Week Beginning 8.07.16

As the time flies by in Year 3 we are still working hard and succeeding in areas we found very tricky at the start of the year...

Maths 

We started the week by finishing off our shape unit by building 3.D shapes using straws and pipe cleaners. we labelled them by with their properties using as much mathematical vocabulary as possible. 

We then moved onto another tricky area of maths; we have been tackling telling the time, We've cracked it! We have all decided that we all feel much more confident telling the time to the nearest minute. We have also been calculating time differences using a number line and solving time word problems. Some of us are even telling the time using the 24 hr clock. 

Science 

We all had a fantastic time with lots of observational tasks and experiments on Tuesday, when we had a science day centered around our topic: Rocks and Soils. We learnt about the structure of the Earth and were amazed to find out that we are all floating around on tectonic plates on a moving layer of magma. Wow! 

We looked at a wide variety of semi-precious and common rocks and stones and organized them into different categories. 

We went on rocks hunts around the school when thinking about the uses of rocks and how they help us in day-to-day life. Our favourite part was definitely when we were learning about the three different rock types: sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. We made chocolate rocks to help us learn about the different formation processes. 

Looking at them in more detail, we conducted experiments on the durability and permeability of different rocks and used this data to decide what purposes different types of rocks would be good for.  We also looked at fossils and did some close observations of soils and were surprised at the many things that make up the earth below our feet. 

Music 

We now have a date for our music performance,,, Monday the 18th July. The performance starts at 10.00 am sharp (!) so please arrive a few minutes before hand to be seated. We look forward to sharing some songs and tunes that we have been enjoying this academic year. 

Week Beginning 27.06.16

This weeks blog is written by Brandon and Finn.

First of all, thank-you to all that came and supported us by watching our performance. We had a brilliant time learning and creating the show and we are really proud that you all enjoyed it too. 

Literacy

In literacy, we have been writing a persuasive letter to the president of Brazil  because they

are building a Mega Dam on the Xingu river. We thought about how this would affect the tribal people in the area and the animals and their habitats and used our persuasive letter writing skills to tell him about our concerns. 

We were also recapping our knowledge of a how to use apostrophes for possession and omission and learning bout how to use them for plural possession. We completed challenges and played some games to help practise our new skills. 

P.E

In P.E we were playing golden nugget. This helps practise our throwing and aim.

How you play: 

1) You get a tennis ball and some cones.

2) Next, you set some cones up and then get into teams up to 6 players. 

3) Then you take it in turns to hit the other cone.

If you hit it the cone your team gets the cone. The team with most cones wins. 

Maths

We have been identifying parallel and perpendicular lines in 2d and 3d shapes. We have been organising them using Venn diagrams. 

We also did an investigation counting the number of faces, edges and vertices of different based pyramids. We discovered that however many edges the base has, you must add 1 and that will be the number of faces and vertices it has. Each time the amount of edges went up by two. 

Art

We had a special visitor when Mr Long, a local artist (and Necton Primary staff member), came to show us some printing techniques. We learnt all about how he makes his prints and we even had a go ourselves. It was a little messy and quite tricky at times but so much fun. We produced prints inspired by the animals, plants and trees of the rain forest. We were all really proud of our finished results and think they are really eye-catching. 

In other news...

Another thank-you to everyone that came on Thursday to our lunchtime school BBQ.  It was really tasty and it was lovely to see all the families enjoying spending time together at school. Even the sun managed to make a brief appearance. 

Week Beginning 24.06.16

This week has been all about practising and  performing: our sporting abilities; our musical talents and our dramatic skills.   We have been busy rehearsing for our Key stage 2 summer performance which is coming along brilliantly. We have some fantastic budding young actors and actresses in the cast, and the choir is sounding just stunning. We look forward to showing you are polished production next week. 

Music 

In Music, we are combining all the skills we have learnt this year as we practice for our end of year viola performance. We have been concentrating on tunes which involving shortening strings to create higher notes and even learning a new round for our performance. A round is a song where groups of us start singing at different points and end at different points too.

Literacy/ Topic

We have been continuing with our persuasive writing. We have been writing in role as pharmacists, construction workers, farmers, conservationists and lots of other people who use the rain forest as a resource. We have been debating the topic of deforestation from different points of view. We have been extending our sentences using conjunctions to explain our reasons and writing supporting sentences to back up our topic sentence creating well structured paragraphs. Phew!

Maths

We are revisiting shape for the final time this year. We have been rotating shapes by 90 degrees each turn to create rotated patterns. We have have also been hunting for right-angles and deciding which angles are more or less than 90 degrees.

In other news...

Well, the big news this week has to be sports day. The weather just about held and an amazing time was had by all. Year 3 triumphed taking to their new key stage 2 races perfectly; and it certainly showed what a competitive class we are!  Everyone tried their hardest and we all  had lots of fun. 

A massive well done to all those in Seacole. A real team effort by all to win first place.

Week Beginning 13.06.16

This weeks blog is written by Mia , Ella and Lucia.

Maths 
This week in maths we have done really well! We have been solving division problems using large numbers. We can now do lots of division facts. Even the three digit ones with remainders. We like chunking using a number line.


Topic

This week in geography we have been continuing to learn about the people who live in the rain forest. The tribe I learnt about was the called Tupi tribe. Here is a few thing about the Tupi tribe: they make there body paints from plants and they make there jewelry from animal bones and teeth. The rain forest is a very strange place to live compared to ours! We looked at people who live in a less traditional way but still in the rain forest and compared their lives to ours. There are some similarities like; some still go to school, they enjoy fishing, they look after animals but there are many differences. The differences include; going to school by boat, fishing for piranhas and hunting monkeys.

Literacy

This week we have been looking at how to write persuasively when debating a point. We have been looking at the arguments for and against cutting down the rain forest. We need the rain forest because it is the habitat for lots of animals and plants and we do not want them to become extinct and also we  can use the plants to make medicines. But  people also use the trees for wood, paper and other ways to make money to feed their families. We are getting ready for a big debate next week. We did a conscience alley where we tried to persuade Mrs Shoat to agree with our opinions. 

D.T

In D.T we have been designing our Spanish omelettes. We discussed some of the extra ingredients we could add and thought about how it would effect the appearance, taste and texture.     

In other news...

Well done to Lucia for getting wonderful work for your super persuasive paragraph about saving the rain forest. Remember that it is sports day this coming Thursday. We are looking forward to a massive crowd ready to cheer on your team!