E-safety

As your children grow older are able to access the internet and mobile devices more independently it is important they know how to stay safe online. In the week leading up to half term the children took part in an e-safety lesson and were introduced to the phrase ‘Zip it, Block it, Flag it’

Using the actions to go with the words, the children learned that it is important to keep your personal information private and never to share details such as their name, address, school or location online. They discovered what to do if they ever received any nasty messages or information via a website or mobile phone and how important it was to tell a trusted adult if anything like that ever happened. An animation developed by the government website CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection) was shown which highlighted this information in a child friendly way. The children had an opportunity to think about what they would do in certain situations by working in groups to discuss set questions (see http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/themes/stayingsafeonline/whatwouldyoudoif.htm).

This information will be revisited regularly during year three to ensure children can keep themselves safe online. Please talk to your children about what they have learned so that they can apply this knowledge to the wider context of the outside world.

It is also worth visiting the partnership websites of CEOP and 'Think You Know' to find helpful guidance and tips on how to keep your children safe.

Week Ten

Welcome back and I hope you all had a wonderful half term!

This week the children have come back into school full of energy and smiles which is good to see!

English

In English the children started off by writing a recount of what they have been getting up to in the half term holiday. It sounds like lots of sleepovers and meeting up with school friends took place which is nice to hear. With firework night happening this week the children moved onto writing poetry, thinking about the sights, sounds and excitement that they might expect to experience. A lot of work was spent looking at poetry and examining its contents such as similes, alliteration, rhyming words, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. The children were then encouraged to use this information to write a draft poem, then revise, edit and improve it ready to use for their final piece. The finished poems were written up in the form of a shape or concrete poem.
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A Shape Poem is a type of poetry that describes an object and is shaped the same as the object the poem is describing.

The finished poems have been mounted and displayed on a line across the classroom if you want to read them. 

A visit from the Fire Brigade, who gave an educational talk to the children, also helped to reinforce the importance of staying safe on bonfire night.

Maths

In maths the children have been learning about multiplication and division. 

Multiplication

The children have moved onto the grid method of multiplication which partitions the numbers into hundreds, tens and units making them easier to multiply separately. The following link is an interactive activity which shows you how to use this method and is something the children could use at home too.

http://www.iboard.co.uk/iwb/Grid-Method-547

Division

Most children have been learning to divide numbers using a blank number line.
Some children have been using the ‘Bus Stop’ method for division as shown in this link

http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/maths/school_booster/busstopdivision.html

RE

In RE the children have been learning about the various parts of a Mosque in preparation for a visit to a Mosque next Tuesday. The children were given an extra challenge to build a 3D Mosque from paper using a template. It was quite a fiddly task and I was very impressed with the determination of the children to get it right and finish it. You can see this work in progress and the finished Mosques below.

Science
Our rocks topic is now drawing to a close but our final lesson was to explore the top layer of our planet which contains a lot of soil. The children were first asked to brainstorm in groups what they know or want to know about soil.

This was followed by the children investigating a bowl of soil they collected from outside the classroom. You will be amazed what we found in just a few small samples! Mini centipedes, red ants, leaves, twigs, worms, rocks, water, grass and snail shells! (sorry, I was so engrossed in this part I forgot to take photographs!) The children then had to use this information to design their own ‘soil cocktail’ and draw and label what they might find in one! We had some really creative designs. Finally the children filled in a chart showing exactly what they found in their sample of soil.

Next week

The children will be having a focus week in English on punctuation and grammar focusing on writing extended sentences, direct speech and written tense.

In maths the children will be learning about 2D shapes, irregular and regular.

Pushes, pulls and forces will be investigated in Science.

PE will be netball and gymnastics.

Humanities starts on our new topic of Extreme Survival.

Week Eight

Apologies for the delay in getting this weeks activities online. Hopefully you will still enjoy seeing what the children learned this week and it will provide opportunities for further discussion at home.

In English the children have been continuing with their knowledge, understanding and writing of non-chronological reports. this week culminated in the children writing an information leaflet about a school. This could be Stivichall School, a made up school they would like to attend or Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft! It was interesting to see what sort of schools the children would like to go to including a Squirrel School, an Art School and a School of Chocolate!

In Maths the children have been learning all about weights and measures. We looked at different scales and the different types of measurements used for weight, distance and liquids. This was a very practical week of maths lessons as the children had the opportunity to use lots of different measuring equipment. Units of water were estimated and then measured,  the weight of everyday items were estimated and then measured and finally rulers, metre sticks and trundle wheels were used to measure fingernails to school corridors. We also played a ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ game as a class to see how good we were at our measurements. The children were one place off winning a million pounds!

In Art/DT the children had an opportunity to get creative in the kitchen by following a simple recipe for Rock Cakes. This combined our science topic of rocks, cooking and measurements into one! Hopefully you managed to see the Rock Cake before it disappeared and if you were lucky, get a taste. I managed to save myself one and I can assure you, they were delicious! Well done class 3P!

In Humanities the children learned all about the early Stone Age settlement at Skara Brae. They found out that early man began to settle into farming communities and grow crops and keep animals for food. They also discovered that one of the houses found by archeologists consisted of a single room with a bolt on the outside of the door. What could this room have been used for? Even worse they learned that the remains of a woman was found in the walls of this house! Spooky!

Finally I want to say a huge well done to every child in the class for the work work they put into their home learning projects. There were 3D models, clay pots and tools, posters, websites, powerpoint shows and written fact files. The variety of work was amazing. We managed to squeeze in seeing every piece of work before half term. Children stood at the front of the class, displayed their work, talked about what it involved and answered questions from the rest of the class. I hope I have managed to capture every child photo with their project but please let me know if I have missed anybody!