Monday 30th March

Hi Woodpeckers!

Welcome back! I hope you have had a lovely weekend and enjoyed your family time. I spent yesterday making lots of lego with my children and I hope you had a lot of fun too. This is the last week before the Easter holidays and although things are a bit different at the moment we can still have a fun week :)

English

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 a poem ‘Nature Trail’ by Benjamin Zephaniah. 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 back on what you wrote last week on your autobiography. Please write the next 2 sections of your autobiography (preschool and Key stage 1)

When you have finished be sure to re-read it and check it for:

·        Spellings

·        Capital letters and full stops

·        Using the first person

Maths

 TT Rockstars- If you can, practise your times tables.

 A few weeks ago we looked at statistics and how we can show data collected in different kinds of ways such as tables, pictograms and bar charts. We always talk about explaining how you know your answer is correct so we are hoping you try hard to explain your reasoning.

Have a look at the Maths page below with a table showing data collected of Favourite snacks.

Can you answer the questions 1 – 7.  For each, have a go at writing a sentence to explain how you know.

Then have a go at answering questions 8-10, can you explain how you know whether each is true or false?

Topic

In RE we have been looking at sacrifice and what a sacrifice really is. We have linked this into the Easter story and watched the events of the Easter Story as well.

Can you show your own presentation of the Easter Story? You may want to do a cartoon strip, make a cube with a picture on each side, make a model or write it as a story. The choice is yours!

Friday 27th March

Good Morning Woodpeckers!

It’s Friday! Well done for working so hard at home, although we are not all together at school, Mrs Howe and I have been thinking about you all lots and know you have been trying hard to do the work we have set. So 1 more day of work before the weekend!

Here are your tasks for today.

Reading

Please make sure you read for 15 minutes.

Imagine you are the author of Harriet Hare. Look at the style the extract is written in and what has happened so far.

Write the next part of the story, what do you think might happen next?

You may want to write this as a story or as a cartoon strip to show what might happen.

Writing

Look at the first 2 headings of notes you made on your life so far. A lot of your memories will be based on what you can find out from your family.

Write the first 2 paragraphs of your autobiography, explaining what happened in your baby years and then toddler years. Try to use lots of description and make it entertaining to read by putting in any funny anecdotes you can.

When you have finished be sure to re-read it and check it for:

·        Spellings

·        Capital letters and full stops

·        Using the first person

Maths

Can you find 3 sticks in the garden? Or 3 different length pencils in the house?

Measure them all – if you are feeling confident write down how many cm and mm.

Can you add the three  lengths up to see how long they would be altogether?

Choose 2 of the lengths and find the difference between them.

Do this again with a different combination of lengths.

Can you find 3 different things to measure the lengths of and repeat?

Use the previous strategies in the column addition and subtraction challenges to help you with these.

Topic Work

What a week! You should be incredibly proud of yourselves this week, it has been the first week we haven’t been in school together as a class learning but you have continued to work hard at home.

I want you to have a think about what you feel proud about this week. What have you found difficult but continued to try hard anyway? Did you make a bad choice but then reflected and made a positive change? Were you particularly impressed with a piece of learning you did? I am sure there is lots! If you aren’t sure, have a look at the ideas below and talk to your family at home-they may think of something you haven’t!

You can either print the worksheet or do this in your topic book, the choice is yours!

Thursday 26th March

Hello lovely Woodpeckers!

Who had a go at Joe Wicks’ workout? I did it with my family, we especially enjoyed hopping like bunnies! Don’t forget it is on every morning Monday to Friday.

I hope you have been enjoying the work Mrs Howe and I have set you so far. Hopefully, you are able to do lots of other things too as well as helping out your adults at home.

Below is today’s work =)

English

Reading

Please make sure you read for 15 minutes.

Look again at the extract from Harriet’s Hare. Think about the setting. What is a valley? Look up the definition in a dictionary or on the internet.

Draw a picture of the setting and what you think it would look like. Be detailed and creative.

Writing

Following on from yesterday’s work on your autobiography, today you are going to write a introduction. Introduce yourself and who you are. Make sure you are writing in the first person, which means you need to write as yourself ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘we’.

Maths

We have looked at column subtraction. To help you do this make your own tens and ones using straws, tooth pics, pencils (or anything else you can think of which you can make into bundles of ten).

Practice column subtraction with your tens and ones, then have a go at drawing them out. Once you have done this, practise column subtraction with just numbers.

Why don’t you use a dice to generate your numbers and make some column subtraction questions of your own.

Link to video for column subtraction of 2 2-digit numbers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pADFYrGdyYE&list=PLWIJ2KbiNEyq1iZ36fRe-xTJ4NNZsmYz9&index

 Topic Work

I hope you enjoyed researching Graffiti artists yesterday, I very much look forward to hearing
about artists you found out about and who you thought were inspiring!

Today, we are looking at the work of Banksy. Have a look at the information below.

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Your task:

What do you feel strongly about?

In the style of Banksy, create a piece of artwork that promotes your views. Use whatever resources you have, pen, pencil, paints etc. Choose whether you want to do your work in black and white or colour.

I have started an example for you. I feel strongly about reducing plastic waste so have started
sketching out a pile of plastic bottles and cups and chosen a few words. I now want to add a few bits of colour to highlight areas and make it stand out. Remember, your piece of art is for the side of a building or a wall.

As I always say in our Art lessons- you can’t be wrong! Have fun with your ideas! Enjoy =)

Wednesday 25th March =)

Good Morning Woodpeckers!

Yesterday’s weather was beautiful, I hope you all managed to get out in the garden for a little while to enjoy the sunshine and get some fresh air =)

Below is the work for today.

Don’t forget that Joe Wicks is doing ‘P.E with Joe’ on ‘The Body Coach TV’ You Tube channel at 9am every morning to get you moving and ready to start the day!

I know Mrs Howe and her family have had a go and I am planning to do it with my family this morning!

English Work

Reading

Please make sure you read for 15 minutes.

The reading questions from yesterday should be finished. The answers are below to help adults with any help needed.

Writing

Last week we were looking at autobiographies the information that we need to include in them.

An autobiography is a piece of writing about someone’s life that they write themselves. This week you will be writing your own autobiography of your life so far.

Today you will have different headings and you need to write down some ideas underneath for each stage of your life – any memories you have (or memories your parents can tell you) and any feelings you associate with them.

The headings are:

Baby

Toddler

Pre-school

Key Stage 1

Key Stage 2 so far

You may want to add in extra specific ideas or headings, which would be brilliant! Make sure you keep your ideas chronological (in the order in which they happened).

Maths Work

I have added the answers to yesterday’s questions for you to hopefully help. But now on to today…

We have looked at column addition. To help you do this make your own tens and ones using straws, tooth pics, pencils (or anything else you can think of which you can make into bundles of ten).

Practice column addition with your tens and ones, then have a go at drawing them out. Once you have done this, practise column addition with just numbers

Why don’t you use dice to generate your numbers and make some column addition questions of your own.

Link to video for column addition of 2 2-digit numbers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHM25Nx4vhg&list=PLWIJ2KbiNEyq1iZ36fRe-xTJ4NNZsmYz9&index=7&t

Topic Work

Hello Woodpeckers! Miss Moss-Silverson here!

For those of you who were in last Friday, we had a look at Graffiti artist, Keith Haring.

Today, I would like you to research Graffiti art and see if you can answer these questions:

What is Graffiti art?

Where can you see Graffiti?

Does all Graffiti art look the same?

Can you find other Graffiti artists like Keith Haring?

Don’t worry if you don’t find answers to all of the questions- just have fun exploring art, you never know, you may stumble across another artist and style that you really like!
Tomorrow, we will have a go at creating some artwork in the style of a very famous Graffiti artist!

Common Exception Words

I am so sorry I managed to miss the common exception words off yesterday’s blog post. I’m sorry for any problems this caused but here they are now!

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 :)