Year 3 Blog 2023-24

9th February 2024

This half term in Year 3 -

In Art and Design we have been learning about Ancient Egyptian Scrolls. In the photos below you can see the imitation Ancient Egyptian symbols we created as part of our design stage. We used natural colours like they would have done - we also had a go at staining our paper using tea and coffee which we found fun.

We then made our own paper: we used strips of brown packaging paper and mixed this with water and glue. We needed to weave the strips in both directions to form our own paper as you can see in the picture. Once these dried we used our designs and completed our scrolls. 

To conclude our Art and Design unit we made Ancient Egyptian Zines to showcase what we learnt and enjoyed about our topic. We were amazed to also make a little booklet out of an A4 piece of paper and will be doing this more often to present some of our learning. 

We have loved learning about the Romans and have learnt a wealth of information about the legacy the civilisation left behind for Britain. One lesson that we thoroughly enjoyed was - putting our shields to the test and getting into the formation of the Roman Army: the army was so successful because of their amour, weapons and intensive training. In the photos you can see us presenting both formations (Wedge & Testudo - Tortoise) - we definitely need some further practice to be successful in invading like the Romans!

We also completed a team building exercise: we were given one sheet of paper each and a brief: to get a marble to travel using only their piece of paper from one end of the classroom to the other and into a cup - they needed to work together to achieve this with full cooperation. It took 27 minutes of real focus and dedication to have everyone ready - the marble was placed into one end and traveled down but unfortunately it turned into a magic trick as we never recovered the marble at the end of the long tubing. The class worked so hard and had a laugh which was the main thing. Maybe we can try again another day! 

In Science we had fun getting messy and investigating different types of soil to conclude of study of Rocks. Did you know that certain flowers grow better in different soils? What do you have in your garden?  There are six main types of soil: sandy, clay, silt, chalk, peat and loam. We investigated what they looked like, smelt like, felt like and whether they absorbed water or not. 

5th January 2024

We came back to school in January to a snippet into the Romans. On Thursday we held a mini wow day to immerse ourselves into the Roman invasion of Britain. We took notes from educational videos and learnt some of the reasons that the Romans wanted to invade Britain. We explored a historical timeline and noted key events. We virtually looked at the artefacts displayed in the British Museum. We also learnt that lots of Roman culture is still evident today, especially their architecture with regards to baths and roads. On your travels please look out for signs of Roman life and let us know what you find. In the afternoon we created a Roman Mosaic Vase and then used clay to create our own Roman artefacts.

15th December 2023

This week we were lucky enough to have a question-and-answer session with a volcanologist: Dr Varley. He gave us a wealth of knowledge about his career and deepened our understanding of volcanoes. We thoroughly enjoyed our Geography unit and learnt about the positives and negatives of living near a volcano. 

We also had a design and technology session decorating our own snowpeople ☃️ to be cherished and bought out for the festive season each year onwards! We hope you like them!

8th December 2023

Last week in Swimming we completed our Water Safety session and entered the pool wearing our pyjamas to understand what it would feel like being clothed in the water. We practiced the life skill of floating and learnt how to never enter the water if someone else is in danger as this could cause ourselves to get into difficulty too. It's important to remember never to travel to water locations on our own, always call for help and never enter the water if there is no lifeguard present! 

We also had the opportunity to read the Christian Holy Book: the Holy Bible. We discussed the need to respect these books and handle them with care and attention, to which the children did really well. They were amazed with the thinness of my own bible and compared this to the children's bibles with more durable pages! We talked about the different styles of the books and that some were beautifully illustrated which supported their understanding of the significant stories shared within them. We tried to think of stories that we were aware of for example, the Good Samaritan, David and Goliath, Moses etc. We will be relooking at these and depicting details from them in the coming weeks to help us understand the faith of Christianity and why their holy book is so special to them. 

This week we baked our seasonal tarts using fruits and vegetables. We also discussed the winter seasonal produce from the United Kingdom and thought about what other tarts we could try at home. The children have thoroughly enjoyed their design and technology sessions with food and nutrition as our focus this half term. Hopefully, you can encourage your child to help in your kitchens and come up with some inventive meals as a family! 

17th November 2023

Friendship Week

Last Monday we wore odd socks to signify our individualities and share that being unique is something to celebrate.  We also considered what bullying is and were empowered to speak out through our Live Lesson via BBC Teach. 

On Tuesday we wrote a poem about bullying, friendship and kindness. We generated lots of ideas as a group first and then spent some time reflecting upon this and created a free verse poem or an acrostic poem. 

On Wednesday we created posters to display the difference between acceptable language and unacceptable language. A key question was: Where do we draw the line between banter and bullying?

On Thursday we created leaves of hope. The children wrote/drew inside their leaf a positive way that they could be safe and happy together; these avoided situations with bullying behaviour. Some drew people playing together and inviting another child to join the game, others shared a message about “sharing a joke”, “reach out if you’re feeling sad”, “tell someone if something’s wrong” or “say a kind word”. 

2nd November 2023

This week Year 3 went to the Chiltern Open Air Museum and had a fantastic time reliving history. They completed two workshops: Iron Age and Stone Age. They were able to make pots, butter, flat breads, fire, shelters, to say a few of their incredible activities. 

13th October 2023

This week the children created Prehistoric Art using charcoal for British animals. They also loved the opportunity to use oil pastels to create their final piece. Next week we will be adding textures to our artwork and make our own paints similar to how they would have in the Stone Age. They are so reflective and were discussing their improvements throughout the lesson. It was lovely to see their walking gallery at the end of the lesson to observe their talents. 

We have also been learning the song Let your Spirit Fly. Initially they did not enjoy the song but this has grown upon them through the message that is shared. Music has helped us to come together and share our love of musical genres.

22nd September 2023

This week in Art and Design, Year 3 had a go at frottage. We replicated some of the texture rubbings of Max Ernst's work to create a nature-inspired piece of artwork inspired by that of botanical artist Maud Purdy. We went outside to create some natural rubbings using pencil and crayon and then came back to the classroom to tear our rubbings into the elements of our artwork. Here you can you see the stages through a collage of their incredible work.

The children also loved bringing in their favourite books to activate understanding of Sacred Texts in Religious Education. They had the opportunity to share their best bits and why they had chosen their book as their favourite. It was great to hear them sharing and discussing literature both fictional and non-fiction. Many suggested that it was the importance of how they obtained their book (a family member purchasing for a birthday, given as a present or found in a charity shop as a hidden gem). They also remarked on the plot and characters and the impact the stories have on their lives. All of this is a good foundation for why sacred texts are important in religion. We will begin to delve deeper in the coming weeks. 

8th September 2023

Year 3 started the week with a creative piece of writing. They selected a photograph and wrote about it into their handwriting books. Their descriptions were lovely! What a great way to start the Year. 

In history we were looking at timelines and worked hard to generate our own positioning the key events in the right places. They also tackled the challenge of unrolling their very own tissue timeline and had to estimate were palaeolithic time started around 2.5million BC. 

In English we looked at an extract taken from a book describing the setting of Dewbelle we then used our retrieval skills to create the image built up in our minds. Here is a lovely example showcasing the chalet, Mistfall Mountain and the edge of the pine forest. 

In mathematics we have been learning about place value and use base 10 or dienes to create these numbers. Here you can see a group on the carpet exploring these representations.

This week Year 3 also had the opportunity to make bread. They mixed the packet with water and left it to rise overnight. The next morning they moulded it into their shapes and baked it to take home as a tasty treat.