Welcome to Manta Rays Class (Year 3)

Here is the timetable for Manta Rays Class for this Autumn term:

** PE DAYS ARE MONDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS - PLEASE WEAR PE KITS TO SCHOOL ON THESE DAYS**

November 2024

In Science, we are learning about Forces and Magnets.  We have carried out several different investigations, including finding out if friction affects the distance a toy car will travel down a ramp.  The children made their predictions and then tested different surfaces to explore their ideas and come to a conclusion.  We have been exploring magnetic and non-magnetic materials and how not all metals are magnetic and also learnt about different types of magnets and carried out an investigation to see which magnets are the strongest and can pick up the most paper clips.  The results were very different for each group!

     

In DT, we are working towards making our own pneumatic monsters using syringes and plastic tubing.  The children enjoyed exploring a range of pneumatic toys and looked at how they work.  It was great fun launching rockets, releasing cars and racing horses!   The children are now busy planning and designing their own monsters, incorporating a pneumatic system and are really excited to make them in a couple of weeks.

          

In Literacy, we have been looking at the story ‘Dolphin Boy’.  It is a lovely story about a boy who finds a dolphin stranded on a beach and how they become friends.  The children have been using ideas from the story to plan and write their own story with their own choice of setting, animal and main character.  We have been focusing on using fronted adverbials and adjectives to add detail and excitement to our story writing, and the children have written some wonderful stories!

In PE, we are doing football and hockey.  The children really enjoy their weekly football lessons with Miss Young each week and are developing lots of great skills that they can use in both sports.

     

     

In History, we are continuing to learn about the Ancient Egyptians.  We have been learning about why the Egyptians mummified bodies and the mummification process, and the children have used a similar process to mummify some tomatoes!  We are hoping they will be preserved well and not rot!  We also had a fantastic interactive performance from Mr Dilly, who took us back in time to the Ancient Egyptian times.  The children LOVED it and came out saying "that was excellent!" and "that was so gross when he removed the organs!" (fake ones of course!)

              

     In half term, some children made a pyramid at home.  They all look fantastic!

October 2024

We have been enjoying learning about the Ancient Egyptians this half term and have written some excellent non-chronological reports about human and physical features of Ancient Egypt.

In Art, we have been learning how to draw a 3D pyramid and add shading and tone to create realistic images.  The children completed their final unique piece and they look amazing!

 

     

In Science, we have been learning about bones and skeletons and the children made their own model to explain how the muscles in our arms work.

In History, we have been learning about how important the River Nile was in Ancient Egyptian times, and how Egypt wouldn’t have existed without it.  We have learnt about some of the hundreds of gods and goddesses that were worshipped and that many of them had the head of an animal.

          

The children had a go at writing the god or goddess name in hieroglyphics using the Ancient Egyptian writing code.  The symbols are much trickier to write than our letters!

This week it is International Week and our class have been learning about Italy.  We made pizzas to sell at the food event and welcomed a visitor into our class to teach us some Italian.  We are able to find Italy on a map and discuss some of the Italian landmarks.

In computing we have been learning about online safety and how every time we go online we live a ‘digital footprint’.  We know how important it is to keep ourselves safe online and to think about the information we share with others.

September 2024

Welcome to a new school year!  Keep an eye on this page for all the exciting things we will do this year!

The children have settled into Manta Rays class really well and have been enjoying starting to learn about the Ancient Egyptians. We started off our new topic by looking at some ancient Egyptian artefacts that we borrowed from Chertsey Museum.  Some of them were very tricky to work out!  We have enjoyed finding out about how different life was in ancient Egypt 4000 years ago!

          

In Literacy, we are using a lovely picture book called ‘Journey’.  We have been looking carefully at what happens in each picture and writing the story ourselves using adjectives and nouns in expanded noun phrases and including adverbs. The children are excited that they are now using a handwriting pen.

In Science, we are learning about healthy eating and bones.  We looked at food labels and learnt about eating a balanced diet with not too much saturated fats.

In Maths, we are learning about place value and how to represent 2 and 3-digit numbers in different ways.  We have been ordering and comparing numbers and counting in 50s.

          

The children are showing great team work skills in PE and are learning different skills in Netball.