Author: Miss Gledhill

Working Scientifically: How Much Liquid Can A Nappy Absorb?

 This week in our science lesson, we continued asking scientific questions. We were presented with a question, “How much water can a nappy hold?” We thought about how we could make this more scientific and came up with, “How much liquid can a nappy absorb?”

We made predictions first. In groups, we then started our experiment. First, we felt and weighed the nappy. It was only 19g and felt very light!

We put red food colouring into the water to make it clearer to see the liquid being absorbed into the nappy.

We then started pouring 100ml of water on the nappy. We continued feel the weight of the nappy and found out that it got heavier as we increased the amount of water.

Although no liquid came through the nappy, after we had poured 1000 ml (or 1 litre) onto water, it started to sit on the top of the nappy. We decided it was no longer absorbing the water.

Following this, we weighed the nappy again; it was 763g. We couldn’t  believe how much liquid a nappy can actually absorb!

Help at home by asking your child about our experiment. Can they tell you why a nappy can absorb so much liquid?

What Are Fractions?

Our brand new topic in Maths is all about fractions! We recapped what fractions are and we know they are part of the whole. So if there are 13 children in Year 3, one of them is one part of the whole.

We looked at how fractions are written and thought about what the numerator and the denominator could be. The children had a go at splitting a whole into equal parts using playdough and wrote out their fractions.

After, we started to compare unit fractions. We know that the numerator will always be 1. To help us compare unit fractions, we watched Miss Gledhill create a fractions wall for our classroom.

We looked at the size of each unit fraction. The children were able to recognise that the more equal parts the whole is split into, the smaller the part. Therefore, if someone loved chocolate they would certainly choose one quarter of a bar over one fifth!

Help at home by helping your child find equal parts. This could be of an object or a drawing. If they were to make a unit fraction, what would the numerator and denominator look like?

Working Scientifically… and investigating nappies!

This half term, we will be working scientifically using our 5 enquiry types.

This week, we observed nappies to help us with our investigation. We thought about the properties of a nappy and what it’s function is. The children had some great ideas and many recognised a nappy need to be soft to protect the skin, stretchy and it needs to absorb liquid.

 

Check out the key vocabulary for our new topic and help at home by discussing these words with your child.

Reading Role Models!

On Friday, we enjoyed a visit to the reception children for some shared reading. Year 3 were fantastic role models for the younger children.

Living and Learning: I know I should treat others respectfully when online

Next week, our Living and Learning will be based around internet safety. To start this off, Dave from D:Side came to talk to us about staying safe online. We had a look at  some of the games we have heard of, and the symbols on the games that mean there is something inappropriate for our age.

We thought about who we shouldn’t and shouldn’t speak to online. Dave taught us that people might not always be to they claim online. It’s fine for us to talk to our friends and family member who we already know.  However, it’s not safe to accept requests from people we don’t know.

Years  3 and 4 were great at recognising which private information we should never give out online. To stay safe, we should make up a username rather than using our real one.

We were given some different scenarios of photographs and thought about if it is safe to post online. We think it’s safe to post photographs of a new pet, but it’s not appropriate to share photographs that give away out personal information. This includes anything that shows who we are and where we live. Aubrey, sensibly suggested that if we want to share photos of our friends we need to ask their consent.

We got to be detectives and guess the password based on clues about what people like.

Why not as your child what they enjoyed about our internet safety talk? Can they remember what we need to do to create a strong password?