Year 3 Spring 2023-24
Science: Eatwell Plate
In Science, we are learning about the Eatwell Plate and the importance of a healthy, balanced diet. We were given a variety of different foods and had to place them on the correct section of the plate. We also learnt about the word 'nutrients' and which foods provide different types of nutrients our bodies need.
PSHE: Relaxation and Stretches
In this unit of PSHE, we are learning about what it means to be healthy. Today, we focused on how stretching can make us feel relaxed. We completed a Star Wars cosmic yoga session, and then Mrs McMeiken taught us some animal stretches we can do at home such as, cat pose; tortoise stretch; giraffe stretch; and flamingo stretch. After that, we reminded ourselves of some other ways of relaxing, such as laughter.
Science: Investigation
In Science, we have been learning about the human skeleton and the scientific names for some of the bones. We completed an investigation to find out if the length of someone's femur effects how far they can jump. We each measured our femur, and then worked in groups, taking turns to complete a standing long jump before measuring the distance we jumped. We then completed a results table and analysed our findings. We found out that it made no difference, and some children with the shortest femurs jumped further than those with the longest femurs.
World Book Day
Year 3 had a fantastic time on World Book Day and completed lots of wonderful activities to enrich our love of reading. We took part in a live lesson all about building a reading area, and then our class book shelf monitors took inspiration from this and redesigned the book shelves in our class. We also decided as a class how we would like our reading area to look. Next, we took part in a quiz, organised by school council, where we had to guess which teacher was which by reading some facts about them from their autobiography. This was really fun and Isla was the overall winner as she guessed the most correctly! We then wrote our own autobiographies and spent some time guessing who was who. We have decided we would like to display these in our reading area. Finally, we designed book gift cards for a national competition. And, I think you will agree, we all looked amazing in our costumes!
British Science Week 2024
To celebrate British Science Week 2024, Year 3 completed an investigation linked to this year's theme of 'time'. We created our own pendulums! We investigated how changing the length of the string affected how long the pendulum swung. We found out that the longer the string, the more it swung and the longer it took to come to a stop. We decided this was due to a range of factors including air resistance and momentum. Some of us then investigated if adding different sizes of card to our pendulum affected its movement. We found out the bigger the piece of card, the less the pendulum moved and the quicker it came to a stop.
Science: What are saturated fats?
We have been learning about the effects fats can have on our bodies, specifically bad fats known as 'saturated fats'. We completed an activity where we ordered a range of foods that have saturated fats, and discussed which had the most/least. We found out butter had the highest level, and fruit the least.
Safer Internet Day
To celebrate Safer Internet Day, Year 3 have been thinking about this year’s theme: Inspiring change? Making a difference, managing influence and navigating change online. We investigated how technology has changed through time. We looked at the themes education, gaming, watches, phones, and music. We discussed what these areas of technology once looked like, and what they look like now. We hadn’t even seen or heard of some of the technology, e.g. the Walkman and the turntable! We then thought about what we want this technology to look like in 20 years, and what it will be able to do now that it couldn’t do before in order to make our lives better.
As well as this, we looked at internet safety and how to create a positive digital footprint. This is a trail of information you leave behind when using apps or websites. Every time you visit a website, download an app or play a game online, a tiny bit of information about you is saved. This makes up your digital footprint. We discussed cookies and their role in our digital footprint, and that our digital footprint reflects who you are. We then talked about how to create a positive digital footprint, and decided to use a search engine to look for some of our names to see if we had left a digital footprint out there; luckily, we haven’t! We then each completed our own digital footprint, adding to it all the ways we have used the internet in the last 7 days, including apps or online games we have played on.
Science - What are the parts and functions of a plant?
Our new unit of Science is Plants. We spent our first lesson looking at the parts of a plant, and what each part's job is. We created our own flipbooks to remind us, and then played a matching game with our partner to practise which functions match which part.
Literacy - Sharing our writing
In Literacy, we have been writing non-chronological reports about dragons, based around the text 'Dragon World' by Tamara Macfarlane. We wrote our finished reports in the form of a leaflet, and decided to share these with Y2. They visited our classroom and we did some shared reading, teaching them all about the dragons we have created!
Wellbeing Wednesday
Year 3 had a great time on Wellbeing Wednesday. We completed some activities to promote relaxation and positive mental health such as mindfulness colouring, listening to calming music, and playing games such as 'heads down, thumbs up'. We also did some dancing with Gemma which was lots of fun and great for our mood. It was a brilliant day and great for our wellbeing!
Science: Animal Skeletons
In Science, we have been learning about the 3 different types of skeletons animals have: an endoskeleton, an exoskeleton, and a hydrostatic skeleton. We also looked at some animal x rays and decided whether particular animals were vertebrates or invertebrates.
Literacy: What are the features of a non-chronological report?
Our new unit of Literacy is all about information texts and we are going to be writing a non-chronological report. We were given a non-chronological report to read alongside our partner. Once we had discussed the features of a non-chronological report as a class, we had to work with our partner to try and identify the features in the text we had been given. We then used our findings to help us write our own success criteria showing 9 features we must include when we write our own non-chronological report about dragons.
Art - Sculptures
In Art, Year 3 have been designing and building sculptures using found materials. These sculptures were designed for an area of our school, e.g. the yard, entrance, hall. We did an excellent job and supported each other during the making process. You can see some of our finished ideas here!
Poet Study - Joseph Coelho
In Literacy, we have begun a poet study about the writer and poet Joseph Coelho. In our first lesson, we explored some of his poems and learnt about what inspired him to become a writer. We then worked in pairs to write a short biography about him.
Literacy - Drama
In Literacy, we have been reading the story 'Cinnamon' by Neil Gaiman. Today, we have been focusing on identifying the key events in the story. We re-read the story, picked out the main events, and then worked in small groups to create a freeze frame for these events.
