Welcome to Class 3 - Squirrels

Term 6 Overview

Homework - Friday 19th May

(Due: Monday 5^th June)

Whole School Art and Well-Being Homework

Next week at Sheldwich is our Arts week. This week, during our morning registration periods, all classes have been participating in well-being focused activities. Your homework task brings these two ideas together.

TASK:

Create a collage using words and images related to the theme of well-being.

Tips:

Given the well-being theme, you could use images and words related to: things that you enjoy doing, that make you happy, or that make you feel calm and positive. You could also consider people or places that are inspirational to you.

• Your collage should be no bigger than A4 size
• You can cut out words and images from a range of sources – magazines and newspapers will work well!
• You could use different types of glue or tape to attach your snipped words and images to your paper.

Please complete on a separate piece of paper/card to your HW book (So we can display them!)

Spellings and Times Tables

Our spelling words this week are:

accept, except, brake, break, grate, great

Learning Tip - these are homophones or near-homophones - they sound the same but have different spellings and mean different things.

These words will be on display in our classroom all week and we will complete a daily activity to practise spelling these words. We will have a brief spelling test on Friday morning.

Remember to log in to TTRockstars to practise your times tables (I can log in to see who is practising and who isn't - please remember this is a set piece of homework).

Art Week

We've had so much fun exploring 'Perfect Printing' in Art Week! We looked at collagraphs, which is a textured style of print made by creating an image using collage and then printing it. We designed our collagraphs, then had some practise prints so we could see if we needed to make any changes and then created our final piece. We also printed 2d shapes in Maths to create a picture, created a fact file on William Morris in English and gout outside to print using natural items we could find around us.

Coronation Celebrations

We had lots of fun at our Street Party on the playground to celebrate the King's coronation!

Easter Bonnets

Look at our wonderful Easter Bonnets! Hannah and Betty were our class winners, they both repurposed and reused previously worn hats!

Performing Arts Week

We have had so much fun doing some work inspired by the 'Great Composers'.

We listened to 'Mountain' by Einaudi and created a piece of art that we thought was reflective of the piece of music.

We played around making music on Garage Band on the iPads.

We learnt about Florence Price, the first African-American female composer to have her music played by a major orchestra. We had a go at using our bodies to make percussion, similar to the patterns used in the third part of her 1st symphony. We then tried to recreate these rhythms on the Djembe drums. We also made some fact files about her which will be on display in the hall.

We listened to some film soundtracks composed by Hans Zimmer. We listened to 'Remember' from 'The Lion King' and thought about what the film might have been and what the story could be. We then made film posters for the films we'd thought of.

School Trip - Egyptian Day

We went to Kent Life where they put on a wonderful day full of Egyptian themed workshops. We learnt about clothing and held a fashion show, we learnt about life around the Nile, how to make rope, we built our own pyramids, learnt about medicines, mummification and how we could entertain the Pharaoh with some dancing. As well as this, we played in the playground and visited the farm animals. 

Computing - Class Wiki

This term we have been learning about wikis and how they can be used to work collaboratively on a project. We added a link to the school website on the Sheldwich Wikipedia page and the we created a wiki of our own at sheldwich.pbworks.com/. In the wiki, we added reviews of some of our favourite books and information about some of the things the class have been learning this term. We worked together on the the pages and learned about how we should be considerate and make our edits in good faith! 

Fantastic Friday - Glow Stick Party

We had so much fun dancing and playing with glow sticks for our Fantastic Friday activity. The girls took control of the iPad and took some cool photos.

Tom Delahunt

We had an amazing visit from Tom Delahunt who is a senior lecturer of Nursing and has written a children's book as part of his doctorate. He read his book to us, which was about being proud to be who you are. He also helped us to write some 'fridge poetry' which we loved!

Science - Plants

In Science, we have been identifying parts of a plant and thinking about their roles. We recapped the flower, leaves, stem and roots and have also learnt about some of the parts of a flower (stigma, style, ovary, filament and anther). These parts of a flower are needed for a plant to be able to make new plants. To help us with identifying these parts, we each dissected a daffodil or a tulip.

Canopic Jars - Part 1

We had lots of fun transforming old drinks bottles into canopic jars. At the end of last term, we designed how we wanted our canopic jars to look and stuck with the Ancient Egyptian theme of them having animal heads. We begun making our jars by using newspaper and masking tape to model a head onto the top half of the bottle and then used mod-roc to cover both halves of the bottle, taking care to smooth out the little bubbles and overlapping bits of bandage. They're looking great and we can't wait to paint them!

English - Oliver Jeffers

We began our new English topic by looking at a variety of books by the author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers. We explored a variety of books that he has written or contributed to and created some posters to show what the book was about, what we liked/disliked about the story, who the characters were, where it was set, what the problems and resolutions were and who the intended audience might be. We explored 'Stuck' and 'The Heart and The Bottle' together and were struck by how different the stories were. We thought 'Stuck' was so funny because of the ridiculousness of it all, but thought 'The Heart and The Bottle' was sad and serious.

STEM week

This week has revolved around investigations and exploration!

Science – we investigated thermal insulators by designing a jacket for a hot potato to keep it warm and prevent heat loss. Jack, Harry, André and Ellis won with their design! We also investigated how the sense of smell effects the sense of taste by seeing if we could guess the flavour of crisps whilst pinching our nose, the effects of aerobic and anaerobic exercise and how sleep effects reaction times. Some teachers from Canterbury Academy also came in and taught us about the atoms in solids, liquids and gases and we made playdough!

Technology – we use microbits to code robots and investigated how to make them move in the direction we wanted by varying speed and time

Engineering – we used newspaper and masking tape to try to make the tallest tower that would stand up by itself. Josh B, Harry, André and Josh W won! Mrs Minty was too excited about measuring and forgot to take photos!

Maths – we followed the rhyme ‘Ip dip sky blue, whose it? It’s you!’ and tried to work out in what position we had to be in to be ‘you’ with varying sized groups of friends. We worked out that in any group with over 8 people, we needed to be in 8^th position as that was how many words there were in the chant. We also practised our measuring skills to make patterns inside 2D shapes by finding the midpoint of each line in the shape and then connecting them.

Mummification

We learnt all about the gruesome process of mummification and then had a go at mummifying our friends (only the wrapping part, NOT the embalming!!). We did a great job and had so much fun!

Computing - Presentations About Ourselves

This term we have been learning to create slideshows using PowerPoint. The children learned to safely search the internet, how to copy and paste images, and how to add text and format it. We used animations and transitions (judiciously!) to make our presentations more engaging. Finally, we delivered our presentations about ourselves to the rest of the class.  

Stig's Den

We spent the afternoon in the woods making dens for Stig. We used good teamwork and had lots of fun working out how to actually make our dens stay up!

Roots to Food

Today we had a visit from 'Roots to Food' where we learnt how to make Japanese Teriyaki Noodles. We learnt lots of new skills like stirring, whisking, chopping and peeling and enjoyed practising these when making our dish. We also learnt about the nutritional value of the food we were making and how different colours of vegetables have different vitamins/minerals. 

Rock Investigations 

We thought about the different ways that we could sort rocks based on their properties (hard/soft, bumpy/smooth, durability, high/low density, permeable/impermeable). We had a look at a variety of rocks under the magnifying glasses and then used water to investigate their permeability and density. We thought about the different ways that we could sort rocks based on their properties (hard/soft, bumpy/smooth, durability, high/low density, permeable/impermeable). We had a look at a variety of rocks under the magnifying glasses and then used water to investigate their permeability and density.

Cave Painting

We had  ago at our very own cave paintings today! We shuffled under our tables (which we had to imagine were caves!) and then had a go at doing water-colour painting on some tea-stained paper stuck to the underside of our desks. It was much trickier then we thought it would be but A LOT of fun!

Science - Different Types of Rocks

We learnt about how the different types of rocks were formed and then did a practical activity using sweets to represent this.

Igneous Rocks - lava or magma from volcanoes cools downs and hardens into rocks. We made honeycomb to represent the hot lava cooling down and hardening.

Sedimentary Rocks - layers of 'sediment' (dead plants, dead animals, small rocks, soils) become rocks over thousands of years due to pressure. We layered two different colours of Starbursts and then used the pressure of our hands to compress them into 'rock'.

Metamorphic Rocks - Igneous or Sedimentary Rocks that have been changed over time through exposure to extreme heat or pressure. We had a slice of Mars Bar which represented a Sedimentary Rock (layers!) and then changed it using the heat and pressure of our hands.

Skip2bFit!

We took part in a skipping workshop. We had to see how many skips we could do in 2 minutes and then (after a break) used our determination and perseverance to beat our own scores!

Computing - Scratch Animations

This term we have been making animations using block-based coding in Scratch. You can view everyone's animations here: https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/32277012 Well done! You've done lots of great coding to sequence them. If yours isn't finished, you can click on See Inside, continue to work on it and then save the new version to your home computer.

Book Week - Dressing Up!

Can you guess who we are?

Book Week - Deal Poet's Society

Some members from the Deal Poet's Society came in to share some their poetry with us, and teach us a cool trick for writing poems based on the short date of our birthdays! Some of us then very bravely shared these poems with the rest of Key Stage 2 in assembly. 

Book Week - Sharing Poetry

As an introductory activity into our poetry themed Book Week, we shared a variety of poems with our friends.

Healthy Dessert

For our healthy dessert, we made a fruit salad! We had to write a list of the fruit we would like to include, then we cut it and mixed it in our bowl (and then ate it!).

Healthy Main

For our healthy main course, we made a pasta dish by adding our own choices of toppings to some pasta.

Healthy Starter

We have begun our D.T. project of designing, making, evaluating (and eating!) a healthy 3 course meal. For our starter, we made vegetables and dips!

Geography and D.T. day

We had so much fun on Geography and D.T. day! We started our day with a walk in the local fields to see how they looked now that the crops that we saw growing last Geography day had been harvested. We also found a big green caterpillar! Then, we came back to make some Apple Crisp which we later baked at home. This recipe uses lots of ingredients that are grown/produced locally. In the afternoon, we had an assembly with Mr Gaskain and produced some posters to encourage people to eat locally.

Autumn Art

We thought about how we know that Autumn is coming - the chill in the air, the crispy leaves on the floor, the conkers and the beautiful colourful leaves! We used this as inspiration for a piece of autumnal art using oil pastels. We found the pastels were great for blending and mixing colours and was a particularly effective method for helping the tree trunks to look 3d and the clouds to look fluffy. 

P.S.H.E.

In our P.S.H.E. lesson, we thought about the ways we can be similar or different to other people. We discussed why it was important to celebrate differences, and also how easy it can be to find connections based on things that make us similar. We used some wool to make our connections visible - as you can see, we got in a bit of a tangle. 

Small Worlds!

This week, we made small worlds for Max (the main character from 'The Hodgeheg'). We thought about what Max would need in his environment and then used these to help us write a description of Max's little world from his point of view. 

Clothes Making!

This term, we've been working on a big project! We had to design an item of clothing that matched a specific brief. Our design had to show how the item of clothing was fit for purpose, with notes about any special features it has and some reasons for fabric choices. We came up with our initial designs by discussing our ideas as a group and we then developed these ideas and created a big poster which we used to help us present our ideas to the class. We then answered questions from our peers about our designs and the choices we'd made - it was very much like Dragon's Den! Next, we began making a prototype of our design.

Sports Week

We had so much fun trying out new sports during Sports Week, many of us loved Boxing and enjoyed the more relaxed pace of Golf. We also made some motivational posters to cheer our friends on during Sports Day and did some sports based geometric art too!

R.E.

We went to St James' Church to support our learning in R.E. Rev Peter told us all about Holy Communion and showed us the chalice and bread that they use. We also talked about the symbolism of the ritual and what Christians remember during Holy Communion. 

Groombridge Place

We had the best time on our school trip to Groombridge Place! The children all looked magical in their outfits and were at home in the Enchanted Forest where we saw giant tee-pees, wishing wells, a little Jurassic valley and a fort. We also spent lots of time enjoying imaginative play in the various playgrounds and saw a Birds of Prey display too!

Jubilee Celebrations

We had a lovely time celebrating the Queens Platinum Jubilee! We spent the afternoon playing some party games in our classroom (a riddle quiz, charades and Pictionary) and then at 2:45, joined the rest of the school on the playground to sing the national anthem and have a party tea!

History Day

Our History Day theme was 'The Queen's Reign'. Each class had a decade to learn about and will contribute pieces to go on a whole school timeline in the hall. Class 3 were very lucky - we learnt all about the Swinging Sixties! We begun by seeing what we knew about the 60s already as we were trying to answer the question 'Why were the 60s so great in Britain?'.

To help us answer our question, we got some cards featuring events that took place in the 1960s. We tried to put them into the order that we thought they happened in. We then found out the answers and made a timeline to reflect all the amazing events that happened in the 60s. Later in the day, we watched some videos of key historical events (World Cup win, 'I have a Dream' speech, concorde taking flight) and learnt about some other events in more detail (the Bristol Bus Boycott, Space Race). We then designed a commemorative postage stamp to reflect an important event of the 1960s. 

MfL Day

We spent all day learning about Germany and studying the German language.

In the morning we:

• Discussed the languages we have heard being spoken before

• Shared what we know about Germany

• Learnt about the culture in Germany

• Learnt some basic greetings and the kind of things we might say when meeting someone new, such as how they are (Wie gehts?).

• Tried some German breakfast food (der Käse, das Brot, der Schinken, die Salami) and expressed whether they were ‘gut’ or ‘nicht gut’.

• Learnt the colours in German

• Had Mr Wallace come in and teach us some Spanish – turns out we already knew more than we thought!

In the afternoon we:

• Made magnets featuring a German phrase that we had learnt

• Learnt the numbers 0-20 and then played a few games of bingo!

• Went outside and played the Fruit Salad game, but with colours instead of fruit

It was a very busy day but we all had so much fun!

Music

This term we have been thinking about how music makes us feel. We listened to a variety of different pieces of music and then discussed what emotions we felt when we listened to that music and what it was about that music which had made us feel that way. We thought about the sounds we could hear and tried to identify some of the instruments, we thought about the speed of the music, the use of pauses and the pitch of the music too. Next, we used our learning to try to compose our own pieces of music in groups which would help us to portray a certain emotion. We thought carefully about the instruments we chose and how we used them.

Easter

Look at our gorgeous Easter Bonnets! It was a very hard choice, but our class winners were Sophie and Jemima. 

Performing Arts Week

We had so much fun delving into the work of 'The Beatles' during Performing Arts Week. We tried to learn a few lines of 'Here Comes the Sun' on the glockenspiel, had a dance party in the hall with Class 4 where we learnt some typical 1960s dance moves, designed our own album covers and had loads of fun with the students from Kings School who taught us a dance! 

Fantastic Friday - Cafe Class 3

For Fantastic Friday, Mrs Minty set up a cafe! We came in and were offered a drink of squash or hot chocolate, we could sit anywhere and chat with our friends/read a book/do some drawing and we listened to some slow jazz while a fire blazed away on the interactive whiteboard. What a great way to start our day!

Art Week!

During Art Week, we have been looking at an illustration by Reza Devland from the book 'It's Up to Us'. The picture consists of a colourful depiction of 4 different environments: the Savanna, wetlands, a coral reef and a forest (which some of us have interpreted as a rainforest). Each day, we have been trying to recreate one of the pieces in a different medium. We have painted, collaged and created a diorama featuring a small clay animal that would be seen in our chosen environment. Also, for our Fantastic Friday activity, we had the paints out and could paint anything we wanted! We have had so much fun!

Our Favourite Works of Art!

R.E. day

We really enjoyed learning about Diwali and how it is celebrated in Hinduism and Sikhism. We had a go at creating our own Rangoli Patterns. Some of us worked in small groups, making them with sand and rice in the traditional way, and the rest of us tried to use a repeating pattern of circles (drawn using a compass) to create one. This was very tricky! We also learnt some Bollywood style dance moves, made friendship bracelets (and learnt to plait) and designed our own Mehndi hands.

Bollywood Style Dancing