Tuesday 24th March Work

Hello Woodpeckers and Woodpecker Parents!

With these strange and unprecedented times Miss Moss Silverson and I have been putting together some work for you. There will be a writing and reading task a day, as well as Maths and topic. Where possible we will be putting answers up as well but please do use calculators to help you check.

The work will be linked to things we have already done this year and in English will mostly be carrying on what we started last week for the first couple of weeks as you worked so hard on it.

English

For your English we will be looking at different writing and reading activites.

Here is the year 3 and 4 common exception words the children need to learn by the end of year 4. Try to learn 5-10 of these a week.

Reading

Please read for 15 minutes a day. Make sure what your child is reading is a suitable level and if possible read to an adult.

Here is an extract from ‘Harriet’s Hare’ by Dick King Smith. Over the next 2 days please read it and then answer the questions. Encourage the children to look for key words in text to help them find the answers.

Writing

Look at the ‘expanded noun phrases’ sheet. Write out interesting and detailed sentences using expanded noun phrases.

Maths

Please try to complete 15 minutes of TTrockstars or other times table practice a day.

We have been looking at different units of length – mm, cm, m and km

Look at these page of different lengths to convert. Sheet 2 is a bit more of a challenge so choose the sheet that you think suits you best.

Remember

10mm = 1cm

100cm = 1m

1000m = 1km.

To change cm to mm you MULTIPLY BY 10.

To change m to cm you MULTIPLY BY 100.

To change km to m you MULTIPLY BY 1000.

HOWEVER

To change mm to cm you DIVIDE BY 10.

To change cm to m you DIVIDE BY 100.

To change m to km you DIVIDE BY 1000.

Topic

Please look at the topic book and sheet for different options you may like to do, this sheet is also published in the previous blog post.

In addition, a Science Challenge:

We have been looking at light and different experiments exploring light.

However, the light from the sun can be damaging for your eyes. This is why we wear sunglasses and hats in sunny weather.

Can you research what UV light is and why it is damaging for your eyes.

Design a pair of sunglasses or hat to protect yourself from the sun’s light. Then create a poster to advertise what they do that is so good and how they protect you.

Home Learning Ideas

Anti-Bullying Week

We were really fortunate to watch a show and have a workshop all about anti-bullying this week. It was really interesting and useful to think about making small changes in how we act can have a big impact on ourselves and other people. We learnt that standing tall and confident, being firm but polite and talking to a teacher can really help if you feel upset at how people are behaving towards you We also learnt to be kind, considerate of other people and helpful to them to make us better friends. The Woodpeckers all enjoyed getting involved in the drama workshop to illustrate this.

A trip to an active volcano

We have sprung into our new topic this half term and last week the children boarded a plane to the Democratic Republic of Congo to visit Mount Nyiragongo, an active volcano. We embarked on an expedition to take lava samples from the lava lake but were defeated when a new lava spring opened up and we had to beat a hasty retreat!

The children enjoyed this role play experience and it led to descriptive writing and recounts of their experience! We are looking forward to exploring more about volcanoes and the disaster of Pompeii in the coming weeks.

Pandora's Box

We had an exciting looking box arrive in our classroom this afternoon and we do not know what is inside it! We read about Pandora’s Box and how opening it let all the bad things into the world, but also hope. For now we are not risking opening the box in the classroom but instead we are going to design and make our own boxes to contain good things for the world!

Magnetic Games

We have been learning all about magnets in science this half term and today we got to create our own magnetic games showing what we knew about how magnets behave. The children created racing games, mazes, challenge games, football pitches and more. They were very enthusiastic and could use magnets carefully to create their ideas!

An afternoon of art

Woodpecker class had a wonderful afternoon decorating Ancient Greek style vases. We used a mixed media of colouring pen, collage and paint and used Ancient Greek inspired patterns and colours to make our beautiful work.

They are a work in progress.. but we can’t wait to show you when they are finished :)

A special visitor...

This afternoon, Woodpecker class were lucky enough to have the lovely Margaret pay a visit to our class. She taught us a Kiswahili song, some greetings and even a game she plays with the children in her school.

We had a great afternoon with Margaret and learnt a lot about the food, animals and education in Kenya!

A visit from an Ancient Greek

Wow, what a day we had yesterday!

Year 3 had a visit from an Ancient Greek, who taught us all about what life was like in Ancient Greek times. We had lots of different activities to get involved with, played some Ancient Greek games and even hosted our own mini Greek Olympics, after looking at lots of Ancient artifacts and trying on some battle helmets.

It was a fantastic day to complement our Ancient Greek topic this half term, which all the children are working extremely hard on!

Have a look at our slideshow of pictures:

Farewell, year 3!

Wow, what an amazing year!

We have absolutely loved teaching you all, Woodpecker class. We have had some great fun this year and learnt lots and really hope you have a wonderful, restful summer. We’ll see you all again in September- we know Mr Ind is looking forward to getting to know you all!

Have a great summer,

Mrs Joice, Mrs Howe and Mrs D’Aoust

An afternoon of medicine making and glittery hand washing

This week, Year 3 and 4 had some very exciting visitors to school, from Pfizer pharmaceuticals. We were lucky enough to have an entire afternoon of science activities, including testing our skills of different types of medicines (and learning about why they are locked away in a medicine cupboard), making our own medicines and washing our hands whilst singing Happy Birthday (we’ll explain that one..)!

We learnt about different formulations (types of medicines and what they are for), all about how important it is that medicines are made exactly the same every time, and also some interesting facts about how to keep healthy.

For example, did you know we are all supposed to wash our hands for the length of time it takes to sing Happy Birthday… twice?! Have a go, next time you wash your hands!

It was a very messy afternoon but we all had a great time and are very proud of our new class certificate :)

Learning about landmarks

Yesterday afternoon, as part of our Urban Pioneers topic, Woodpecker class were learning all about famous landmarks from around the world. We looked at The Spinx, The Statue of Liberty, The Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, The Pyramids, and many more!

Then, we took to the field to sit and practice drawing some of these intricate structures.

Summer term sun!

Yesterday afternoon, Woodpecker class made the most of the glorious weather and had our English lesson outside!

We sat and enjoyed the fresh air and the sound of the birds singing as we wrote our personification poems about cities.

The poems were inspired by the poem we have been looking at in class: ‘Last night I saw the city breathing’ by Andrew Fusek Peters.

Graffiti: art or vandalism?

As part of our Urban Pioneers topic, this half term, we have been looking at graffiti in urban environments. Our debate today was whether graffiti is art or vandalism. We had lots of different thoughts, like is it still vandalism if the building is abandoned or if it’s an old railway bridge? We thought about how we’d feel if people drew graffiti on our properties…

We looked at some fantastic artwork though, and were impressed by the messages the graffiti artists were trying to put across.. we then discussed if there was a better way of sharing these important messages though…

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be trying our own graffiti style art (but not on buildings!)

Trip to Browning's Farm

Year 3 had a fantastic day out at our visit to Browning’s Farm yesterday!

We enjoyed learning all about the tools and machinery used, the wind turbine, the habitats in the woods and we even helped Mr Nicholls measure the fields so he can order new fencing!

Our top three highlights were probably: making shelters for the wildlife in the woods; talking to the cows and our performance of our class song for Mr Nicholls and Mrs Allfrey in the woods!

A massive thankyou to Mr Nicholls and Mrs Allfrey for having us and also to the parents who made it possible for us to go, by driving us all there! Thank you from all of Woodpecker class :)

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.