Wheelbarrow Workshop!

Year 3 enjoyed a visit from Mrs Wheelbarrow on Thursday this week.  We learned lots about plants, the parts of plants that we can eat and what plants need to grow.  Then we had a brilliant time planting some of our own.  We even learned how to make our own pots.

We look forward to watching our plants grow!

International Week!

On Monday we learned an African dance.

On Tuesday we had a go at choreographing our own Shaolin Monk inspired dances and  researched foreign currencies.

On Wednesday we looked at climates around the world and the average temperature and rainfall.


Thursday began with hearing a lovely poem in Chinese and then visiting the International market. Everyone had a fantastic fact-filled world tour!

Friday brought another whirlwind trip around the International Market followed by hearing a wonderful Columbian legend and making the most of the last international afternoon with some more Spanish singing and Chinese dancing!
We all had a wonderful week. Enjoy you half term!

Giving and Following Instructions

This week in Literacy Year 3 have been looking at Instructions. On Wednesday they found out what it was like to be given instructions.

 Is it a hat?

Then we thought about what made instructions successful!
We realised how important it was to know what you were making and what it should look like. We also realised how useful a demonstration or step by step diagrams were. Our finished snowflakes were much more successful on our second attempt at giving instructions.

Researching Rocks!

This week after doing some fantastic rock research for homework Year 3 have been researching some of the world's biggest volcanoes in class.  They employed science and computing skills to find out information and then present it effectively.

Each pair researched a different volcano and presented some key facts to the rest of the class. Everyone learned a lot!  At the end there was much debate over whose was the biggest/ most dangerous/ coolest volcano!

Dramatic Dilemmas!

In Literacy this week Year 3 have been developing their adventure story writing skills.  We looked at how authors introduce us to their characters and how characters often come up against a problem or dilemma.  We used a drama activity, 'conscience alley'  to consider how a character with a difficult decision to make might feel with the two sides of their conscience pulling them in different ways.

Changing Places

As part of this term's work on our local environment and the things people do to change or improve places, this week Year 3 have been out in the school grounds doing some sketching.  They identified and  drew some of their favourite additions.

...The statue of Mary,...











...Bill and Ben ! ...

and the lovely new prayer garden...

Welcome Back!

Year 3 have got stuck back enthusiastically into work this week.

In Maths we've been learning how to use the grid method for 2-digit multiplication and in Literacy we've begun exploring and writing mystery and adventure stories.

In Science we began our 'Rocks' topic by investigating a range of rocks and coming up different ways of ordering them. The criteria ranged from largest to smallest, to oldest to newest and even coolest to 'least cool'.  Can you work out which picture matches which criteria?

We're looking forward to exploring the rocks and soils of the local area in Science as we also find out more about Harpenden in our Geography work and think about how we can change our environment in DT.