Glass Centre Trip
We had a wonderful time on our trip to The National Glass Centre! We were amazed by the glass blowing demonstration where we watched a small molten piece of glass become a beautiful glass bowl, we loved looking at the range of glass and ceramic artwork in the exhibitions (we even had a talk from one of the artists – how lucky were we!) before finally becoming artists ourselves and painting our own glass masterpiece. Check out the pictures from our fantastic trip below …
Platinum Jubilee
We had a fantastic day for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee. We took part in lots of fun activities throughout the school day. Take a look at what we got up to…
Clay Crafts
In year 3, we have created clay corgi’s and crowns in preparation for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee competition.
Take a look at our crafts…
Shadows
As part of our topic, we have been looking at what shadows are and how they are formed. We know that a shadow is formed when an opaque object blocks the light. We were able to identify the position of the light depending on where the shadow was on the ground.
Next, we made our own shadow puppets. We had so much fun making them!
Light
Today we explored how light travels and reflects off objects to help us see.
We investigated this by placing objects in an opaque box with no holes in. We then gradually increased the amount of holes in the box. We discussed why having more holes would allows us to see more and how the placement of the holes was also important.
We found out that having all of the holes together on top of the box was not effective because we were still blocking the light from getting through when we were looking. We then discovered that placing holes around the box allowed for more light to enter the box, allowing us to identify the objects.
Perfect Pollinators
This week we learned all about pollination and how bees are brilliant pollinators. We understand the pollination process and why it is important for the growth of new plants and flowers.
Today, we began to explore the different methods of pollination in order to understand which is most effective. We looked at wind, water and bee pollination and observed to see which method transferred the most pollen to the correct part of the flower. We couldn’t use real pollen so we used Wotsits crumbs and pretended that this was our pollen.
Making peach treats…
Miss Brook’s RWI group had lots of fun today making peach treats, following their own step by step instructions.
They looked delicious and tasted even better!
Celebrating ‘The Daily Mile’
To mark the 10-year anniversary of the Daily Mile scheme we all took part in walking, running and jogging laps of the school yard to complete our daily mile challenge.
Super Scientists
This week in year 3 we have been carrying out an investigation to investigate the question ‘How does the amount of water affect the transportation of water within the stem’. We discussed which variable we would change and which variables would stay the same to make it a fair test.
We made observations throughout the day, recording how far the water had travelled up the stem in each plant at specific time intervals. To make sure we measured accurately we made sure we were eye level.
Take a look at us in action…
Brilliant Botanists
Today in year 3 we became botanists. We looked at the different parts of a flowering plant and the role these parts play in its life cycle. We worked together in small groups to become botanists by dissecting a flowering plant. We worked together to identify the different parts. We know lots of new scientific vocabulary.
Take a look at us in action…
Easter crafts…
This week we were given a whole school Easter themed project to complete, by creating an Easter craft. We decided to recap our sewing skills by creating Easter puppets. We used a running stitch to join the pieces of material together and then added detail by attaching materials to create body parts for the rabbit.
We were much more confident in our sewing ability this time.
Take a look at our fabulous final product…
British Science Week
As part of British Science Week, Year 3 have been exploring plants and their growth.
We began by refreshing our basic understanding of the parts of plants and their uses. We created diagrams in out books of the functions of each plant part and then created plant life cycles representing the continual growth and life of plants.
We moved on to discuss different types of plants and looked at the plants that we can eat. We sorted them into the following categories: fruit, vegetables, herbs and plants we don’t eat.
When we had a more secure knowledge of plants, we took part in a class investigation. Mrs Mahone’s class looked at how light can affect plant growth and Miss Brook’s class looked at how water can affect plant growth.
We worked together to look at the variables within the investigation and discussed how we can make the test fair. The children then all recorded their own prediction using their understanding of how plants grow well.
The children will be responsible for watering their plants daily and keeping a log of growth within the next few weeks. Once we have our completed findings, the children will draw upon their knowledge and information gained to record a conclusion.
Rotten Romans
As part of our Roman topic, we have designed our own Roman weapon. Before designing, we looked at the different techniques we can use to join the materials we would have available. We looked at; the fold join, the flange join, the tab join and the bend join. We practised creating these joins and then joining them to pieces of card. We could then check to see which were the strongest and which we would use as part of our design.
We designed a Roman shields and weapons thinking carefully about the joins we would need for the different parts of our design.
Today, we followed our design carefully and chose appropriate materials and joining techniques to create our designs.
Take a look at our creations.
Roman Mosaics
In year 3, we created our very own Roman mosaic shield. We used small pieces of card and collaged them as though they were mosaic tiles. We thought carefully about the size and shape we required and then used coiling, overlapping and tessellation to create our design.
Hedgehog heroes
As part of our topic, we are looking to make our school more hedgehog friendly. Today, we explored the school grounds looking for areas that would and wouldn’t make a suitable habitat for a hedgehog. We discussed in small groups why we thought a particular area would be a suitable or unsuitable habitat.
After exploring the yard and the quiet area, we decided as a year group that the quiet area would be the most suitable area of school for a hedgehog to live. However, we have found that there are negatives to this area of the school, such as noise and litter. We are therefore going to look to improve this area through litter picking and educating other children around school.
NSPCC Day in year 3
This year as part of number day, we have completed a range of exciting and fun activities all about time! Let us tell you all about it…
We used our mini clocks to practise reading and showing a range of times to the nearest 5 minutes, half past the hour, o’clock, quarter past and quarter to times.
When were confident, we played a time board game with a partner. We had so much fun reading different times. We had to look closely at the minute and hour hand to read the times accurately .
After that, we played time dominoes and clock bingo. We were so good at telling the time.
Take a look at the fun we had…
Our time games…
As a challenge for ‘Number Day’ we had to work with a partner to design and create our very own game. Our game had to involve telling the time. We were very creative; some of us created board games and some of us created bingo boards.
We had so much fun working with our partners to bring our ideas to life.
Take a look at the process…
Our completed maths games!
Rockstar champion…
Congratulations to Ella on your amazing results in the ‘Times Table Rockstars’ challenge, you have made Year 3 proud.
Perfect puppets…
This week we have worked hard to design and create a ‘Fairytale Puppet’ based around a character from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ to support Storytelling Week. Our aim was to make storytelling more engaging for the younger children in school so we each created a puppet to use when fairy-tale stories are being read.
We used a range of joining strategies, learning how to complete a running stitch and added detail to our completed puppets to ensure they resembled the familiar characters.
Take a look at our completed designs we are very impressed!
Continent Week…
We have had a fabulous week this week recapping the Geography skills we have learned so far. We were given the continent Europe to focus on from Mrs Stephenson and have really enjoyed exploring the continent and the countries found in it.
Each day we have compared the weather in England to a chosen European country and discussed the differing humidity levels, precipitation, wind speed and temperature. We kept a record of the weather throughout the week in our very own continent week book.
Each day we looked at a different European country and used atlases and iPads to research and gather information to answer given questions. We identified borders, landlocked countries and capital cities as well as many other facts.
We recapped our grid reference skills too, answering a range of four figure grid reference questions about a map of Europe.
We also recapped the 8 compass points to help the school bus travel around Europe, providing sat nav instructions using specific vocabulary.
To round the week off, we tasted food from our five focus countries and enjoyed exploring the different tastes.
Overall, we have had a fabulous week and have learned so much about Europe.
Holmside Heroes…
Year 3 were a credit to Southwick Primary today, on our trip to Holmside park. Take a look at the fun we had…
Titanic’s social class system…
Today we explored the social class system and how this differed on the Titanic. We discussed the different passengers, their social class and how likely they would have been to get on a lifeboat and survive the disaster. We were given photo cards of the passengers and asked to sort them in order of how likely they would have been to survive.
We all sorted them differently and had brilliant explanations as to why we placed them where we did.
Fantastic Gymnastics…
Today we worked with Jayne completing a gymnastics workshop. Take a look at us in action…
Meaningful measures…
This week as part of our anti-bullying campaign, Year 3 have been making biscuits and decorating them with ‘one kind word’, one of the schools focuses for the week.
The children weighed out their own ingredients using a measuring scale and thoroughly enjoyed the whole process. Once the biscuits were finished, we them presented them to a friend. Take a look at us in action…
A ‘Titanic’ art project…
Today, we began to learn about the artist, Claude Monet. We looked at the techniques he used to create his paintings. We know that he created his paintings using little strokes and different sized brushes.
We learned all about how people treat Monet when he first started painting in this way. They teased him about his paintings and said he should paint in the way the other French artists were painting. Monet didn’t listen and carried on painting using his unique style.
As we are going to paint a picture of the Titanic in the same style as Monet, we began to look at the colours we needed. We began with 3 colours, blue, black and white. It was our challenge to use these three colours to mix the different shades we would need.
We knew that if we needed a lighter shade, we added more white and if we needed a darker shade we added more black. Take a look at the colours we have mixed.
We then created a sketch of the Titanic sinking, we will paint the sketch following in the style of Monet.
We then used our colour mixing skills to begin painting our work. We painted the sky and ocean in the style of Monet, making sure we used different tones and tints of blue and grey, to add a special effect influenced by our focus artist.
Take a look at our completed masterpieces…
Dramatic diary entries…
Mrs Mahone’s literacy group have blown her away this week with their fantastic diary entries. Take a look at some of the fabulous finished pieces…
Terrific tennis…
Today we were lucky enough to work with a fabulous tennis coach named Graham. We practiced basic balance and co-ordination skills and then competed against our peers to challenge our balance and co-ordination.
We completed a range of activities ranging from east to practically impossible but persevered even when we found it tough. We needed to keep control of the ball using our hands and tennis racket.
We can’t wait to see how our skills grow and develop over the coming weeks…
Stone Age structures…
We have learned all about how Stone Age people made their own homes, and how through the different eras they were adapted. We used clay to mould and shape the frame of the house, and then used cutters to add details. We used our hands to manipulate the clay to create added elements to complete the design.
Take a look at our finished homes, we think they are pretty amazing!
Class 8 Reading Superstars!
After working so hard to read and complete accelerated reader quizzes, Class 8 were rewarded with group of the week.
Colour Mixing…
We have used Modroc to create our very own volcano structures and now we need to paint them.
Today we have looked at how to mix colours effectively in order to create different shades. We discussed the different colours we may need to paint the outside of our volcanoes which are browns and greys.
We know that brown is a tertiary colour and in order to mix brown we need to use all secondary colours, which are purple, green and orange.
Once we had mixed this colour we needed to mix different shades of this colour. In order to make the colour darker we needed to add black and in order to make the colour lighter we needed to add white.
Take a look at the colours we have mixed today!
Women in Space…
This week we have been introduced to four extraordinary women who have had a positive impact on life today. We have looked in depth at the lives of Dorothy, Mary, Dr Christine and Katherine and the impact of their work. As the women were key figures in supporting astronauts returning home safely we created a class welcome home banner. The banner contained key words and images based around the women’s life and work.
The Mars Perseverance Rover
This week we have also explored how we receive satellite images from our solar system to relay information to support scientists. We looked in detail at the Mars Perseverance Rover and its current role supporting NASA. We discussed the features of space rovers and how these enable them to transport information. We worked hard to recreate the Perseverance Rover using a variety of materials.
Rock Cycle!
Today we physically explored the ‘rock cycle’ acting out each stage. We created a large circle in class and demonstrated what each stage could look like. We then acted out the whole process from start to finish showing a good understanding of what happens to the different rocks as they change.
We then worked in teams to draw the rock cycle on large pieces of paper. We had such a good afternoon using our rock knowledge to support ourselves.
Rocks ROCK!!!
Today we took our learning outdoors; physically re-enacting how an igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock forms. We identified the process to creating each rock type and portrayed the process using gestures and sounds.
We had to identify the rock being shown using our detective skills. We then explored the impact of movements from tectonic plates within the Earth’s crust, has in how a rock is formed. We used our scientific vocabulary brilliantly this afternoon when sharing our ideas. Take a look at us in action…
Time capsule
As part of our transition into Year 3, the children have created a time capsule of their hopes and dreams for Year 3. Everyone shared their aspirations for the year and we buried it within our school field. At the end of the year we will dig up our capsule and see if we have achieved our targets.
