VIP Morning!

We really enjoyed welcoming our VIPs for VIP morning and the children did a fabulous job of measuring items in the classroom and calculating their perimeter! A massive thank you to all who managed to come in!

Sports Week!

We are thoroughly enjoying sports week in Woodpecker Class. We got to try New Age Curling and a variety of Paralympic sports - wheelchair basketball, blind football and sign language bowls. They all presented their own challenges but we all enjoyed them immensely. I was so impressed at how quickly the children mastered the skills of a wheelchair!

Walk around Plaistow

In Woodpecker class we got straight out into the sunshine this week with a walk around Plaistow. Our new topic is all about our local area and being pioneers of it. We made sure we looked at Plaistow with new eyes and saw what made it special and important. The children were brilliant at explaining what they saw and why they thought it was important, they even wrote some excellent explanations in their books about different photos as well. We are very lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the country and the children seem to be realising that too!

Even though it may seem an odd photo, the children were quite captivated by the thought of a phone box, a throwback to life before we had a mobile phone!

Rap time!

This week is very exciting for the Woodpeckers because are writing our own raps. As a culmination of our topic on Heroes and Villains we are writing raps to celebrate famous heroes from history. The children have researched current raps, made their own beats and rhythms and now they are working on lyrics to accompany them. We can’t wait to hear how they turn out!

Rosa Parks - a hero!

This week we started to look at a true hero - Rosa Parks! She was an ordinary woman but she stood up for the rights of black people in America in the 1950s and sparked massive changes. It was so inspiring to see the children completely enthralled by her story and incensed at how unfair it was. It is wonderful that they have such a good sense of equality. We are going to be researching her further this week and writing our own biographies of her, which I am already excited to read.

Bucket Fillers

This afternoon in Woodpecker class we discussed how everyone has an invisible bucket and how important it is to be bucket fillers and do nice things for other people and make them happy, whether that is through a smile, a kind word or a helpful hand. We also looked at how bucket dipping can be very damaging and upsetting both to the people we are making sad and to ourselves.

We then had a lovely time filling everyone’s bucket in the class, writing down nice things about everyone else. This could be something kind, something the other person is good at or something they enjoy doing with them.

We have all decided to try and be bucket fillers and not bucket dippers.

A visit from Cruella de Vil

Mrs Howe didn’t quite make it into school on time today because she got bundled into a box by the despicable and villainous Cruella de Vil this morning and was bound for South Africa before she escaped. Cruella proceeded to storm the Woodpecker classroom this morning demanding to know where her stolen dalmatian puppies were. She searched the classroom, interrogated the children and tried to teach them to be her protege before disappearing in search of more puppy fur for her coat collection.

This well timed visit was a great way to start our new topic of heroes and villains although we hoping she doesn’t visit again!

Thank you

Woodpecker class showed some teamwork this week as we all worked together to make beautiful thank you cards for the parents who helped out on pizza day.

We used our finger prints to paint bunches of balloons and wrote a special message on the cards, too.

Have a look at the final result- we think they look great!

Pizza day!

Well, what a day we’ve had!

Firstly, we’d like to say a massive thank-you to all of the adults that came in and helped with our pizza day- you were a great help and we really enjoyed having you!

Today, Woodpecker class made their very own pizzas, from scratch!

We made the dough, rolled it out, shaped it, created crusts, seasoned passata, grated cheese and assembled our pizzas! All the children did fantastic and all thoroughly enjoyed making (and, of course, eating) their tasty pizzas.

Well done, Woodpeckers!

Check out our slideshow of the day :)

We.Are.TTROCKSTARS!

During all the parent consulation fun this week, Woodpecker class got some time to hone their times table skills and compete against each other on Times Tables Rockstars!

We have been particularly focusing on the 8 times tables in class at the moment, with our catchy 8 times table song!

Have a look at our slideshow :)

Learning AND playing!

As part of our topic, The Mediterranean, we were learning about different climates today and did some map work using atlases. We’ve learnt all about the different continents, surrounding oceans and the climates they all have.

To celebrate all of our hard work, we got to have golden play using the new painting done on the playground, today. We really loved the Twister and the big challenge in the middle of the playground, which at one point we managed to get the whole of Year 3 going around at the same time!

Have a click through our slideshow to see some pictures :)

Celebrating books

Year 3’s costumes were fantastic, today!

We are definitely a class of Harry Potter lovers- we had so many Harrys, Hermoines and Ginnys!

In the morning, we spent time writing versions of the story ‘Inside the Villain’ from the perspective of the villain, then after break we did some drama-acting out the stories we had shared. Finally in our arty afternoon, we had a go at making our very own flip-art like in today’s book.

Well done for a fantastic day, Year 3!

Ancient Greek day!

Wow, what an exciting day we’ve had today! Everyone’s costumes were fantastic :)
Our Greek visitor has been with us all day, with lots of interesting Greek artifacts for us to look at and try on…

We’ve played some traditional Ancient Greek games, learnt all about Greek democracy, the foods they had and the clothes they wore. Did you know the Ancient Greeks ate zebra? As a class, we decided our shoes last us about 1-2 years.. but the Ancient Greeks kept hold of the same pair of shoes for over 20 years, they just resoled them quite often…

Have you ever played naughts and crosses or rock, paper, scissors? Well, they are modern day versions of popular Ancient Greek games!

The Ancient Greek excitement continues tomorrow where we will be trying lots of different Greek/Mediterranean foods…

Have a look at our slideshow of photos from the day

End of half term!

Wow, what a half term we’ve had!

With art week and all of our pom-pom making, ink drawing and watercolour painting…

Learning all about Greek pottery, democracy and Olympics…

Working hard on our fractions in Maths..

And so much more…!

Today we spent our final day putting all of our learning together and creating some Ancient Greek display boards for the classroom!

See you all after the half term break!

Greek pottery!

Over the last couple of weeks, Woodpecker class have been busy coming up with ideas for a Greek pot that tells a story… we have finally finished our beautiful pots!
Can you work out the stories we are trying to tell?

Art Week

This week, in Art Week, the Woodpeckers have been very busy! We’ve made pom-poms, done ink work, watercolour work, oil pastel work and even done some tie-dye- all on the theme of the Ocean. We also wrote some fantastic shape poems based on the ocean and presented them beautifully using watercolour paints.

Have a look at the slideshow of great pictures of our fun week below!

Plaistow Church

Today we took a walk down to the Holy Trinity Church in Plaistow, to learn all about its history; from when it was first built until today!

Reverend Pauline was kind enough to meet us there, with a resident of Plaistow of over 40 years! Together they talked to us about the history of the church and answered all of our questions!

Did you know the church in Plaistow is technically not a church? It is, in fact, a chapel of ease!

We want to say a big thank-you to the chapel for having us!

Play Rehearsals

It is a busy term for the Woodpeckers this term and we have been working hard despite the heat. We have been spending time rehearsing our play and the Woodpeckers are getting very good at their class song. Why not ask them to sing it to you and see if they can remember the words AND the actions!

Fencing!

It has been an exciting start to Sports Week in Woodpecker class and we really enjoyed having  a go at fencing. We learnt fencing positions, played games to practice them and even had a go with some foils. We had to wear protective equipment - a chest plate and  helmet - to keep us safe. We had a great time!

Beautiful creations

Do you remember the dandelions we were drawing a few weeks ago?

We have been practicing our skills and combined them with some beautiful watercolor paintings to create silhouette versions of ourselves, holding our dandelion!

Have a look at the finished pieces here: