Author: year3

This term in science, the children are learning all about light and shadows.  We started our learning understanding what is meant by darkness.  We hid objects inside a box and gradually illuminated them until we could recognise what the object was.  The children understood that darkness is the absence of light.

Using our class set of cameras, the children went on a shadow search around the school. We were lucky that we had a bright sunny day to do this! We found shadows both inside and outside. Before we set off on their search, we learnt how light travels in straight lines and this is why shadows are formed.

We also investigated why shadows are sometimes large and other times small for the same object. We learnt that the closer the object is to the light source, the larger the shadow. We used a torch, a metre rule, a puppet (Varjak Paw themed!) and some white paper to record our results. We started with the puppet 100cm away from the light source then gradually moved the puppet 10cm closer to the light source,  each time marking the top of the shadow on the paper until we were just 20cm away from the light source. Then we measured the height of the shadow at each point, recording our results on a table. We finished our investigation by plotting our results on a bar chart to see if we could see a pattern.

The children were very excited to meet Dominique from our French partner school, Saint Joseph.  She taught the children how to sing ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ and ‘Old MacDonald’ in French.  We also learned about what life is like in a French school.

Today, the children have enjoyed a rounders lesson outside in the sunshine all about striking the ball. We were lucky enough to have Mr Bridge, a PE teacher from Marsh Academy, leading the session.  It started in a very unconventional way, seeing how far the children could hit a shoe box!

This week in Varjak Paw, we were thinking about the different settings in the story – the city surrounding the Contessa’s house and Mesopotamia, which Varjak visits in his dreams.  The children created a soundscape in table groups of one or other of the settings and saw whether the other children could guess which it was. We compared the different locations in readiness for our writing.

Even SF Said, the author of Varjak Paw, has listened to our soundscapes!

This term in computing, the children are learning about data, how computers store information and how they help us make sense of the information we have at hand. In our first lesson, we introduced the children to terminology associated with databases using a “Top Trumps” style game using comparison cards. Each card represented a record, each record contained a number of fields and each field stored some specific data related to that record.

The children enjoyed playing the game and we then went on to create our own set of cards so we had a class game.  Chestnut created a game all about animals, Rowan opted for a game all about the children in the class.

We started our new geography topic this week, learning all about South America. To kick off the unit, after a brief introduction, the children had a carousel of activities to help them discover lots of facts about this vast continent of 12 countries.

Two tables in each class were using laptops to finding facts or go on a scavenger hunt for different snippets of information…
Did you know the internet country code for Uruguay is .uy?
Did you know that the highest waterfall in the world is Angel Falls in Venezuela at 807m high?
Did you know most countries in South America speak Spanish?

On the third table, the children played a game of South American country Top Trumps looking at land mass, total population, highest peak and capital city population to see who could claim the most cards.  They quickly worked out that Brazil trumped most other countries due to its size.

On the last table, the children played a game of Battleships, but this time with cities in Brazil.  There were two different maps, each containing 8 cities and the children had to find them using map coordinates to see how many they could find.

“Outside! For the first time since Jalal, a Paw stood on the edge of the world.” SF Said, Varjak Paw (Chapter 5)
Varjak sat on the wall looking down at the Outside. In our conscience alley, the children gave Varjak their opinions about whether he should stay with Elder Paw and the family, or leave and head to the Outside.

“He needs to leave because he’s got to find medicine for the Elder Paw.”
“Leave because then you can find dogs to help”
“Stay because they could get kidnapped by a dog.”
“Leave so he can take care of himself”
“Leave because you can explore”
“Leave because you need to get a dog to save the Grandad”

SF Said, the author, has listened to our Conscience Alley and he sent us this Tweet!

On Wednesday, four of our year 3 children led KS2 worship in the hall.  The theme this week sets the scene for the rest of the term, recapping the events which led on from Easter and which have been celebrated over the last few weeks – Ascension Day, celebrated on Thursday 18th May (which we led a service for at church with year 2) and Pentecost, which was celebrated on Sunday 28th May.

The children opened the worship with a greeting and lit the candle, they read passages from the Bible and led prayers too, including the Lord’s Prayer which all the children joined in with. We ended our worship with a song – Give me Joy in my Heart

Second day back and already something a little bit different!

Today, we were lucky to have a team of young leaders join us from the Marsh Academy to host an Olympic Roadshow, giving the children an opportunity to try mini skills games of basketball, hockey, athletics and cricket.  The children had a great time as you can see!

We cannot believe it’s already the final term of year 3 – it’s gone so fast – and we have plenty of new and exciting things to learn this term.

Our topic focus is geography and we will be learning all about South America and the Amazon Rainforest and extending the rainforest theme to our music lessons too. Our book this term is the classic story, Varjak Paw by SF Said, a story we are sure the children will love. In RE, we are returning to our learning about Sikhi and finding out more about how they show their love and care for each other through seva. Our computing learning will cross over into maths looking at databases and statistics and computing will also feature in DT as we design products to keep children safe outside in the dark. With sports days this term, our PE focus will be athletics and a favourite team game, rounders.

We are looking forward to a final, fantastic term together!

Term 6 Overview – South America and Rainforests (PDF Download)

At home for maths, we would like the children to focus on their key instant recall facts relating to time – I can recall facts about durations of time.  We will also be setting various activities throughout the term on our ‘Learning with Parents’ portal. Can you earn a certificate this term by completing all the activities?

Key Instant Recall Facts – I can recall facts about duration of time (PDF Download)