Welcome to the Summer Term

Unbelievably, the children are now in their last term of Year 3!  I am sure you will agree that the year has flown past.  

This term, the children will be learning about Ancient Egypt in history, Plants in science, and rules and responsibilities in RE; they will be learning lots more too.  This term we are planning some exciting trips - more to follow shortly.

Year 3 Trips!

We have booked 2 trips for Year 3 this term:

Wonderlab at the Science museum:  Monday 12^th June for both classes

Greenwich Eco Park:  Monday 10^th July for Maple class

                                    Tuesday 11^th July for Jacaranda class

Our trip to the Wonderlab will involve interactive, hands on science investigations.  At the Eco Park, the children will have hands-on morning tour of the park.  Followed by 3 activities looking at the local wildlife.

Please make sure you sign the permission slip and pay for the trips via parent pay which will be active from after school Friday 12th May.

You can find a copy of the letter with the permission slip below.

Thank you 

Ancient Egypt

The children are thoroughly enjoying learning about Ancient Egypt.  Last week, they had a great time learning about the process of mummification.  They loved all the gory details, especially hooking the brain out through the nose!

Working in groups, the children mimed mummifying a 'body'.  They had great fun.

The King's Coronation

In honour of King Charles III's coronation, Maple class had great fun making and decorating crowns to wear whilst watching the coronation.

Welcome to Spring Term in

Maple Class

Welcome to the Spring Term in Maple Class.  This term our topic is all about London through the Years.  Our history will be focusing on The Great Plague, which the children are loving so far.  We will be linking our DT to the Great Plague as the children will be designing and making humane rat catchers.  Watch this space for their fantastic work.

Ramadan Mubarak

Maple class would like to wish all who are observing Ramadan a Ramadan Kareem and a Ramadan Mubarak.  Enjoy your celebrations.

Science Week One

We are all celebrating science week over two weeks this year at Elfrida!  Year 3 have been combining their science activities with literacy.  They have carried out two investigations this week: Fantastic Fingerprints and a bread investigation, which will be ongoing until the end of term.

After carrying out each activity, they have written a set of instructions for others to use to carry out the same activities.  Lots of learning has been happening along the way and the children have been able to add in extra information in their instructions in order to try and prevent any mistakes they made during their investigation. 

Fantastic Finger Prints

Year 3 got to be crime scene investigators and learnt how to take  finger prints and used 3 different powders to try to find out which would result in the best finger print.  They discovered it wasn't as straight forward and easy as it seemed from the instructions!  They all thoroughly enjoyed the investigation and were more confident when writing their instructions after having followed a set of instructions and were able to add in extra detail as a result of their experience.

Bread Investigation

In this investigation, the children were in groups of three.  Each child had a completely untouched piece of bread and a sealable sandwich bag.  One child touched the bread and put it straight into their bag and sealed it.  Another child washed their hands with soap, and then, without touching anything else, touched the bread and sealed it in their bag.  The third child washed their hands with hand sanitizer, touched their bread and also sealed it in their bag.

The children are now checking their bread each day to see what, if anything, will happen to the different pieces of bread.  Photographs of any changes to follow!

World Book Day 2023

Year 3 have been celebrating World Book Day by dressing up as characters from a book.  They have chosen a wide variety of characters and made the school look very colourful today.

Year 3 had a fantastic story telling session with Phil from Wizard Stories.  Everyone thoroughly enjoyed creating a brand new, never told before story about a witch, called Jean, and her antics at Elfrida school.  There was lots of laughter and screaming at the gruesome details.

After the session, the children wrote their own versions inspired by the story created together during the session with Phil.  Ask your child/children to tell you their story

DT - Designing and Making Rat Catchers

Year 3 have been making mechanisms as part of their research and designing of humane rat catchers.  They worked in partners to build an opening and closing mechanism.  The next step will be to see how they can adapt this mechanism to work in the rat catcher they have designed.

Science - Forces and Magnets

Year 3 have been carrying out science investigations to do with forces.  They carried out an investigation to test how different surfaces affect the movement of an object.  They placed a toy car on ramps with different surfaces to see how they may have affected how high the ramp had to be for the car to begin to move and then whether the car moved slower or faster on different surfaces.

Science - Forces and Magnets

When learning about magnets, Year 3 carried out an investigation to see what happens when different poles of magnets are put together.

To begin with, they had to predict what they thought would happen.  In pairs, they carried out the investigation recording their results and then comparing with their prediction.  

Welcome to Maple Class

All the children are settling in well and beginning to get used to being back in school.  Our class rules have been established and routines have been set in place.

Diversity Month

During diversity month, Year 3 will be learning about The Yoruba culture.  They started off learning about Yorubaland and the countries it spans.  They have learnt how to say 'Hello' (Enle) in Yoruba.  In addition, they have found out that the Yoruba people place great importance and respect when greeting each other, especially when greeting elders.

After looking at Nigerian masks, the children have used these to inspire their ideas to make their own masks.

Here are their masks in the making below: 

Bow Arts - Session 6

This week, the children participated in a range of mindfulness activities, teaching them to relax and focus on the moment.  They then drew body maps, using one colour for the outside and another for the inside reflecting their emotions.

Here are some examples of their body maps:

Bow Arts - Session 5

This week, the children were learning to express themselves in a positive manner.  They thought about their positive characteristics and what makes them wonderful.  Each of the children came up with 3 affirmations about themselves and created an affirmation poster which had a mirror on so they could see themselves as they read their own affirmations.

Here are some examples of their wonderful affirmation posters:

Bow Arts

This week (9th November) Year 3 had their fourth Bow Arts session.  They began with finishing off the amulets they made from clay last week.  They used metallic paints to decorate them.

They also began to make plaits with three strands of wool to hang their amulets from.  They will be finishing off their plaits next week.

Below are some photographs of them painting, some of their finished amulets and their plaits.

Bow Arts

This week (2nd November) Year 3 had their third Bow Arts session.  The focus this week was on bravery.  The children designed their own bravery amulets and then made them out of clay.  There was lots of fun and mess!!  Next week, the children will be using metallic paint to finish off their amulets.

Below are some of their designs and the making of their amulets.

Bow Arts

This week, Year 3 had their second session out of a 10 week project with Bow Arts.  

The second session was focused around the story, Ruby's Worry by Tom Percival. After reading the story, the children used soft pastels to represent their worry.

They then went on to think about what things worried them and how they could turn their worries into something wonderful by saying, 'What if...'

This week, Year 3 started a 10 week project with Bow Arts.  Each week, they will have a half day session where they will be learning to express their feelings through art.

This week, they were using charcoal to create different types of lines, thin, thick, dark, light, straight, wavy etc.

Our topic this term is The Stone Age

Our topic this term is The Stone Age 

This term we will be learning all about the stone age era.  We will be focusing on their way of life, looking at cave paintings from this time as well as the farming community of Skara Brae. 

Stone Age Cave Paintings

In history, Year 3 have been looking at Stone Age cave paintings and thinking about what they tell us about live during the Stone Age.  They have also been learning about hunters and gatherers and the kind of weapons they may have used.  They have been identifying what would be classed as an asset and/or a threat to the Stone Age people.  

After studying some examples of cave paintings the children have created their own cave paintings.  To begin with, they stained a piece of paper to make it look old and stone like.  Once it was dry, they used soft pastels to create a Stone Age scene for their cave painting.  Here are some examples below:

Music - Recorders

The children are making progress with their recorder playing; they now understand some musical notation.  They are able to read this in order to play a simple tune.  All children should be able to identify the following notes and know how many beats to play them for: crotchet, minim and semibreve.  The children have also been taught that there are 4 beats to a bar.

Below is the tune they have been learning to play: 

Music - Recorders

Year 3 have had their second recorder lesson now and are thoroughly enjoying it.  All children have learnt how to hold a recorder correctly and can play the note B.

In their 3rd recorder lesson, Year 3 learnt about crochets and how to play them on their recorders.  They are also improving their playing by paying closer attention to their conductor.  There is still room for improvement though!

Literacy - The Magic Bed

Year 3 have been learning The Magic Bed story by heart.  In order to help them remember the story, they have created their own story maps and have been adding actions for the main points and for the punctuation marks.  Here are some examples of their story maps:

Ms Efrat is looking forward to seeing you on your first day back on:

Monday 5th September. 

Your teacher will meet you in the yr 3/4  playground on the day. Remember to arrive in your school uniform for an 8:45am start.

We look forward to seeing you then!