Year 3 have had a wonderful week this week. We started the week learning all about our final woman from our class book called Marie Curie. Marie Curie is an inspiration due to her amazing discoveries, intelligence and caring nature. Without her, we may not have discovered the treatments that we still use today to treat diseases and injuries. The children have loved learning all about her amazing work, her contribution to helping over a million soldiers during World War One thanks to her invention of a mobile x-ray unit called a ‘little Curie’. Year 3 found it fascinating that she was the first woman to win a Nobel prize and the first person to ever win two Nobel prizes! We also learnt that a charity has been set up in her name which provides care and support to ill people and their families. The children learnt all about x-rays and how they work and ended the week by writing a flip book biography all about Marie Curie – don’t they look fantastic!

In Science, we learnt all about the different parts of a plant. The children were introduced via video to Miss White, a science teacher from St. Bede’s, who is working with the children during this exciting topic. She talked us through how to dissect a plant which we later did using a lily. We learnt lots of new key words such as stigma, anther, filament and sepal. The children were given a drawing of the inside of a lily which they labelled and wrote about what certain parts of a plant do.

To end the week, the children created lovely Easter cards for their families and loved taking part in our Easter egg competition!

All that is left to say is we hope that all of the children and their families enjoy a well deserved break over the Easter holidays. Mrs Patterson and I are so proud of each and every one of you and can’t wait to see you all again in a couple of weeks time. Stay safe, God bless and Happy Easter.

Miss Walker x

Year 3 have had a wonderful week. On Wednesday, the children thoroughly enjoyed using the ‘Now Press Play’ headphones to listen to an Egyptian story which they acted out very enthusiastically. The children were transfixed and got thoroughly engrossed in the story.

Later in the week, we enjoyed painting our sarcophaguses using metallic paints to really make our clay work stand out and realistic. We used our initial design in our Art books for inspiration.

On Thursday, to celebrate Mars Day, the children took part in a robokids activity where they met a real robot called Nao. The children loved learning all about Nao and particularly loved his dance moves! The children learnt that robots understand a specific language called coding and that they need very specific instructions in order to follow them correctly. We learnt the importance of programming and de-bugging if something goes wrong. The children got their thinking caps on and helped the Scientists to decide which rocket would be best to go to Mars. We also discovered that Scientists have to figure out when it is best to launch a rocket to Mars by using Maths and Science to know when planet Earth is closest to Mars (as both planets move around the sun at different speeds). By the end of the session, we had lots of children wanting to be engineers, mathematicians and scientists to help make robots or be involved in Space projects to Mars in the future.

In English, we have loved learning all about Anne Frank in our class book ‘Fantastically great women who changed the world’. The children imagined themselves as Anne Frank and got thinking about what life would have been like living in hiding in the Secret Annexe. All of the diary entries were amazing but here are just a couple of examples written by Henry and William.

Mrs Patterson, Miss Walker and the Year 3 children have had a fantastic week! Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Year 3 entered the classroom on Monday with huge smiles and excitement. It has been wonderful to see all of the children again in person and we have certainly had a busy week!

This week is British Science Week and in order to celebrate it, Year 3 took part in some Science experiments. On Monday, the children created homemade lava lamps using a clear bottle, vegetable oil, water, food colouring and alka seltzer. We learnt that the alka seltzer reacted with the water which created bubbles of carbon dioxide which created the effect of a lava lamp. We also discovered that oil does not mix with water and that it actually sits on top of water as oil has less density (is lighter) than water which has more density (is heavier).

On Tuesday, we had fun created harnesses out of pipe cleaners for different sized chocolate eggs and a real hard boiled egg and zip wired them down smooth wire and string. The children worked as a team to time how long each egg took to get from the top to the bottom of the zip wire. We learnt that the heavier the egg and the smoother the wire resulted in the fastest time due to less friction.

The theme for British Science Week this year is ‘Innovating for the Future’. On Thursday, KS2 thoroughly enjoyed our remote lesson with Beamish museum all about a live demonstration of the effects of explosions in coal mines in the 1800s. We learnt many things such as how the explosions in the mines happened (a gas called methane and coal dust reacting with a flame they used to see in the mines) which our Beamish presenter demonstrated. We learnt about the devastating effects the explosions had on the community in Felling and also the famous names that influenced the set up of the Sunderland Society to protect coal miners. The activity explored the miners’ safety lamp and the history and science behind the revolutionary invention.

To top off this fantastic week, the children got very crafty and designed their own sarcophagus and then created it using clay. What a week!

Congratulations to all of the children and families for making it to the end of remote learning (hopefully!). Mrs Patterson and I are so proud of all of the Year 3 children who have been at home but also the key worker children who have been in school. They have all been so positive and their work has been superb! A big thank you once again to our wonderful families for all of their support throughout remote learning.

In English this week, we have been learning about another famous woman who changed the world called Emmeline Pankhurst. Emmeline was part of a famous group called The Suffragettes who fought for women’s right to vote as many years ago only men could decide who they wanted to be in charge of the country. Year 3 created fact files and compared how women were treated before World War One (before 1914) and how women are treated now. Here is Lilly’s fantastic fact file and comparison table.

In Maths, the children have moved on to learning all about tally charts and pictograms. Here’s Lucy receiving her well-deserved head teacher’s award for her excellent maths work!

In History, we found out what the Ancient Egyptians liked to do for fun. We discussed our hobbies and realised that many of the activities we enjoy now wouldn’t have been possible back in the Egyptian times because they did not have the internet or materials such as plastic to make lots of the toys we use now. We discussed a popular game that the Egyptians used to play called Senet. The children had their own version at home and used similar equipment to play the game such as throwing sticks instead of a dice to count how many placed on the board to move. As you can see, the children had lots of fun!

Grace and Andrew also wowed us this week by creating fantastic stories all about something that they found outside. Grace thought the wall outside looked like faces and created a wonderful story about them called ‘The misunderstood faces’ whereas Andrew thought that a petal on the ground looked a bit like a turtle which inspired him to write a story called ‘The lost turtle’. Check out their stories on our Twitter page!

All that is left to say is a huge well done for the past 8 weeks. Mrs Patterson and I can’t wait to welcome you all back into the classroom! Enjoy your weekend, Miss Walker.