Brass concert
I love this time of year, where we get to show off the wonderful skills we have been learning all year! Giraffe class certainly did that with their fantastic trumpet and singing skills. It was fabulous to see them all singing and playing in time and in tune, they have done a super job this year and have become wonderful musicians.
If your child is interested in carrying on their weekly trumpet lessons, please return the forms handed out to the class as soon as possible.
Wednesday 10th July 2024
Enterprise week
This week, the children were tasked with designing/making a product they could make the most money from at the school summer fayre this Saturday. We only had £10 to spend and we are in competition with the other classes to make to most profit.
We decided to make key rings and hair braids using both purchased and donated resources. We were all very excited by our products and eager to buy them back!
If you would like to purchase any of our products and support the class, come along to our Summer Fayre on Saturday on Stonebroom parish sports ground.
Monday 8th July 2024
Come and play with the Hallé
Wow, what an experience!
We travelled to Derby arena where the Hallé orchestra were performing alongside fifty schools, and we were lucky enough to be one of them!
The orchestra opened the concert by performing the Olympic Fanfare and Theme, there were then several further songs performed and we either joined in by singing along or by playing our trumpets alongside the orchestra.
It was such a fantastic day and hopefully, a moment the children will never forget!
Pneumatic toys
Year 3 were tasked with making a pneumatic toy ( a toy with a moving system, powered by air) but it also had to be bright, colourful and fun to look at! As year 1 are currently learning about toys, past and present, we thought it would be great to get their opinion on out toys.
We let year 1 explore how it looked and then showed them, and explained to them, how the toys worked! They were very impressed and loved some of our bright and colourful designs. A big thank you to year 1 for being our toys judges and well done to year 3 for making such wonderful toys!
Shape
To conclude our learning on shape, we have had some fabulous practical lessons. On Wednesday, with Mrs. Hilton, we were making polygons and looking at different ways we could make different shapes.
We then moved onto 3D shapes and after we had learnt about the properties of 3D shapes such as the edges, surfaces and vertices, we moved on to nets. These wonderful year 3's couldn't be caught out and were great at matching nets to 3D shapes so they were challenged even further to make their shapes. We started simple, making cubes and cuboids but then tested ourselves by moving onto prisms and even, in some cases, dodecahedrons!
What fabulous learning Giraffes, well done!
Creswell Crags
Today, we put all our Stone Age learning to the test and visited Creswell Crags - this is where people actually lived during the Stone Age!
We spilt into the Cave Bear tribe and Woolley Rhino tribe to complete our activities, these consisted of a Rocky Relics workshop; identifying igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock, we then put our survival skills to the test by building shelters and learning how to hunt bison with spears and finally we visited Mother Grundy's Parlour. In the cave, we explored some of the tools that would have been used by the people who lived here and even learnt a new (and very disgusting!) way to make string!
It was a super day and it was fantastic to hear the children using their knowledge to answer questions and interpret evidence found - even the guides were impressed with the knowledge and vocabulary used by everyone.
Well done Giraffes!
Friday 17th May 2024
Stone Age day
Wow, what a busy day we've had!
We started the day by making some Stone Age weapons to prepare to hunt the animals that had escaped onto the playground! We also gathered 'berries and plants' but had to decide if they were safe to eat by reading the information on the cards.
After break, we made replica jewellery out of clay, carefully moulding the pieces to look like animal teeth and claws.
The afternoon involved a very soggy session in the woodland! The rain didn't dampen our spirits though as we made fantastic shelters and used brilliant team work and problem solving skills to keep our shelters upright! We even decorated them with some authentic paint made from mud, clay and water.
We've had a super day and would like to thank our grown ups for making some wonderfully creative costumes.
Thursday 16th May 2024
Making natural paint
In the Stone Age, cave paintings were very important to people but they couldn't just pop into the art cupboard for resources, they had to use what was around them.
We ventured outside on a 'pigment hunt', looking for anything with a natural pigment that might colour our paint. After we coloured our paint, it was time to paint our animals on the 'cave wall'.
Tuesday 30th April 2024
Stone Age pre-learning task
Wow, once again I am so impressed by the effort you have gone to with these pre-learning tasks. I think the wonderful creative ways that they have been made and displayed are fantastic from hand sewn teddys to mammoths painted on a cave wall! The range of work and amount of detail and information gone into these are fantastic and merits have been awarded for creativity!
Well done Giraffe class (and grown ups!)
Tuesday 30th April 2024
Skeleton movie
Here it is... our finished film and our very own version of ER. I'm not convinced that some of these children weren't really injured, the acting skills are fab!
I hope you enjoy watching this as much as we enjoyed making it...
Friday 19th April 2024
Mr. Pepper movie day
Today, Mr. Pepper spent the day with Giraffe class consolidating our knowledge on bones. We learnt a 'bone dance', made and labelled a skeleton and had to be patients and doctors acting out a consultation for a broken bone.
We had some fabulous actors in class, and we even had a special guest appearance from a VIP.
Stay tuned for the final version of the film....
Tuesday 26th March 2024
Animal Bones
After learning the names of the bones in our bodies we wondered, do all animals have the same bones and do they look the same? We were able to answer this question today by exploring animal bones. There were various bones including a shoulder blade, vertebrae and ribs. We used Boris (our class skeleton) to help us identify what some of these bones were and compare them to human bones.
Super science work Giraffes!
Tuesday 19th March 2024
Skeleton x-rays
After learning the names of lots of our bones in our science lesson, we decided to challenge ourselves by completing an x-ray jigsaw! In pairs, we had to choose an x-ray image and place it where we thought it may go in relation to the human body.
I think we did a pretty good job - although I am slightly concerned about the radius and ulna on the right hand side, we may have to learn how to fix broken bones next!
Friday 15th March 2024
Pre-learning task
Before half term, I set the pre-learning task of creating a 3D model of a skeleton. Once again, I have not been disappointed with your fabulous creations! We've not had two skeletons the same, you've all thought of wonderfully unique ways to present your work.
A big thank you to all the grown-ups who helped in the creation of these wonderful pre-learning tasks too.
Friday 8th March 2024
3D sculpture
Today was the first art lesson of our new unit where we are looking at 3D sculpture. We looked at making 3D shapes out of 2D shapes and the different ways we could join the pieces together without using glue or Sellotape.
I think we have some great results for a first attempt, stay tuned to see what happens when we've added the decoration!
Tuesday 27th February
Making and evaluating our vegetable tarts
Over the last couple of days, we have been busy prepping, cooking and evaluating (eating!) our vegetable tarts.
We put our chopping, peeling and grating skills to the test when we prepared our tarts yesterday and there certainly were some budding chefs in the making! We assembled our tarts reading for baking and on Thursday it was time to evaluate -this meant we could try our tarts!
We evaluated the appearance, taste and texture and there were some mixed reviews!
Hopefully there will be a little left over for you to try at home but I can't guarantee all will make it!
Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th February 2024
River walk
We took part in some geography field work this afternoon and put our Big Question knowledge to the test.
We wanted to see what we had been learning about by exploring the different parts of a river. We started at the pond in the woodland and followed it down to where it joined the main body of water we were exploring. We were joined on our trip by a geography teacher from David Nieper Academy (Miss Flynn) who was very impressed that we could tell her that this was a tributary.
We then followed the river along the map we had and measured the width, depth and speed of the current at different places along the way.
Once we reached the corner of the woodland, and had practiced all our geographical skills, it was time to have a bit of fun, making a dam to block the water and even making mud faces on the trees.
As ever, behaviour was superb and Miss Flynn was impressed with all our fantastic rivers knowledge.
Monday 5th February 2024
Magnetic force
We have been investigating contact and non-contact forces today. We found that magnets don't actually need to make contact with an object to move it, this is called magnetic attraction.
We wanted to know which of our magnets was the strongest so set up an investigation to find this out. We made sure that each magnet was tested fairly and used the same method, measuring the distance between the magnet and the paper clip before the magnetic attraction forced it to move.
Well done super scientists!
Friday 2nd February 2024
Food preparation
I hope you are all looking forward to having your tea prepared for you tonight!
We have been practicing some excellent peeling and chopping skills today in preparation to make our 'Wonderful Winter Tarts' in a couple of weeks. We learnt about using equipment safely and how to correctly grip food when chopping in order to keep your fingers safe!
I look forward to putting these skills to the test!
Tuesday 30th January 2024
Features of a river
Today, in our geography lesson, we learnt about the features of a river. Instead of just reading about them, we decided to make a river so we could see what the features actually looked like!
We started by gathering resources from outside (mainly mud and stones) to make the bank of our river. We then carved out a channel for the water to flow through ensuring we had a raised area of land for the source and that there was at least one meander in there.
The test came when it came to adding the water, was it going to flow or was the river going to burst its banks… it was a mixed result!
We had fun making them but it was great to see our learning come to life.
Friday 19th January 2024
Christmas in Year 3
We have had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas in Year 3! We've made baubles, cards and calendars and have played some great games.
We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and look forward to welcoming you back in the New Year!
The Last Garden
Yesterday, a special package was waiting for us when we arrived at school! It was a packet of flower seeds and a book called 'The Last Garden'. Zara, the main character in the book had sent us the seeds and wanted us to grow a 'garden of hope' as she was busy looking after the last garden in Syria.
Each child planted different seeds and gave their plant a positive name such as 'poppies of peace', and 'lavender of love'.
We will keep the seeds warm in the classroom over the winter and when the weather is better, hopefully we can plant our 'garden of hope' in the school grounds.
Tuesday 5th December 2023
Flower dissection
Giraffe class were learning all about flowers this week, and what better way to get to know the different parts of a flower than by observing them.
We took it in turns to carefully dissect our flowers looking for all the different parts. We were great scientists and discovered the male a female parts of the flower as well as looking at the brightly coloured petals that would attract insects.
Well done Giraffes, you were all super scientists!
Friday 1st December 2023
Plants - pre-learning task
Before we started learning all about our new Big Question, 'Could our planet survive without plants?' I asked the children to research and present the different parts of a plant.
I have been so impressed with the amount, the quality and the creativity of theses tasks! Well done to all the children (and grown-ups!) who completed this task.
Merits have been awarded for all your hard work!
Thursday 23rd November 2023
Hodgeheg experience
In preparation for writing our setting description of the park from our class text, The Hodgeheg, we wanted to experience life from Max the hedgehog's perspective.
We ventured outside on a cold autumnal day and crouched down as low as we could to see things from Max's point of view. We experienced the 'forest of legs' and peered through the gates of the park to see the tall, towering tress above us. We closed our eyes and felt the calm, peaceful atmosphere - listening to the leaves rustling in the wind.
It gave us some super ideas for our writing and I can't wait to see the descriptive sentences we write!
Thursday 9th November 2023
Design and Technology - Cushions
As part of our design and technology unit this half term, we have designed and made our own cushions.
The children were free to design their cushion how they liked but, it must have included applique. I love the unique designs that they have come up with and what I thought was the most lovely, was that most children designed their cushion with another family member in mind.
I hope they all enjoy snuggling up to their cushions on this wet and windy night!
Friday 20th October 2023
Tudor Day
We have had such a super day today! We started by making a collaged Tudor rose and learnt how the Tudor rose was formed - by combining the red rose of the House of Lancaster and the white rose of the House of York. We then made a Tudor house while we waited for our banquet to be served! We ate Yeomans pudding, gingered bread, pottage and roasted meats, it was great to see some clear plates!
After lunchtime, we turned into Tudor artists and learnt all about Henry VIII's favourite artist, Hans Holbein. We then draw our portrait of Henry looking carefully at the detail and trying to make it look as realistic as possible.
We ended the day by creating our own Tudor shields and thinking carefully about the colours and animals we included on there.
Thank you to all the grown ups for your super work on the outfits for the day - everybody looked wonderful!
Thursday 19th October 2023
Art morning
This morning, we were luck enough to be taught, by Miss Walton, all about the fabulous artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Neo Expressionist art he created. We started by making a base layer of paint using primary colours (and a squeegee!) We then imitated his style by using contrasting colours, straight lines and symbols to complete our art.
I think you will agree, that the outcome looks fantastic!
We would like to say a huge 'thank you' to Miss Walton for a lovely morning.
Friday 5th October 2023
Hampton Court Palace
Wow, what a day we had at Hampton Court Palace!
It was an earlier start than usual for Year 3 and 4 but everybody was excited and raring to go. The stop at the service station on the motorway proved to be a highlight, before we had even reached Hampton Court but when we arrived at the palace, everyone was wowed!
We started (as every good trip does) with a picnic in the gardens before the classes went their separate ways for their workshops.
Year 3 were greeted in Base Court by one of the Queen's ladies where she told us all about the different jobs that needed to be completed at court. We then went through a secret passage which lead straight into the Great Hall! This room was breathtaking and it was hard to believe that this is where Henry VIII actually lived, danced and ate. We then headed through to the Great Watching Chamber where we learnt all about the pecking order in court life. Our workshop ended here but this lead us to the Chapel Royal and the viewing chamber for Henry VIII's crown.
It was such a fantastic day and it was super to hear the children using the knowledge they already have and apply it to the real life learning.
I would like to thank Historic Royal Palaces for funding the cost of this trip and making it possible for our children.
Wednesday 27th September 2023
Pre- learning task
Take a look at our fabulous pre-learning tasks!
I asked the children to research and present the Tudor family tree and I think you will agree that we have some wonderfully unique creations. The children took their time to present their finding beautifully and we will now be proudly displaying these in the corridor outside the classroom.
Friday 15th September 2023
