes were able to watch and take part, from our classrooms. It was such a lovely moment, as although we were all still in our classrooms, in our bubbles, it really brought us all together again, through worship. The children were so well behaved and listened to everything that Fr Jim was saying throughout. I was so proud of them.

I felt that it was important to mention in my blog this week that our school community are keeping their thoughts and prayers with Jordan Banks’ family and friends following the devastating event on Tuesday. It is clear to see what an amazing young man he was, we all send our deepest condolences. On Wednesday, Year 3 made a card for Jordan which I went to lay along with some flowers on Wednesday evening at Common Edge playing fields. We will be continuing to pray for Jordan, his family and friends.

What we have been up to this week

English - we created two pieces of blackout poetry! Ask the children to explain to you what this is. The first piece was about the Colosseum in Rome and the second piece was about Roman medicines and healing.

Maths - we have looked at related multiplication and division facts.

History - we have started to learn about the Roman attempts to invade Britain.

Science - we have started to learn about sun safety.

R.E. - we focused on the Ascension this week and sequenced this special event.

Art - we have begun to design our Mosaic art work; starting with the border.

P.E. - we have been learning about ball skills these past few weeks. This week, we focused on controlling the ball with our feet.

Certificates

Here are our award winners for this week:

Golden - Frankie

Maths - Isabella

Writing - Max

Cape of Pride

Well done to Lexi Rose who had the opportunity to wear the cape of pride this week. There are lots of exciting privileges to be had for those children chosen to wear the cape so I will be keeping my eye out next week for some more children to wear it!

Headlice

Please continue to be vigilant and check your child’s hair regularly for any signs of lice.

Smart watches

A few children have been coming in to school with the VTech smart watches. Unfortunately these are not allowed to be worn in school for a few reasons - their size, the capability to play games on there and their capability to take and store photos. A regular wristwatch or a small step tracker (like a fitbit) can be worn.

I hope you have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven' - Luke 24:51

On Thursday 13th May, we celebrate the Feast of the Lord’s Ascension. The ascension of Jesus was when he ascended back to heaven to be with His Father, leaving his disciples with an extremely important mission. Unlike when he died, this is a happy goodbye, because the disciples knew that Jesus would be watching over them from heaven, and that he would send the Holy Spirit to help them. It can’t have been easy for them to say goodbye to Jesus for the second time. However, Jesus needed to ascend to heaven so that the Holy Spirit could come to them. He needed to leave so that He could be closer to us through the Spirit.

What we have been up to this week

English - we started to learn all about the Colosseum in Rome ready for us to do some blackout poetry on Monday. More details on this to come on my blog next week!

Maths - we compared multiplication and division statements with our crocodile mouth symbols.

History - we completed our spy booklets on Britain before the Romans invaded.

R.E. - we spoke about how we spend our Sundays and then we learnt about why it is a special day for Christians.

Art - we started to design a stamp for a competition that we are going to be entering based around the heroes during the Covid pandemic such as Sir Tom and our wonderful NHS.

Certificates

Here is our award winner for this week:

Golden - Charlotte

There was no Writing or Maths award given out this week - they will return next Friday!

Cape of Pride

Well done to Max who had the opportunity to wear the cape of pride this week. There are lots of exciting privileges to be had for those children chosen to wear the cape so I will be keeping my eye out next week for some more children to wear it!

Headlice

Please continue to be vigilant and check your child’s hair regularly for any signs of lice.

Important notice

Please read this important letter from Miss Haggerty…

Letter

I hope you have had a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

'We have a responsibility to look after our planet. It is our only home' - Dalai Lama

This week the children learnt all about recycling and how by recycling we are contributing to saving our planet. The children learnt all about the types of materials that we can recycle, and those we can’t. They also learnt about what items can be made in to compost. They then came up with different ways that we can help to save the planet. They came up with some fantastic ideas! Hopefully they will share these with you at home, although I am sure you do many of these already. As part of our learning around recycling this week, I have chosen 6 children to be our litter pickers and eco warriors around school. They will work with Mrs Hodgkiss each week to ensure our school and grounds are kept litter free. They will also lead other activities around school to educate the other children about how they can help to save the planet too. Those children are Joshua, Emelia, Lexi-Rose, Scott, Ayson and Riley. I know they will do a fabulous job!

I would also like to welcome Scott to our class. Scott started in Year 3 on Monday and he has already become a wonderful addition to our school. The children have made him feel very welcome which has been lovely to see. Welcome Scott!

What we have been up to this week

English - we have learnt all about Julius Caesar this week by looking at a variety of non-fiction texts and making notes from them. We then created a poster all about this great army general!

Maths - we have focused on divisibility this week.

Science - we started a new topic on Light this week and learnt about the difference between light and dark.

History - we became Roman spies and learnt about Britain before the Romans invaded.

R.E. - we looked at the meaning of The Last Supper and how this special event relates to Mass.

Art - we practiced Roman Mosaic borders and corners and watched videos of Mosaic excavations in Leicester and Chedsworth.

Certificates

Here are our award winners for this week:

Golden - Scott

Writing - Emelia

Maths - Elsie

Well done everyone!

Headlice

Please continue to be vigilant and check your child’s hair regularly for any signs of lice.

Have a lovely and sunny weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

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

We have had a busy but lovely week in Year 3! It has been so nice to have the sun shining down upon us…we have managed to get outside lots and enjoy the weather. The children have worked really hard this week and it is nice to see the children maturing as we come closer towards the end of their Year 3 journey. I can’t believe we’re nearly in May! We continue to have lots of discussions together each week around kindness, respectfulness and maturity. In particular, we are focusing on kindness lots at the minute. I am trying to instill in the children how important it is to treat others how we want to be treated. If we can do this, we will not only be happier in ourselves but we will also make the people around us happier too.

What we have been up to this week

English - we have done some super writing this week! The children wrote two letters of application for the job of Chief Roman Investigator. They had some help from me with the first letter; however they completed the second letter independently. I was very impressed as the children remembered where to use conjunctions in their writing.

Maths - we have used our knowledge of multiplication and division facts to solve some problem solving questions.

Science - we carried out an investigation as to how water is transported through a plant. We also completed a Science test to mark the end of our Plants topic.

History - we took our Roman shields outside and created some Roman Army formations (see pictures below!).

R.E. - we started a new topic - The Eucharist. We began by learning about the events of The Last Supper.

Art - we learnt about the artist Romero Britto with Mrs Gibbons and created some artwork based on his style.

Music - we started our Music lessons with Miss Benson again. The children recapped their A and B notes ready to learn G next week!

Certificates

Here are our award winners for this week:

Golden - Joseph

Writing - Avie

Maths - the whole class!

Well done everyone!

Cape of Pride

Well done to Rion who had the opportunity to wear the cape of pride this week. There are lots of exciting privileges to be had for those children chosen to wear the cape so I will be keeping my eye out next week for some more children to wear it!

Headlice

Please continue to be vigilant and check your child’s hair regularly for any signs of lice.

Curiosity boxes

Most of the class have today brought home a Curiosity Box which were kindly donated to school. The boxes will either have a theme of ‘Amazing Earth’ or ‘Deadly Creatures’. They are filled with fantastic resources and investigations for your child to complete. I would love to see pictures of anything you do at home so please send these to me on Class Dojo! There were sadly a few children who missed out as we didn’t have a full class set (to make it fair I drew names out of a pot) but what was so lovely was other children in the class then donated their boxes to every one of the children who didn’t receive a box. I was blown away by this act of generosity! I have promised those children that when we next receive anything similar in to school they will be the first ones on the list to receive the treat.

Have a lovely and sunny weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac

Welcome to our Summer Term!

Welcome back after the Easter break! I must say, the children have come back to school with a great attitude and have worked hard this week. It has been lovely to see the children being kind to one another and thinking about others too. Kindness is going to be a big focus in our class this term as it is important to show kindness and respect to those around us just like Jesus would have done - and we really want to follow in His footsteps! The children have also blown me away with how much their lining up has improved over the last few days. They are working very hard to be good role models to the younger children. Keep it up Year 3 - I have every faith that you can do it!

What we have been up to this week

English - we have a started a non-fiction unit of work on the Romans. The children are applying for the job of Chief Roman Investigator so we firstly spent some time looking at the job advert and understanding what we needed to do to apply! We worked out that the children will need to create a leaflet on the Romans. To get us prepared, we looked at some vocabulary and researched the meaning of these words in the dictionary. We also learnt about conjunctions and how to use them in our writing.

Maths - we looked at the 8 times tables and their matching division facts.

Science - we learnt about the life cycle of a flowering plant.

History - we created our Roman shields and they look fantastic! Next week we will be taking them outside and practicing some Roman Army formations.

R.E. - we thought about Reconciliation and described this sacrament in our own words.

Art - we started a new art project this week on Roman mosaics. Firstly, we learnt about what mosaics are and how they are made. We also learnt what materials they are made with. Next, we looked at some examples of Roman mosaics. The children then practiced and created their own mosaics using the Greek Key pattern.

Certificates

Here are our award winners for this week:

Golden - Ola

Writing - Rion

Maths - Zak

Well done everyone!

Cape of Pride

Well done to Frankie and Jacob who both had the opportunity to wear the cape of pride this week. There are lots of exciting privileges to be had for those children chosen to wear the cape so I will be keeping my eye out next week for some more children to wear it!

Headlice

Please continue to be vigilant and check your child’s hair regularly for any signs of lice.

Have a lovely weekend,

Miss Heim-Sarac