Happy Summer holidays and the end of Year 3! Thanks for a fun packed time and hope you all have a wonderful summer break.

We launched our new theme of 'Rainforestation', that will look closely at plant growth and functions. We enjoyed reading about some interesting facts within the bank of books we have in class, and went outside to make comparisons of what we can see within our local environment to school.  We learnt about the 4 different layers of the Rainforest-the Forest Floor Layer, the Understory Layer, the Canopy Layer and Emergent Layer, and learnt some actions to help us to remember them. We then created a collage to represent the layers using some natural resources.

The Career Hub Share

Our afternoon of sharing our Career Hub learning was a great success and many attended to share our success. We enjoyed sharing what we had been learning about and showing off our displays, powerpoints and photographs.

Testing station

This afternoon, we have considered the materials we have within and around a building and then considered how objects move on different surfaces.  Using small cars, we investigated how easy or difficult it was to move the wheels along each surface. This investigation helped us to consider the flooring within our career hub, to allow for ease of access of all users. We considered wheelchair users, users who may use a walking aid, such as a stick or frame, and visually impaired users, who may use a visual aid stick. We considered if the surface needed to be level, or tilted, and what impact this may have. Our investigation was on tiled, wooden, plastic and carpeted surfaces.

We were very lucky to be visited by Louise, who runs her own Health and Safety Company. We got to ask her a lot of questions about her career. As a Health and Safety Officer, she spoke to use all about the relevant safety aspects-especially in construction and linked to the building of the new career hub. Below is a cartoon of a building site, and on a larger version, we had to search for any hazards –we then shared our findings with the class.  It was really interesting to find out about the health and safety requirements for a construction site-it made us think about the building of the new career hub.

Some of us got to try on some of the safety equipment, too.

                                                                                 

 

Coding using 2Code on Purple Mash

This afternoon, we have been using 2Code to create a simple programme, and the children worked really well to change backgrounds, add sounds and give on screen commands.

Artists at work-buzzing with creativity!

We have been busy this afternoon, creating some artwork inspired by Keith Haring.  We considered the different careers we would like in the future and thought about some of the characteristics that may be needed for these.  We have also looked at different floorplans to consider accessibility around a building and came up with our own floor plans that would incorporate different rooms for the different career ambitions.  Following on from this, we have used our maths skills of drawing 2d shapes to look at how you can start with one shape-a building plot, and then use this to create other shapes within this.  The children identified the similarity to a floor plan, once we started to progress through the lesson, as we hadn't shared this before the session, in order to try and make some links in our learning.  We spoke about what each shape on the image could be: For example, the children said the Main Entrance, an office and a Chill-Out Room would be at the start of the Career Hub. 

                                  A mission for my ambition!

We launched our new theme this half-term to consider what career ambitions we may have and used these to influence our ideas for the building of  an exciting new career hub that will be local to where the children live.  Amazingly, we have some fantastic ambitions including becoming authors, zoo-keepers, vets and guide dog handlers. From these findings, we created a table of results and then transferred the data into a bar chart within our maths lesson. Can you spot which is the most popular career choice?

 

We have built on our geography skills to identify appropriate places to build a new business, taking into consideration many different factors to support this.  In small teams, the children worked together to plan out the sort of things that they would have within the vicinity of the ‘hub , such as access roads and suitable footpaths, appropriate speed limits, a car park and considerations such as a local shop for the people working at the ‘hub’ to be able to buy items.

 

It was really important to work together and share each other’s ideas, valuing that some people may have very different ideas to those of our own, but that doesn’t make them less important than ours. Using our presentation skills, some of the children confidently shared their group’s ideas to the rest of the class, displaying clarity in speaking and taking turns to be respectful.

What the Romans did for us... 

 

 

This half term, we have been extremely busy, linking our learning to the history of the Romans. We started the half term, with a mysterious pottery discovery, which prompted us to question whether it could have been Roman pottery.  After researching many aspects of Roman life, we have found that small pots, similar to what we discovered, may have been used by the Romans.

 

We have researched in our locality, where Romans may have settled and located these on a map of Lancashire-even with the correct Roman name. In class, we held a Roman market, where visitors came to sample some Roman food and watch our play-scripts that were performed by some of the children.  Other children were responsible for informing visitors about the Roman shields and weaponry that the children have made-all very impressive!

 

Continuing from this, we have written a blog entry using Purple-mash and have been writing a non-chronological report that is all about the Romans. We are extremely confident using Roman numerals and have now been applying this to reading a clock that contains Roman numerals.

 

Identifying rocks

We have been investigating different rocks by using clue cards to help us. We made close observations of each rock and also made drawings to help us.

.     

 

     

Permeabilty

We have then moved on this week to check the rocks using a specific test criteria to help us: To find out which was the best rock for Stig to use as a sink. The rock needed to be hard enough to cope with all the washing up and impermeable, so that it wouldn't let water soak in.  Following our investigation, we decided that either Granite or Marble would be the best for this job.

 

    

    

 

Volcano eruption

Linked to our topic, we have been looking at different volcanoes and what causes them to erupt. Using a combination of vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, we were able to create a small eruption from our volcano. We spoke about the pressure building up in the Magma chamber, forcing magma up the Conduit and then the Throat of the volcano. Our mixture erupted through the vent and our lava then flowed down the sides of the volcano.

 

   

 

    

 

 

 

            

 

 

          

Digital research-using the Swiggle search engine, which can be accessed by visiting https://swiggle.org.uk/

 

We have been using the internet to search for information about the different types of volcanoes: Cinder Cones, Composite and Shield.