Merry Christmas Year 3 22.12.23

And just like that we entered the Christmas week! Year 3, you have been working so hard over the last two weeks.

As well as completing our end of term assessments where you showed great resilience and determination, we have had lots of fun at forest school, the theatre and back in the classroom.

In maths, we have finished our unit on addition and subtraction and you are now showing great confidence adding and subtracting three digit from three digit numbers using column methods as well as part whole models, bar models and place value grids. We have also reintroduced tt rock stars as we had our eyes on the trophy and this week, we were the winners! It was a proud moment to collect it in front of the whole school and proudly display it in our classroom. We have been really pleased to see lots more of you regularly playing so well done rock stars!

In English, we have spent time recapping lots of our spag work from this term.

In forest school, you worked in teams to create shelters for Roman soldiers who had come to settle in Britain. You had to consider shelter from the rain, a cooking area, a sleeping area. Mr Hadfield commented on how well you are now working in your teams, listening to each other and taking on advice from others. You then moved on to making Christmas wreaths and Santa's sleigh! Take a look at the photos to see our wreaths! We said a big thank you to Mr Hadfield as we have thoroughly enjoyed our Forest School sessions this term.

We have continued with our science unit all about rocks and soils this week. In fact we have been petrologists, which means we have been rock detectives! We have carried out our own investigations to find out what types of rock samples we had in the classroom. We carried out a hardness test, a water test and an acid test, using vinegar. We used our knowledge of how sedimentary, igneous rocks and metamorphic rocks are formed to work out which type of rocks we had in our investigations.

In our Forces unit, we had an exciting science lesson as our first challenge was to help Santa move his sleigh on the reindeer's day off. We thought about three surfaces in order of how easy it will be for Santa to drag his sleigh over them. We talked about the effect of frictions and learnt about a measuring device – a force meter. In small teams, we completed a friction investigation using our school bags and thought about which surface would be easiest to move our school bags across. We also discovered more about magnets and the metals that are attracted to magnets. Did you know that iron is magnetic and fine particles can be found in our cereals? We were amazed to see how magnets can be used to attract and repel. We were challenged to investigate how we could make the strongest possible magnet. We have also investigated a range of materials to test whether they are magnetic, including 5p coins. We found out that some 5p coins are and some are not depending on the year they were made.

Our PSHE learning within our unit, Don't forget to let love in, has given us the opportunity to think about what we are grateful for and why we are grateful. We came up with so many different ideas. This links to the bible quote, Praise the Lord! Thank the Lord because he is good. His love continues forever. Psalm 106:1. We have also learnt about the importance of keeping our bodies physically healthy. We learnt about a Change 4 Life campaign called Snack Swap and we decided ways in which we could make healthier choices. We loved the idea of fruit smoothies and healthy cookies. This links to Well, whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it all for God's glory. 1 Corinthians 10:31.

We also had the opportunity to watch Reception's nativity and Preschool's nativity! We were blown away by their acting and singing and loved seeing our friends and siblings telling the Christmas story. Thank you to Reception and Preschool for sharing these with us.

You told the Christmas story so well on Thursday Year 3, especially with the last minute change of venue. You took it all in your stride and spoke clearly, sang beautifully, acted so well and all with big smiles on your faces. We hope you enjoy the video of the service as much as we did watching.

At the end of the week, we were up to all things Christmassy! We have been created Christmas cards, been wearing our Christmas jumpers, enjoyed the Christmas lunch and of course, Christmas party. We will certainly be ready for the Christmas break! Thank you for your cards, presents and well wishes. It is very much appreciated and your kindness means the world to us. Enjoy family time and your Christmas break.

Miss McCurrie and Mrs Pointon