Year 3

Thursday 20th July 2023

Year 3 were fortunate to have a visit from Leigh Fire Station today, so we are thankful to Maxwell's dad and the rest of the Blue Watch team.  The children got to explore the fire engine and emergency response vehicle.  The children thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Monday 17th July 2023

Last week, we had the opportunity to explore more practical activities in Maths.  One of the children's favourite activities was creating potions to check we could measure accurately in litres and millilitres.  The team who won, were the ones who got closest to the teacher's line in the measuring bottle. 

Tuesday 4th July 2023

Today in English, Year 3 were creating freeze frames linked to our book, 'Varjak Paw'.   The children were tasked with 'visualising a scene from a text'.  

Friday 30th June 2023

Year 3 are looking at the topic of plants in Science and what they need to survive.  We grew some cress seeds in different conditions to see how they were affected and were able to conclude that plants need water and light to grow healthily but will also grow in limited light (so long as they have water) as they will grow tall to search for the light.  

This afternoon in Art, children were continuing their exploration of colour by experimenting with tone.  Children added white and black to one specific colour to see which other tones of that colour they could make.

Tuesday 20th June 2023

In Art, we have been looking at collages and how we create them by overlapping and layering.  We combined this with a discussion about warm and cool colours and looked at some art work displaying examples of these.  

Tuesday 13th June 2023

As part of our Computing curriculum, which happens to coincide with our new topic on position and direction in Maths, the children were giving simple algorithms to each other to solve a puzzle (in these examples, a map on the floor or in the classroom).  We will expand this further next week to use coding to program the Beebots and Probots.

Friday 9th June 2023

On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to visit Layer Marney Tower.  As part of our topic on the Tudors, the children learnt about what it would have been like to be a Tudor knight and the training involved.  They also had a go at archery.  They were given a tour of the tower, learning about the owners and Henry VIII's visit.  They were taught maypole dancing, and learnt about how Tudors lived off the land and made use of everything, even poo and wee to soften leather and make colour set in wool.  There was a lot of information sharing throughout the day and the children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, even getting to see some goats and play in the playground area after lunch.  

Wednesday 7th June 2023

This afternoon in our History lesson, we were discussing monarchy and what a monarch is.  We looked at pictures of some of the kings and queens there have been (the children later discovered they were all kings and queens they have learnt a bit about at Fairways in previous years).  We ordered them chronologically (noting there were some missing monarchs in between) and looked at pictures of them.  We compared the images, noting how some were paintings and some were photographs.  We discussed what we could learn about their pose in the image (particularly Henry VIII's)!

Friday 26th May 2023

In Science this week, we have been looking at shadows, which are formed when light is blocked by an opaque object.  The children had a lot of fun drawing around each other and noticing how the shadow had moved throughout the day.

As part of our DT curriculum, we have designed and created a Roman shield this term in Year 3. We have been learning about the Roman Army and a Roman soldier's uniform. The children have enjoyed using a wide range of tools and materials to plan and create their own, unique Roman shield. We also demonstrated some of the well known tactics used by the Roman Army including the tortoise formation.

Tuesday 2nd May 2023

As part of our Science curriculum, we have been looking at 'Light' this term.  We have already discussed different sources of light and darkness being the absence of light.  More recently, we have been looking at reflective and non-reflective materials and the benefit of some materials being reflective.  We discussed, for instance, about reflective parts on High Viz jackets so people can be seen when car headlights shine on them. 

Thursday 20th April 2023

In Art this afternoon, the children were experimenting with different sketching techniques looking at tone, mark making, shading and cross hatching.

Monday 27th March 2023

Today, as a hook for their writing this week, the children listened to the Roman Britain 'Now Press Play' lesson.  The children always enjoy using this equipment at school and they get really into the actions as they are directed what to do.  It's always quite entertaining to watch as they interpret what to do. 

Wednesday 22nd March 2023

Year 3 had a Roman Day with a visiting guest, Gary, from Portals to the Past.  The children were taught a lot about the Roman empire and had a chance to handle real and replica artefacts.  They played some games and had an opportunity to cheer on chariot races.  The children also learnt about Roman armour including which parts of the weaponry were most valuable to a Roman soldier, how to march and how to form the 'testudo' or fighting formation.  The final activities involved Emperor Leo looking on as gladiator 'fights' were performed for his entertainment.  

Thursday 23rd February 2023

We've been talking in our History lessons about the Roman empire.  Before half term, we played a game to demonstrate that building an empire can be costly.  We appointed Roman emperors and advisors to help decide whether they should invade or trade with a neighbouring country.  We then looked at the reasons for the Roman invasion of Britain.  This week we have been looking at the chronology of the Roman rule in Britain and discussed how there were times when the Romans increasing power was obvious and times when people rebelled or Romans had to retreat.  We plotted this on a simple graph. 

Friday 10th February 2023

Today we were combining our Maths topic on measure with our Science lesson on skeletons asking the question, 'Do people with a taller skeleton jump the furthest?'

Each class had some interesting results, with some taller children jumping further but also some shorter children doing the same.  We talked about possible reasons for this.  We also ensured we made it a fair test.

Wednesday 8th February 2023

As part of our PSHE curriculum, we were looking today at how our actions and behaviour can affect others, either positively or negatively.  We demonstrated this by creating a class spiderweb, using the analogy of the vibrations made by a spider's prey to imitate how one thing can have an impact on other people.

Tuesday 7th February 2023

Today in our Computing lessons we were discussing operating systems and the different web browsers which are available on them.  For instance, some children knew that the web browser, 'Safari' is associated with Apple's Mac operating systems.  We then used different browsers to research information on websites linked to our Science topic.  Children used Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge today but also discussed some of the other well-known web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. 

Thursday 2nd February 2023

In Year 3 this week, we have been looking at length and measure.  Today, the children were asked which would be the best unit of measure for measuring the length of the playground.  Some children were asked to measure it in millimetres, some in centimetres and some in metres.  You can imagine which children were less happy about their task, hahaha!

Thursday 26th January 2023

As part of our Year 3 PSHE curriculum we have been looking at the overarching theme of 'What makes a community?'  This has included looking at communities we may belong to and the diversity of people within those communities.  This week, we had a discussion around a selection of photos, asking the children to separate them on criteria of their choosing.  They came up with a variety of ways to do this including: age, gender, whether they were wearing headwear, skin colour, whether they were wearing glasses or not, hair colour and so on.  We then discussed how despite some of these differences and the unique qualities we possess, there are things we all have in common. 

Monday 16th January 2023

Year 3 had a great trip to the Belfairs Methodist Church. Rev Clifford and Mike made us feel very welcome. They gave a great presentation about some of the history of the church and showed us some of their wonderful artefacts. We were then allowed to look around the church freely to have a close look at the items. Sofia was really pleased to find her name displayed on one of the Baptism sheets. Charlie and his mum stood on the altar and became TV stars! As we were leaving, we were all surprised with a goodie bag for each child! It was a great way to end our RE unit 'What does it mean to be a Christian in Britain today?'

Tell your grown-ups what your favourite part of the trip was. What can you tell them about some of the artefacts seen in the photographs? 

Friday 16th December 2022

In Year 3, as part of our DT curriculum, we have been making robots.  During the process, the children planned their design, annotating their sketches with what they would use for the various parts of the robot.  Children then brought their own materials in from home and then spent two days building and evaluating their final product.  They had a great time and we had some good discussions about possible improvements for the future, such as other fastening and joining techniques we could use if we were to do it again.  The children were honest about their challenges but overcame them with great resilience.

Friday 9th December 2022

This week in Maths we have been looking at multiples.  We recapped using numbers in the 2, 5 and 10 times table (which children are expected to know by the end of Year 2) and then applied our understanding to sort multiples of the 3, 4 and 8 times table.  We discussed common multiples too - whole numbers which appear in more than one times table.

Tuesday 29th November 2022

Today, we stepped into the enchanted land of Narnia and tasted Turkish Delight sweets from the Snow Queen herself!

As well as trying Turkish Delight, the children also did 'Conscience Alley' where they got to play Edmund.   Edmund walked along the 'alley' and other children made remarks linked to what his conscience might say regarding the White Witch and whether or not he should return to Narnia with his brother and sisters. 

Friday 18th November 2022

We have been looking at forces in Science and this week we were investigating friction.  We were testing different ramp surfaces and how high they had to be before the car rolled to the bottom.  We talked about having to keep certain factors the same for it to be a fair test such as: using the same car, starting the car on the same position on the ramp and so on.   We discovered the surfaces which were bumpy or rough created more friction and therefore the height of the ramp needed to be higher before the car would roll down. 

Thursday 3rd November 2022

Continuing our look at Stone Age monuments, in Art today the children were creating Stonehenge using a range of materials . These included: charcoal, chalk pastels, oil pastels, sketching pencils and colouring pencils.  

Wednesday 2nd November 2022

As part of our curriculum coverage of The Stone Age, today we were looking at the significance of monuments (as they are one of the ways, without written documents, that we are able to learn about that prehistoric time).  We talked about long barrows, henges and stone circles and more specifically about Stonehenge which we'll learn more about tomorrow.  The children were then tasked with attempting to build the more famous sarsen stone circle of Stonehenge.  They did pretty well didn't they?

Friday 21st October 2022

This afternoon in Science, we were testing the permeability and hardness of different metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous rocks.  We discovered that the sedimentary rocks crumbled when we applied pressure with sandpaper.  They were also the most permeable of the rocks. 

Wednesday 19th October 2022

Year 3 were teleported to the Stone Age period this week, using now>press>play (an immersive audio resource), and had quite the adventure hunting woolly mammoths and cave painting!

Tuesday 11th October 2022

In preparation for writing an instruction text later this week, today the children followed a recipe to make a chocolate cake.  We talked about hygiene, weighing our ingredients, following the steps in order and children were able to help with some of the process.  They even had a sneaky peak behind the scenes in the school kitchen.  Getting to taste the end product may have been the highlight!

Monday 10th October 2022

Year 3 have been thinking about the question: What does it mean to be a Christian in Britain today?

We were looking at some quotes from the Bible and the children chose whether to work on their own, with a partner or in a small group to freeze-frame one of the quotes.

Can you work out from the photographs which quote the children are showing?

These are the quotes:

And don’t forget to do Good and share with those in need. Hebrews 13:6

Jesus said, ‘Whenever you eat bread and drink wine, remember me.’ 1 Corinthians 11:26

I will sing to the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Psalm 104:33

Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1

Which quote/s weren't used? How would you show what is happening in a freeze-frame?

Wednesday 5th October 2022

We had lots of fun giving each other instructions on how to make a strawberry milkshake today!

Thursday 29th September 2022

As part of our PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic) curriculum, we have been learning about people who keep us safe, this afternoon we were visited by an aviation firefighter who brought in a number of pieces of equipment, shared a bit about the job and answered questions the children had.  They were also able to try on some of the equipment.  The children thoroughly enjoyed it. 

We also made stewed fruit as that's what the Stone Age people would have eaten. We heated mixed berries and honey on the hob and enjoyed it once it had cooled down. It was really tasty!

Wednesday 28th September 2022

Library sessions are always our favourite part of the week!

Friday 23rd September 2022

In Science this afternoon, we were introduced to sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks.  To make this a little more tangible we used sweets to act as pieces of 'sediment'.  We squeezed these together to make 'sedimentary rock' then applied more pressure and heat from our hands to make 'metamorphic rocks'.  Finally, we heated the sweets in the microwave (volcano) to make igneous rocks as the sticky mess cooled down.   We will be looking at this more in subsequent weeks.

Thursday 22nd September 2022

We've had lots of fun using natural resources to create cave paintings, just like the Stone Age people did. We gathered the resources and used them to create different techniques. Can you see what prehistoric beats we've drawn?

Tuesday 20th September 2022

Today in French we were practising different basic greetings.  We got to say a simple conversation with our Learning Partners or find other people in the room to speak with.  The French accents were very impressive!

Thursday 15th September 2022

We've had lots of fun this morning acting out the 'Wormy Spaghetti' chapter from Roald Dahl's book The Twits. Mrs Twit was her usual devious self and snuck an eyeball and a lizard into Mrs Twit's spaghetti. It gave us lots of gruesome ideas for our Extended Write today!

Friday 9th September 2022

In our History lessons, we have been asking lots of historical questions about the Stone Age. We used a toilet roll to show a timeline of historical events that we had previously learnt about and discussed where the Stone Age period would fit on the timeline. We all couldn't believe how long ago it was!