Blog
Friday 26th April
Maths this week has focused around place value. Reading and writing 4 digit numbers. We also made 4 digit numbers using base ten blocks and we were able to add 10, 100 and 100 more and also count back 10, 100 and 1000.
In English, we have been looking at fronted adverbials and creating our own in the theme of an Aboriginal Dreamtime story. We also revised subordinate clauses and expanded noun phrases. We have also looked at character descriptions and the importance of pronouns to avoid repetition.
In project, we looked into the work of Banksy. Using iPads, the students researched information to create a fact file about Banksy. We then looked at how he creates his work by stencilling and we tried to replicate his artwork using this method.
In science, we continued learning about the digestive system but this time we compare humans to other animals. We learnt that cows have 4 stomachs and birds have no salivary glands or teeth to chew.
PE continued with Athletics. The emphasis was on sprints and relay running. IT can be quite challenging passing on a baton whilst running. With rounders, we practised hitting the ball, throwing and catching. We also learnt some of the rules of rounders.
Friday 19th April
It’s been a great first week back! In English, we have been learning about Aboriginal Dreamtime stories. These are myths and legends that are similar to fables. They often teach a moral and they are about how certain animals got specific traits. We have read How the birds got their colours, Tiddlick the Frog and as a class, we wrote about Bertie the bee and how he got his stinger. We are focusing on correctly punctuating dialogue, character descriptions and using conjunctions.
Maths this week has been all about multiplication. First, we revised 2s,5s and 10 times tables. Then we moved onto 3s, 4s and 8 times tables. It’s great to see how quickly those that practise on TTRS can recall their times tables!
The children have thoroughly enjoyed the start of our Urban Pioneers unit for Project. We have been looking at street artists. First we tagged the school (Don’t worry, we only used chalk!). and then we looked at a number of famous street artists and the children chose a painting they liked to try to replicate. They turned out fantastic!
RE has been looking at a range of religious leaders and the role they play in their specific religion. In PE we have 2 different sports. We do one lesson of athletics and this week was based on short sprints and we’re also doing rounders. For rounders, the core skills we practised were throwing and catching.
Friday 22nd March
Celtic Harmony Camp… What a fantastic way to start the week! Everything had a fantastic time, learning about life during the Stone Age and Iron Age. The children built dens, speared (wooden) animals and foraged for food. This hands-on opportunity gave the children the experience to see what life may have been like.
Ducks Class did their assembly and they did a terrific job! They have been working hard, learning lines and practising the songs.
Maths this week have been all about problems. First we looked at column addition and subtraction but the answer was already there. There were missing numbers in the problem. Then, we moved onto word problems, which can be tricky, especially multi-step problems.
In English we have been writing about Tiangong Space Station. We watched a video about the chinese space station and then we watched an assembly with Ms Hammond and she just got out of the way before the space station crashed onto the muga. It has been fun writing as a journalist and the children will publish their reports next week.
Friday 15th March
This week has been very busy! Year 3 have been working extremely hard doing their check points. In between all of the checkpoints, there has been some for some learning.
In science, we looked at fruits, roots and shoots. We grouped these and then drew them in our science books. We have also been monitoring our seedlings that we have been growing under various conditions.
Swans class did a fabulous class assembly and Ducks class have been busy rehearsing theirs.
Friday 8th March
English has continued with our newspaper reports. We looked at subordinate clauses and prepositions. We also focused on the features of newspaper reports. Then, collectively we wrote a newspaper report about Alexander T Wolf and his perspective on the Three Little Pigs.
Maths has been all about fractions. We started the week adding fractions with the same denominator and we then subtracted fractions.
Science was great fun this week! We dug up small plants and flowers. We made sure to get everything; including the roots. The class then drew this and wrote about what the noticed. We also checked on our seeds we started growing last week and some have started to grow roots.
In project, we learned about mining copper to make bronze. We also learnt about how tools were made during the Bronze Age. The children should appreciate washing dishes and taking out the rubbish because the realised their chores were a little easier than sitting in a pitch black mine all day.
Friday 1st March
Our Stone Age themed day was a fantastic way to start the term! In project our topic is Tribal Tales. The first lesson, the children made Stone Age jewellery out of clay. They tried to replicate items that people in the Stone Age would have used. These included things like, teeth, stones and bones. They were then threaded onto a piece of string. We also learnt about how the Stone Age is split into three separate periods: Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic. The children also research information about the Stone Age, Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
Maths has been focused on multiplication and division. We multiplied multiples of 10s by single digit numbers. E.g. 60x4. Then we used the grid method to multiply 2 digit numbers, before moving onto column multiplication. The children were introduced to bus stop method for division.
Read all about it! In English, we are learning about newspaper reports. We have been looking at the features of newspaper reports. When reading or watching a news report, we have been looking at the who, what, where and when.
PSE was interesting this week. He looked at different jobs, what is involved in getting that job and also earning money. The children then created a job advertisement for their dream job. Did you know that research suggests that 65% of jobs that the year 3 students will do when they grew up aren’t even invented yet?!?!
This week, computing didn’t involve computers! We looked at animation and created out own flip book cartoons.
Friday 16th February
English this week, has been focused on completing our assessment pieces of writing. Their story was written, edited and then edited with a buddy and finally it was published. The children now have 2 adventure stories. The first was based on The Hodgeheg and the second was about an animal that goes off on an adventure.
Maths was again all about time. First, we revised quarter past and quarter to. Then, we converted 12 hour to 24 hour. We also looked at timetables and calculated how much time was spent between set times. We used jumps on a number line to help with this.
Multimedia week has been a blast! The children became DJs when they created songs on Chrome Music Maker. They created rhythmic beats that focused on repetition and pitch. They also wrote their own lyrics on Riffusion. We investigated debugging and tried to debug a number of codes with errors. We also became photographers. The children then edited these photos on the iPads. We have been learning about coding in scratch this term so coding Micro Bits was great fun!
Friday 9th February
What a time to do maths! This week as been all about time. First we learnt about am and pm. Then, we learnt that am is short for ante meridiem in Latin, translating to "before midday" and pm stands for post meridiem or "after midday". We revised telling the time for a quarter past, half past and a quarter to.
In English, the children got to begin writing their own adventure story. They have chosen a range of animals and various settings. They are focusing on including dialogue, paragraphs fronted adverbials and detailed descriptions. They are trying to create detailed setting descriptions
In project, we learnt about meandering rivers. The children did this by creating their own meandering river out of foil and then testing it to see how the water flows. We learnt which sections of the meander are deeper and why.
Science has been focused on rubbish. We looked into the amount of plastic waste the average family uses each week and looked at ways to reduce this. We learnt about landfill and we also looked at reducing this through recycling, re-using and making better choices when it comes to single use plastics.
Friday 2nd February
Everyone wrote their own Hodgeheg story this week. The focus was describing the setting, describing main characters, using subordinating clauses and expanded noun phrases. Once their stories were completed, they were edited with purple pen. The children edited with a buddy, reading through each other’s work. Then they wrote a published version.
We have been collecting data in maths. We created tallies and then used the information to draw bar graphs. We then interpreted the data. We looked at things like; the most popular, least popular and the difference between the most and least popular. We also discussed where in the real world this would be useful.
In science, we have been studying greenhouse gases and the impact they have on our planet. We looked at what greenhouse gasses are, what is causing them and how they are leading to global warming. We then carried out an experiment whereby we have two thermometers, and 2 different glasses; one sealed up and one with a hole. The children predicted which one will heat up and we recorded the temperature after a certain amount of time. This mimicked the effect of greenhouse gasses.
This week in Project was very hands-on and outdoors. We learnt about dams and then went out to the playground to dig our own rivers and build a working dam. I was quite surprised by the amount of children who didn’t want to get their hands dirty! On Thursday, we were learning to use maps. We set off on an adventure around Hatfield. After our long walk, we looked at our maps and plotted the route we walked.
Friday 26th January 2024
During class, everyone has worked hard to make sure they start each lesson by being ready to learn. So when they first enter the classroom, they make sure they have everything they need for that lesson.
In project this week, we have learnt all about the many uses of rivers and the effects these uses have. For example; for years, rivers have been used to transport people and goods but this can pollute rivers and cause damage to wildlife but it is a cheap way to transport.
In English, we have revised the rules of speech and fronted adverbials. We also wrote sentences containing subordinate clauses. These are phrases or clauses that won’t make sense on their own and start with; if, since, as, when, although, while, after, before, until and because.
We have worked hard learning all about angles in maths. We grouped shapes according to how many right angles they have. Then we learnt about acute, obtuse and reflex angles.
Friday 19th January 2024
Maths this week has been all about shapes. We started off with 2D shapes and we classifying and grouping them. Next, we moved onto perimeter and we learnt a number of different ways we can work out the perimeter of 2D shapes. Then, we moved onto 3D shapes. Using some shapes, we counted vertices, edges and faces.
In English, we have been doing our best to write character descriptions. We did this by writing about characters from our story; Hodgehegs. We not only described the character’s appearance, but we also describe his personality and his feelings.
In project, we have been learning about rivers. We learnt about features of a river and we investigated the 3 parts of a river; The upper course, the middle course and the lower course.
Friday 12th January 2024
This week in maths we revised rounding to the nearest 10. Then, we used rounding to help us with addition and subtraction. For example; 53 + 19 becomes 53 + 20 = 73 but then we have to take off the 1. So we are left with 72.
In English, we have started our adventure stories which is looking at a narrative story about a hedgehog. We have focused on descriptive language to describe the setting. The setting we used this week was a park at night time, from a hedgehog’s point of view.
In project, we learnt all about the water cycle. This included learning about evaporation, condensation and precipitation.
Habitat Helpers is our new science topic and we looked into various local habitats. We also learnt about animals and plants that are in danger. This week went learnt what a habitat is and what an eco-system is.
We started our first PE lessons for dance (Mondays) and Dodgeball (Fridays). Dodgeball focused on moving to avoid the ball. The children jumped and ducked to dodge the ball.
Friday 15th December 2023
It’s been an extremely busy week! This has mainly involved dress rehearsals, song practising and performances. Everyone did an amazing job in our production; No One Wraps Like an Elf. The costumes looked fantastic and you can tell the children genuinely enjoyed all of the songs. Thanks to everyone that came along to watch, some of you even managed to see it twice!
Believe it or not, we did still try to do actual school work in amongst our performances. At the beginning of this term we discussed and planned making our own volcanoes but we didn’t make then until this week. Everyone excitedly moulded their volcano out of air drying clay and then carefully painted them. They turned out great! We hope they get put on display, when they go home.
Friday 8th December 2023
In English, we have completed our unit on writing instructions. The children wrote their own set of instructions on a topic of their choice. These ranged from how to borrow from the library, recipes and even how to look after a pet. Then they edited their work and help a partner edits theirs. They had to check for imperative verbs (bossy verbs), adverbs, time adverbials, bullet points and of course, it had to be in chronological order.
In maths, we have continued on with fractions. We compared fractions and created equivalent fractions. To successfully achieve this, it’s really important to have a quick recall of multiplication facts. The children were given fractions and had to create equivalent fractions, by multiplying both the numerator and denominator by the same number it will create an equivalent fractions. For example: 4/5 by multiplying both numbers by 3 we create: 12/15.
Our Christmas production is coming on nicely. We have been practising, whenever we can. We are almost already for our big performances! Everyone looked fantastic on Christmas jumper day and it was great seeing them all enjoying the Santa dash.
Friday 1st December 2023
In English, we have been writing instructions. This included, using adverbs, time adverbials and imperative verbs. The children wrote a set of instructions for how to walk to the all and sensibly eat your lunch.
Maths has been all about fractions. We have been comparing fractions and writing fractions on number lines.
In project we have been learning about earthquakes. We learnt about what causes earthquakes and which countries are more prone to earthquakes and why. We learnt about the significance of the tectonic plates in relation to earthquakes.
We have been working extremely hard on practising for our Christmas production! We have been practising with all of year 3 and 4, singing the songs and reading our lines.
Friday 17th November 2023
This week was check point week! All of year worked extremely hard this week completing their check points. Next week for English we move onto learning about writing instructions.
In maths next week we move on to money. First we’ll look at all the coins and notes. We also look at the minimum amount of coins to make a certain number. We’ll then move onto purchasing items and receiving the correct change.
We have been practising our lines for the Christmas production and of course, practising the songs. For rugby in PE, we have been using the rugby tags. IT was great watching everyone have fun getting chased around and trying not to lose their tag.
In science, we learnt about artificial and natural light sources. We also learnt that some objects reflect light and others don’t.
Project this week as all about tsunamis and what causes them. Don’t worry the UK is relatively safe compared to most parts of the world.
Friday 10th November 2023
In English we have continued with poetry but our theme this week is Jennings poems. We had lots of fun writing Jennings poems about a range of different topics. These ranged from poems about the beach, about various animals and even football.
Maths has been fun this week! We weighed a range of objects around the classroom. The tricky bit was estimating first, although this got easier once we gained a better understanding of how much things weigh. We also converted cm to m and ml to litres.
Project was all about volcanoes. We learnt about the ring of fire, the different parts of a volcano and the devastating Mount Vesuvius and we learnt what it did to Pompeii.
Following on from the Rugby World Cup, we did rugby in PE this week. Our focus was passing and running.
In music we have been practising the songs for our production. This is very exciting and students now all have their roles and we will be learning our lines.
Friday 3rd November 2023
Interfaith week was a fantastic way to start the half term. Everyone looked amazing in their cultural attire and the food was delicious! Each day we have been learning about various religious beliefs. These always promote fantastic discussions because we’re fortunate that HCFS is very multicultural.
In English we have been learning about and writing our own Haiku poems. These Japanese poems are 3 lines long and are made of up 5 syllables for the first line, 7 for the 2nd and then 5 again for the final line. They are often about nature or the seasons.
Maths has been all about fractions. We have been recognising and writing fractions. The numerator is the number that sits at the top. It represents how many equal parts of the whole are present. The denominator is the number at the bottom and it tells us how many parts are needed to make a whole.
Our Spanish theme this term is colours and shapes. This week we learnt 5 colours: red=rojo, yellow=amarillo, blue=azul green=verde and grey= gris.
Friday 20th October 2023
It was fantastic having extra students for maths this week! Thank you to all the parents and family members who were able to come in and help with our maths lesson this week! It really helped us start learning about sharing equally.
In English we have now completed our folk tale unit by writing our own versions of Jack and the Beanstalk. The focus was on descriptive writing and using the correct punctuation for speech. We looked at synonyms for boring words, so instead of saying the big giant, we did the colossal giant or the mammoth giant.
We completed our project Gods and Mortals by demonstrating our learning through the creation of a huge double page spread. These all look fantastic!
We have finished our Spanish topic of weather. Hopefully el clima esta soleado (the weather is sunny) over the half term break!
This half term has flown by! Have a fantastic break and we’ll see you all in a week.
Friday 13th October 2023
Our folktales unit in English has moved onto the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. We have been continuing our descriptive writing, doing our best to describe the characters in the story and describe the setting; such as the giant’s castle. We have also begun to practise using direct speech. There are a lot of rules to learn and remember!
Our maths has been all about repeated addition and counting in 3s, 4s and 8s. 3x4= 4+4+4=12. We are also continuing our times tables, whenever we get a chance.
It has been fantastic seeing the progress with their hockey skills and hockey is always done with lots of smiles. We have been practising dribbling and shooting. Our basketball is also improving greatly!
In project, we learnt about the origin of the Olympics and the types of events that were completed in ancient Greece. We also completed a timeline of the key events in ancient Greece.
Friday 6th October 2023
In English, the children rewrote their own version of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. They worked hard to edit their story to look for mistakes and ways to improve it. It was then published neatly into their books.
Maths has been a lot of fun, counting in 3s, 4,s 5,s 10s and 8s. We also looked at patterns when counting by certain numbers. We also learnt rules and facts when counting by certain numbers. Did you know that if you add up the digits of a multiple of 3, they will equal a multiple of 3? 462 = 4+6+2= 12 = 1+2=3.
In project we compared the lives of women in Ancient Greece to modern British life. We also learnt about the amazing feats of Hydna of Scione. She was a diver who helped win the Persian war. Were took soil samples from all over the school in science and then studied them.
Friday 29th September 2023
Our folktales in English has been fun! We have been rewriting the Boy Who Cried Wolf. We learnt that some folktales teach morals and lesson or others explain how things came to be, like how the birds got their colours. Many folktales quite often have animals as main characters. We are really focusing on describing the characters and the setting. In maths, we have worked hard on 3 digit addition and next week we will move onto subtraction. The children have been working hard to develop their independent research skills. They created a poster about ancient Greek life using a wide range of information. They had to decide which information they thought was the most important. In PSE we discussed racism and we all agreed how fortunate we are to live in such a multi-cultural community.