Welcome to Class 3 - Squirrels

Spellings and Times Tables 

Here is the class spelling list for this week. This list will be displayed in our classroom throughout the week. Every day, we will complete a short activity - designed to help you learn how to spell these words – in class. You will be tested on how to spell these words on Friday. You may also wish to practise these words at home.

berry, bury, accept, except, here, hear

These are homophones - words that sound the same but are spelt differently and mean different things.

Please use the log in details found in your reading records to get into TTRockstars. This week, we learning our 7x table as we have recently added these to our 'Around the World' pot.

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.

Geography Day

Mrs Dixon organised a fantastic Geography Day for us! We went for a walk around the local area in the morning and thought about all the different ways the land had been used. We saw a chalk pit (like in Stig!), wheat fields, rape fields, a cherry orchard (where we stopped for our snack - lots of us had Jazz apples kindly donated by Mr Macey), Lime Tree Avenue, Lees Court and some forested areas. While we were out, we tried to follow our walk on a map so that we could create our own maps when we were back in the classroom. We walked for 2.5 hours and covered 3.2miles of the local surroundings. 

In the afternoon, Mr Dean, the gamekeeper of the Lees Court Estate, came to talk to use about his job. We all found this very interesting and managed to impress him with our knowledge of the local wildlife. Then, Mr Gaskain came to speak to us about his fruit farming in the local area (although really, he mostly spoke to us about tractors!!).

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! 

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, 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.

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.

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!

Mummification!

This week, we learnt about the process of mummification. It was pretty gross and made some of us feel a bit queasy but luckily we had a super fun activity to take our minds off it! In groups of 3, we had a go at mummifying each other and discovered it was much harder to be neat than we originally thought!

STEM Week

We had a great time thinking about our future in STEM week. It was a great opportunity for us to focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths whilst also learning about important current issues. We made torches with Mr Blair, which we then designed and made a cover for, Mrs Blair taught us a lot about climate change and what we can do to help and Mrs Hayhoe bought her chameleons in. We also tried making and flying paper aeroplanes and designing inventions that would be helpful in the future.  

Stig's Den

We went to the forest and had a go at building some dens for Stig. We had to think about keeping him sheltered but some of us even thought to add a fire and a garden! Teamwork was key with this project and  we worked together so well that when we got back to school, we were all rewarded with a little cup of hot chocolate!

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

Book Week Fun

Our first book of the week was 'Ella's Big Chance', a retelling of Cinderella set in the 'Roaring 20s'. We learnt about how it was a time of economic growth in Britain and about the Art Deco movement. This featured a lot of geometric shapes, repeating patterns and gold and black. We had a go at painting some of our own Art Deco inspired wallpaper - aren't they gorgeous (and very intricate)!

The Charleston was a very popular dance during the 1920s. We learnt a few of the basic steps during our P.E. lesson and then had a go at putting them together!

Then, we moved onto our next book 'Little People, Big Dreams: Emmeline Pankhurst', where we began to learn about the suffragettes and how they fought for women to have the right to vote. We thought about how things were different now, compared to when the suffragettes were protesting. It also made us think about our 'rights' and what rights we have at home, as people of the world and in school.

Then, an actual 'Votes for Women' march entered our classroom while we were learning! 

We all had fun dressing up in some wonderful costumes from the past - can you guess which characters we are?

Small Worlds for Max

We thought about what Max might need in his environment and we made him a little house/shelter with all the comforts he might need. Then, we used these to help us write from Max's point of view!