Where did January go!?

This penultimate week of the first half of the Spring term has flown by too. We’ve been busy publishing our very impressive ‘Great Kapok Tree’ inspired writing. Here is some writing by Lola, which we think you’ll agree is fabulous!

Nearby, a Timber Tumbler had been watching and listening to the other animals and decided that he also wanted to tell the man that he did not want it to be cut down. So, with his young padding softly behind him, the large winged cat flew powerfully onto the forest floor and silently approached the sleeping man.

“Hey, Senhor!” the Timber Tumbler cried desperately, “please don’t cut down the great Kapok tree, it’s where I give birth and it provides safety and shelter for my newborn tumbs. Without this majestic tree, my babies will be easy targets for predators and eventually our species will become extinct!”

This week in Maths has been all about problem solving using various strategies for adding and subtracting. Everyone’s becoming increasingly resilient at dealing with a little ‘brain pain’, well done!

We finished off this week with STEM day. The children were required to design, build, test, adapt and evaluate rafts to carry some stranded children down the Amazon River to the safety of Manaus. We thought about what makes a ‘good’ raft and how we could achieve strength, sturdiness and buoyancy using a piece of tin foil. The children came up with vessels of all shapes and sizes with varying weight and thicknesses and some then had an opportunity to share what they had done during assembly. Ultimately we realised that the best rafts – those which carried the most passengers – were often just one layer thick and had a very large base or surface area.

Just another little reminder that our in-class poetry recital is this coming Thursday (13th), the last day of the half term.

We hope you’ve managed to stay warm and dry this blustery weekend!

Team 3.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Thank you to all of you who came along to the Mass on Tuesday, it was lovely to see so many of you.

This week, Year 3 have continued to be inspired by The Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry, imitating her writing to involve our own creatures with our own very important messages about why the sleeping man should not cut down the trees. Our Geography lesson on Deforestation helped us to come up with really valuable contributions.

In Maths we’ve been thinking about all the strategies we know that can help us to solve and prove tricky problems. We’ve realised that there isn’t a right or wrong way; many problems have multiple possible strategies to use to help us find the same solution. We’ve realised that it’s about what works best for us and what is efficient.

In Science, we’ve enjoyed looking at the bones in our bodies and learning about our vital organs, which our skeletons protect.

In RE, we’ve continued to look at the story of Samuel and how he was called to follow God. We’ve thought about how we can follow His call and what good deeds we can do, such as donating to a food bank or showing love to our friends and family.

We’re seeing lots of wonderful (not compulsory!) homework coming in about the Rain Forest which just goes to show how engaged in the topic the children are. It’s great to see!

Have a peaceful weekend,

Team 3.

What a chilly week!

This week we have been looking at the story of Samuel in RE. We’ve had thoughtful conversations about what made him such a loyal servant to God which have helped us with our work.

In Maths, subtraction has been going well. So much so, that many of the children have progressed from using the expanded column method to a standard column method – the one which most adults are most familiar with. This link is helpful for guidance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GazztzsIuY

In English we have finished writing and publishing our non-chronological reports on our fictional creatures in groups. The results are fabulous – so good they could have come straight out of a non-fiction book on the Rainforest!

We’re hearing that many of the children are doing well with learning and performing their poems. We will be holding our in class finals on Thursday 13th February – so if you’re using costumes or props, that’s the day to bring them in.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Team Three.

This week in English, we have continued learning about everything we need to include to write a fantastic non-chronological report on our fictional rainforest animals. We used what we have learnt this week in Topic about the different layers of the rainforest to help us.

In maths we have continued problem solving, trying to find different ways to solve tricky ‘missing box’ problems. The focus has not been on finding the correct answer but not giving up trying to find it and being creative and logical in our thinking.

In RE this week we looked at the Wise Men’s journey to meet Jesus and thought deeply about how easy or difficult the different aspects were and whether or not there was a reward for what they did.

Today we explored Scratch using Hour of Code, a way of tutoring children through a coding project. You can practice at home by visiting www.hourofcode.com/uk/learn. By clicking on ‘Activities’ you will find all sorts of fun projects to try out.

Thanks again for the plants 🙂 With the heat from the radiators and the perspiration of the plants, our classrooms are transforming into humid ecosystems, evident by the condensation on the windows!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Team 3

We hope you all had a lovely and restful two weeks off for Christmas, it may seem like a distant memory now! Thank you all so much for our lovely presents, we really appreciate your generosity.

We have jumped straight back in to learning this week focusing on our new topic the rainforest!

Already in geography we have used an atlas to identify the rainforests around the world and investigated the equator and the effect it has. We then compared the rainfall and temperature in Britain to the rainforest in Brazil using bar graphs and interpreting data. We looked at the water cycle and completed a science experiment where we created our own cloud (it has been a very busy first week back!).

In English this week we created our own new species of animal discovered in the rainforest. We will document and explain this new species habitat, diet and appearance in David Attenborough style.

In maths we have focused on fractions of amounts using bar models to equally spilt the amounts. We have problem solved what could be in the missing boxes.

Thank you to everyone who has given us a house plant to water and look after over the next few weeks, we appreciate it, please keep them coming.

Have a wonderful weekend

The Year Three team

This week in English we have begun a new learning journey based on the book, ‘The King Who Banned The Dark’ by Emily Haworth-Booth. This is the story of a selfish King who was afraid of the dark. So far in the story we have learnt that he wants to install a permanent, artificial light over the Kingdom so that it will always be light. The children generated some fabulous arguments opposing the King’s idea and on Thursday we debated in groups.

In RE we have begun our Advent learning. This week we looked at the Annunciation (where Mary was told by the Angel Gabriel that she was expecting a baby) and the Visitation of Mary (where she visited her cousin, Elizabeth).

In Maths we have started our unit on time. This is a notoriously difficult skill to master and children’s ability to tell the time varies greatly dependent on whether they own a watch, tell the time at home etc. Any support that you can give at home will be greatly appreciated!

Today we celebrated STEM day by creating movable shadow puppets that we can use to act out the story, ‘The Owl Who was Afraid of the Dark’, by Jill Tomlinson. The children began by cutting out the owl templates to learn how movable shadow puppets work, carefully cutting out the pieces and punching holes for the split pins. Once that was mastered, each group set to work designing and creating their own different characters and props for each part of the story. Keep visiting our blog for updates – this project isn’t over yet!

It has been great to see so many of the children using both SumDog and TT Rockstars – keep up the good work! The winners of this week’s SumDog competition were…….LIONS! There is now a time assessment running. Other homework for the week includes the main class spellings  and the  phonics group spellings. Vocabulary homework for all children is here and as mentioned at Parents’ Evening, can be used to practice writing at home if this is a target. For anyone having difficulty with their TT Rockstars login, we have been told that using the school’s postcode (PO7 7BP) enables you to find St Peter’s and log in successfully. If you’re still having trouble, ask your child to see their teacher at break time.

We hope you have a wonderful weekend, Team 3.

This week in English we have been planning, writing and publishing our letters to Mr Cunningham about Brian’s loneliness and mistreatment in his school. We have used a range of persuasive techniques and have suggested solutions to rectify the sad situation.

Our RE this week has focussed on saying ‘sorry’ and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  We have thought about the stages of reconciliation and how when you apologise, you really need to make a promise to change your behaviour for the better. Even though God will always forgive us, this doesn’t mean that we should continue to make poor choices.

In Maths this week we have continued multiplying and dividing, specifically looking at how to split an array into smaller chunks to make it easier to count/work out. For example, 3×8 is the same as 3×5 and 3×3. On Friday, the children finished with a fun game of ‘How Close to 100?’ which they can show you how to play with a simple blank hundred square like this this one and a di.

The children have been set a Multiplication Competition on SumDog in classes; Lions against Hippos. The children’s Times Table Rockstars login details were also given out again to be stuck into diaries or Home Learning books. Other homework for the week includes the main class spellings and the  phonics group spellings. Vocabulary homework for all children is here and as mentioned at Parents’ Evening, can be used to practice writing at home if this is a target.

We hope you have a lovely weekend, Team 3.

As many of you know, we have now finished our descriptive writing inspired by our text, Stone Age Boy. Thank you to all the parents who visited our classroom ‘caves’ to listen to the children read. Many of you mentioned how impressed you were with the quality of the writing, as were we!

In Maths, we have been practicing using rulers to measure to the nearest mm.

In RE this week we have been continuing our work on Saints, looking specifically at St Francis of Assisi and his life.

This week for homework, there are two vocabulary tasks and a longer list of spellings which all contain double consonants after a short vowel sound. There’s also a SumDog contest running between Lions and Hippos over the break.

Have a restful half term.

Team 3

In English this week we have been planning our descriptive paragraphs about the cave, fire and bear from a scene in Stone Age Boy. These are the texts the children will be reading to you at our Family Learning session on Thursday 24th October at 2:45pm. We really hope you can make it! We’ve been sure to use all our past learning about expanded noun phrases, using our senses, thinking about the position and place where things are happening and more.

In Maths, we have been learning to complete addition sums using the expanded column method. We’ve done very well with our exchanging and have been able to apply this to solve word problems.

In RE this week we have been looking at Saints and how we live our lives in similar ways. We also were fortunate to have Miss Keogh, Oakland’s Chaplain visit to teach us how to pray to Mary using the Rosary as part of One Million Children Praying, an international campaign.

This week’s spelling homework focuses on words which use uncommon graphemes for the phonemes /c/ and /or/. Again, your child may choose the strategy they want to use to learn them. Vocabulary homework is about ‘length’ in preparation for Measures in Maths.

Enjoy this rainy weekend,

Team 3