St John the Baptist CE VA Primary School Year Three

On Friday last week, we had a fantastic company called History off the Page come and visit us for the day. We learnt lots of different skills that Ancient Egyptians would have had thousands of years ago, and celebrated the flooding of the River Nile by having a great feast, performing dances and telling stories. We would like to say a massive thank you for everyone who gave their time to help us on the day.

In English, we have been learning about a story were a dragon slayer kills a mother dragon. The dragon slayer then had a dilemma regarding what to do about the baby dragon. One of us became the dragon slayer and walked through ‘conscience alley’, where the other children whispered their opinions about whether or not he should adopt the baby dragon or leave it. In the end he decided to look after it.

This week year 3 have been learning about why the River Nile was so vital for the Ancient Egyptians. They then went outside and acted out different things that people would use the Nile for and drew various geographical features that would have been found along its course. They have also started an English unit all about legends and will work towards writing their own class book of legends.

We have also written acrostic and limerick poems about the infamous farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean. Do you know which Roald Dahl book these menacing men are from?

In our topic, we have been learning more about the Ancient Egyptians. This week, we started to look at artefacts from Ancient Egypt and worked out what they were are what they can each tell us about the Ancient Egyptians. Here are two of our three Ancient Egyptian displays!

We have started our Ancient Egypt topic. We have been investigating how Tutankhamun died and have also been learning about how to mummify a body (you will need lots of salt!). The children have produced some beautiful pieces of Ancient Egypt artwork too. Well done year 3!

So far this term, the children have been learning all about solids, liquids and gases. Today the sun was shining, so we decided to have our science lesson outside. We imagined that we were water and that we had to melt, evaporate and freeze in and out of our different states. We then started learning about the water cycle. We were all drops of water falling onto the land. We then became a fast flowing stream and then a river. We then became a very large river and had to go a little bit more slowly until we reached the sea. After a little while, we started to evaporate and form clouds. Later on, we all became a big storm cloud that then became the rain again!

This week Year 3 have been busy performing poetry, getting to know the Ancient Egyptians and have been designing a new product in Design and Technology.

This week we have enjoyed many wonderful Christmas activities. We have enjoyed a Christmas themed PE lesson and have done Christmas craft activities, including Christmas tree card making and owls in the moonlight calendars.

Last week we posted our letters to Cadburys. We wanted to let them know that we are not happy that they have been using unsustainable palm oil in their chocolate bars. This palm oil is produced through the destruction of rainforests to make way for oil palm plantations and results in the habitats of animals such as orangutans to be lost.

This week we have been busy learning our lines and the songs for our nativity with year 2. We have also had a very special guest from a charity called the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), Euan Dunn. He taught the children all about puffins and albatrosses and about their habitats and life cycles. We learnt many interesting facts and then had an art lesson where Euan taught us how to draw these birds. The children really enjoyed this fantastic afternoon and we would like to thank Euan again for coming in and sharing his knowledge and enthusiasm about these special seabirds.

This week has been anti bullying week, and the children have been thinking about what makes a kind person and what makes an unkind person. We have also seen some beautiful homework from them, researching a particular species of plant or animal in the Amazon Rainforest. All of the children put so much care and effort into their work. Well done!

We have been continuing to learn about the Amazon rainforest and about palm oil’s impact on the world’s rainforests. We are currently planning our letters to Cadburys to try to persuade them to stop using palm oil in their products in order to save the rainforests. We have been thinking about the features of letters and of persuasive writing. The children are looking forward to posting their letters in the post box down the lane soon! In maths, the children have been rounding and measuring. In PE, we are starting our new sport, handball. Finally, we are now starting to rehearse for our joint nativity with year 2.

This week, we went outside to look at the mushrooms and other fungi growing around our school. We also found lots of sweet chestnuts- another sign of autumn!  The children have been learning about diary writing in English and in maths, they have been learning about estimating numbers on a number line and using reasoning to explain their answers.

This week, year 3 have been very busy creating things. We have made a class ‘solar panel’, covered in little panels each made by a child that depicts a different thing we can do to protect the environment, such as turning off lights, using wind turbines and recycling plastic. We have also made our very own worry dolls as part of our South American topic.

In dance, the children have been working hard to create their own motifs to the theme of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Each group have chosen a selection of 4-6 dance motifs (with travelling in between) to create and perform together.

Thank you to year 3 for a wonderful week! The children finished their rainforest leaves by adding water colour paints. They started by practising with the paints, experimenting with the amount of paint added to the water. After they had finished their paintings, the children then shared and evaluated their work with each other. In English, having collected sounds from around the school, the children created their own versions of the poem ‘The Sound Collector’ by Roger McGough. Super work everyone!

In year 3 this week, we have been deepening our understanding of place value. To help us with this, we have been creating monsters out of thousands, hundreds, tens and one dienes. The children created some fabulous monsters and were working hard thinking about how many dienes they would need to build them. Well done everyone!