From Reading to Creating!
This week, Year 3 were inspired by our reading text all about Sophia, a young girl who won an art competition and had her painting displayed next to the famous artist L.S. Lowry!
Throughout the week, we explored the writer’s choices in the text and discussed how these choices help us, as readers, to picture the story and feel inspired.
One pupil in particular was so moved by Sophia’s story that he decided to recreate one of L.S. Lowry’s iconic “Matchstick Men” paintings. His artwork truly captures Lowry’s unique style and we all think he’s done an amazing job!
Well done for showing such creativity and enthusiasm and well done to all of Year 3 for another fantastic week of reading, discussion, and imagination!
Help at home: Ask your child to retell the news report.
Art – Stamping
This week, in art, we’ve been exploring printing and stamping. We used paints and a variety of found objects to experiment with shape, texture and pattern.
The children loved seeing how everyday items could make such interesting prints. There was lots of excitement (and a few colourful hands!) as we mixed colours and layered our designs.
Everyone showed great creativity and imagination!
Help at home by using some ‘found objects’ to create some art of your own. We’d love to see the results!
Science
Space
In our first lesson of our new topic – Space – children have been learning about each planet within our solar system. We watched this video to help us remember some key facts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHAqT4hXnMw
Children then made mnemonics to remember the order of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune). Here’s some of the mnemonics the children created:
My Very Excited Monkey Jumped Straight Up Nicely
Married Vultures Eat Melon Jam Stood Up Neatly – Lily and Valerie
Many Voted Everyone Must Jwalk Sideways Under Nigeria – Tommy
My Very Early Morning Just Sat Under Nappies – Leo S
My Very Eager Mum Just Sat Under Netting – Willow
My Vine Extremely Made Jam Sandwiches Upstairs Now – Christian
My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nachos – Teddy
Help at home – Can your child tell you any facts about the planets? What order are they from the sun? Find a creative way to display the planets.
Topic – carbon store fieldwork
We are really lucky here at St James’ as we have so much green space filled with trees. We have been learning that trees, shrubs, leaf litter and soil all store carbon, keep our planet cool and help to block out noise. Carbon, if released, has a negative effect on our environment and contributes to climate change. Therefore, looking after our green spaces is crucial for future generations.
This morning, Year 5 and 6 carried out fieldwork to work out how much carbon is stored inside the trees around our school grounds. Children gathered the equipment needed and headed off around our green spaces, including our wonderful forest school.
We ensured we always measured the girth of each tree 1.3 metres above the ground. This helped provide a good estimate of the dry weight of timber, and therefore the carbon, stored in the tree.
Here’s what some of our children (and adults) had to say:
Moving around through the trees was fantastic and it made me feel peaceful – Madeleine
I enjoyed exploring the boundaries of the school. I liked working outside in nature – Oliver.
I felt jovial and I enjoyed this type of learning – Willow
We went on adventures to find some thicker trees to measure – Jacob
I learned that there is more carbon dioxide in trees than I thought and I enjoyed being outside looking at the different trees – Kiara
I really enjoyed measuring the trees, it was a surprise that they were so wide – Leo S
My group measured the girth using string and next lesson we will work out the carbon stored – Emily G
It surprised me that the girth of the trees can be so thick. One tree was 220cm! – Chloe
It was wonderful seeing the children learning and enjoying themselves out in nature – Mr Kilner
The children conducted themselves beautifully, ensuring they stayed safe and followed instructions – Mr Freeman
Next lesson, we will calculate the carbon stored.
Help at home – talk to your child about the fieldwork they carried out. What did they do? Are there any trees in your garden or local green space that you could measure to work out the carbon stored?
Reading: It’s so important!
We hope that you’re enjoying reading your child’s library book with them. We call this a ‘love of reading’ book – to do just that, encourage a love of reading for your child! Reading to and with your child can have a huge positive impact on your child’s education.
This research is a powerful message of the impact you can have when reading to/with your child:
At school, your child reads a physical book four times a week – with a focus on teaching phonics skills. This is then sent home as an eBook. The purpose of the eBook at home is to celebrate your child’s success (in phonics skills). Your child should be able to read most of this book confidently and really feel like a reader.
We’ve chosen to use eBooks at home for many benefits. Allocating eBooks frees up about two hours of teacher or TA time changing books – now spent teaching reading!
Here’s some information on how to access eBooks but if you’re having any problems please speak to your child’s class teacher.
Happy reading!
Phonics stay and learn
It was great to see so many of you at our first Stay and Learn this week. We hope you enjoyed watching your child take part in some fantastic phonics learning! We’d love to hear your feedback.
There are 5 more Stay and Learns this year – find the dates here.
For those of you who were unable to attend, please find attached the PowerPoint shared at the meeting.
Class Novel with a special, spiky visitor!
This week, we took our reading outdoors for a very special Forest School reading session! We’ve reached the part of The Legend of Podkin One-Ear where Podkin (now with just one ear!) meets Brigid, the witch who lives deep in the woods and helps him while the Gorm are hunting for him.
It was the perfect setting to read this chapter, surrounded by trees, rustling leaves and the sounds of nature all around us. The forest made the story come alive and we could really imagine what it might have been like for Podkin hiding in the woods.
The children loved making connections between the book and their surroundings and many said it felt like they were inside the story!
We also had a special visitor. Do you recognise him?
Living and Learning: We Respect Others
This week in Year 3, we have been learning about protected characteristics and why they are so important. We linked our learning to the Equality Act 2010, which is a law that helps to keep everyone safe and treated fairly, no matter who they are.
We explored what stereotypes are (the assumptions people make about others), and we talked about discrimination (when someone is treated unfairly because of who they are). The children showed great maturity in discussing the difference between equality (treating everyone the same) and equity (making sure everyone has what they need to be successful, even if that looks different for each person).
We also thought carefully about what we should do if we ever see or hear something that is discriminatory. The children agreed it is important to speak up, tell a trusted adult and make sure that everyone feels safe and respected.
As part of our learning, we joined a special Protected Characteristics Zoom Call. The highlight was learning a fantastic chant together:
“Respect, include, be kind,
Protect the rights of mankind.”
Help at home: Ask your child and discuss, what would our country be like if we didn’t have protected characteristics?
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Our focus story over the past two 2 weeks has been ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen. The children have really enjoyed how engaging this story is, using repeated refrains throughout the book. We particularly enjoyed being able to join in with Michael Rosen himself re-telling the story.
Help at home: Enjoy reading ‘we’re going on a bear hunt’ at home and see what else you might find on your journey. What else could you see in the forest? What sounds might you hear?
Help at home – autumn leaves and conkers.
If you go on a walk this weekend, we’d really appreciate donations of dry leaves to help us with an art project next week. We also need some conkers and acorns to use in our maths learning – see how many you can find! Thank you for your support.
Have a happy and healthy weekend
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman, Mrs Linton, Mrs Cairnes and Mrs Small
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
We’ve had a great week this week using our focus book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury.
We listened for lots of different noises on our sound walk: we heard the dishwasher swishing, Mr Freeman and year 5 dancing to music, birds tweeting and the cars going past.
Our word of the week has been squelch the children have really enjoyed using this during their learning.
“I am squelching in the mud!”
Poetry Picnic
Each week we learn a new poem. We will recite this poem each day. By saying the poem out loud, we can focus on the sounds and rhythm of each word or line. We talk to the children about how this can help us become better readers. This week our poem was called Falling Apples
Here is the tree with its leaves so green.
Here are the apples that hang between.
When the wind blows, the apples will fall.
And this is the basket to catch them all.
Phonics
This week, we have learnt the phonemes (the sounds a letter makes) ck, e, u, r. We’ve also learnt a new tricky word; I.
During our phonics learning, we listened carefully to the initial sound in a word and sorted objects by the sounds they begin with.
Help at home: Look out for a ‘learn at home’ sheet which recaps the phonics learning from the week. Please look at this with your child and complete the activities.
Maths
This week we’ve learnt that numbers can be composed of ones. We joined in with the STEM sentence “one and one and one make three” and made collections of three things for the three bears.
Have a happy and healthy weekend
Mrs. Kendrew, Mrs. Rippon, Miss. Feldman, Mrs Linton, Mrs Cairnes and Mrs Small