Class 3 Spring Term 2024

 

In English this week, we have started thinking about sports people who are inspirational to us and researching them. This is so that we can write a persuasive letter to them over the coming weeks. To help with this, we have also been looking at persuasive techniques such as exaggeration and rhetorical questions. 

 

In maths, we have been looking at ratio and comparing different quantities. On world book day we also looked at the book A Million Dots and used different methods of calculating to ensure that the illustrator was being accurate! 

 

In History, we thought about why the invention of the steam engine was so important and how it changed the lives of Victorians. 

 

We had a great World Book Day where we wrote out own rap based on Michael Rosen's rap as well as having a go at some illustrations by Rob Biddulph. 

 

In English we have been writing our extract of a story. The children chose 3 areas they would like to include in their writing as their success criteria. Everyone worked really hard when writing their story and thought carefully about using speech for different purposes. 

In maths, we have been looking at word problems. The children practised identifying the operation needed for each problem and what number sentence they needed. We also thought about how we could draw a picture or image to help understand the problem. 

In science we looked at the eye and the different parts of it that work together to enable us to see. We looked into our partner’s eyes and saw what happened to their pupil as the lights were turned on or off. We also looked at different optical illusions and learnt that our optic nerve sends an upside down picture of what we see to our brain. 

 

In maths this week we have been measuring and calculating angles. When measuring angles, we decided if the angles were obtuse, acute or right angles and then checked when measuring that the sizes of the angles matched our initial thoughts. We also used facts about a right angle being 90 degrees, a straight line 180 and a circle 360 degrees to help calculate unknown angles without measuring. 

 

In English we have been looking at using speech to convey character. We thought about what the personality and mood of the character was and then thought carefully about the speech we used and the said verbs and adverbs we selected. 

 

In topic, we looked at the Victorians and who we thought a man called Anthony was. We looked at some different sources that told he was an extremely influential and important person in the Victorian period. 

 

In science we used mirrors to reflect light from a torch to a target. We thought about how the angle the light shines into the mirror is the same as the angle is is reflected out of the mirror. 

 

In maths this week we have found the area of compound shapes. We thought about how we could split the shapes into rectangles that were easy to find the area of and then calculated the missing lengths. Year 6s have also been finding the areas of right angle triangles. 

 

In English, we created our final versions of our information text about the different layers of the Earth's atmosphere. We included objects such as satellites, spy jets and the International Space Station and using an informative yet informal tone. 

 

In science this week we created a split pin model of the Sun, Earth and Moon and could use this to explain how these celestial bodies move. We also thought about the different phases of the moon and could identify waxing, waning, crescent, gibbous, first quarter, last quarter, full and new moons. 

 

In English this week, we have been practising writing in an informal yet informative tone. We wrote some sentences to in this tone to teach Class 1 some tricky information in an easy-to-understand way. 

 

In maths, we have been finding the perimeter of shapes and calculating missing lengths. 

 

In science we learnt a lot about space when Tom came to visit us. Tom is an astrophysicist from Exeter University and he shared lots interesting facts about space including how a satellite managed to change the path of an asteroid. 

Week beginning Monday 22nd January 

 

In English this week we have started looking at our new book - The Skies Above Our Eyes. We have identified and researched new vocabulary as well as learning how to write sentences in the passive voice to make them sound more informative. 

In maths we have been working out the whole using given fractions. We have been continuing to use bar models to help our understanding as well as solving word problems related to fractions. 

In geography this week we have researched about The Andes, thought about what continent this mountain range is in, which countries it spans and the human and physical features that can be found here. 

In science we created a pocket solar system and this helped us understand the distances between each of the planets in our solar system. We also came up with our own mnemonic for remembering the order of the planets. 

 

 

In maths this week, we have been continuing with the bus stop method for division. The children picked the level they thought was a challenge for them and either: divided by 1-digit numbers without resources; divided by 2-digit numbers; or represented remainders as decimals. 

 

In English, we have been practising skills to help us write our recount of the jump from the edge of space next week. This week we practised writing complex sentences, thought about how we could show rather than tell the reader how a character is feeling and finally practised using sentence length for effect. 

 

In geography we looked at the Alps and the human and physical characteristics of this mountain range. We also named the 8 countries that they span and recapped the continent and hemisphere these countries are in. 

 

What a brilliant start to the year Class 3 have had! 

I could not have been prouder of them during our trip to the museum of the moon in Barnstaple on Thursday. They were incredibly polite, friendly and sensible throughout the entire day. They all: bought their own bus tickets both to and from Barnstaple; learnt about the dark side of the moon, how the moon was created and why it has so many craters at the museum of the moon; had a great time playing in Rock Park; and found out about the secret stack of books at Barnstaple library! We had a great day and the children were a delight! 

Back at school, we’ve been learning the bus stop method for division. For some of us, it was the first time we’ve ever seen this method before and the children should be incredibly proud of their resilience. We will continue with this learning for the next few weeks to ensure it is fully embedded. 

In English we are learning all about Felix Baumgartner’s jump from the edge of space. We’ve learnt lots of information about the jump as well as watching a video of him free falling for over 4 minutes towards Earth. We’ve also thought about when we have all been daredevils! 

In geography, we have started looking at mountain ranges around the world, identified specific mountains and thought about the latitude and longitude of these points. 

 

 

In English this week we have been writing our own persuasive letters to practise using all the techniques that we have learnt. We wrote letters to convince Miss Rushworth that we deserved 15 minutes extra playtime using rhetorical questions, emotive language, exaggeration and repetition. They were very convincing!! 

 

In maths we have been learning all about equivalent fractions. We cut a metre into different fractions and worked together to find different fractions that looked the same. We thought about the relationship between the numerators and the denominators. 

 

For tree week, we created God's eye decorations to decorate the tree outside class 3. We also wrote some poetree and presented them on leaves to hang on the tree too. 

 

In history, we looked at why Britain was considered the 'workshop of the world' in Victorian times.