Week beginning 23/11/15

This week 3P's class blog is brought to you by Bethanie, Sam H and Miss Palmer.

Maths

What an exciting week in maths! We have been working in groups to solve problems, explain ideas, convince sceptics and develop our growth mindsets. This week was called inspirational maths week.
On day one we were working together in groups to see how many numbers we could make using the number 4. Then we looked at symbols that represent numbers and we also looked at Pascal's triangle and spotted lots of patterns . We liked doing this.

Next week will be moving on to our new topic of time and measure.

Literacy

In literacy we have been designing and planning our own version of the story Icky Doo Dah. We have been creating our own mischievous monsters. We have gathered all of our ideas, practised some skills and we are now all ready for our big write next week.
   
Music

In music we have been continuing to play the viola. But also this week we were very lucky to have Jeff Rich, an amazing drummer from States Quo, come to our school!

We learnt about the history of the drums and even had a quick jam session, playing percussion to his funky beats.

P.E

We had yet another special visitor came to our school. His name is Sean Rose an inspirational Paralympic medalist. We were amazed and inspired by his achievements and all that he has done before and after his accident.  

We enjoyed doing the activities even though we got a bit tired in the end!
 

We all came up with interesting questions to ask him and got the chance to see his medals.


In other news...

A big thank-you to all who made donations to the Christmas fair chocolate raffle. We are pleased to announce, that we were the year group with the most donations and won a tub of chocolates for the class. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the FOSA Christmas fair next Wednesday 4.30pm-6.30pm.

Also we hope you all received your invites to our reading cafe next Tuesday. A lovely opportunity for a parent, carer or a family member to enjoy stories and a craft activities with us child in our learning environment.  

Week beginning 16/11/15

Our class blog this week is brought to you by Bethanie, Charlie and Mia.

Maths

In maths this week, we have been organising data. We created our own characters and used the characters from the game 'Guess Who' to suggest different ways to group the data. We also discussed who this information would be useful for.

We have also been displaying data on bar charts and pictograms. We also have been solving problems using the information shown. We enjoyed doing this and making a human pictogram.

Literacy

In literacy, we have been working hard on improving our descriptive writing. We have been creating metaphors and  similes and writing descriptive paragraphs about Michael  Morpurgo's Blodin the Beast. We have also been creating and describing our own mischievous monsters, drawing inspiration from Simon Murray's Icky Doo Dah books.  That lesson was our favourite!

We are starting a new unit in spelling this week and are beginning to focus on suffixes. This week we learnt the rules for changing the root word with the suffix 'ous'.

Science
  
In science we have been learning about the bones and muscles in our body. We have made some skeletons and learnt some of the scientific names for the main bones.

We even beat Miss Palmer in a Catchphrase quiz.

R.E.

In Re we have been learning about Christian baptism. We have been looking at two different types of baptism called  Infant baptism and Believers baptism.


P.E

We were very excited to use the big equipment in P.E to practise our jumps and learn how to use it safely. We will be combining this knowledge to adapt our routines with balances and rolls to different equipment.

In other news, well done to Courtney and Annabel for achieving their pen licences this week and those who have received their Read to Succeed t-shirts. Keep up the good work.

Many thanks to those who have already brought in a chocolate donation for the school fair. We will still be collecting donations all of next week.

We are looking forward to an action packed week next week full of visitors and workshops (professional drummers and athletes) and exciting learning opportunities such as planning our own creative writing adventure stories and a school wide week of inspirational maths.

Week beginning 9/11/15

This week, class 3P's blog is written by our class publisher. 

Maths

In maths we have been adding and subtracting fractions.We have been ordering fractions from highest to lowest. Also, we have started our new unit all about data and we have been timing ourselves doing different activities. We recorded our results by drawing a table. We found out when we were estimating  how many times we could do the activities in 30 or 60 seconds, we were much closer them the second time round!

Literacy

In literacy we have been continuing poetry. We looked at a new poem called No Word of a Lie by Jackie Kay and added some more lines. we enjoyed this a lot as we were allowed to argue in class!


Geography

In geography, we have enjoyed looking at different places on maps in the ICT room. We typed in our towns and villages and even tried looked at our  school and our own houses.

Science 

Based on our new topic, Growth and Movement, we have been learning about the inside of our bodies. We have had fun making models of skulls. We all got surprised when we found out their mouth moves using a hinge joint. We also made a model  of an arm with rubber bands as muscles. We also enjoyed moving them as well. 

P.E

Congratulations to Charlie, Bethany and Mia who took part in the cross country running this week.

Week beginning 2/11/15

In class 3P it has been great  to have such an enthusiastic start to the second part of the autumn half term.

Music 

Music this week was very exciting as we started the first of our sessions with our Violas on Monday. We have been learning songs about the different parts of the instrument to the tune of  'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'. How many different parts can you remember? We also learnt how to hold the instrument correctly, it was a lot harder that we thought! 

Science

This week we enjoyed taking part in a world record attempt; to be part of the worlds largest maths and science lesson. First of all, we learnt how DNA is the building blocks for life and designed our own characters with their own DNA coding. We then built models of DNA. 

Maths

We have made excellent progress with fractions this week. We are feeling much more confident recognising, identifying and using diagrams and equipment to show fractions, counting in fractions and even spotting equivalent fractions. All in one week! 

Next week we will be finishing of our fractions work by finding fractions of an amount and moving on to our next unit: Data. 

Literacy

We had fun this week listening to the work of Michael Rosen and identifying different techniques used in performance poetry. We had a go at performing poems, changing the tempo and volume of our voice and performing the words with our bodies. 

We have also been using our senses to describe the atmosphere and feelings at different times of the day; producing some excellent poetry of our own about the night time. We combined this with our marbling art work to create some stunning atmospheric pieces of work. 

Finally, a massive well done to those children earning their Read to Succeed owls. Many of us are now well on our way to earning our t-shirt. Keep up the good work!

Week Beginning 12/10/15

Literacy

In literacy this week we had fun role playing as celebrity chefs and performing cookery demonstrations inside our makeshift television. 

We have also been putting all of the writing skills we have been practising into place, with lots of extended writing. We have written our Revolting Recipes using: time and explanation conjunctions, adverbs and imperative verbs. 

We have also been looking back at our work since reception in our Special Writing books. For Special Writing week have written stories about finding a secret door. It has been amazing comparing these stories to our previous work and seeing how much we have all progressed. 

History 

In our history sessions this week, we combined our IT skills and researched important inventions, making information pages to add to our timeline. Along with our fantastic homework projects, I think you will agree, our class timeline is now looking pretty impressive. 

PE

We were also lucky enough to have another specialist PE lesson; learning how to play the fast and furious game of dodge ball. 

A special mention this week to Charlie who has completed his times table revision, learning ALL times tables and related division facts up to 12 x 12. What an achievement and inspiration! Keep collecting those stars Years 3, you can do it!

Finally, it was a pleasure to meet so many parents and carers during our first round of parent meetings. I really enjoyed discussing and sharing the many achievements made already this year. I would also like to remind those who did not manage to secure a time slot for the appointments next Wednesday, that you are welcome to make an alternative appointment at your convenience. 

Week beginning 5/10/15

Music
This week we have been continuing our work with our music specialist Miss Furnell. We have been practising all the skills we need to start playing an instrument. We are now confident with identifying different rhythms, listening to the meter and keeping steady beats. This week we had fun showing our understanding of these concepts using rhythm sticks. Next week we look forward to learning about our new instrument: the Viola.

Science 

We loved having some of the Year 5 pupils helping us with our science this week. The older children helped run activities based around our topic of forces; helping us determine the type and direction of the force and describing the behaviour of moving objects. Here are some of the activities...

The balancing clown.

Blasting rockets.  

Puff Jets.

Twirly doodles.

Training the magnetic snail. 

Thank-you Year 5!

Literacy 

We have been recapping our knowledge of time conjunctions and adverbs and learning about imperative verbs. We have been sharing ideas ready for writing our revolting recipes next week.

Numeracy

We have had a very successful week solving problems involving division. We are developing a range of techniques such as sharing and grouping, repeated subtraction and using the inverse to help us solve division problem. All of these methods can be found in the calculation policy on the school website. We are looking forward to starting a new unit shortly: fractions. 

In other news...

We really enjoyed the performance from the Image Theatre Group this week as they performed The Jungle Book. We danced and sang and some of us were even chosen to perform. 

Finally, as I am sure you are all aware, the time has come for our first parents evening of the year. I'm looking forward to meeting you all and discussing how your child has settled in to Year 3. I am aware now that all of the allotted time-slots have been filled. Please pop in if you have not managed to reserve a place and we can arrange a time that is convenient.  

Week beginning 29/09/15

This week in Year 3 the learning has been as fabulous as the weather! Let's start by having a look at what we have been learning in maths. 

Maths
We started a new unit and have made amazing progress with our mental and written methods for multiplication. We have been showing our understanding of this concept by using repeated addition, arrays and even using some informal partitioning to solve problems. We are becoming confident with our methods with multiplication so next week we will be spending more time practising division. 

Literacy
In literacy, we have finished our information reports and they are just fantastic. We have thought carefully about the structure and content and have even started writing in paragraphs. Some brilliant ideas, some amazing sentence starts and lots of extra details added using conjunctions. Superb work Year 3! 

We also played some barrier games to introduce our next writing unit: instructions. This was a lot harder than we anticipated and we really had to think hard about the language we used to help our partner; build models, copy drawings or make shapes on a peg board. 

Science
Yet again we got practical in science as we invested how to reduce a gravitational force. We observed sycamore 'helicopter' seeds and made some helicopters of our own to increase air resistance. 

PE
We took a short break from our gymnastic routines and made the most of the warm sunshine. We went outside to play some games that were likely to cause conflicts and be a little frustrating. We discussed how to be a good team player, the language we used towards each other and how to manage disappointments and frustrations when playing with others. We decided that this could help us in the playground too and we are proud to report, we all had an excellent time and did not fall out once!

Art
We have finished our work in response to the artist Patrick Caulfield and we hope you agree, our use of contrasting bold colours has produced stunning results. 

Finally, a massive well done to all of the Necton Primary School children who took part in the Harvest Celebration at the church and a big thank-you to all of  those who came all to enjoy the clebrations and show your support. All of the poems, presentations and songs sounded fantastic.