What’s the time?
This week, Year 3 have been learning how to tell the time on an analogue clock.
We recapped o’clock and half past and familiarised ourselves with the minute and hour hands.
After this, we looked at telling the time past the hour and to the next hour.
We notice that the numbers on the clock represent 5 minutes, so knowing our 5 times tables is very important.
We also tried to solve some words problems such as:
Year 3 leave for their trip at five past 9 and arrived at half past 9.
How long does it take them to travel there?
Help at home:
Use this virtual analogue clock with your child and ask them to make different times looking carefully at the hands.
Interactive clock | analog clock | digital | movable | teaching clock | visnos
We made amazing magnet games!
To finish our forces and magnets topic, Years 3 and 4 created some games using magnetic force.
Their favourite was the fishing game where they put some magnetic tape onto a rod and a paperclip inside a fish. They explained they knew that the tape would be attracted to the paper clip, so we could catch some fish!
As we did such a great job, we went and showed Reception our work.
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Help at home: Can your child explain how they created their game? Can they explain what we mean by magnets and how they attract and repel?
Improving our knowledge of world religions
To start this week’s R.E lesson, we recapped what we already knew about some of the world’s major religions.
We also learnt new facts about religions that may have been less familiar to us.
Each week, we will keep looking at these facts and building on our learning of other faiths.
Help at home: Ask your child what facts they can remember about some world religions. Can they name the places of worship and holy books?
Meeting an author
Tom Palmer virtual visit
Today, the children had a virtual visit from Tom Palmer (and his dog Finn) who is an author that writes children’s books.
Tom began by talking about how he got into writing…
As a child, Tom didn’t enjoy reading, didn’t think he was any good at it and didn’t like it until his mum tricked him into it by using football! He began to read comics and newspapers about football and this helped him practise his reading. Tom found that the more he read, the more he enjoyed it!
His love for reading then inspired him to become an author and his ideas for different books come mainly from football, animals and war. “Write about what you love,” said Tom.
Question time!
Some of the children had the opportunity to ask Tom a question such as;
How long does it take for you to write a book?
It depends! Some books take 6 weeks to write and some take 6 months… it depends what I’m writing about and how long the book is.
What gave you inspiration for ‘Arctic Star’?
My wife used to work on HMS Belfast so her stories about the ship inspired me to write about a warship.
Why have you set some of your stories in Leeds?
I set some of my stories in Leeds because I’m from Leeds! Writing about somewhere that I know makes it easier as I can add more detail to my stories.
Have you travelled to the places you have written about?
Yes, I have been inspired by the different countries I have visited. However, travelling around the world is very expensive!
Help at home by researching Tom Palmer’s website. Find out more about the author and explore some of his fantastic books. https://tompalmer.co.uk/
Finding Fractions Of Amounts
Year 3 have been using counters to find fractions of numbers.
Year 3 and 4 went down to the woods today…
This week, along with Born of the Forest, Year 3 and 4 ventured out to a classroom with no walls! Check out how we got on exploring, investigating and learning all about St James’ Woodland.
Be sure to scroll through our time outdoors and chat to your child about it – what did they think of their time outdoors? Did they learn anything new? What was the best bit of their session?
Each Friday, your child will be spending 90 mins in the woodland, whatever the weather – please ensure they bring appropriate clothing.
Carnival Music Day
We were so excited to be able to meet Dave who came to do a workshop with us around our new history topic, carnivals!
We started by doing some call and response using clapping. We learnt we had to have group cohesion to ensure we were all clapping at the same time and could really feel the rhythm we were creating by using our bodies.
Dave taught us about the instruments used by the Yoruba tribe in West Africa. This tribe were invaded by European countries and transported as slaves to the Caribbean. This was known as the Transatlantic Slave Trade. We will be learning more about this in the upcoming weeks.
The Drums were hollow so the sound can vibrate and get out of the bottom. Tight rope is used to hold the top in place which is made from goat skin.
We learnt the best way to hit a drum so we did not hurt ourselves.
After splitting into four groups, we used our drums in different ways to create a thunder storm.
We then looked at some serdo drums which were much larger and much deeper.
In the afternoon, we created a performance for the whole school using different instruments. Check out our performance here.
City Artwork
Check out our beautiful artwork we produced this week with Mrs Bald.
Year 3 listened to Rhapsody In Blue by George Gershwin and imagined a bustling city. They then drew a busy city. 
When they showed me I was blown away and wanted to share all of it!
Listen to Rapsody In Blue again. Do you think it sounds like a bustling city?
Fantastic Forces!
Our new science topic is forces and magnets.
We started the topic by learning that a force is a push, pull or twist. We went out onto the play equipment and thought about which forces we were applying as we moved.
We observed how the more force we use the further and faster the movements.
Here is the vocabulary we will be improving our understanding of this half term. 
Help at home: When exercising, ask your child to consider which forces they are applying.
Easter Church Service
We enjoyed a trip to St James’ Church earlier today for our Easter service.
Years 3 and 4 read our poem ‘Easter In My Hand’ beautifully. Many children could recite their line from memory!
In case you missed this, please follow the link below to watch the recording.
Well done Years 3 and 4!