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Weekly News

 

Spring 2, Week 3
 

Another productive week at school! We have started our assessments so well done to all the children, I'm so proud of all of them and it's amazing to see how much they achieved! In English, we continued Cloud Tea Monkeys and wrote letters to the monkeys as thanks for the cloud tea - keep your eyes posted for a new display on your next visit! In Science, we did a refraction experiment to see how light bends and we learnt about the 10 commandments in RE. We made felt fish in Topic by sewing two piece of felt together and stuffing it, it was so much fun!

Spring 2, Week 2 - World Book Week!
 

Wow! What a fun filled week we've had, all thanks to World Book Week. We started off by reading 'The Day the Crayons Quit' and we are the black crayon - we're upset that we are always the outline. On Tuesday, our chairs went on strike!! They had quit (just like the crayons) because we swing on them, slam their faces into the table and their screws fall out. We wrote sorry letters to get our chairs back by telling them how we'd treat them in future. On Wednesday, we walked into the classroom to find a book cafe. There was music playing, biscuits to eat, juice and a selection of books to read. We wrote reviews about our favourite ones! Thursday was lots of fun as we dressed up as the black crayon and paraded around the hall, we took part in a drop and read (even in PE!) and had the Spelling Bee assembly. We wish every week could be like this!

Spring 2, Week 1
 

Welcome back! We hope you had a lovely half term.

This week, we started reading our new book called 'Cloud Tea Monkeys' which is about a girl called Tashi who is friends with monkeys in the mountains and they collect rare tea for her. We tasted flavoured tea on Monday which was great fun! We tried mint tea and strawberry tea, we liked the strawberry tea as it reminded us of jelly but we were not so sure of the mint tea. In maths, we've been learning about how to find fractions of numbers which is especially tricky if it is an odd number! We learnt about Shrove Tuesday & Ash Wednesday in RE and enjoyed pancakes to celebrate Shrove Tuesday. In Topic, we explored the ways people use rivers along with the positives and negatives of this.

Spring 1, Week 6 

Our final week of Spring Term 1! I can't believe how quickly the year is flying by. We wrote our own myth stories this week based on the Pied Piper. We all created a stranger who promised to get rid of a problem but the story takes a twist at the end. In maths, we've used our knowledge of column addition and transferred it to column subtraction. We created bridges in topic to test which bridge was best and we enjoyed another cricket session with James where we played 'hit and run cricket'.

Spring 1, Week 5 

Another exciting week in Birch class! We have continued to read The Pied Piper in Literacy and we are currently debating whether the Mayor should pay The Pied Piper for his services. Some of us feel that he deserves his gold coins but others feel that he was not employed and offered to help. In maths, we learnt how to complete column addition! Next week, we will transfer these skills over to column subtraction. We compared rocks in Science to sort into Igneous, Metamorphic and Sedimentary, in RE we explored a day as a Vicar and researched rivers in Topic.

Spring 1, Week 4
 

This week was multi cultural week so each afternoon we have visited a new country! We loved visiting France as we learnt all about the artist Claude Monet and recreated his most famous piece of art - The River Thames. We also visited India and made a Google Slides with facts from India and facts from the UK. At the end, we played a Kahoot to test our knowledge. We had our first cricket session with James this week and had a great time! We learnt new ball skills and played great team games. We also took part in a dance workshop with Mrs Jones to celebrate The Chinese New Year.

Spring 1, Week 3 

Week 3 into our Spring Term and we have done so much already. We finished reading 'The First Drawing' this week and have written our own stories based on being the character who invented drawing to express their imagination. In maths, we have been rounding to the nearest 10 and ordering numbers. For Computing, we created algorithms to help The Grinch save the presents for Christmas. In Topic, we made some beautiful leaflets which is all about the water cycle and designed amazing masks for our Chinese Dance workshop!

Spring 1, Week 2
 

Another busy week in Birch class. We have continued to read our story called 'The First Drawing' and have enjoyed finding out how drawing was invented in the Stone Age. From the story, we learnt the difference between its and it's, interrogative sentences and exclamatory sentences plus how to use speech. Next week, we will begin to write our own story. In maths, we've been multiplying and dividing by 10. During PE, we've been learning all about the body and learning how to box! In Computing, we were sending each other emails on Purple Mash!

Spring 1, Week 1
 

Happy New Year and welcome to 2020! We have started this week with a bang and jumped straight into our learning. We started our new book, which is called 'The First Drawing' and we love it already. It is all about a boy in the Stone Age who invented drawing! In maths, we've been creating numbers based on rules and ordering numbers. We did our first topic lesson in our 'Rivers, Coast and Mountains' topic by going outside and pouring water down a slope. The idea of this is to look at how rivers are formed. Afterwards, we studied the River Dart and explored where is begins and where it ends in Dartmouth. In RE, we learnt about Christian readings and created artwork based on this.

The Last Week of the Autumn Term!
 

We have had such a festive last week of school. We began by cookie making with the helpful Elves and decorated our cookies with icing and drawing pens. Afterwards, we moved onto tile making for the rest of the day. It was really interesting crafting and painting tiles, we really took our time to ensure they were beautiful. On Tuesday, we finished our class book - "The Tin Forest" and wrote a descriptive piece about the book. We had our class party on Wednesday which was so much fun, we played games and ate lots of yummy food (which we were very thankful for!) also, we went to a great karaoke afternoon with all the teachers. On Thursday, we had a funny class quiz and watched a film!

Autumn 2, Week 7 

Another busy week, full of exciting learning. This week we have dived into a book called "The Tin Forest" which is all about a man who lives in a dump. He dreams of having a garden full of nature and decided to build his own tin forest. In maths, we have been using bar graphs and interpreting the data. We have created bar graphs about favourite colours, favourite fruit and how much food reindeer eat every month! We enjoyed making the magnetic maze to round off our forces topic in science and learnt about an advent wreath in RE.

Autumn 2, Week 6
 

We can't believe how quickly time is flying! The highlight of our week was a trip to the Museum of London. We started the journey by travelling on the train to Cannon Street, then we walked through London to the museum. On the way, we saw St Paul's Cathedral on the way! Once we arrived, we started by looking around the different galleries. We saw and learnt so much about the Romans and especially loved seeing the beautiful mosaics. After lunch, we went to an artefact workshop. We were able to hold artefacts from over 2000 years ago which was mind blowing! We found the Roman key really interesting as we couldn't work out what it was at first! Overall, it was a great trip and we loved every second.

Autumn 2, Week 5 

It was assessment week and we are so proud of all the children as they have worked incredibly hard. Well done all of you! Due to assessment week, we have tried to have lots of fun in the afternoons. In Science, we investigated whether a magnet would still attract a paperclip through a piece of material. We tested the table, felt, paper, foil and our whiteboards. We were really surprised when the paperclip was still magnetic through most of the materials. In RE, we have started to learn about the Christmas story. Although we already know the story through the nativity, we recapped it using a story map. After, we wrote a newspaper report about the birth of Baby Jesus. We used the knowledge we learnt from our cinema trip in Topic this week, as we created powerpoints about Boudicca. The children remembered that she was a brave warrior who tried to rebel against the Romans. 

Autumn 2, Week 4  

We had a great start to this week as we visited the cinema! We travelled to Sevenoaks on the train and watched Horrible Histories - Rotten Romans. It was really informative but also so funny. We had a great time and this set us up for our Boudicca lesson. We are still reading the Tear Thief in Literacy and we created wanted posters to find her. In Maths, Miss Jackson has taught us all about kilograms and grams. For our Computing lesson this week, we created a code so Beard Man on LGfL BusyThings would dance in the spotlight. We loved playing golf for the first time in Y3.

Autumn 2, Week 3 

We have had such a lovely week this week, time seems to have flown by (as always!) but we have done so much. We continued with "The Tear Thief" this week and finished reading the book, we wrote a letter to the Tear Thief as the little girl who lost her dog and we wrote a poem describing the moment we met the Tear Thief. In maths, we have been learning about cm and mm, we have measured our bodies and feet then converted this into m, cm and mm. It was great fun and the children did so well with this activity. It was Remembrance Day on Monday, we had a two minute silence to remember those who fought in the wars. In the afternoon, we painted close ups of poppies. This was really interesting and the children took this time to reflect upon the war. In Science this week, we have learnt all about magnetic poles. The children had magnets and were finding which poles would attract and which would repel. 

Autumn 2, Week 2 

This week we have been busy rehearsing for our Year 3 assembly which was all about the Romans. We loved learning the songs, dances and drama performances for the assembly, we really enjoyed it. In maths, we have been learning how to add and subtract using number lines. This has helped us subtract numbers from 100 which can be tricky when crossing the tens boundary. In literacy, we started our new book which is called "The Tear Thief", so far we found out the Tear Thief is invisible and has magical powers. She steals tears from children but we are unsure why she needs them. We hope to find out next week! We created Laurel Wreaths in topic which represented the headpiece powerful Romans would wear and we tested which materials cause the most friction in Science.

Autumn 2, Week 1 

Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely half term. This week, we finished the story "Escape from Pompeii" and enjoyed taking part in some drama activities to reenact parts of the story. In maths, we have been learning how to find remainders using division facts we already know. We have started a new Science topic called "forces" and we explored the push and pull force with a sorting activity. In RE, we continued to learn about Diwali and what people do to celebrate Diwali.

Autumn 1, Week 7
 

Wow! What a busy week we've had! We begun the week with a trip to Crofton Roman Villa. After we had arrived, we took part in a talk all about the villa and found out they only had 10 weeks to discover as much of the villa as they could! Next, we create a mosaic with tiles and drew some famous Romans. We then had a talk about daily Roman life and drew some incredible artefacts. We also took part in Grandparents' Tea Party which was so much fun! The children all did so well and we were so impressed. The class took part in their first debate this week about whether volcanoes are safe or not. What a fantastic first half term, have a lovely break!

Autumn `1, Week 6 

We have been very creative in Birch class, we researched Alma Thomas for Black History Month and we recreated her artwork using finger painting. They are so colourful and beautiful, we're so impressed. In Science, we created a pinwheel to show the lifecycle of different animals, like a frog or ladybird. We started our new book in English which is "Escape from Pompeii" and we are learning about daily Roman life.

Autumn 1, Week 5 

Time is flying by and we are learning so much. In maths, we have been learning about balanced number sentences. We have experimented with this by calculating how many we would have to add or subtract from one side so that both sides are equal.  We finish 'The Heart and the Bottle' in Literacy by writing our own stories based around the same foundation of our class book. We had some wonderful ideas and enjoyed reading them. We loved our science lesson this week as we undertook the experiment of 'if you have the biggest hands, do you have the biggest feet?' by measuring our hands and feet and comparing them. Finally, we have loved using our Chromebooks this week and have used them every day!

Autumn 1, Week 4
 

How are we at the end of week 4 already?!

It has been a particularly special week as we have had Miss Jackson join us and a new child too. Everyone has been so welcoming towards them and they have both settled very well.

From our photos, you can see we've been up to lots this week! The most exciting thing was being able to use the Chromebooks. We have loved learning how to use them to complete our learning online. We can send documents to each other with comments on how we found the learning. They have been a great tool in the classroom. We have completed an experiment in Science with reaction times by testing how quickly we could catch a ruler. It ws great fun and we learnt lots. 

Autumn 1, Week 3 

Wow this week has gone so quickly!!

In Science, we have been learning about animal diets and why different animals eat different foods. We found out that animals who burn more energy need a higher fat diet, like a cow compared to a fox. In topic, we made a mosaic by colouring and cutting small strips of paper and sticking them on. We thought of the title for our own stories in literacy and have had some great ideas, like "The Kindness in the Chest" and "The Braveness in the Jar". We've been learning what happens when you add 1, 10 and 100 to numbers in maths and have been learning how to count to 10 in Spanish. 

Autumn 1, Week 2
 

Our first full week and it has been a busy one!

In literacy, we read the full story of "The Heart and the Bottle" and explored different areas of the story. We sorted phonemes, found synonyms for happy and sad and explored emotions when the character was young and old. In maths, we've been learning about place value, how to partition successfully and place numbers on a number line. In the afternoons, we have learnt about how Rome was founded by re-enacting the story of Romulus and Remus. We had our first Science lesson where we created a superhero who ate food like a plant and we matched symbols to their religion in RE. 

Autumn 1, Week 1 

Welcome to Birch class 2019 - 2020!

It's been a wonderful first week at school, getting to know the children and the class getting to know us too. We've had lots of fun and team building activities to get to know personalities and we are so impressed already. This week, we had a competition of who could make the longest paper chain out of one piece of paper, solved clues to find out who ate the gingerbread man, designed and created a Roman shield, learnt all about our digital footprints and wrote about our perfect day.

 Summer 2, Week 3

Our weeks are just getting better and better! On Wednesday, we took part in a whole school STEM day. We learnt about coding and broke the code by working out the clues, we also created a vehicle out of junk by screwing and sawing cardboard and we made a land yacht out of K'Nex and a plastic bag. Once they were created, we tested the yachts with a fan! On Thursday, we had another wonderful time at swimming, learning how to swim on our backs and jumping in the water safely. When we got back, we made fruit kebabs for DT week and they were TASTY! Check out our photos to see them! Finally, it was sports day on Friday! We all had a great time and enjoyed taking part in the activities.

 Summer 2, Week 2

Another great week! We had such a wonderful time at swimming as we had our first lesson this week! The children continued to impress me and I can't wait to see what they do next week. We wrote a recipe to create a sundae sensation in literacy and wrote a poem about our feelings. In maths, we've been recapping our learning of fractions. We had an Eid party on Friday as a celebration, with party food and games.

 Summer 2, Week 1

Welcome to the first week back of our last half term!

We started swimming this week, which was absolutely amazing! We had a great time and are looking forward to seeing how the children progress over the weeks to come. Other than swimming, we read our new book in literacy called "beware of boys" which is about a boy who is trapped by a wolf but he manages to trick the wolf into letting him go. In maths, we've been learning about shape and we continued to learn about flowers in science.

 Summer 1, Week 5

Wednesday was the best day of this week! We had such an incredible time at Kew Gardens. We arrived and the weather was beautiful. Our first stop was the Tropic Garden, where we entered a huge green house. It was very warm and sticky - just like the tropics! We learnt about a plant who does not put it's roots in the ground because it gains it's nutrients from water and grows it the sea! We also learnt about why rainforest plants need huge leaves and some are called "elephant ears" because they look similar. Afterwards, we ate our lunch on the grass in front of a beautiful lake. Next, we went to the pollination workshop which was fascinating! We learnt about pollination and how any animal can be a pollinator if it accidentally transfers pollen from one flower to another. We even became pollinators ourselves and transferred pollen with a paint brush. We learnt that the horse chestnut tree usually has white blossom but when it has been pollinated, it turns pink so the pollinator only goes to the white blossom! How amazing! Finally, we identified bees using a fact card. On our trip, we went into a human sized bee hive which had the humming of bees. Overall, it was a fantastic day out!!

 Summer 1, Week 4

For our fourth week of 'What's on the Menu?' we visited Germany! We learnt about famous landmarks, German traditions and German food. This week we tried frankfurters which are a German sausage. They tasted similar to hot dogs so the children enjoyed these!

We've been so lucky with the weather this week so the children have really enjoyed playing on the field at lunch. We took advantage of the weather and went outside to sketch different types of plants. The drawings were beautiful and we can't wait to paint them.

 Summer 1, Week 3

For our third week of 'What's on the Menu?' we visited Mexico! We learnt about Mexico City and the Day of the Dead. We also discussed traditional Mexican food and were able to try some nachos! This is a food that many of the children have already tried but they enjoyed it nonetheless.

This week, we were really lucky as an author visited us. Rob Biddulph read 2 of his brilliant books aloud and his stories were so funny! He also taught us how to draw a dinosaur from "Happy Hatch Day"

 Summer 1, Week 2

For our second week of 'What's on the Menu?' we visited Italy! We learnt about Rome and the Colosseum. We also discussed traditional Italian food and was able to try some pizza! This is a food that many of the children have already tried but they enjoyed it nonetheless. In Literacy, we continued our suspense writing and started to write a suspense story about waking up in a forest. We questioned how we got there, described the sounds we could hear and began to stumble our way through the trees. This week in maths, we have been learning to spot the rule. To do this, we tried to calculate what was being added, subtracted, multiplied or divided to gain the next number in the sequence. We also had to try and spot which number was the odd one out and write the reason one. In RE, we explored the seven wonders of the world and we wrote up the beginning of our science experiement to test if different conditions changes how a plant grows.

 Summer 1, Week 1

Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely break.

This week, we began our new topic 'What's on the Menu?' This week we visited England and learnt all about our country. We learnt about the Royal family and famous landmarks, like Big Ben and Stone Henge. We also tasted scones with jam, which were delicious!! In RE, we've been learning all about our world and how the world is full of amazing things. Some things we may question, like 'why did God create illness? Or why did God create snails?' We explored these questions and discussed together. We also began our new book called 'The Thing in the Basement' and learnt how to crerate suspense in our writing.

 Spring 2, Week 6

What an amazing opportunity we had this week with the Tate Modern photographer. We absolutely loved having Rachael in to play drama games with us and take our photo which will be in the museum in November!! We also had our last session with James, we've loved having him teach us cricket and we hope to use these skills in the Year 3 cricket after school club. On Friday, we took part in an Easter bonnet parade and a Spring Sheep hunt!

 Spring 2, Week 5

We've had a wonderful week this week! We used our knowledge from column addition to understand how to use column subtraction successfully! Now we have two really useful skills to take up to Year 6 with us in the future. In English, we've been learning about Cave children as they appear in our story 'The Pebble in my Pocket' so we wrote a diary entry based on what they may have done with their day. In RE, we learnt about the story of the good Samaritan and what it means to help a neighbour. We sorted true and false cards in Topic and did a volcano quiz to test our knowledge! We learnt some really interesting facts about them!! Finally, we had cricket with James and had a great time learning how to bat correctly.  

 Spring 2, Week 4

We've had parents' evening this week and Mrs Banks & I are so proud of all the progress that every child has made so well done to all of you.

In maths, we've continued our learning of column addition which everyone has become incredibly strong at. We've begun to write a setting description for our pebble story, the expanded noun phrases and similes have been wonderful. In Science, we took part in some friction experiments. We tested different materials on a car ramp to find which caused the most friction, it was so much fun!

 Spring 2, Week 3

What a week we've had!! This week we've learnt how to use expanded addition with carrying of tens and hundreds, which has been great for helping us add large numbers. We had our third cricket session with James but it was indoors due to rain, we had so much fun!! We played some great games whilst recapping our aiming skills. Lastly, it was our class assembly this week which we hope you all enjoyed. We've learnt so much this year and still have so much more to come!

 Spring 2, Week 2

This week, Year 3 loved their second session with James. We learnt how to bat and how to run between the stumps whilst the fielders are catching the ball! Please look at our photos to see what we've been doing! This week was World Book Day so we learnt all about the story of Hansel and Gretel. We found out that the witch was actually the hero! The children were really the villains! We wrote stories from the witch's perspective which were brilliant!

 Spring 2, Week 1

Welcome back! We hope everyone had a lovely week off.

This week, we've started to reading our new book called 'The Pebble in my Pocket' which is about the journey of a pebble from start to finish. So far our pebble began as part of a mountain before breaking off and falling down into the river, before ending up in the sea. In maths, we've been learning how to add large numbers by partitioning and spotting patterns. For example 23 + 9 = ? we found it was easier to add 10 then take 1 away. In RE, we discussed all the different traditions which people have for Pancake Day and learnt a funny story about how pancake races began. We sorted push and pull forces in Science and labelled a volcano in topic. Please look at our class photos to see our activities we took  part in with the country cricket coach (James Reed!) It was brilliant.

 Spring 1, Week 6

Our final week of the first half term! This week, we finished our list poems in Literacy. We did a draft of the poem and published it on PurpleMash so others could comment on our poems to tell us what we did well! Finally, we wrote them in our books surrounded by beautiful artwork. In maths, we've continued to learn about fractions by focusing on equivalents and how to find fractions of numbers and shapes. In RE, we drew some amazing representations of Jesus. We enjoyed computing this week as we were able to play on any of the Hour of Code games we've explored this term! We had some great dance moves from the Code game 'Dance Party!' We hope everyone has a great half term & stay safe! 

 Spring 1, Week 5

On Tuesday, Birch class visited Metro Bank! We got to use the money machine which counted our money for us. After, we went into the vaults and got to see where the money is kept! We also looked inside a vault and found lots of lollies!! Afterwards, we met Metro Man which was great. We got to dance with him and gave him lots of hugs! He gave us a goody bag which had a money box, lollies and pens inside. It was so much fun, whilst learning all about money. 

It was also Safer Internet Day on Tuesday 5th February and we had a great activity where we learnt all about consent online. We took part in a class discussion to talk about whether scenarios were "ok" or not and why.

In literacy, we wrote our letters to Ivan whilst pretending to be Starjik. We learnt about fractions in maths, Jesus in the desert for RE and reflective surfaces in Science.

 Spring 1, Week 4

It was multi-cultural week so we've had a wonderful time visiting different countries! We went to Australia on Tuesday and we created some finger print pictures of Australian animals, on Wednesday we created some sand art which was great fun! On Thursday, we learnt about the traveller community with Mrs Weeks and on Friday, we went to Mexico with Miss Bowley! We had nachos and created some Mexican folk art.

Also this week, we took part in a Chinese dance workshop which was amazing. We were all given fans and learnt a dance with the fans. We also took part in a wonderful parade! Metro Bank visited us for the final time, we learnt about how to budget. We also discussed the difference between wanting and needing something.

 Spring 1, Week 3

Half way through already! This week we began rewriting the story of Ice Palace with our own characters and settings. They are AMAZING! We are so impressed with the ideas, we have stories about villains stealing all the colour from the world and baddies taking away happy memories. Well done Birch class! Metro Bank visited for a second time and at the beginning of the session we were given a grape. They told us we could eat the grape or save it. Later on, the children who saved their grape were given another grape. This was a way of explaining interest! In maths, we've been learning how to round and ordering numbers. We loved coding this week as we coded a grinch game. It ws so much fun! We learnt about special places in RE and how to solve conflict in PSHE. Finally, in Science, we were playing a guessing game in the dark! We blindfolded our partners and they had to guess the object we gave them.

 Spring 1, Week 2

The second week of this term has absolutely flown by! We finished reading Ice Palace and loved listening to how Ivan saved his little brother. The description of Starjik was incredible to read and unpick, he is definitely an evil character. On Friday, we created our own hero, helper and villain just like the structure of Ice Palace. In maths, we've been learning about the inverse and how we can use multiplication to help with our division facts and vise versa. We've been sorting transparent, opaque and translucent objects in Science (see our photos) by deciding whether light passes through them or not. During RE we discussed the ten commandments and translated them so we could understand them in simple terms. We've also loved playing LightBot in Computing! Finally, Metro Bank visited us this week! It was the first week out of three visits and we learnt all about saving. We learnt the advantages of saving money, where to save it and what other valuable items people keep in a safety deposit box.

 Spring 1, Week 1

Happy New Year!

Welcome back to school in 2019!

We've had a full on first week back, even though it was only 4 days long! We have been reading our new class book by David Walliams called Ice Monster. It's absolutely amazing, we're on Chapter 12 already! In Literacy, we've been reading Ice Palace and we have been exploring Ivan's character along with the village he lives in. There is a character called Starjik who takes children in the night and Ivan is going to rescue his little brother! In maths, we've been placing numbers on number lines and learning how to order numbers. In Science, we began our new topic of light and dark and sorted natural and artificial light sources. We enjoyed writing our New Year Resolutions for our PSHE goals topic and learnt about how Christianity began in RE.

Autumn Term 2, Week 8 

The last week of Autumn term!! We've had such a fun filled week, I cant' belive we're a third of the way through the year already. On Monday, the Life Bus visited us. We learnt all about the brain and how it is important for our bodies. We learnt about what can harm and help our bodies and had a great discussion about how medicine can do both. We also helped Geff the Giraffe with his homework about what we need to stay healthy. On Wednesday, we went to the Church for a Carol service which was wonderful. We all felt very festive and enjoyed hearing the children sing. On Thursday, we had our class Christmas party which consisted of a Christmas quiz and musical games. We also watched Gangsta Granny after reading the book and it was great to follow the storyline and see how David Walliams portrayed the book in the film. Finally on Friday, we watched a Christmas film and had our Christmas dinner - delicious!

Mrs Banks and I have had an amazing first term and have loved getting to know all the children. We're extremely proud of their progress and can't wait to see what else they can do! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Autumn Term 2, Week 7 

What a busy week we've had!! We've been busy creating leaflets about what the Romans brought to Britain. Such as cats, roads, glass, libraries, Latin, Christianity and lots more! We enjoyed discussing which was the most important item they brought to Britain and why. In maths, we've been learning all about bar graphs! We also creating a Christmas themed bar graph about Reindeer food and wrapping presents. We visited the Pantomime on Wednesday and saw Cinderella! It was absolutely amazing, very funny and a wonderful experience to share together. We watched the Key Stage 1 Nativity on Tuesday which was brilliant and have been rehearsing for our Christmas Carol Service.

 Autumn Term 2, Week 6

This week has completely flown by and we can't believe we're in December already! We decorated the classroom with a Christmas tree, tinsel and advent calendars. This week we learnt how to write Kenning poems about Roman gladiators. They are poems which usually only have 2 words per line and they give you clues to guess what the poem is about. We had great fun writing them and even wrote a Kenning poem about ourselves then we guessed who belonged to who in class. In maths, we've been learning about grams and kilograms. We sorted how to weigh different objects and how to convert between grams and kilograms. We used Minecraft to code in Computing which the children absolutely loved! They were all so engaged and the time flew by. In Science, we learnt about the human body and we stuck a skeleton back together. We began to learn about Advent in RE and what each coloured candle means. Finally, we had Celebration of Learning on Friday where we showed off how amazing we all are!

 Autumn Term 2, Week 5

It's been assessment week and both Mrs Banks and myself are so proud of every single one of you! Everyone worked so hard in every assessment and tried their best throughout, we're really pleased. In our 'down time' we have been created mosaics for Silent Art Week! We loved creating patterns with lots of different colours, the end result is great! We also learnt about Puja trays in RE and how to find a 'win win' situation in PSHE.

Autumn Term 2, Week 4 

This week we have been writing newspaper reports about a Gladiator fight! We identified features of a newspaper and looked at the structure of a newspaper too! In maths, we have been learning about cm and mm. We have been measuring with a ruler and converting cm into mm then mm into cm. We have enjoyed learning how to measure correctly! We took part in a Purple Mash competition where we had to design a festive card! In RE, we learnt the story of the God Ganesh and why he has an elephant head. Finally, in Science, we continued to learn about animal skeletons and drew some amazing pictures of them. We also took part in a Kahoot quiz to test our knowledge.

Autumn Term 2, Week 3 

This week we wrote our diaries in the role of a Roman gladiator! The diary entries written were fantastic and I felt like I was there whilst reading them. We also read our diaries to other people and edited them with a purple polishing pen. This is a great skill to learn because it means the children are reading their learning again and deciding where it could be improved. In maths, we have been adding to 100 and subtracting from 100, we have learnt about different types of animal skeleton in Science and Diwali in RE. Finally, we made stress balls as we discussed how to calm down if we get angry.

 Autumn Term 2, Week 2

It was our class assembly this week so we spent lots of time rehearsing to show how amazing we are! We hope you enjoyed it. Please find photos of us with the T-Rex in 'Photos of Birch Class'. To create the photos we stood in front of a green blanket and used green screen to put a t-rex behind us!

Other than rehearsing, we have planned our diary as a Roman gladiator. We have learnt about Diwali as we celebrated it on 7th November and learnt about Remembrance as it's on Friday.

Autumn Term 2, Week 1 

Welcome back! We hope you all had a lovely half term.

We began our Roman topic this week and learnt all about gladiators. We found out about the Colosseum and visited it on a virtual reality school trip. We learnt that gladiators didn't always want to fight but they weren't allowed to show fear. We also learnt that the Colosseum could hold 50,000 and it was free to enter!

We learnt how to find remainders in maths, along with doubling and halving. In RE, we continued to learn about Hinduism, specifically a Mandir. We played on Purple Mash in computing as it was Halloween! We created pumpkins on Purple Mash and wrote poems about witches.

Finally, we learnt about what makes us angry and how we can calm ourselves down. We also recapped Spanish colours

Autumn Term 1, Week 7 

Wow! The last week of school has flown by.

This week we learnt all about Clerihew poems. We learnt that it has 4 lines, it rhymes and is usually funny. After learning about them, we wrote our own Clerihews about dinosaurs and they were fantastic!! We loved learning about all the crazy (& serious) theories which discuss how dinosaurs became extinct - we still aren't sure if aliens visited or not! We learnt how to say colours in Spanish and rehearsed as a class & in pairs. Finally, we learnt our poem for the tea party which was so funny!

Autumn Term 1, Week 6 

This week we visited the Natural History Museum and we LOVED it!

When we arrived, the children couldn't believe the size of the building. As we walked in, their faces lit up at the sight of the blue whale (dippy). It was lovely to see them all so amazed. We walked around the dinosaur section of the museum and looked at fossils. We were shocked by how big some of the dinosaur legs were. We also learnt interesting facts along the way. We were so pleased to see Mary Anning's "fish lizard" as we have been learning about her life. We also took part in a Dino Workshop and we pretended to be palaeontologists. It was so much fun! 

Autumn Term 1, Week 5 

We've had a wonderful week this week and we began writing our balanced arguments! We learnt that balanced arguments have points for and against the argument with your own opinion at the end. In maths, we've been learning about money. We've learnt how to add money and how to give change, we've also solved money word problems. During topic, we learnt how to tell the difference between a carnivore and a herbivore. In science, we learnt about Mary Anning and how she became famous! Finally, we've learnt about Harvest in RE.

 Autumn 1, Week 4

How have we completed week 4 already?! Time is flying in Birch class and we're having so much fun!

This week we wrote our own stories based on 'Dinosaurs and all that Rubbish' and they are AMAZING! We can't wait to show you our stories at parents' evening because the language used and ideas imagined are wonderful. Mrs Banks and I are so proud of all the stories which have been written. In maths, we've been learning about money by using fake money to calculate total amounts and how to give change. We have been learning about all the different dinosaurs which existed in Topic and have loved watching videos of David Attenbourough describing the dinosaurs, how they lived and survived. We created a timeline with the 4 different periods with a variety of dinosaurs. In our RE lessons, we've continued to learn about Hinduism and their main beliefs, we got the chance to handle different types of rock in science and described their properties. Finally, in computing, we manipulated two turtles to move around the screen.

 Autumn 1, Week 3

We've had such a wonderful week, full of learning!

We began the week with our first violin lesson which was amazing! We can't wait to show off our skills soon. We have been creating a new character and paradise for story writing in literacy and have been focusing on place value in maths. In topic, we sorted fossils and matched them to their dinosaurs. We learnt about Hinduism and RE and located where it is celebrated around the world on an iPad and map. We had our first golf lesson with Miss Bowley (see photos), finally we enjoyed coding, learning about types of rocks and how to introduce ourselves in Spanish! A fun packed week!

 Autumn 1, Week 2

Our first full week back and it's been a busy one!

We began the week with Computing Champions visiting us to talk to us about how to stay safe online. Mr Rickers came to our class and we watched some great videos which promoted discussions about what to do in different online scenarios. It was health week so we took part in a Joe Wicks workout. We watched him live on the Internet and followed his every move - we loved it! To celebrate health week, we sketched our favourite healthy meals and played online quizzes to support our learning. In literacy, we began reading our story "Dinosaurs and all that rubbish" which is about enjoying the paradise you have. Finally, in maths, we've focused on place value.

 Autumn 1, Week 1

Welcome to Year 3!

We've had a wonderful first few days back to school, full of fun activities to get to know each other and settle in. To begin the week, we drew pictures in our sketchbooks of objects or people we love. We also took an interactive quiz about dinosaurs to find out what we know already. We have created book marks for our new (& bigger!) books and made a front cover for our dinosaur topic. We have already been coding in Computing and Birch class picked it up very quickly. We also sorted true and false facts about dinosaurs and had a competition for who could make the longest paper chain with 1 piece of paper.

Summer 2 Week 5 

We completed our milk art activity in art while we have also been quite busy practising for our class assembly.  This will take place on Thursday 28th June at 2:30pm.  It looks like it will be quite a warm week this week so please ensure your child has their water bottle and a hat if possible.

Summer 2 Week 4 

The week concluded with our annual KS2 Sports Day.  All children performed extremely well and displayed great sportmanship and support to their team mates.  It was assessment week this week and as such we were busy with a variety of tests.  

Summer 2 Week 3 

 In topic, we looked at the various parts of the Earth (inner core, outer core, mantle and crust) and the features of these.  Maths saw us work on time - problems related to time and telling the time to the nearest five minutes. A reminder that our second swimming session will take place next Wednesday 20th June.

Summer 2 Week 2 

This week we completed our persuasive letter writing unit in English, writing a letter to Mrs Weeks trying to persuade her that ALL KS2 students should be allowed mobile phones at school.  We also wrote Fathers Day poems to go in our Fathers Day cards.  We learnt how to pronounce various fruits in Spanish while in PE we continued to practice our sprints in readiness for our sports day next Friday morning.

Summer 2 Week 1  

The first week back after half term saw Beech class start their new unit in English - to write a persuasive letter.  We looked at the features of this type of text including hyperboles (I'll die if I don't eat some food soon).  In maths we have been doing work on pictograms, tables and bar graphs and answering questions related to these.  We also started swimming!  We took the bus to the Walnut Centre in Orpington.  This weeks lesson was all about getting ourselves in groups.  Our topic for this half term is Volcanoes and Rocks.  We looked at where most volcanoes are located (the Ring of Fire) and used an atlas to help us with this task.  Finally, in our reading sessions we read about the upcoming Football World Cup and the history behind this event.

 

21st May
 

We have had Art and Science week in year 3! We have been looking at magnetic forces and have been doing lots of fun experiments. We learned that only metals containing iron, cobalt and nickel are magnetic which was very surprising. Also, we discovered that a magnetic force can act at a distance by conducting our own experiments. We have also been designing and painting our own Roman shields and have been looking at how powerful the Roman army was.

14th May
 

This week we have been revising the grid method to multiply large numbers and have been using Live Mathletics to practise our times tables with other children in the class. In Literacy we have been writing our own suspense stories using fronted adverbials, adverbs, paragraphs and other key features of suspense writing such as short sentences and things that are hidden from the reader!

7th May
 

This week we visited Crofton Roman Villa to learn about the Romans and how they lived. We designed our own mosaics, learnt about Roman life and we even got to dress up as Romans! We also looked at a Roman soldier and what armour and clothing they wore.  In maths we have been looking at fractions of amounts and equivalent fractions. We used the new computing room for the first time for mathematics with Mr Greenwood.

30th April
 

This week Beech class looked at the written method when doing multiplication - the grid method. We also continued to work on column addition with crossing over the ones, tens and hundreds. We have been using short sentences, fronted adverbials and adverbs to create suspense in our writing in Literacy. We have also been learning about the Celts and we have been writing diary entries in role of Celts to describe our daily life. We looked at Boudicca's rebellion against the Romans and discussed if she was wrong or right to create all the suffering.

23rd April
 

This week saw Birch class go on their rescheduled school trip to Kew Gardens on Thursday. On arrival, we all looked through the Princess of Wales Conservatory, which is home to a variety of plants from around the world.  We also had an education session about pollination and went on the tree top high walk to experience plants and trees from high above! In maths we have been learning the column method when adding numbers and trying to solve a variety of word problems involving addition and subtraction. We started learning about Kwik Cricket with Mr Duffin in PE, while in English we looked at how to add suspense into our stories through using short sentences and sound words.  We also discussed what prepositions are ie words that tell us where things are eg in, under, on etc.

17th April
 

The weather this week has been stunning - a great way to start back at for for Summer Term.  We started our new topic - the Romans.  We created a poster about what the children knew about the Romans and what they wanted to know.  In Maths we looked at the grid method in multiplication and also doubling and halving 2 and 3 digit numbers.  Our new topic in Science is Forces and Magnets.  We conducted an investigation into how different materials effect the movement of an object.  

26th March
 

It's the last week of Spring term! This week, amongst Easter activities, Birch class wrote their own story that had to include speech while in Maths we revised a variety of concepts that we have been learning throughout the term.

Please don't forget we break up at 1.30pm on Thursday and return to school on Tuesday 17th April. 

19th March
 

This week in English we have looked at using inverted commas in our writing.  We have practised turning conversations between people and animals into a written format and also wrote our own story that included lots of speech.  In maths we spent the week measuring and weighing a variety of objects while in Spanish we have been practising the days of the week. 

12th March
 

This week was assessment week, completing tests in Maths, Science and Literacy.  In RE we continued to look at Sikhism and studied one of the festivals in this religion.  We researched where particular foods come from and created a flow chart in Topic while we completed our Matchbox art project - come and take a look at our creations displayed in the school entrance.  English saw us start to put actions to our new extract from Sheep-Pig while in Maths we revised a variety of topics in readiness for our Maths test.

5th March
 

After the disruption caused by the 'Beast from the East' in week 8 where the school was closed for 3 days due to snow and lack of power and heating, things got back on track in week 9.  On Friday we celebrated World Book Day by dressing up as a character of a book.  We wrote about this character and also had a whole school parade in the morning.  We also celebrated Holi by looking at what this religious occasion is all about and completing a comprehension activity.  

19th February
 

 In English we started to look at non-chronological reports about animals. We looked at the features of this type of non-fiction writing and started to research facts about our own animal.  In PE we began practising skills to play dodgeball with Mr Duffin while in science we set up a plant growth experiment as we want to observe and record how the environment affects plant growth.  Maths saw us look at division and how we get remainders.  We also worked on 2 step word problems whereby we had to find what change we would get after buying 2 things from a shop.  

5th February
 

The final week of Spring Term 1 saw Beech class go on their third school trip - this time to Wagamama restaurant in Bromley.  The class were taken on a behind the scenes tour of what goes on in a restaurant.  They were split into groups of ten and looked at food and drink preparation along with how orders are placed.  We then enjoyed a delicious lunch, using our child friendly chopsticks instead of the usual cutlery.  In maths we looked at pictograms and how to interpret these while in English we made up our own poems based on one that we looked at called 'The Door'.  We looked at the continents of the world and had to name each one of these while in Topic we created an advertisement for our made up restaurant. 

29th January
 

This week has been Multicultural week.  Each afternoon the class went to another class to learn about the various continents.  They learnt about Australia in Fir class and created a koala; Asia and Chinese New Year with Mrs Gayle in Year 5 and Europe in Birch Class. On Tuesday we had lots of fun learning two Bollywood dances.  

22nd January
 

This week we have used Narnia as an inspiration to create our own class story about a boy walking through a waterfall to find Pet Land- a magical land full of animals. In Maths we have been looking at using protractors to measure angles and the degrees of turns. We also had a fun maths lesson with our maths specialist Mr. Greenwood using visual ways to help us consolidate our understanding of doubling numbers. We have also been reading DigiDucks Big Decision, a story on the iPads, during guided reading and the children have created their own animal characters with an alliteration. My personal favourite was snappy shark and George the gentle giraffe!

Well done to Rosie for achieving star of the week.

15th January
 

The highlight of the week was no doubt our trip to the Tower of London.  Despite the cold weather, all of the children and adults had an enjoyable day out learning a lot about this most famous landmark. In Maths we created our own tally charts and bar graphs to show how we enjoyed the various events on our school trip to the Tower of London. In Literacy we have been writing about walking through a portal to find a secret world, just like Lucy in Narnia, concentrating on fronted adverbials, adjectives and speech.  

Well done to Oliver for achieving star of the week.

8th January
 

This week in computing we continued to learn about Microsoft Word, looking at how we can change the font, colour and size. The children particularly enjoyed this and they are continuing to develop their typing and computing skills. In Maths we looked at different types of lines (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, parallel and perpendicular) along with how to find the perimeter of 2D shapes.  English has seen us learn about adverbs and learning to memorise our Narnia extract by adding actions. In Science we looked at the four main parts of a plant (flower, stem, leaf and roots) and the jobs they have. A reminder that next Wednesday we have our trip to the Tower of London.

Well done to Frazer for achieving star of the week.

3rd January
 

Happy new year! Despite it only being a short week, Birch class have been very busy. In literacy, we wrote about our Christmas holiday and are in the process of typing these up using Microsoft Word.  We started our new topic in Science as well - plants - by listing the things that we know about plants and what we want to find out.  We also completed our plant title page in our Science book.  In RE this term we will be studying Sikhism.  This week we looked at the story of Guru Nanak (the founder of Sikhism) and sequenced a story about his life.  In Maths we learned about Roman Numerals (I, V, X, L, and C) and also did more work on telling the time.

Well done to Jay Jay for achieving star of the week.

11th December
 

We have been learning about the brain in the life bus and we have looked at different parts of the body and their functions. We also had fun listening to Harold the giraffe singing songs about friendships! We have been practising for our Christmas carol concert at the church next week. In literacy, we have been focusing on using fronted adverbials in our writing and discussing whether children should be allowed to eat food in class. We will be writing our own balanced arguments on Monday.

Well done to Maggie for achieving star of the week.

4th December
 

This week we have been busy in maths learning about measurement- we measured our own height and feet! In Literacy, we have been looking at a balanced argument about whether dogs should be kept on leads in parks. The children have come up with some great arguments for and against this question! We have been really lucky to have taken part in a K'Nex workshop to help us develop our science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) skills. We have also been doing some Christmas art making!

Well done to Sophia for achieving star of the week.

27th November
 

This week we have started our Christmas activities by looking at how Christmas is celebrated around the world. In topic we have been learning about earthquake safety and we have been practising earthquake drills. We designed posters in groups to show how to stay safe and designed our own safety tool kit. These are on display in our classroom which look fantastic! We have also been looking at adding and subtracting fractions with the same denominator which the children have particularly enjoyed and even asked for extra learning to do at home.

Well done to Emily for achieving star of the week.

20th November
 

This week we have been doing some fantastic writing our class story about an explorer in a rainforest, we have used our five senses to write a detailed setting description. In science we have been investigating light and we carried out an experiment using straws and bubbles to find out what colours make up white light. We have also started practising chritmas songs in music with violins and have made a christmas wreath at the PTA craft fair. 

Well done to Olion for achieving star of the week.

13th November
 

We have had a very busy and fun week! This week in Literacy we have been boxing up our class story and we have decided to write about an explorer in a rainforest. Following this, in art we created our own rainforest pictures and we are going to add colour next week with pastels. This week has been anti-bullying week so we have had an assembly, visitors in to discuss what bullying is, workshops run in class and we have also been making our own promises and looking at how to be kind to others in our PSHE lessons. In computing, we have been creating our own animations on purple mash. On Friday it was children in need so we discussed what children in need is for and we had many activities throughout the day including making our own Pudsey bears and icing our own children in need biscuits!

Well done to Reggie for achieving star of the week.

6th November
 

This week in maths we have been learning how to subtract and add three-digit numbers mentally and using a hundred square. In Literacy, we have been writing our own setting description by describing the five senses we experience when at the beach. Our target this week has been to include adverbs in our descriptions. We have also been creating our own mnemonics to help us learn our common spelling. For example, as a class we used Elegant Nan's Octopus Uses Giant Helicopters to help us remember how to spell enough. We have been researching the 2011 earthquake at Christ Church using books, iPads, QR codes, fact sheets and we created our own fact files.

Well done to Macy for achieving star of the week.

30th October
 

We have had a great first week back after half term! We have started our topic on earthquakes; learning about why earthquakes happen and tectonic plate boundaries. We have also started reading our new class book (The Ice Cat) and we have been creating our own story maps while acting out the story. We explored the front cover and the blurb of our book to predict what the story might be about. In maths, we have been looking at number patterns and how number bonds can help us to work out addition and subtraction number problems. We had a great lesson with Mr. Greenwood this week playing class bingo with number bonds up to 50! Also, in Art we have made our own colour wheels and experimenting how to mix primary colours to create new colours.

Well done to Kaiden H for achieving star of the week.

16th October
 

The last week before the half term has been quite busy. This week was Maths Week and as a result, Birch class have been involved in a variety of maths related activities.  On Monday we combined PE and Maths.  In groups of 6, children had to run out and get a tennis ball that had a particular number on it which matched a certain number fact. The children really enjoyed these games.  In Literacy, we also completed our unit on instructional writing and had to write a set of instructions that included headings, 'bossy' verbs and time connectives. 

There is no star of the week as it is half term, so Rexy the dinosaur will be coming home with Miss Mansfield for the week.

9th October
 

This week we have been researching famous black people for Black History Month. We have created our own silhouette artwork to display facts about our researched people. Take a look at these on the wall when you enter our school! We have been making jam sandwiches in our Literacy lesson to focus on instruction writing and we are going to be writing our own instructions next week!

Well done to Amber for achieving star of the week.

2nd October
 

This week we have boxed up and written our own stories in Literacy and have been looking at 3D shapes in maths. We had a fantastic day learning about dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum and we also had some spare time to look at earthquakes and volcanoes for our topic after half term!

Well done to Dylan for achieving star of the week.

25th September
 

This week we have been writing our own class story about an evil Queen who accuses a child of stealing her doughnuts. We have also had the opportunity to taste doughnuts in class to help us use descriptive language! In maths, we have started looking at properties of 2D shapes. 

Well done to Edley for achieving star of the week.

18th September
 

This week we have been looking at synonyms and antonyms to improve our character description in Literacy. We have been looking at the time again in maths this week and playing lots of fun games to recap our times tables. In science, we have become personal trainers and have analysed what teachers at our school eat on a weekly basis. We have also looked at when dinosaurs were existed and created our own historical timelines.

Well done to Emma for achieving star of the week.

11th September
 

This week we have been learning an extract from Matilda and are focusing on character description using adjectives and similes. In maths, we have been learning about telling the time and also place value. We have started our topic on Hinduism in RE and have had some fun PE lessons playing invasion games. We have also started our Science topic about animals where we looked at herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores!

Well done to Liam for achieving star of the week.

6th September
 

Welcome to year 3! We have had a great and busy first week in Birch class. In literacy, we have been writing letters to our Pen Pals in Hong Kong and we have also been thinking about what it might be like to live in Hong Kong. In maths, we have been recapping our times tables and learning to tell the time. We have also been using the iPads to research Australian animals!

Well done to Kaiden K for achieving star of the week.

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