Welcome to Maple Class

Class Teacher: Mrs Efrat

PPA Teacher: Ms Mullarkey

Support Staff: Mrs Reynolds

Class Email Address: maple@kafed.org.uk

Happy New Year and welcome to the Spring Term in Year 3

Our topics this term are: Tudor London and London.  The children will be learning about life during Tudor times, how the Tudor dynasty was founded and will learn about some of the Tudor kings and queens.  They will look at Tudor houses and compare rich peoples' houses to poor peoples' and how their lives were very different.

During Spring 2, the children will be learning about modern day London and will find out about some famous London landmarks.  Towards the end of the term, they will get to visit one of the most famous London landmarks, Tower Bridge where they will learn about the opening mechanism of the bridge and lots of other fun facts.

History - Tudor London

The children have been learning about the Tudor dynasty, how it was founded and how it ended.  They been learning about Henry VII, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada. 

They have found out about Tudor houses and the differences between rich and poor peoples' houses.

Art

The children in Year 3 have been learning about the artists Pablo Picasso and, during Art Week, Alma Thomas.  They have learnt about cubism and have created their own Picasso style portraits.

During Art Week, they learnt about the life of Alma Thomas and her influence on black women's art.  They practised one of her techniques of creating abstract art by making small, colourful dashes, almost like tiles, to create a pattern.

Below are some examples of their artwork:

Welcome to Maple Class

Welcome to Year 3 and the autumn term.  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.

Already, some children have brought in their lovely homework projects which are being displayed in class for all to see.  If your child has not yet brought any homework in, please check out the homework in the homework folder on this page, and support them in completing some of the projects.  Thank you.

DT - Picture Frames

The children have been having fun evaluating different picture frames and deciding which ones they preferred and why.  They then had fun designing and making their own frames.  During the making process, they learnt they had to adapt their designs and problem solve when they came across various problems.  Despite the challenges, everyone made a picture frame and were proud of their achievements.

Volcanoes

Year 3 have thoroughly enjoyed learning about volcanoes this term.  They had fun replicating a volcanic eruption, and learnt that investigations do not always go according to plan. The children evaluated the investigation and came up with ways they would do it differently if they did it again.  All very important aspects of learning.   Despite it not going exactly to plan, they had fun and learnt a lot.

Art - Andy Goldsworthy

This half-term, Year 3 have been learning about the British Sculptor, Andy Goldsworthy.  His artwork is created from natural objects outside in nature.  They are not permanent and are left for nature to change them.  The children have been inspired by his artwork and gathered their own natural items to work collaboratively and create Andy Goldsworthy style creations in the playground. 

They were extremely resilient and coped very well on a rather windy day which made things a little more challenging for them.  They came up with their own solutions and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  It was fantastic to see them eagerly pulling their parents over to see their artwork at the end of the day to see whether it was still there and whether it had already changed.

It has been lovely to see children gathering leaves and twigs at playtimes and sitting together being creative out of their own accord.

Below are some photographs of their beautiful creations.

Year 3 have also been inspired by Andy Goldsworthy's stone stack sculptures and have created their own stone stack sculptures using clay.  During the process, they learnt how to score and slip to connect two pieces of clay together, some with more success than others.  Everyone enjoyed our 'clay day' and didn't mind at all how messy it got!  Below are some examples of the process and their finished pieces.