Week Beginning 27.03.17

Where has the time gone! Another term has flown by, as we start our Easter break and Seahorse class have definitely earned it, with all the hard work they have been doing this term.

We have really enjoyed literacy this week as we have been writing our very own myths. Not to shy away from a challenge, we have written an extra chapter for the 'The Odyssey' by the classic writer Homer. We have been: organising our writing into paragraphs; using fronted adverbials; including expanded noun phrases and inserting subordinating conjunctions. Phew! What a lot to remember! It has been worth the hard work though because our end results are just fantastic. If you would like to read some of our stories just pop in after school. 

In maths, we have been problem solving. We have been thinking about which method to use when solving mixed operation word problems and deciding which is the most efficient method for different problems. We have also been driving ourselves a little bit potty with magic square puzzles; using lots of trial and error before finding the right answer. 

We have really enjoyed our 'Ancient Times' topic this term and will quite sad to move on. We finished off our work by looking at different types of artefacts and seeing what we could learn from them and how archaeologists build up a picture of the past. 

The seahorses became the teachers in science this week as Miss Palmer handed over control of the learning to the class. We were given the name of a famous scientist and had to work as tam to research all about their life and achievements and create a way of presenting this information to the class. We all learnt a lot and and showed just what we could achieve when we all worked together. 

Finally,  a massive thank-you to those who came to share in Easter celebrations at the local church. I think you will agree, the Seahorses gave a stunning performance of their poem prayers; showing off their reading skills and delivering with such confidence in front of so many people.Well done!  

Week beginning 20.03.17

Literacy 

We have had a fantastic week this week in literacy designing our own mythical island. We have been  drawing our ideas and describing features using expanded noun phrases and giving a guided tour of our islands. We have been looking at sentence starts and experimenting with opening them in a variety of ways. Such as starting with: an expanded noun phrase, starting with a preposition, time adverb or even a fronted adverbial. Of course we have been selecting adventurous adjectives too!

Maths

In maths, we have been getting our head around some mental methods for calculating. We have been using our knowledge of partitioning to add and subtract near multiples of 10 and 100 by rounding and adjusting and we have been identifying the operation in multiplication and division word problems.

History

We have been getting groovy with the ancient Greek gods and we have been working together to create fact books. 

PE

In PE we have been working on our body control  and core strength as we learn new moves in yoga. 

In other news...don't forget our Easter celebration is taking place next week on Wednesday 29th March at 9:15 am in Necton church. The children will be singing, performing poems and reading prayers and everybody is welcome!

Week Beginning 13.03.17

It's been an explosive this week in Necton Primary School as we have enthusiastically embraced British Science Week. Everyday we have been forming hypothesis, conducting experiments and discussing results based around the topic of change.  

On Monday we looked at different states of matter during our changing matters session. We identified, sorted and classified different solids, liquids and gases and observed some of the changes between the states. We then mixed cornflour and water to make a strange paste that acted like a solid under pressure but once released flowed like a liquid. Weird!

Tuesday, we were helping to save the world, as we looked at our changing environment by learning about the greenhouse affect and what affect it had on penguin populations in the South Pole. We joined an online, international data collection experiment to help count the penguins in different colonies, so scientists can monitor their health. We loved looking at all of the icy webcam pictures and tagging all of the penguins that we could see. If you would like to have a go at home, just visit https://www.penguinwatch.org/ and get counting!

On Wednesday we got a little bit artistic as we observed some changing colours. We watched food colouring and washing up liquid battle for control over the surface area of a plate a milk and made some glorious patterns as we watched the ingredients in skittles spread out into water making colourful solutions fit for an art gallery wall. 

Thursday and Friday we looked at changing materials as we combined two materials to see what reaction we could get. We watched as we created the now classic coke bottle fountain, when a Mento mint encouraged the bubbles go crazy and jet into the sky. Our favorite experiment was definitely when we made our own lava lamps by mixing oil, water food colouring and effervescent tables. Ask us all about the science we observed. 

Of course we have still packed the week with our normal lessons from the curriculum designing and describing mythical creatures ready for our ancient myth writing next week as we learn all about our hero Odysseus in The Odyssey. 

In maths, we have been tackling written methods for multiplication and division by calculating with two and three digit numbers. 

In other news, well done Mikey for getting Wonderful Work this week for your excellent scientific insights during our class discussions. 

Week Beginning 27.02.17

What a fantastic World Book Day! Everybody in the Seahorse class made a fantastic effort with their costume and we had a lovely time guessing who everybody had dressed up as. The clues were very imaginative and cryptic. We had an excellent range of costumes and I think we have all learnt about some new books that we would want to read soon. 

Literacy 

We have had great fun in literacy this week as we wrote our very own play scripts. We started by writing a story map. Some of us chose to write an alternative ending to a play we have been studying and others rose to the challenge of turning a complete story into a play script. some even chose to change a Greek myth! We made sure we included all the key features and even had a go acting them out to make sure they worked.  

Science 

In science, we got up close with the soil beneath our feet. We collected soil from different parts of the school and made some careful observations using magnifying glasses and thought about why soil is different, what it is made up of and why it is so important. 

Numeracy 

In numeracy, we have been finishing off our work using the column method. We have been practising subtraction with double exchanges, using the inverse to check our calculations and  identifying the operation needed in mixed word problems. 

Week Beginning 20.02.17

In literacy this week, we have been enjoying our new topic of play scripts. We have been introduced to (and acted out!)  the ancient Greek creation story; Pandora's box. We have also been looking at lots of other plays, as we become more familiar with the layout of a play script. We have also been thinking about what makes an engaging performance, as we learn how to follow play scripts and stage directions. I think we definitely have a few future actors in our midst!

During our humanities lesson this week, we have been using an atlas to locate the different countries in Europe as we focus in on Greece. We have also been putting our knowledge of chronological order to use, when we started to look at the main events during the reign of the ancient Greeks as we created more timelines.

Maths has been challenging this week, as we have been introduced to column subtraction. We agree that the method is much more efficient and we are testing our skills by finding missing numbers in calculations and correcting calculations with errors. 

We have been speeding up time in science lessons, as we recreate the process and conditions needed for making fossils by making our own imprint fossils. We investigated all the conditioned needed for a fossil to be created and researched each stage of the process.  

In other news... don't forget to start thinking about your costume and three clues for World Book Day next Thursday. Finally, congratulations to Mikey and Ceona for achieving their blue merit badges this week. What a lot a hard work! Well done!

Week Beginning 10.02.17

We must start by saying a massive thank-you to everyone who came to see our class assembly. We had great fun putting it together and I think you will agree it was a great success with such confident performances. 

Literacy 

In literacy this week, we have been editing work. Looking at first drafts and seeing how we can improve them by: adding more description; using adjectives and adverbs; or changing the word order of sentences to make the meaning clearer or to create a desired effect. We have also been looking at indefinite articles: when to use 'a' or 'an'. 

Maths

We now love column addition! We have been working hard learning this new method and the whole class have decided it is now our new favourite method. We have been carrying and adding up numbers into the thousands. We have also been problem solving by calculating the missing numbers in number pyramids. 

Topic 

This week in Topic, we have been learning all about the Rive Nile and how important it was to the ancient way of life. We have been learning about the three different farming seasons. Ask us about them and see how much we can remember!

In other news...well done Samuel for getting wonderful work this week for your excellent attitude to learning all term and also getting Sportasaurus. We look forward to seeing what you both up to over the half-term break. Have a great holiday everybody and stay safe!

Week Beginning 30.01.17

Literacy

We've had a fantastic time in literacy writing in role as Howard Carter, as week describe our thoughts and feelings when we discover the ancient tomb of Tutankhamen. Also we only have two more of our jumping orange words to turn green to complete the set before half term: century and certain. Get practising! 

History/Literacy 

We have also be thinking about whether we should really be opening ancient tombs or not by looking at newspaper article of recent discoveries in China and creating our own arguments based on our opinions. Come and have a listen to some of thoughts in our assembly next week. We created a conscience alley to convince Mrs A of our arguments. 

Art

We have been continuing our ancient Egyptian theme in art this week as we got our hand dirty making a clay ushabti. Not sure what a ushabti is? Just ask us and we can explain it all! 

Science 

The year 3 pupils were busy testing and grouping lots of different types of rocks this Monday. We researched different properties of different rocks using the iPads and conducted three experiments, investigating; durability, buoyancy and permeability. We discussed the results and decided which rock would be the best to build our pyramid out of.  Don't forget to check the Mrs Cryan's blog for all the year 2 updates. 

In other news...

Don't forget it is our class assembly on Thursday 9th February at 9:15 am. Come and share some of the learning we have been enjoying of the past half-term.