de Vere Primary School

Welcome to Class 3 – Andersen Class 

We are Mrs Norris, who teaches Monday to Thursday and Mrs Westrop who teaches on a Friday. We are supported each day by the lovely Mrs Donaghy and Mrs Champion.  

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) Settlements and use of land 

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 and letters to follow about these nearer the times. 

Stone Age day in school – 16th October 

​Egyptian Day in school – dress in white and/or black – 12th February  

Local walk to map the local area – date to follow in Spring 2. 

April 22nd – Colchester Zoo Group to school, workshop on Rainforest Layers. Geography - Rainforests (approx. £2.50 – costs to be finalised) 

June 5th – Morning trip to Pizza Express – DT – Cooking savoury food: pizza (£4.50 per child) 

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 Andersen Class is on a Wednesday and a Friday each week. 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.  

Forest School will be every 4 weeks on a Tuesday afternoon. 

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  

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

20th July 2023

It may be the last few weeks of the year but we have still managed to squeeze in lots of fun and lots of learning. From acting out a short play to working with time and shapes, Year 3 have investigated and worked together really well. In maths, they have also done some very careful measuring and drawing and checking each other’s answers were accurate.

In DT, Class 3 has worked hard on making packaging, thinking carefully about the net they would use to make boxes and carefully designing, making and decorating them. They have put a lot of thought into their designs and although they found it tricky at times making the nets and putting their boxes together they showed determination and have produced some lovely packaging.

Thanks for a great year Class 3. Have a fantastic summer.

16th June 2023

Year 3 has been busy finishing off our collages based on a picture by Henri Rosseau. They created their own rainforest scene, working hard to overlap the pieces of paper, add pictures of animals they had drawn and they worked hard to try and create layers.

In maths, we have been working on time, investigating trying to read mirror times and reading time on an analogue clock to the nearest minute. In English, Year 3 has written their own list poems using ideas of all the great things we have learnt and done over the year.

We have started our topic on the Romans – finding out about events on a timeline and what life was like as a soldier. We are also starting our English unit on writing instructions on how to survive being a Roman solider.

As it’s been healthy eating week, we have had lots of discussions about how we can be healthier. They have designed amazing healthy lunchbox ideas as a competition and built a brilliant snack which the children thoroughly enjoyed.

25th May 2023

In Maths, Year 3 has been learning about money, dealing with £ and p, adding and subtracting and finding change with money in lots of fun ways. We have linked our Geography learning to our English by writing a persuasive letter asking for deforestation to be stopped. Everyone wrote really lovely letters and showed a great understanding of the issues and have ended this half term giving a presentation about what they think about deforestation and why.

In computing we have been creating branching databases asking yes and no questions to sort different animals. In Art we have studied Henri Rosseau and his artwork and then used this as inspiration to create collage pictures of a rainforest. The class have been really careful in creating layers to their rainforest and drawing animals to hide within their scenes. In RE, they created their own prayer mats. Have a look at our photos of all the things we have been busy doing and have a lovely half term!

12th May 2023

The children have been working hard and have created reports about a rainforest animal they discovered. They have been typing these up, working on their typing and presenting skills to consider ways to make their report look interesting.

They have also been learning about fractions in maths, in particular finding fractions of amounts and they have done really well using equipment and pictures to help find answers to the questions.

In art, Class 3 have been exploring different printing techniques using objects, plastic and print blocks which they made themselves, creating interesting patterns. After exploring these, they used different colours and shapes and the techniques learnt to create their final pieces.  

As always, our rainforest topic has been interesting, creating great discussions about deforestation and why trees are being chopped down and considering the effects of this. The class have had lots of really good points which will help them as we start to write persuasive letters asking companies to stop logging.

28th April 2023

What a couple of weeks it has been being back for the Summer Term! The children did so well with their performance, it was especially lovely hearing their pride as they talked about it and they did such a good job even with a few nerves and worries about it.

We are busy learning even more about fractions and adding and subtracting them. We have started our Rainforest topic which is already popular, with the class enthusiastic about learning more about the animals and what it is like there. In English we are learning about information texts and what they look like, ready to write our own about an animal we have discovered whilst in the rainforest.

In science, we have started looking at how water is transported in plants. We showed excellent observation skills when we cut up daffodil stems, noticing tiny little tubes and water in the stems that we could squeeze out.

In computing we are learning about sorting and grouping information for our unit about branching databases. The class did really well creating their own databases, starting with objects in the classroom and using yes and no answer questions.

31st March 2023

Lee Class have been super busy writing letters in English to Stephen Davies, who wrote ‘The Ancient Egypt Sleepover’. We have been loving reading this book in class and doing lots of writing based around this. Their letters have been fantastic and it has been really difficult for the class to choose a few to send off to Stephen. We emailed the chosen letters to Stephen and we have already have had a reply! He was so happy to receive our letters and that we all enjoyed the book. He is going to read our letters over the weekend and then write back to us. We are SO incredibly excited about this and are already looking forward to the start of the Summer Term and reading our replies. Well done Class 3.

In Maths, we have been looking at mass and capacity, comparing amounts and doing lots of measuring using different types of scales and containers. Computing has been fun looking at how animations are put together; creating small animations of their own and in PE Year 3 has been working on their stamina in cross country and creating some interesting sequences in gymnastics. In Art, we have been learning about different types of printing such as relief printing and mono printing, lots of messy fun! The children have also been thinking really carefully about settlements in our Geography work, showing great understanding of the different vocabulary we have been working on as well as the skills of comparing places and understanding the land use of various places.

We hope you enjoy looking at our most recent pictures – and we hope you have a great Easter!

17th March 2023

As part of reading our class story, we created our own adventure stories in a museum and we are currently explaining how to have a great sleepover in the London Aquarium which we are looking forward to writing. In maths we have been using different scales to find the weight of different objects. This will also come in useful for cooking on Friday for a mother’s day surprise.

Science week has been lots of fun. We have been sending messages from class to class. We got sent one from Year 2 as a paper aeroplane and sent ours using light and morse code to Year 4. We are wondering what the message will end up as by the time it gets to Year 6. We have also learnt about Isaac Newton who has been the inspiration for our diaramas. A great week, full of lots of science fun with assemblies and workshops galore!

3rd March 2023

In maths, we have been busy with fractions. We have been exploring putting them onto number lines and investigating fraction walls to look for fractions that are equivalent to one another. In English, we have been loving reading our new class book called ‘The Ancient Egypt Sleepover’. We have been loving the mystery to it and looking for clues along the way. We are currently planning our own mystery story, using the ideas from the book to inspire us. It has been lovely to learn even more about the Ancient Egyptians and to recognise things that we learnt about last half term in the book too.

As part of our Geography fieldwork, we went for a walk in the local area, exploring the different uses of land here in the village. The children were great and did really well plotting places onto their maps and pointing out places they spotted along the way. In computing we have started learning about animation and started with making flipbooks showing a moving figure. We can’t wait to learn even more about creating our own animations.

10th February 2023

We have worked on understanding fractions, writing persuasive letters to try to get a magical egg that grants you any dream you want whilst you sleep and written diamante poems. This is all as well as spending two days in the hall whilst our classroom has been beautifully painted – very exciting.

We have also been making levers and linkages and exploring how these work. It has been tricky trying to make out own ones but we persevered and felt so proud with what we have done. We are also planning and making a DT poster all about Egyptian inventions and they will have... you guessed it... links and levers in them! We can’t wait to make them – even though we know it will take some patience and care to make them look really amazing.

Class 3 have been amazing and adapted well, working hard throughout. I’m really proud of them – well done Lee Class.

27th January 2023

What a busy couple of weeks it has been. Lee Class have been working incredibly hard.

As promised, there are lots of pictures from the Egyptian Day. The children had a great time and felt very important in their headdresses. They wrote their names in hieroglyphics, build pyramids out of Lego, wrote their own Book of the Dead scrolls and learnt lots about Egyptian life…and death! They even created their own Egyptian Gods for something that is important to them.

They have also been working incredibly hard learning division methods in maths, writing their own version of a fairy tale and getting stuck into fitness and learning a dance routine in PE. We can’t believe it’s been two weeks already!

13th January 2023

We’ve had a great start to the new year. The children have really been getting stuck into their learning. We have been reading the story of ‘The Egyptian Cinderella’ and comparing it to the story of Cinderella and starting out Egyptian theme which we are all very excited about already.

In maths, we have been using multiplication and division skills. We have been on a hunt in the hall for numbers or answers that are multiples of 10 and working on our multiplication methods.

We have also had great fun in our mini topic being miners and imagining going down into the mines and working there. The class created brilliant diary entries describing their day and what it was like.

9th December 2022

Over the last 2 weeks, Year 3 have been learning and practising their multiplication skills, working on their three and four times tables in Maths. They have been looking at sequences when counting in multiples, and learning to put numbers in groups to help them to divide. They used their learning to play board game, as well.

In Art, the pupils finished their landscape mountain paintings. Their art showed different painting techniques, including watercolour washes, block painting and careful painting. In lessons they have also learnt to use different shading techniques for sketching, including stippling and cross-hatching.

In P.E., Lee Class have continued to learn about handball. This week they learnt how marking is used when defending and practised this in a game.

We all had a lot of fun creating our Christmas decorations that are hanging up in the library. With some Christmas music on, we worked on our collage skills by using lots of different wrapping paper to make interesting and colourful Christmas trees. It has been lovely to see them hanging up and seeing people enjoying them at the Christmas Fayre.

We have been loving the build up to Christmas in class together and there is still lots of exciting things coming up that we are looking forward to.

25th November 2022

Year 3 has been working really hard in using written methods in different ways in maths now, last week we applied it to real life. They had a budget and had to go shopping for some expensive items but they did really well applying their learning. In English, we have been looking at the Wallace and Gromit Snoozeatron machine which they have loved watching. They have been thinking hard about how to explain how the machine works so that next week we can use all the skills learnt to explain how to survive in the desert!

Science has seen us investigating different soils and looking at different fossils and learning about how fossils are formed. The children have all really enjoyed looking at fossils and playing a fossil board game to try out their new learning.

In their Art, pupils have been developing their ‘block painting’ skills, which complement their watercolour ‘washes’ from last week. They are working on incorporating both techniques into a final landscape artpiece. Also, PE has seen our learners working on their understanding of the game Handball, with them practising their dribbling technique. And in music, we have been adding to our recorder skills repertoire! They are getting used to playing a rhythm using the learned note ‘B’, and this week have been introduced to playing the ‘A’ note alongside.

11th November 2022

We have been so busy since coming back from half term. In maths we are continuing to work on our written methods to add and subtract and we are really gaining more and more confidence. In Science we have been thinking about what plants need to grow. We have 5 plants in the classroom; one is growing normally, one is without water, one without soil, one is in a dark corner and one is inside a bottle. We can already see the differences between the plants and soon we will be able to see if our predictions were correct and write our conclusions.

In their English lessons the pupils are reading an exciting new book called The Boy Who Biked the World. We are learning about writing in 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd person and much about the world as we follow Tom’s travels in the story. In Art, pupils are learning about landscape art and are beginning to develop brush skills, using techniques to create washes, and texture.

7th October 2022

What a fun and busy couple of weeks we have had in Year 3.

The class have been working hard on their addition and subtraction skills, working really well using equipment to help them work out the answers.

We have done lots of fantastic things in our topic work. The Stone Age has been a great topic! We learnt about Stonehenge and wondered how they managed to move the stones from so far away, we tried some ideas on our Stone Age afternoon using pencils and dominoes as logs and stones but it was really tricky to manage. Everyone also made their own Stonehenge ideas out of dominoes or Lego – they look great, don’t you think?

We have also been hunting deer (using javelins as spears) which was really tricky and our targets weren’t even moving! We created woolly mammoths out of milk bottles which we think look really effective and created cave paintings whilst lying under the tables to try and get the feel of being in a cave.

In English we have been writing reports about the Stone Age so that we can show off all of our fantastic history learning. It’s been lots of fun!

Friday 23rd September 

Year 3 have had a great start to the year. The children have all settled in well and have got stuck into their learning – especially about the Stone Age. Already they have chosen whether to be hunter-gatherers or farmers, looked at evidence from the time and found out about Stonehenge, with lots more Stone Age fun still to come!

In Maths, pupils have been getting hands on with all kinds of equipment to explore the place value of numbers up to 1000. We have been using dienes, place value counters, played dominoes to match numbers and representations of these and even made a human number line.

In Design Technology, the pupils are learning how to cook savoury food. They have chosen criteria as to what makes a good pizza and have been testing and tasting existing pizzas on the market to base their designs on.