de Vere Primary School

Welcome to Class 3 – Anning Class 

We are Mrs Norris, who teaches Monday to Thursday and Mrs Westrop who teaches on a Friday. We have fantastic support each day from Mrs Blake and Mrs Johnson. 

Year 3 is the start of KS2 and it is full of fantastic and interesting topics for the children to get excited about. There’s lots of learning and lots of fun to be had in Year 3, across the whole of our curriculum. Here are our main themes for each half term. 

Autumn Term 

1) Stone Age 2) Mountains and mining 

Spring Term 

1) Ancient Egypt 2) Biomes 

Summer Term 

1) Rainforests 2) Romans in Britain 

These are great themes and where possible learning in other subjects is linked to these, such as learning about animals and plants in science when we are learning about rainforests and when learning about mountains the children will be painting mountain views in art. At de Vere, it is important to us that children are engaged in their learning in different ways, that we are creative across the curriculum and encouraging children to be creative too. We look for ways we can help children to connect their learning, knowing more and learning more across the curriculum. We also want children to be able to think logically, make links between their learning and develop an understanding about people and places. 

Key dates of experiences and trips  

More information to follow about these nearer the times. 

Stone Age day in school – 23rd October 
Egyptian Day in school – dress in white and/or black – 12th February 
Other school trips/events to be confirmed 

Reading

Reading for enjoyment is important at us all at de Vere through their reading books, class reading and the texts we look at in different subjects. Children should aim to read at least 4 times a week at home. This could be the child reading to you, sharing a book together or perhaps reading to help make a cake or build a Lego set.  

PE

PE in Anning Class this half term is on Tuesday afternoons. Earrings must be taken out for all PE lessons and long hair must be tied up. If your child is unable to take out their earrings independently, then please ensure they are removed before coming to school.  

If there is anything you would like to talk to us about, please get in touch via email or telephone via the school office. 

k.norris@devere.essex.sch.uk            m.westrop@devere.essex.sch.uk  

2nd May 2025

Class 3 have been busy writing lovely Haiku poems about nature and rainforests which were really lovely. We have started our rainforest topic, finding out more about what it is like in rainforests and where they are in the world.

In Maths, we have working on understanding fractions and now looking at measuring mass using weights and different types of scales.

In French, we are learning the names of different fruits, we love saying the French for pineapple, that’s our favourite at the moment.

Computing has been interesting in starting to learn about blogs, finding out what they are and writing our own ones.

What a busy start to the term.

21st March

Class 3 finished writing their letters to the author Stephen Davies who wrote the great book ‘The Ancient Egypt Sleepover’ which we have read in class. We managed to choose just a few of the letters to send to him. We have just had a reply from him too, we are so excited that such an amazing author wrote to us. What a great week!

We are busy thinking about ideas for our own fantasy stories at the moment in English. We are working hard on making our writing really interesting with the detail and word choices we are using.

In maths we are learning about fractions. In computing, we are learning about databases and ways that information can be sorted. It has been great fun using different pictures and computer programs to sort dinosaurs and other animals and objects.

In geography, we have been learning about biomes which are places where there is animal and plant life. We have learnt about what different biomes there are and starting to find out more about what lives there and the climate of these places too.

Year 3 are also working hard on learning the songs for the production too, we’re all loving them. They are so catchy. We’re looking to performing them near the end of term.

Author Reply

Dear Class 3,

I’ve just been reading your wonderful letters, which have brightened up my day no end. Thank you so much for taking the time to write to me. I’m interested that you’ve been studying Ancient Egypt in history, and of course I’m thrilled that you enjoyed my book The Ancient Egypt Sleepover.

By the sounds of it, your favourite parts to read were the same as my favourite parts to write, including those climactic scenes on the roof of the British Museum. Poor old Maria, getting stuck in the tree, after she thought she’d succeeded in escaping with the treasure. And Dexter sleeping for hours and hours. Although thinking about it now, having a lie-in isn’t much of a punishment, is it? Perhaps it would have been better if a pigeon had pooed on his head on his way out of the museum. Fitting, too, especially if it was the same pigeon he kicked in the courtyard right at the start of the story!

I wonder whether any of you enjoy writing your own stories. Perhaps some of you have a special notebook at home, where you can write freely whenever inspiration strikes. Maybe you’re writing diary entries or poems or comic strips – your own version of Dog Man or Bunny Versus Monkey or Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

You were ever so kind in thinking up questions for me, so I’ve tried to answer them below as best I can. Here goes…

My favourite books as a child? I used to love books about naughty children getting into trouble. I also liked The Twits and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.

How many books have I written? About thirty, I think. My favourites are The Ancient Egypt Sleepover and Survivor Titanic.

What am I writing at the moment? A book called Young Discoverers – real life stories about children who have made incredible discoveries – Egyptian tombs, dinosaur skeletons, Viking swords, that sort of thing. It’s coming out next year.

What inspired me to be an author? Reading, definitely. I remember reading books so exciting that I would stay awake long into the night, reading under the covers, and other books so funny that I would laugh out loud. Sometimes I would get to the end of a book and think, ‘I want to do that one day!’

Do I feel famous? Absolutely not. My life is very unglamorous. It’s mostly washing up, hoovering, sitting at my computer and eating digestive biscuits. Occasionally I get letters like yours, which remind me that the stories I write in my lonely study room are going out into the world and connecting with readers, and that thought makes me feel dizzy with happiness.

Thanks for your suggestions of settings for future stories: Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Stone Age, a tree house, and more. I find it hard to think of ideas, so I really appreciated the thoughts you shared. That tree house one in particular has got me thinking.

I hope that every one of you continues to find books that you love, and that you manage to carve out the time to write your own stories. I’m sure you’re busy with all sorts of clubs and hobbies, including sport and music, but do consider writing for fun as well. It’s kind of addictive, once you get started!

Warmest good wishes to all of you, children and teachers alike.

Stephen 

7th March 2025

Just before half term we had our VR day. Class 3 absolutely loved getting to explore Ancient Egypt, seeing the pyramids close up and being able to explore inside. They also were able to compare what Egypt is like now to what it would have looked like then to the Ancient Egyptians. You can see how much the class were loving using the VR headsets from the pictures.

We also ended the half term with our Egyptian Day. They created amazing head dresses, learnt to read and write hieroglyphs, found out about Egyptian Gods and learnt even more about their culture and way of life. It was a really lovely day.

At the moment we have been busy writing letters to the author of our class book – The Ancient Egypt Sleepover. They have loved coming up with ideas about what to write, about the parts they really loved in the book and to ask any questions they have too. We will writing these up next week to then chose a few to send him. It will not be an easy choice. Hopefully he will write back.

Class 3 has been working on their division methods in maths, learning the French for objects in the classroom and have also started to find out about databases in computing.

31st January 2025

What an amazing couple of weeks Class 3 have had.

I have been super impressed with Class 3’s writing. They finished writing fantastic letters to the Dreamgiver – a magical creature that gives out eggs so that children can have lovely dreams. They worked so hard giving detail about what they would like their dreams to be about and why they deserve lovely dreams. Most then wrote these letters up to send to him. We were very excited this Monday morning to have got eggs send by the Dreamgiver to us! They were so excited they all wanted to go home to sleep!

We’re now busy writing an explanation text about having a sleepover in the London Aquarium and why that would be so great.

In French, we have learnt the words for objects in the classroom and have been playing some really fun games to help us to remember them.

We’ve also been really busy learning to play dodgeball in PE which is great fun.

17th January 2025

What a great start to the new year. The class have been working on multiplying and dividing in maths to find multiples and to work further on their times tables knowledge.

In English, they have been working on being persuasive and written lovely letters to the Dreamgiver who has magical eggs that give people the most amazing dreams. The class are really excited to see whether they have managed to persuade him to let them have an egg. They have been busy writing these up really neatly to send to him and they should be really proud of what they have done.

In computing, we have been looking at how we can publish pieces of work and the different ways we can set pages out to look interesting, by changing the font and colour as well as adding pictures.

13th December 2024

Class 3 have been very busy and have created their own machine ideas that can clean the house, make dinner or to help someone sleep. They sound amazing don’t they! They then did a great job writing explanation texts explaining how their machines work.

In Maths they have worked hard on their written addition and subtraction methods and have shown great understanding in using these.

They have loved creating animations in computing and starting their artwork to create a mountain scene. A busy but lovely end to the term with lots of fun learning to still do.

15th November 2024

Class 3 are doing a fantastic job in maths learning more formal written methods to add and subtract. Their work is so careful and neat which is really helping them follow what they are doing. In English, we have been starting to write persuasive letters, coming up with some great vocabulary choices.

Computing has been really interesting learning about what animation is and we are looking forward to making our own short animations. We have been designing and making packaging for biscuit boxes in DT this week. Everyone did so well making nets for their boxes and coming up with some really interesting design ideas – we can’t wait to see how these turn out!

We also had a great time in our special assembly with visitors from the RAF talking about the military police.

25th October 2024

What a half term we have had Class 3. You have all settled in so well and have worked really hard. They have been working on their addition and subtraction skills in maths and in English they wrote a report about life in the Stone Age.

In our history we learnt about Stone Age art and cave paintings. We turned off the lights and had paper under the tables to imagine what it was like drawing in the dark and on a bumpy surface. We then also tried drawing sitting at the tables which was much easier. We had great fun on our Stone Age Day. We hunted in the woods using javelins and took it in turns to be the hunters and the animals. We thought about what we might be able to hunt and gather in the woods and built shelters to protect our tribes. In school, we played a game to test our skills as farmers and hunter gatherers in the Stone Age to see if we would survive – we did…well most of us anyway! We used milk bottles to make our own woolly mammoths. It was a great day. We hope you enjoy looking at our pictures.

11th October 2024

We have had great fun learning about Stone Age monuments like Stonehenge and why they were built. Everyone made their own Stonehenge ideas using Lego, dominoes or blocks. See what you think of our ideas – have a look at our photos.

The class wrote stories based on Stone Age Boy, writing about travelling back in time to meet Stone Age people and all kinds of different animals. The stories were really imaginative and interesting to read. Well done everyone.

We maths we have worked hard on our understanding of place value of 3 digit numbers and have started working on adding and subtracting numbers.

27th September 2024

We are still enjoying learning about life during the Stone Age, looking at how they lived and how it changed when they became farmers instead of hunter-gatherers. We have loved reading Stone Age Boy as part of our English lessons, using it as inspiration for when we will write our own stories.

We’re still very busy in maths working on our understanding of numbers all the way up to 1000. The class have been doing well making the number using equipment and carefully thinking about how many hundreds, tens and ones there are.

We had a great time learning all about Wales for our Languages Day. Test us and see if we can remember the words for some colours! We had great fun designing our own dragon emblems and talking about facts we had found out about Wales.

We have also nominated our pupil forum members – well done Luca and Clara – we know you’ll do a great job.

Friday 13th September 2024

What a great start to the year it has been. Year 3 has settled really well into the new year already. We’ve been creating poetry in English and working on choosing interesting vocabulary for our ideas. In Maths, we are working on place value – now building our way up to 1000.

We have loved starting our Stone Age topic, it’s been really fun and the children have been asking lots of great questions to find out more. We also considered whether we’d have liked to have been hunter-gatherers or farmers in the Stone Age times.

We’ve had great fun looking at digital devices in computing. We’ve invented our own devices and compared drawing with pencil and on a computer to see how they compared.

We’ve started to learn French, learning greetings and how to ask someone is.

Thanks for a great start to the year Class 3 – it’s going to be a great one.

12th July 2024

Class 3 have loved their maths, working at being shopkeepers to work out how much each other has spent and also working out how much change they would need. They did really well and used good methods to help them work it all out.

In PE, Class 3 absolutely loved having the tennis coach in school and getting to go to the tennis courts to play. They joined in all the activities really well, showing off some great tennis skills.

We’ve also been enjoying learning more about the Romans, what they invented and discovered and all about Boudicca too.

Next week, we’re looking forward to sharing about our year in our learning showcase assembly on Tuesday and making our own pizzas too.

28th June 2024

We have had great fun thinking about what it would have been like to be a Roman soldier and have written some careful instructions on how to survive – it would have been a very tough job to do!

We have also been recognising notes and coins in maths, using adding and subtracting skills to work out how much we have spent and how much change we would need.

Class 3 has also been working hard on coding and programming a parrot to follow instructions on DB Primary which has been both great fun and a bit frustrating at times. They have all shown great perseverance and done really well though.

14th June 2024

We started this half term with our fantastic trip to Pizza Express. The children had a fantastic time and they were a credit to us all. They found out about how pizzas are made, where the ingredients come from and we all even got to make our own pizzas.  Hopefully they managed to share some of the pizza with you all!

We have also started our Romans topic which they are already enjoying. Our class story is also set in the Ancient Roman times and we have been learning about what it was like to be a Roman soldier. In art, they finished our rainforest collages, there was a lot of glueing and sticking to be done but everyone did a great job and there were lovely drawings of rainforest animals put in the pictures too.

It’s been a busy start to our final half term in Year 3 but it’s been a good one.

24th May 2024

The time came last week to set our butterflies free. The class loved watching them grow as caterpillars, seeing them making their chrysalides and emerging as beautiful butterflies. We had to let them be in the sun for a little while for their wings to warm up ready to fly away. Some were so excited they were soon flying out, 1 stayed on Mrs Norris’ hand for ages, it seemed to like watching us but that soon flew away free too.

In English we finished writing our persuasive letters to the world about stopping deforestation which were all really good. This week we have been writing Haiku poems which are really fun, though tricky only being able to use 3 lines and only a certain number of syllables in each line.

In maths, we have worked on measuring mass and capacity using different scales and have also been adding and subtracting fractions.

We have really loved our artwork too, finding different ways to print. We created final pieces that had to have at least 2 colours and patterns in it. We have now started looking at the artist Henri Rousseau who created some amazing artwork on rainforests. We’ve worked on our collage skills and practised our drawing techniques learning to draw animals. We have created our plan for what our rainforest scene will look like and the animals we will draw and put within it and look forward to creating these after half term.

10th May 2024

It’s been a great start to the Summer Term with lots of learning and fun. We had a great time with someone from Colchester Zoo teaching us about the layers of the rainforest which was really interesting. We are loving learning about the rainforest and in English we are also writing persuasive letters for everyone on the planet to stop deforestation. The children have showed really good knowledge about this and have started writing amazing letters.

In Maths we have been learning about fractions and have just started looking at scales and measuring weight. PE in the sun (at last) playing tennis has been really lovely too.

22nd March 2024

We have been very busy practicing the production songs ready to share with you next week for the Year 4 and 3 show of Pirates vs Mermaids. We’ve also had time for lots of other exciting work too.

In Geography, we have also compared land uses in a village, town and a city and the good points of living in each of these types of settlements.

We’ve been learning about branching databases in computing, exploring how we can sort information by using yes and no questions and have started to build our own databases too.

Science week was lots of fun – we found out about Jane Goodall and her work with chimpanzees and worked on our sketching skills trying to draw our own. We also found out about the rainforest, birds of prey, used lots of science skills and really enjoyed the Science Dude’s assembly too.

8th March 2024

Class 3 enjoyed their local walk this week as it gave them a good opportunity to see how land is used in different ways in Castle Hedingham and then trying to put this correctly onto maps. They did well with their map reading skills and in spotting all the different uses of land there are in the village.

In DT, they completed their poster pages about Ancient Egyptian Inventions. They had to use moving parts using links and levers and some also had parts to flap open. There were lots of lovely ideas and moving pictures with some good facts written too about the inventions.

Class 3 have also been really busy working on their measuring skills in maths, their multiplication and division methods and working as a team to problem solve. They did some great performance poetry which we all really enjoyed watching and we are looking forward to writing adventure stories next in English.

16th February 2024

What fun Class 3 had for Ancient Egypt Day. They made head dresses and built their own pyramids using Lego bricks. They also practised using hieroglyphs to write their names, we even had some papyrus that the Ancient Egyptians used as paper to write on and make bookmarks. We learnt about the Book of the Dead and their journey to the afterlife, showing this on a scroll. Class 3 find out about mummies and sarcophagus as well as the different Gods and Goddesses they worshipped and even some ancient games they used to play. It was a great day and enjoyed by all.

The class has also been working hard on their multiplication and division methods in maths and it has been great to see their times tables scores improving. They have been writing explanation texts in English – explaining why the London Aquarium would be an amazing place for a sleepover, giving clear detail and reasons.

The class has been working hard on finding out about levers and links in creating interesting moving parts. They have designed a poster using these skills ready to make posters about inventions from Ancient Egyptian times. In computing, pupils have used their publishing skills to create an information page about Mountains, thinking carefully about how they are setting their work out to make it look interesting. The class also enjoyed Internet Safety Day, discussing ways they can be safe online but also coming up with ideas about what technology might look like 20 years from now – some great ideas.

19th January 2024

What a great start to the new year. Class 3 has been really busy working on their times tables and division skills in maths; using these facts to answer questions given to them in all kinds of different ways. Times tables come up in so many different areas of maths - having recall of those numbers really supports their learning.

In English, we have watched a short film called ‘The Dreamgiver’ which is about a creature that uses golden eggs to give children amazing dreams about their favourite things. We have used this to write persuasive letters asking to have one of these eggs. There have been some really great ideas!

We’ve also started practising the skills for playing Handball and learning dance moves in PE and starting our new history topic on the Ancient Egyptians – everyone is already really enjoying it.

15th December 2023

What an end to the term! Class 3 has worked very hard. In maths, we have started working on multiplication and sharing and grouping.

Class 3 have loved creating their own animations in computing. They have used a background picture and moved figures in front of it, taking photos of each stage to make their own short, animated films. We’ll get to watch these next week! What a great last few days it will prove to be.

In music, they have been creating their own compositions and have been able to compare using a keyboard with the sounds they can make using a computer. The class has worked on their pencil techniques to shade and sketch and created amazing paint and pencil pictures of mountain landscapes.

1st December 2023​

We have had great fun in English. We watched The Snoozatron from Wallace and Gromit (which was a machine to help Wallace to get back to sleep) and we then made up our own machine ideas. These work in all kinds of weird and wonderful ways and the children have come up with great ideas about how their machines work. We have then used these to write explanation texts to explain exactly how our machines work and what each part does.

In computing, we have started our unit about animations which has been exciting. We have made flip books and then started to draw simple pictures to show something happening and taken photos of these, putting them together to see how it creates an animation. Everyone is looking forward to making animations and seeing each other’s at the end of term.

Class 3 have also been super busy working hard in maths with addition and subtraction methods as well learning about using estimates and inverse calculations to check their answers. It has been lovely to see their confidence grow.

3rd November 2023

I hope you have all had a lovely half term and enjoyed seeing some pictures from our Stone Age Day. What a lot of fun we had. I have added a few more photos from Stone Age Day of the children with their woolly mammoths and houses that they made.

In DT, we have continued with lots of designing and making by creating biscuit boxes. Everyone did really well using nets to make cubes and cuboids – what great perseverance and concentration they all showed in doing it. They thought really hard about what the box should look like, how they would present their biscuits as well as trying to make sure the boxes were protected so that the biscuits didn’t end up broken. They loved making their boxes and we hope you all like getting to see their end products.

Class 3 have also been incredible in their maths, using pictures to add and subtract and showing great effort and understanding – I have been so impressed with them all.

What a great start to the half term Class 3! Thank you and well done.

What great fun we had for Stone Age Day. The children all seemed to really enjoy it. We started the day by going to the woods. We talked about how we would survive living there, what food we could see and find around us. With foam javelins, they took turns to be the hunters whilst everyone else got to be the animals. Some great aim was shown as well sneaking up quietly whilst hunting as they moved around the woods. Everyone then had a go making shelters, making great use of the environment around them and working well in tribes to build them. A lot of time and care was taken – we were very impressed! Finally they left trails to show the others what way they went through the forest using sticks and stones to leave clues and messages.

When we got back to school, the children played a game where they had to make some tricky decisions about being a farmer and being r a hunter-gatherer during the Stone Age times to see if they could collect enough food for the tribe to survive the winter. In the afternoon, we worked on our art skills, making woolly mammoths out of milk bottles. The children really enjoyed this and many were able to then make a model of the types of houses they had at the end of the Stone Age.

Hope you enjoy having a look at the photos and meeting the woolly mammoths! They all really enjoyed the day, as did we – thanks Class 3 for another amazing day with you all.

13th October 2023

I can’t believe it’s nearly half term already. How busy the children have been!

Class 3 has worked so hard, finishing writing their stories where they were travelling back in time to the Stone Age. These were all full of great ideas. In Maths, Class 3 are gaining confidence in working with larger numbers in all kinds of different ways. They have also been using addition and subtraction skills with larger numbers and I have been impressed with how well they represent and work with numbers using pictures and equipment to support them.

The class were brave sharing information about one of their interests in PSHE, they all did so well and were a great audience for each other.

The highlight that I think we would all choose was finding out about artwork in the Stone Age times. There was much laughter as they had paper stuck under their tables, with the lights off while they were trying to recreate as much as we could what it would have been like painting in caves. Then they had another go sitting at their tables which they found much easier and they have created some lovely artwork. Lots of Stone Age fun to come next week for our Stone Age Day on Wednesday!

29th September 2023

We have been reading the book Stone Age Boy which the children have really enjoyed. The class have used drama to help explore what is happening and to help them to start using speech marks correctly. We will be using the story as inspiration for writing our own stories about travelling back in time and having our own time travel adventures.

Year 3 have also done lots of great place value work, using equipment to show different amounts and being able to use number lines up to 1000. They are enjoying the challenge!

We have loved finding out even more about life in Stone Age times, comparing what life was like then. We have also learnt about Stonehenge and we have been wondering how they managed to move stones that big and those big distances without machines. Everyone got to make their own Stonehenge ideas, we hope you enjoy having a look at their great creations