WRITING:

Linking to our topic, we will work on creating fact files about Mythical Creatures, making notes in appropriate boxes and adding labels to our drawings. We will continue to work on sentence structure and developing awareness of punctuation. Children will be learning to identify nouns, proper nouns and adjectives to add variety and detail to their writing.

SPELLING & PHONICS:

We will revise some of the trickier phonics sounds and diagraphs from last year to encourage accurate spelling of common words. Children will be encouraged to use these sounds to improve their reading and writing. In their spelling groups, children will then work on target spelling words each week, tackling some spelling rules to support their independent writing.

READING:

Children will continue to learn sight words by practising their word walls. By reading stories aloud in their reading groups, they will practise using punctuation to make their reading sound natural. They will be encouraged to add expression to bring their stories to life. We will have regular visits to the school library so that pupils can learn to recognise books that they can enjoy reading. As a class we will be reading the novel The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith to link with our topic on mythical creatures.

LISTENING & TALKING:

Children will continue to develop their listening skills when listening for information to add to their fact files. They will share their ideas and present their fact files to each other. Initially they will discuss what they have written, then move on to developing their peer assessment skills.

NUMERACY:

Children will be counting, ordering, reading and writing numbers in hundreds and thousands, developing their understanding of place value, including increasing and decreasing by tens and ones. Children will then work on the role of zero to represent numbers to 1000 using a range of concrete materials and resources.

Building on skills practised in Primary 2, children will also revise and develop their addition and subtraction strategies. We will work on improving mental maths skills by creating and solving word problems using written number sentences.

MATHEMATICS:

We will link the development of maths skills to our topic on ‘mythical creatures’.

Shape:

We will investigate the properties of shapes to create a range of 2D and 3D creatures, identifying the shapes of faces, nets and cross sections of 3D objects.

Time:

Children will recognise the numerals of an analogue clock and consider time in relation to our daily routine. We will relate historical events to days, months and years.

Symmetry and Angles:

Children will learn to identify lines of symmetry in patterns, pictures and 2D shapes and begin to explore angles in comparison to right angles.

Outdoor PE

Mrs Chalmers will be taking the class for fortnightly PE sessions, working initially on fitness through a variety of games and challenges. Children will learn about the importance of maintaining physical fitness as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Indoor PE

Under the guidance of a qualified yoga instructor to get us started, P3 and P3/4 will be learning yoga which will promote flexibility, balance, strength, coordination and posture as well as emotional wellbeing.

Health

In P3 we will be focusing on supporting each other to develop a growth mindset as we settle into our learning. Miss Service will take the class for fortnightly sessions learning about children’s rights as part of our Rights Respecting School accreditation.

Mythical Creatures

We will be learning all about mythical creatures from Scotland and beyond. This will challenge pupils to evaluate different types of evidence and decide for themselves to what extent it can be trusted. Children will be encouraged to share their views with the class and learn how to listen respectfully to the opinions of their classmates.  We will learn new vocabulary from a variety of different sources and will use it to describe mythical creatures and their features in fact file format. This learning will be supported with short stories and videos of unicorns, mermaids and giants, as well as our class novel The Water Horse.

As Christmas approaches we will turn our attention to the work of Santa’s elves through relevant short stories. With our scientist hats on, we will investigate forces and carry out experiments to learn how toys work.