Have a look at what we’ve been learning!
Year 3 and 4 Cricket
To celebrate England’s successful win in the Cricket World Cup, we took to the field in our very own World Cup. After getting through to the final, Pakistan and West Indies had a very close run for the championship with West Indies narrowly losing out on wickets. It was a fantastic day with everyone participating in all the roles including batting, fielding and bowling.
Monet Water Colour Painting
For Wolsingham Show, we decided to use water colour paintings which we have been looking at in Art over the last few weeks. We have looked at lots of different brush strokes and techniques and we applied these to our own picture of somewhere in Wolsingham. Come along to the Wolsingham
Show to see our artwork in person.
Russian Workshop
We were lucky enough to have a workshop with our Russian friends whilst they were visiting us. We learnt a few words in Russian and dressed up in typical Russian outfits.
Women’s World Cup Speeches
Over the last couple of weeks, we have been getting involved with the spirit of the Women’s World Cup by writing our own motivational speeches to support our team. We spent lots of time in English watching motivational videos and developing our vocabulary with lots of inspirational phrases. We then put pen to paper to create a speech before acting it out in front of our class in front of the green screen. Next, we worked on choosing an appropriate background and editing our videos so that they looked like we were actually in the England changing room! Watch our videos here.
Athletics Festival
Year 3 were lucky to be invited along to join in an athletics festival at Parkside. They enjoyed lots of different games and activities!
Killhope Lead Mining Museum
Year 3 and Year 4 have enjoyed their visit to Killhope Lead Mining Museum and the unveiling of the glassworks on the Weardale Tub which is now on view to the public in the museum. They enjoyed learning about the miners, their living conditions, the blacksmiths and seeing the technological advancement from the Washing Floor to the Jigger House.
Seed Dispersal
To help end our unit on plants, we made our own seeds to disperse next to a tree. We looked at where they landed and discussed which seeds would germinate successfully and the reasons for this. We then got to take home our seeds!
Ancient Greek History
Over the half term, Year 3 have been busy researching the Ancient Greeks. They were all brilliant and creative and the children presented them brilliantly! Have a look at some of the pictures of them presenting below:
Measuring Madness
In year 3, we are busy practising measuring accurately with a range of equipment. Over this week, we have learnt how to measure small lines using cm and mm to greater distances during a mini-athletics lesson using the correct measuring tools from rulers, measuring tapes to trundle wheels. We have also answered questions to compare and calculate using measures.
Shape Fun
To help learn the properties of 3D shapes and the faces that they are made of, we focused on looking at the nets of cubes. We did a range of challenges to answer the question of how many different nets there are to make a cube. We found out that there are 11 ways to make a cube. We then ended our shape unit by reading lots of riddles which were based on 2D and 3D shape properties.
All Stars Cricket Taster Session
Today, Year 3 got the opportunity to trial an All Stars Cricket taster session. They did a range of skills linked to cricket including catching, bowling and batting as well as working as a team. If you are interested in signing up to All Stars Cricket which starts in May, please visit allstarscricket.co.uk for more information.
Easter Egg Decorating
Year 3 came up with some wonderful and creative designs for their Easter Eggs, have a look below at some of their work!
Autism Awareness Afternoon
This afternoon, the whole school did activities to help raise awareness of what it means to be autistic. The class played games which focused on communication and concentration problems and they began to develop an understanding of the problems that people with autism may face. They also discussed how perhaps we could help or support people who are autistic.
Press Conference
Over the last few lessons, we were introduced to the main people involved in the finding of Tutankhamun’s tomb. We came up with questions we could ask them if we had the chance. Today, we became the main people and took on their characters to show what we think these people would have thought in our very own press conference! Later this week, we will be working on using these in our own newspaper reports. You can watch our videos of the press conference here!
Palm Sunday
This week, Francine came into school to teach us all about Palm Sunday. We acted out the story using clothes and palm leaves as props to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem. We then wrote our own versions pretending to be the donkey.
World Water Day
To celebrate World Water Day and to recognise those who may not be as fortunate as we are, the whole school joined in with some water related games! Year 3 & 4 had to transport water from one bucket to another using a sponge. Team points were awarded to those who transported the most water. Afterwards we noticed that we’d spilled lots of water and considered how we could conserve water.
Oriental Museum Visit
Year 3 enjoyed a fantastic visit to the Oriental Museum today. They held real life Ancient Egyptian artifacts including a kohl pot and a canopic jar lid before exploring an Egyptian exhibition where they even got the opportunity to dress up like an Egyptian. In the afternoon, we had the chance to see a real mummy and were amazed to discover that she had a fake arm mummified with her! We finished the day with the Weighing of the Heart ceremony and our unfortunate pharaoh was sentenced to Duat and eaten by a crocodile! Everyone had such good fun and learnt a lot which we will be using in the rest of our Ancient Egyptian topic.
Root Investigation
To get us started looking at the functions of the root of the plant and what they look like, we did some investigating in our flowerbeds. We came across a number of different kinds of roots. Have a look below!
Signs and Symbols Hunt
Whilst on a visit to our local church, we were given a tour of the different parts of it. We then hunted for signs and symbols around the church which we have been looking at in RE. Thank you to Francine for helping us understand what the symbols we found mean and their significance to Christianity.
Teach Rex
This week lots of strange things have been happening around school after our Garden Gang found two buried eggs! We tried them in the incubator but they didn’t hatch. In assembly, children suggested to try them in a tank of water which did the trick! However, when we came to school on the Monday, whatever had hatched had disappeared! Over the week, we found a bone on the floor, a suspicious pile of what looked like poo, mess left in the corridors and in Year 5’s classroom and strange noises were heard following a power cut on Thursday!
On Friday, we finally got to meet the strange creature! He was a friendly tyrannosaurus rex called Jam! We had fun learning some facts about Jam and even got to do a bit of acting and vocabulary building! Have a look at the learning pages across the website to find out more!
World Book Day
Year 3 have had a fantastic time today celebrating World Book Day in their brilliant costumes. We even had a go at an escape room style puzzle to try and get out of the locked library! Have a look at the pictures below:
Year 3 Class Assembly
Year 3 did a fantastic job of presenting their assembly which was based on what they had been learning during Internet Safety Week. There was even a bit of audience participation during it too! Thank you to all those who turned up to watch and a big well done to Year 3!
Shadow Fun
Whilst it has been unusually sunny this week, we have been investigating shadows as part of our light and shadows topic. We went out at 1pm when the sun was still high in the sky and drew around our shadows. We were amazed that at 3pm they had become longer and had changed angle! In the classroom, we turned off the lights and shut the blinds in order to do some further investigations about light and shadows. We discovered that the closer something is to a light source, the larger the shadow will be! We also further explored how light travelled by making our own human periscopes! It was great fun!
Multiplication Madness!
This week, to help us develop our knowledge of times tables, we have been doing lots of challenges. Whilst the weather was nice, we went outside to hunt for multiples and answers to given times tables. We also learnt lots of tricks linked to our times tables. For example, every number that is multiplied by zero is zero and if you add the digits of multiples of three, you will either get 3, 6 or 9.! Hopefully this will help us in increasing our confidence with the grid method and our Times Table challenges on Friday!
Science Team Event
Today, it was our Science Team Event. Over the last few weeks, children have worked hard in their colour teams to come up to produce a product. Reception had to build a boat which would carry the most weight, Year 1 & 2 had to build the highest freestanding tower , Year 3 & 4 had to make a parachute to keep an egg from cracking when dropped from a height and Year 5 & 6 had to create a boat which would move the furthest distance across the water.
Well done to Red Team who were the winners of the event!
Red Team also went on to win the House Cup for this half term. Well done, everyone!
Mammal Web Project
Today, Sammy who is a studying for her PhD at during university, came into school to tell us what our nature cameras have picked up in our school yard! We were amazed to find cats, rabbits and a mouse turning up in our school grounds over night and even some were pictured jumping around whilst we were hard at work in our classrooms! Sammy told us all about the different mammals we would expect in certain habitats and we even played a game at the end to test our new knowledge. We all had a good time and some of us even want to be ecologists like Sammy!
Musical Instruments
In Music, we have been practising our singing to Bob Marley’s ‘Three Little Birds’. To help extend our learning of pulse and rhythm, we then got the glockenspiels out to play alongside the song. It was quite tricky at first but we ended up increasing the tempo of the music in the end as we all became confident at playing. We even played different keys in groups to add to the musical melody!
Internet Safety Week
This year, Year 3 have worked on Internet Safety throughout the week rather than celebrating the one day. Throughout the week, they learnt what the acronym SMART stands for, created their own posters using their Computing skills, looked at emojis and worked out what they meant before creating their own to match their personalities and then created hand prints with their own promises of how they are going to make the internet a safer and more positive place! We will also be doing an assembly based on what we learnt when we return after half term!
Cross Country
Everyone had a fantastic time during our cross country earlier. All children showed great sportsmanship and persevered, even when the going was tough! They even supported each other to cross the finishing line. Well done everyone!
Storytelling Week
This week Year 3 have been busy retelling the story of a Native American myth. On Monday, they watched a video clip English Subtitles. They then worked out what was going on in the film and wrote notes describing each given screenshot. On Wednesday they then worked on verbally retelling their stories to one another and even got the opportunity to go into Year 4 to tell their stories to other children. On Thursday, they then wrote up their stories and used Book Creator to create a talking story book. You can watch their talking storybooks here.
Weardale Tub Project
Year 3 and 4 have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the history of Weardale this week and using what they have learnt to create a glass tile. The tiles will form a panel on the side of a model lead mining tub which will be placed in Killhope Lead Mining Museum. All those who have made a tile will visit the centre in July to see their work in its final form. A huge thank you to those leading the Weardale Tub Project for giving us this opportunity.
Egyptian Projects
To get us started on our Egyptian topic, we looked at the Geography of Egypt and researched what it is like in the present before we travel into the past. In English, we wrote up our research as a non-chronological report. We did such a good job, we then used iMovie to present the facts we have learnt. Click here to watch our videos.
Getting to Grips with Measuring in Metres
This week, Year 3 have been getting to grips with measuring. They have been practising measuring in millimetres, centimetres and today, metres. They had fun estimating whether furniture and objects in our classroom were smaller or larger than a metre, and then proving whether they were correct by measuring them. With time, they found that their estimations became more accurate!
Egyptian Projects
Year 3 were set the challenge to find out some interesting facts about Egypt over the holidays. They then presented them in any way they wanted. They all did a magnificent job and also were brilliant in presenting their ideas to the rest of the class too. Have a look at some of the PowerPoints they made below too!
Ancient Egyptians Project – MB
Ancient Egyptians Project – EH
Ancient Egyptians Project – RJ
Making a Compass
In Science, we have been looking at forces and magnets. To come to the end of our unit, we looked at how we can use magnets in real life. We used every day materials to make our own compass as a class. We cut up polystyrene and swiped the north pole of the magnet along a needle in the same direction. When we put the needle on top of the polystyrene and onto the water, it found magnetic north. We were very surprised when the needle, even when flicked, would go back to finding north eventually!
Christmas Fun
What a fun two weeks of term we’ve had. Last week we had our Christmas performances and Fair. This week, we’ve had a Christmas Jumper day, a lovely Christmas dinner and our Christmas parties. See some of our photos below.
Christian Advent
Francine came into school to talk about the Christian festival of Advent. She talked about how we get ready for Christmas and how it was similar for preparing for Jesus’ birth. We then put our ideas into acrostic poems and coloured a wreath in which we will colour each week to represent a new candle being lit. We also helped build a wreath which will be lit in our weekly assemblies with Francine.
Adam Bushnell Visit
Year 3 had a fabulous afternoon with author Adam Bushnell. He came in to inspire writing about the Iron Age, a topic which we will be moving on to very soon in History. We got to dive through time by looking at streets from times gone by, before exploring the Iron Age world. We held artifacts from the time and learnt about the different jobs that people would have had before creating our own time travelling story. We will be writing up our ideas into a story tomorrow in English.
Little Bo Peep News Reports
Last week, we worked on telling Little Bo Peep’s story from the eyes of Mr. Wolf who claimed it was Little Bo Peep’s fault that the sheep had gone missing. We worked in small groups to write a news report and then worked hard to practise it ready to perform it in front of the green screen. To watch our performances click here.
Finding Little Bo Peep’s Sheep!
For Nursery Rhyme week, we have been looking at the nursery rhyme Little Bo Peep. This morning we received a note from a witness who knew something about the crime. He gave us a route of where he had walked and provided us with a map. We used our Geography skills of grid references and compass directions to help us track where he had walked and where the sheep may possibly be. We then followed him to see if any clues had been left. Some eagle eyed members of the class found a note attached to a picnic bench in the Willows which gave us a set of mathematical clues to see who did it, when and why! We cracked this in Maths to find that it wasn’t who we suspected at all! We’ll be writing up a set of directions for Little Bo Peep over the next few days so hopefully she will be reunited with her sheep at long last!
Compass Directions
This week in Geography, we have been looking at grid references and points of the compass. To help us remember the points, we played a game outside, running to the appropriate direction. It was great fun!
Science Friction Investigation
In Science, we have started looking at forces. Today we looked at how different surfaces can create greater friction. We found out that the rougher surfaces created the greatest friction with the bubble wrap doing the best job, even stopping it going down the ramp!