We are all looking forward to an exciting time in Year 3!
As we prepare for Key Stage 2, we thought we'd introduce ourselves. As you can see, we are:
full of creativity; full of ideas; full of surprises; full BEANS(!); full of Key Stage 1 and now we are hungry for more.
Watch out Key Stage 2! Here we come!!!
Friendship Day
It’s good to have friends, isn’t it! Our friends and family are such an important part of our lives!
Today, we were learning about respecting each other. The world can be a truly wonderful place, especially when we treat others as we wish to be treated. We always respect, always befriend, always nurture, always show kindness and care, always play together and always show the love that we ourselves have been shown. This is our aim and together we can achieve it!
We had a wonderful day with our friends and we also enjoyed making new friends! Have a wonderful term from everyone in Year 3!
Now, on with the show...
Our Romans Topic
The Autumn Term has arrived and what an entrance it has made!
Today, Year 3 were invaded by a huge Roman army! Fortunately, they 'asked' us to join them (there wasn't really a choice!). To join the army, we constructed shields by using recycled cardboard and tested them to make sure they were strong and sturdy. We also used felt tips, crayons and various other craft materials to decorate and personalise them - clearly, the Romans had style and so does Year 3!
As a year group, we all got into Testudo Formation to work as a team to block oncoming arrows and boulders from the enemy.
We then triumphantly marched like Roman Soldiers back to the homeland. (Please note: No humans were hurt in the making of this Roman battle scene!)
Roman Timelines
Instead of drawing boring old timelines, we were given large pieces of a Roman Timeline to find out more about the invading Roman armies (as well as their emperors and other important details like that). The timeline was cut up and mixed up into lots of pieces - making no sense at all until it was put back together again! You wouldn't expect to find many artefacts in one piece after 2000 years now, would you?
To help put it back together, we all had to use our detective and archaeologist hats. We had to search for any connections between the information and illustration cards. Then, we had to organise ourselves in chronological order! It was tough, but we did it! This was so good that we created a display in each classroom to remind us of the key events in Roman history. What an amazing journey! Why not look at our class displays to find out more?
Geographical Research
I wonder where the Romans lived and where they invaded? How could we possibly find out (I hear you cry!)?
Well, good questions! Bravo! All of us in Year 3 are very clever and we know where to look! Forget google... and as for Yahoo - you can go and ask Jeeves... Bring on the LIBRARY!!! Everyone descended on the school library (like eager Romans wanting to learn) and we made a wonderful discovery. We uncovered a huge trove of atlases which contained all the answers we needed (coincidentally!) - including a large map of the UK! As we found different locations from historical Roman events, we also competed with each other to see who could find important cities on the map the quickest.
Who do you think was the fastest? Was it the boys or was it the girls? Guess what! (Predictably) Everyone won - it was a draw!!!
Pandora's Box (a sneaky Greek myth)
Hang on! How did Pandora's Box sneak into our Romans topic? Well, now that we've stumbled across it (and we couldn't resist), we thought we'd link it to PSHE (as you do!). We have also made comparisons between the Ancient Greek gods and goddesses and the research that we've been conducting about the Ancient Roman gods and goddesses.
We created a range of Pandora's Boxes by carefully cutting out and constructing 3D nets of cuboids. We decorated them to entice Pandora and, while we were at it, we also created shape robots. Could we link this to the myth? Probably not! But somebody had this bright idea and then we all wanted do it - which extended our knowledge of shapes and our ability to draw them!
Returning to Pandora's Box - we thought it would be nice to fill the boxes with wonderful gift cards of what we'd like to bring to the world, such as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control (amongst others). These would then be pleasant surprises for anyone who opened our Pandora's Boxes. Just think of it as our gifts to the world!
Eid Cards
What a wonderful Eid celebration! We all had a party and ate delicious food before playing exciting party games. We're not sure where all the photos went(?). Maybe we were having too much fun! Well, we didn’t want to keep all the fun to ourselves, so we created Eid cards to take home for our families. Eid Mubarak everyone! Have a wonderful celebration.
Safety Day
It’s important to keep ourselves safe (and each other) wherever we are and whatever we’re doing! We learned all about road safety, internet safety and fire safety. Now everyone knows what to do in an emergency and, perhaps more importantly, how to prevent emergencies from arising. Safe!
Black History Day
Wow! Black History Month is an amazing celebration of Black History and we are very privileged to celebrate it today! We learned all about Rosa Parks and Barack Obama and the impact their lives have made on the world. We have written biographies, planned and delivered presentations to the class and developed our abilities to sketch the President of the USA himself! I wonder if he'd like any of our portraits? More importantly, I wonder what impact we will have on future generations?
Baking For Children In Need
Our Children In Need Day is always very exciting as we continue to look to the needs of others less fortunate than ourselves (through wild and whacky activities)! We're not sure where all the photos went(?). Maybe we were having too much fun again! Well, we didn’t want to keep all the fun to ourselves, so we baked and decorated lots of different cakes and sold them on behalf of the charity. They (not-so-surprisingly) sold like hot cakes!
Inspire Parents' Reading Workshop
What a wonderful group of parents! We all invited our parents to our Inspire Workshops to look at reading activities at home. This went really well as lots of mums and dads came and we could discuss with each other (and our teachers) different ways to effectively improve our reading skills at home and at school. Most importantly, we found out about the range of exciting texts that we can take home to read from the school library, the local library and The Central Library. Once again, we descended on the library like eager Romans and discovered a wonderful selection of books to choose from.
Reading For Pleasure (as always)!
Today, we shared our favourite books with each other. We read favourite parts of the texts to our friends in the class and we enjoyed listening to each other. As a result, we found out more about the range of exciting books that we can choose from when reading at school and at home. We also got to ask each other comprehension questions to find out more.
Reading Roman Myths
Using our developing comprehension skills, we have been reading different Roman myths to find out more about their culture. Today's was a Roman myth (and not a Greek myth sneaking in!) - we rejoined Romulus and Remus and remembered how they were introduced at the beginning of the topic. This time, we read more detailed versions in order to retrieve and infer a greater depth of understanding. Have you ever read this myth? How do you think Rome began?
Reading For Everyone!
Reading is for everyone - and we have been developing our skills with English as an Additional Language. There are so many wonderful games and opportunities to develop reading skills which help us as we pick up our favourite books and read them. This is a journey that we're on altogether. The more we share and read together - the more we read for pleasure.
Science Rocks!!!
Some rocks think they're hard...and some are real softies at heart! You've just got to get to know them - just get beneath the surface!
That's exactly what we explored today (in a way)! We used our senses to learn about the properties of different rocks and we thought about their purposes (especially those rocks which the Romans chose to use in their building projects). We tested the strength of different rocks by chipping away at them. We also tested them with water to identify which ones were permeable. It turns out that, even though many rocks look similar, they have very different properties and can be used in many different ways. Those Roman builders knew what they were doing!
Science Rocks (and soils)
The ground beneath our feet often goes unnoticed. Above the rock, on the surface of the Earth, is (well) earth! Like rocks, there are different types of soil which have different properties. As curious scientific investigators, we just had to take a look. We used magnifying glasses to closely look at soil samples and you'll never guess what we found (although you probably will!): leaves, worms, plants, twigs, ants and more. Following this, we tested the different soil samples to see which was the most permeable - reflecting on how this would affect plants as they grow.
Pompeii - Mount Vesuvius
We couldn't finish our Romans topic without learning about Pompeii. As well as learning about rocks and soil through Science, we learned about physical features in Geography. One example of a physical feature is a volcano!
Oh no! The Poor People of Pompeii! We researched the events surrounding the eruption of Mount Vesuvius and then reported on them through our very own newspaper reports. It felt so real, as if it had happened only yesterday. When it came to our assessment, we came up with our own twist on the newspaper reports. What if, a few days later, a mythical beast rose from Pompeii's ashes and had to be outwitted by one of our made-up Roman deities?
Well, that's another story! As well as our creative writing, we used our Design and Technology skills to create our own volcanoes. We then planned and tested different amounts of baking soda and vinegar to see which volcano could erupt the fastest. Why not ask your teacher to do something like this in your lessons too?
It's Chri-------stmas!!!
What a wonderful Christmas celebration! Following a fantastic Nativity Play by one of our very own Reception classes, we all had a party and ate delicious food before playing exciting party games. We had a lot of fun, especially when playing musical statues (with the added twist of pulling funny faces!). We didn’t want to keep all the fun to ourselves, so we created Christmas cards and calendars to take home for our families. Merry Christmas everyone! Have a wonderful celebration and a Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2017! Maths Day!
Maths is for everyone - and we have been developing our skills even when we have English as an Additional Language. There are so many wonderful games and opportunities which are fun and also help to develop our maths skills! We enjoy working together on problems using large resources, such as hundred squares. Also, with our buddies, we created our own games (based on Snakes and Ladders) and then played them together. We also learned about the artwork of Piet Mondrian before creating our own versions, using different sizes of rectangle. Which shapes could you use in your artwork? Could you be the next Mondrian? Maybe our shape robots will be famous after all!
English Persuasion
Before we can persuade the Selfish Giant to allow us to play in his garden, we need to learn the skills of persuasion. We feel like we're in an episode of 'Junior Apprentice'. Our challenge was to work together within our groups to advertise a breakfast bar product. What would be our USP (Unique Selling Point)? Why would someone want to buy this product? How could we persuade people to choose our breakfast bar instead of the countless other items on the supermarket shelves? There are so many questions and so many opportunities to develop our skills. Who do you think was the most persuasive? Which team sold the most breakfast bars? (You'll have to wait and see!)
Scrumdiddlyumptious Fruit Artwork!
This term, we have launched our 'Scrumdiddlyumptious' topic. We are learning all about healthy eating, healthy drinks (such as Smoothies) and much much more! To begin our topic, we have been making fruit collages and developing our sketching, drawing and colouring skills when observing whole fruits and pieces of fruit.
Party Surveys
To celebrate the Selfish Giant's change of heart, we have decided to plan a party. In order to plan the best party ever, we thought we'd start with some market research. We headed down to the Computing Suite and created our own surveys. We then asked the questions to our class and recorded the data, before presenting it in pictograms and bar charts in Maths. We have also used Excel to create our own budgets.
Music
We are planning to make Smoothies to drink during The Selfish Giant's party. Since we have so many good ideas, we will also advertise and sell Smoothies for our charity (Acorns). We will use our persuasion skills that we've developed to create an advert and we also need some music because everybody knows that all good adverts need to have good music!
Dance
As well as creating music for our advert, we also need to create and learn a dance for our advert. We have all been learning parts of a dance and then developing it with our own ideas and dance moves!
The School Nurse
To help us even further with learning about healthy food and healthy choices (in preparation for our party), we invited the School Nurses to visit Year 3. They were very helpful in providing a presentation and in answering questions. We have also invited the Life Caravan to visit and to teach us even more.
Tremors - Building Bridges Science Investigation
Our 'Tremors' topic literally BUILDS on where we left off with the 'Rocks' topic before Christmas! As well as locating and learning about volcanoes, we have been discovering interesting facts about earthquakes. As a challenge, the whole of Year 3 has attempted to design and construct bridges that are strong enough to withstand our very own earthquakes!
Tremors - Building Bridges (Revisited)
Round 2: The question is, how do we reconstruct our 'earthquake-proof' bridges from the remnants of our first attempts? Have a look and see how we got on! Which bridge do you think was the strongest?
Cricket!
Cricket, cricket, cricket! Fantastic! Need we say more???
The School Nurse
We invited the School Nurse to visit Year 3 to teach us about internet safety. She was very helpful in providing a presentation and in answering questions. This has certainly helped us as we've started to email each other in our computing sessions.
Computing - Learning how to email
We have been learning how to email each other using our school accounts. 'Building' on our e-safety sessions and discussions about how to respect each other online, we are now writing messages to each other about what we have been doing at school.
Comic Relief
Did you ever pick your nose? Well, why did you pick that one? Was it a good shape and size? A small or large nose? All the better to smell you with, I suppose - if that's what you wanted to do. Perhaps that's enough about picking noses!! COMIC RELIEF is here and we have raised lots of money for this fantastic cause by having a lot of fun.
Mothers' Day
Happy Mothers' Day to our wonderful mothers and motherly-figures! As a thank you for all of your love and care for us, we have carefully made you these lovely cards. Have a lovely day on Sunday!
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