Year 3 - Ms Mitchell

We are doing a DT topic on Juggling balls, and after watching someone juggle and reading our design brief, we created our designs for our own juggling balls. This week, we made decisions on what sort of tie-dye we wanted - spots or stripes! We worked hard to make sure our elastic bands were tight enough so that Ms  Mitchell could take them home and dye them! We had to pick if we wanted them yellow or orange. Lots of people decided on one of each colour! 

Y3 are loving our Parhways to Write book, Winter’s Child by Angela McAllister. We have done lots of work on it, and yesterday created a role on the wall for the unusual boy who has appeared in the snow.

In y3 we have had our first Jigsaw PSHE lesson. Jino and Paws met the class and we decided the calm chime made a lovely sound! We all had a wonderful lesson and found things we had in common with other people and also shared things we were proud of.

We were learning about the UK and finding places on the map. We identified cities from their positions and looked at where we lived! We also spent a few minutes exploring the atlases as it was the first time we'd seen them! We were very interested in the maps of all sorts of places and also liked the flags at the back! 

In our Art lesson this week, we looked at the sculptures of Giacometti and made figures out of pipe cleaners and dressed them using snazzy paper! 

In History we have been learning about the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. We learnt about the prehistoric site, Stonehenge and made our own out of cardboard! What do you think?

In Art this week, we learnt about Maquettes - cardboard models. We created our own maquettes after looking at the Terracotta Army and Antony Gormley's Field for the British Isles sculpture. We made our own armies of our maquettes on our tables. 

This week in our Science lesson, we have been learning about the human skeleton. We tried to draw our own bones on a body, and then as groups we made a skeleton! We even learnt the scientific names for the bones! 

In Year 3 we've been doing an Art topic about Bodies! We made paper clothes, after watching a fashion show online and learning about Vivienne Westwood. We even had our own fashion show! 

In Year 3 we are learning about the Stone Age. In our lesson we thought about what was important and discussed how the skins of animals they killed were used for shelter and clothing. We created our own stone age people for our wall! 

Our final week of Forest School dawned wet... and then kept on being wet!! But that didn't stop us having fun! The rain did stop, allowing smores to be created, which were a VERY big hit! That and the wet, recently cut grass, made quite a mess! 

A huge thank you to Lisa who has looked after us all so well over the last 6 weeks! 

Week 5 of Forest School was so lovely! We had gorgeous crafts, a fence added to the den and a show to finish off the afternoon! Would have been helpful if the weather had been able to make up its mind - it was cold, then warm, then drizzly, then sunny! We've had such fun, and will be sad next week when we have our very last day! 

We had such a lovely day for our fourth week of Forest School! Everyone made sure they drank plenty, and loved the fact their wet clothes dried after slides down the slippy slide! We also had chance to have a go at archery! There are some very good shots in our class! 

Today in Science we have learnt about Marie Curie and how she invented x-rays. We played Bone Bingo and talked about how x-rays made treating injuries better and safe. We made our own x-rays with art straws!

Week 3 of Forest School and the dry weather was a big hit! Apologies to anyone whose child came home with wet socks, or muddy socks, much fun was had sliding down the tarpaulin, with water involved! Moral of the story - bring spare socks!!

Forest School Week 2! Much improved weather, proper fire and boiling the kettle and SO much fun and learning! 

Our very first Forest School session was SUCH good fun! 

On art day, Y3 made colourful pictures and patterns using wool and sticky-back plastic.

Meet the newest member of Year 3, Sid the skeleton!

Year 3 have started the year well, and here we are on the very first day in our fabulous outdoor classroom!

In D&T we have been learning about how tomatoes grow and have even been growing some in class! In class, we made tomato salsa and ate them with nachos!

In our English at the moment we are learning about instructions. Our model text, linked to the story, KrindleKrax by Philip Ridley, How to Tame a Giant Lizard, is super fun! Have a look at the text here and see if you can work out the text map below!

In our British Artists topic in Art we have been creating our own interpretation of a Gainsborough landscape. We all created a section and put it back together to create the whole picture. 

In our Science topic this half term we have been finding out all about plants and how they grow. We conducted an experiment to look at how plants grew without certain things. 

This is a picture of our test plants after an amount of time with, or without, certain things. 
From left to right:

We recently enjoyed World Book Day, and spent the day doing all sorts of things about books! 
Here are some posters we created about our favourite books! 
We also read and did work around the beautiful book, The Fire Fox by Alexandra Page. We created our own Northern Lights chalk pictures, which were so lovely we took them home... and forgot to take photos! 

It was a wonderful, relaxed and fun day, filled with books, book talk and a lot of fun! 
We love World Book Day! 

We are loving learning about Rainforests in our Geography topic. We have found out all about where they are and what the climate is like, and also about the animals that live there. 

We have started our new DT topic, Surprise Boxes, and have been learning about and trying out pneumatics using syringes and tubing.

Our new text in our English lessons is based on the beautiful book, Kaya's Heart Song, by Diwa Tharan Sanders, and is called Kaya's Journey. You can read it here and see if you can work out how the text map below relates! Our children really like text maps, as they help the story to stick in their heads! 

We had SUCH a good day at the Museum of Liverpool! We saw SO many amazing things, and the Egyptian exhibition was so interesting after we had been learning about Ancient Egypt! 

This week we've been testing the strength of different magnets by seeing how many paperclips they could hold. The paper clips weren't fastened together, they were being held together by the power of the magnet! Some held loads!

We are loving our Art topic on Insects at the moment! Just look at all the work we've been doing! 

Our new text type in English is recount. Our model text is called My Trip to Heaton Park, you can read it here. This is the text map that goes with it. We're going to be doing a shared write about our swimming lessons and an independant write about our upcoming Liverpool Museum trip! 

This half term we're super busy, with swimming every day for 4 weeks and lots of interesting learning in all of our topic lessons! We're learning about  Ancient Egypt in History and Forces in Science. 

In English at the moment, we're reading, exploring and then writing a finding tale, about a character who finds something. This is the text map for our text, Ivan and the Key, that's based on Ice Palace by Robert Swindells. You can read it here. 

We are loving our new art topic, which is all about insects! We have been making detailed drawings of a fly. Do you like them?

This week, Year 3 have started their block of swimming lessons, going every morning for 4 weeks. 
We are all having such a good time and the staff are super impressed at our bravey and hard work! We are swimming super stars!

We have been investigating the permeability of different types of soil - that means, how quickly water can travel through it. We were comparing sandy soil and compost. 

Our new Science topic is all about rocks! We're finding out all about different types of rocks, how they're formed, what they're like and how to identify them. We're also looking forward to finding out all about fossils, how they're formed and where to find them. 

In Year 3 we have been learning and enjoying a story called Plop and the Dark, based on the story, The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. This is our text map of the story, and you can click here to read it. Why not ask your child what they like about the story, and what they're writing their story about. We have some very good ideas of things you could be scared of! 

Our new Geography topic is all about the UK! We're going to be learning about the different countries of the UK, their capital cities, main rivers, areas of high ground and lots of other super interesting things! We'd love to talk to you about our learning. 

Year 3 ended our bodies topic by making 3D models of ourselves using foil. They make a lovely display outside our classroom! 

In Year 3, our art topic is Bodies! Last week we made maquettes - models of ourselves. 

Year 3 loved starting the new school year with a day full of bouncing! Much fun was had by all! 

This week we have started to learn our new text, which is a shortened version of The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. If you would like to read it, click here! 

This is our text map, which the children find really helpful to help them to remember the text. Maybe you could try learning it too!

This afternoon we learnt about Howard Hodgkin, a British artist who creates abstract art. We created our own abstract art using warm colours, painted onto paper and cut into strips. Mrs Wilkinson says this isn't the finished display yet, but we wanted to show you how amazing our art work looks as soon as we could! 

Year 3 have been learning to sing songs from countries in Africa this term in music. Today, they composed a rhythm with a partner to play along with a song called Funga Alafia.

Y3 are busy learning our new text How to Tame a Giant Lizard! It's very informative! 

This is our text map of the text - ignore the slightly dodgy thumbs up in the Extra Information! 

Click here if you'd like to read the text. 

We have a fab new model text in class called Quite an Adventure! You can read it here. We've started to learn it, with the help of our text map, which is shown below. Soon, we'll be writing our own stories about conquering a monster, just like in Quite an Adventure! 

We've been SO busy trying to get our Surprise Boxes finished before Easter! Have you got one at home now? Did you like the surprise?

Y3 are learning a very interesting information text about trees! This is the text map that accompanies it! Can you work out what it says? Click here if you'd like to know what it actually says! Y3 children will be bringing home a copy of the text and text map this afternoon to practise at home! 

In maths today we were working with practical equipment to understand mulitplication. We had challenges to complete in pairs and chose what we wanted to use to help us. Some of us used partitioning too! 

Y3 have loved World Book Day and particularly the Book Tasting, where we had yummy cakes and looked at 10 new books Mrs WIlkinson had chosen for our class. It was great to see them and find out what they were like, and they very quickly got claimed by children wanting to read them!

We have been learning our new text, Kaya’s Journey, this week. This is our new text map- see if your child can tell you the story!

We have been creating insect sculptures this week, as the end point of our Art topic, Insects. Painting is ongoing, pictures will follow and insects will make their way home!

Y3 are loving our practical activities this week, building a road to the moon! We’ve read What We’ll Build by Oliver Jeffers and the children are coming up with some amazingly creative solutions!

And they're done! Party day and completed juggling balls, ready to go home! 

We're now decorating our tie-dyed socks! Mrs Wilkinson managed to dye them without staining herself or her kitchen!! We're using fabric pens to put our designs on! 

Y3 are enjoying some free choice on the laptops and iPads this afternoon! We’ve had Bug Club, TTRock Stars, Zumos and Purple Mash logins! All very creative! For login details, email year3@stpaulsbury.co.uk and make sure you tell me your child’s name!

We’re making juggling balls in Y3! We’ve been getting our socks ready for tie-dying. We decided what filling we’d like our balls to have from a choice of differernt fillings. We chose different ways to elastic band our socks and we can’t wait for them be brightly coloured and patterned!