Year 3 Summer 2023-24
A Visit from Newcastle University
Year 3 had a visit from the Science team at Newcastle University this week. They discussed what a scientist is, what jobs you can do within Science, and showed us a range of experiments which demonstrated some of the work carried out by the people who do these jobs. We really enjoyed it, and learnt a lot!
Literacy - Explanation Texts
Year 3 are learning about explanation texts in Literacy this half term. At the end of the unit, we will be writing our own explanation text so to help us with this, we explored the structure of explanation texts by ordering the steps.
Literacy - Question and Answer Poems
In groups, Year 3 spent some time reading a selection of question and answer poems. They discussed in their groups what the poems were about, which poems they liked and disliked, and if there were any poetic devices they could identify e.g. rhyme, stanzas (regular or irregular), alliteration etc. They were also able to identify that all of these poems include questions which are then answered. When we came back together as a class, we started to make some simple comparisons, looking for similarities and differences between the poems, whether it was the theme/context, the presentation or poetic devices.
French: Ordering an Ice-Cream
In French this half term, we have been learning about how to say the flavours of ice-creams, how to order an ice-cream in a cone or a pot, and how to say 'please' and 'thank you'. We put everything we had learned into practice this lesson by completing a speaking exercise in pairs. One person acted as the ice-cream seller, and the other as the person buying an ice-cream. We planned out our conversation, practised, and then performed our conversation to our friends. We did an excellent job and our French accents were wonderful!
Sports Afternoon
Year 3 were pleased to have the chance to try out some of our sports activities on the playground today. We enjoyed competing in the vortex throw, skipping race, standing long jump and egg and spoon race. We really enjoyed the activities. Maple were our overall champions of KS2.
Year 3 Celebration!
Year 3 celebrated winning the stepper challenge with an afternoon of sports activities on the field. We played football as well as some other fun throwing and catching games. Afterwards, we chopped some delicious fruits and enjoyed a fruit salad. Well done, Year 3!
RE: Celebrating the festival of Purim
Today, we have been learning about another Jewish festival – Purim. This is a festival which celebrates a time when Jews in Persia escaped a plot to harm them. In 400 BC, Haman, the Persian King’s advisor, plotted to kill all the Persian Jews. To choose a day for the killings, he drew lots (which means that he picked a day by chance). But the Persian queen, a Jewish woman named Esther, convinced the king to stop Haman. This story is told in the Book of Esther in the Bible. On Purim, Jews go to a synagogue and listen to a reading of the Book of Esther. Afterwards, family and friends have a festive meal. People exchange gifts of food and give to the poor. They also eat pastries called hamantaschen, which means “Haman’s pockets.” The pastries are supposed to resemble Haman’s three-cornered hat. The celebration often includes acting out the story and playing games. To support with our learning and understanding of the story, we acted it out and created freeze frames of key scenes. You can see some examples of these below.
DT - Focus Group and Peer Feedback
In DT, Year 3 have been designing their own piece of wearable technology. We followed design criteria as follows: for children; to make someone visible in the dark; must be colourful; and must use computer aided design. Once we had completed all of the elements of the specification, we shared our designs with our friends who gave use positive and constructive feedback in relation to the design criteria. We then discussed and fed back in the form of a focus group.
Science - Making Maze Games
In Science, we have been learning about how magnets work. To put some of our new knowledge into practise, we discussed how magnets are used in everyday life, for example as part of a game. We then split into groups, and designed and made our own maze games. To play the game, we put a paper clip in the maze and used our magnet, underneath the board, to guide the paper clip through the maze. We did a great job and had lots of fun playing our games!
PSHE: Feelings about Money
This lesson, we have been thinking about the way money can impact our feelings and emotions. We began by completing an exercise to make us think about how we would feel in certain scenarios. Mrs McMeiken read scenarios aloud, and we had to move to the emotion we would feel. We also had to explain why we might feel that way. After that, we worked in pairs and acted out a scenario where someone had to make a choice relating to money, e.g. they had to choose between two items in a shop as they only had enough money for one. Within our performance, we had to make clear our feelings and explain how we came to the decision of what to buy. We learnt overall that money can impact people in different ways, and often cause lead us to have to make difficult and uncomfortable decisions.
DT: Making a mock-up
In DT this half term, Year 3 are learning all about seasonal foods. We are going to be making vegetable pastry tarts using seasonal ingredients, and to help with this, we have created a mock up of what our tart will look like. We were given a range of seasonal vegetables to choose from including red onion, spring onion, carrots, and spinach. We could also choose an extra ingredient such as cheese, pesto, or tomato puree. As part of our design brief, we also had to consider the way our ingredients would look on the plate so ensure it was appealing, and included vegetables of all colours to ensure we had nutrients found in different colours of food!
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Science: Friction Investigation
This term in Science, we are learning about forces. In today's lesson, we have been investigating the effect friction has on a car's tyres. To carry out this investigation, we pushed a toy car across 4 different surfaces to see which one created the most friction and which created the least. We found out the grass had the most friction and decided this was because of its texture and unevenness. We also found out that the hall floor had the least friction because it is made of wood, and is a smooth, shiny surface.
RE - What did Jesus look like?
In RE, we have been looking at different representations of Jesus and discussing why representations may vary. We were given a range of images of Jesus and asked to copy the one we believe to be the best representation. We then had to explain why we thought this, and what we personally believe he looked like.
Music - Learning to play the recorder
Over the spring term, Year 3 have been learning how to play the recorder in Music. We began by learning the note ‘B’ and followed a simple tune called ‘Let’s bake cakes’ and another called, ‘Playing football’. Once we had mastered this, we moved on to the note A and learnt a song called, ‘Tired little Daisy’. We also learnt how to use our breath effectively when there is a rest in the music. The final note we learnt was ‘g’ and now we had 3 notes, we were able to play a proper tune. We learnt how to play ‘Mary had a little Lamb’ over a few lessons, building up slowly each week until we had perfected it; some of us could even play without looking at the notes! Finally, we were feeling confident to perform so we asked Mrs Watkins to come and watch us, before we performed to Year 4. We did a fantastic job, and some of us even performed solo.
Maths: 3D Shapes
In Maths, we have been looking at shape. We have been focusing on how to recognise and describe 3D shapes. To help us with this, we were given nets of 3D shapes to build. We discussed how many edges, vertices, and faces each shape had, and used this information to identify which 3D shape we had been given. It took a lot of perseverance, but we made some fantastic models!
DT: Making seasonal pastry tarts
Year 3 have been making seasonal pastry tarts in DT! We chopped our vegetables, spread tomato puree or pesto on the base of our puff pastry, and then added cheese or basil. Some of us demonstrated fantastic chopping skills - I think we might have some future chefs in our class! We then baked them in the oven before enjoying them once they had cooled down. They were absolutely delicious!
