Tag Rugby

This week we had our first tag rugby session with Mr Meaney. We had a fantastic afternoon and Mr Meaney was very impressed at how quickly we picked up the new skills.

Volcanoes (part 1)

We have started making our volcanoes! Our first step was to stick our milk bottle to our cardboard base. We then scrunched up balls of paper and stuck them to the bottle and card to create the shape of the volcano.

Art Week - clinker built boats.

This week we have looked at the artist Nils Lagergren. His "Vessels" art project is all about ships and shipwrecks. In one part of this project - the "Ghost Fleet" project - Lagergren uses nature. He sinks the ships he builds and nature transforms them into shipwrecks before they are salvaged (after 2-4 years) and reborn as sculptures and objects of art.

We took inspiration from Nils Lagergren’s model boats and we had a go at making our own model boats using lolly sticks. We built them using the clinker method.

Art Week - Scuba diving

As part of art week we tried on scuba diving gear - it was very heavy!

Art Week - Coracles

We combined our art week project with our topic of Through the Ages and made coracles. 

Coracles were made from weaving willow and then covering the frame in tar covered canvas. In prehistoric times they would have been covered in animal skins. 

Our coracles were made by weaving pipe cleaners and then covering the frames with material.

Measuring in Maths

This week we have been measuring in maths. We have measuring using metres, centimetres and millimetres. We then looked at converting measurements from metres to centimetres and centimetres to millimetres and vice versa.

Ammonite Art (part 2)

This week we used our clay ammonites for printing. We used a range of colours to paint our ammonites and then printed them on to paper.

Ammonite Art

This week we have continued our art all around ammonites. This week we have been making them out of clay and thinking about patterns. Next week we will be using our ammonites for printing.

Testing Rocks

This week we have been testing rocks and thinking about which one would be the most suitable to make a monument with. We were looking at chalk, marble, sandstone and slate. On each one we performed a permeability test and a scratch test to determine how easily they would be eroded.

At the end of the experiment we used our results and reached the conclusion that marble would be the best to make a monument with.

Rocking Rocks

As part of our topic Rocks, Relics and Rumbles we have been looking at rocks. This week we have learnt about the three main types of rocks and how they are formed.

We then explored lots of different rocks and use identification grids to help us sort them into the three categories.

Colour Theory

This week in art we Year 3 have been looking at colour theory and why scientist have been so interested in different colours. We explored warm and cool colours and the feelings that they can produce in people.

Grounds Day

Grounds Day is back!

We have had a lovely morning tidying up our school. We have swept, planted and sorted. Our pot are looking beautiful with lots of new plants and we can’t wait for all the bulbs we planted to grow and flower in the spring.

Obstacle courses

This half term we have been focusing on athletics in PE. We have practised our running, jumping and throwing. At the end of this topic we were set a challenge to build an obstacle course which included the skills we had learnt. We then had to teach each other how to complete our obstacle courses.

Bell Beaker Pots

We have now moved into the Bronze Age!

In history and art we have been looking at the Bell Beaker Folk and all the things they introduced in Britain. This included Bell Beaker pottery. We designed our pots first and then had a go at making them.

Making Toffee Apples at Forest School

Woodpecker class had a great time cooking toffee apples on the campfire during their Forest School session today.

The Henges of Plaistow

In Woodpecker Class we have really thrown ourselves into our Prehistory topic. At the moment we are exploring the Stone Age. As part of this we have been looking at monuments and more specifically, henges. This week we designed out own henges and then went outside to build them using natural materials. There were some many different and brilliant ideas for building them - no henge was the same! Miss Dore was very impressed with everyone’s creativity.

Ratatouille

In science we have been looking at food groups and healthy eating. This week we combined our DT and science and made ratatouille. We all worked in small teams to chop, mix and measure our ingredients. At the end we all took a pot of our ratatouille home to try.

Butser Ancient Farm

On Tuesday we had our school trip to Butser Ancient Farm. When we arrived we were taken into an Iron Age round house where we discussed the transition from the Iron Age to the Romans in Britain. After this we had a go at being archaeologists and found lots of different artefacts. Whilst on the way to our next activity we found some Roman public toilets - we decided that we preferred modern day ones!

Next we had a go at making some Roman jewellery using copper wire. We made rings, bracelets and earrings. After lunch in the shade, we turned our hands to making mosaics. We had small tiles and could copy a Roman design using symmetry or we could make make our own design.

Our last activity of the day was spinning wool. This initially looked easy but turned out to be surprisingly tricky. We had to gently pull the wool from the bundle whilst spinning it. We then got the opportunity to look around a Roman villa.

Overall we had a lovely day, made lots of lovely things and learnt a lot from our guide. Thank you to all the adult helpers who came with us.

Camp out!

The best way to end sports week is to finish with the year 3 camp out. We had a fantastic time setting out our tents, eating cake, playing with our friends, cooking dinner, learning about bats and going on a bat walk, cooking breakfast, washing up and sleeping - wow we did fit a lot in! Everyone really got into the team spirit and helped with all the camp jobs and activities. It was lovely to see how much teamwork was going on. Here are just a few photos of our fun time.

Bullseye!

Robin Hood watch out there are some new archers in town! On Thursday we learnt how to use a bows and arrow to shoot targets. We played a game with the target where we had to shoot different parts in order to make a pizza. We then had to then fire our bows and arrows at smaller targets in order to earn points.