Year 3 News- 20.1.23

This week in Year 3 we have been swimmers, website makers and historians!

In our English lessons this week, we have continued to read Egyptology in preparation to write our own mystery story. We have introduced some actions to our text and you are so good at telling the story now! It's like we've been learning it for weeks rather than only a few days. Can you retell it to your adult at home with the actions? Remember, it starts with 'Pushing words of warning to the back of my mind...' We then continued to learn about verbs and adverbs and had a go at adding these to our writing. You came up with some really good examples in your pairs.

Our maths lessons this week saw us continuing on with the multiplication and division unit of work, focusing in on related multiplication and division facts. We used pictures of arrays to help us and even made our own using cubes and dienes. This week's homework is based all around arrays you can find in your home and what multiplication and division facts you can find from these arrays. We can't wait to see what you come up with. We also continued learning about the months of the year in our time unit. We looked at calendars and used them to answer questions and solve problems. You finished the week with practising times tables and did your first times table test of the new year. You all showed a great learning attitude again and approach to your times tables.

In our history lesson, you looked at where Egypt is in the world and we even 'went' to Egypt via modern technology of Google maps! We compared the colours of Egypt to the colours of Europe and the UK and discovered Egypt was mainly all desert compared to the greenery of Europe. We were very excited to see the River Nile on the big screen and all the greenery on it's banks. You then made predictions of what the weather is like there based on where it is in the world, what they might wear and what they might eat, thinking about the crops grown at the Nile. You then looked at the importance of the River Nile to the Ancient Egyptians, from the water it provided to grow food to the opportunity to trade with others along it's banks. You learned about the Ancient Egyptian calendar, that followed the seasons of the Nile and also that they invented irrigation systems!

In our science lesson this week, we have been exploring how light reflects off objects and how we can see them. We hunted around the classroom for any reflective objects. We found mirrors, metal jar tops, books, plastic lids and spoons. We found that they were all shiny, which is why they are more reflective. We learned how light travels from it's source and is reflected off an object and into our eyes, reaching our optic nerve and this is how we see things. We then solved a problem for an archaeologist, who wanted to see around a corner into a tomb. We discovered that a mirror placed on an angle at the corner, changes the direction of the light reflection and helps him to see into the tomb!

In music we loved playing our percussion instruments in our lesson. We voted for our favourite Egyptian song and our chosen instruments will be used to accompany this song. Miss Holland made her sistrum so we could see how ours will look. We will continue making those next week.

In our Heartsmart lesson, we learned about when we do and don't need to call 999. We discussed why we may need to call and what information we would to tell an operator. Then we acted out scenarios, taking it in turns to make the call and to be the 999 call responder.

This week's My Happy Mind lesson helped us to think about gratitude and appreciation and we learnt the phrase 'attitude of gratitude'. We thought about who we could say thank you to and you chose the people who make your lunches. You went on a secret 'post it note' mission and wrote a post it note to say thank you. The next day you were so happy to share that you had made your parents (and the school cook!) happy. You definitely had an attitude of gratitude!

This week also took us to the swimming baths! You went on the coach there to our lesson and this week's lesson was all about groupings. We already can't wait until next week where you will be in the pool all of the lesson.

Have a lovely weekend and we will see you on Monday.

Miss McCurrie and Mrs Jenkins