Welcome to Manta Rays Class (Year 3)

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

** PE DAYS ARE THURSDAYS AND FRIDAYS**

July

We have ended Year 3 on a high!  The children were excited to be able to get a second chance to take part in their Sports Day after it was cancelled due to the rain, they showed great teamwork skills and cheered each other on enthusiastically.

In DT, the children completed their DT learning by making their own bread rolls.  They learnt how to knead and shape the dough, before adding their own ingredients and finishing off with an egg wash to make it golden brown.  They all smelled delicious when they came out of the oven!

          

We held an audition for our annual Maybury’s Got Talent which happens at the end of the year.  There were some great entries!

In PE, the children learnt how to run efficiently, throw using a chest push and take part in a relay.  It was great to see the progress they made each week.

Last week the children visited their new Year 4 class and were excited to meet their new teachers, Miss Frew and Mrs Melling.  They came back very excited to hear about all the fun learning and activities they will look forward to next year.

In History we have continued our learning about the Stone Age.  The children wrote their own  non-chronological reports  in Literacy about Stone Henge, Stone Age tools and homes. 

In Maths we have been learning about Statistics.  The children have been interpreting and making pictograms and bar charts.

This week we had a visit from Heidi who works at Chertsey museum.  She delivered a Stone Age workshop for us.  The children got to see and hold some real life Stone Age and Iron Age artefacts, as well as some replicas.  They tried loom weaving, looked at animal bones and attempted to make wattle walls by weaving. All this alongside our usual daily activities and learning, what a busy month!

          

We have had a fantastic year together, we have crammed in so much learning and so many exciting opportunities.  Good luck in Year 4 Manta Rays, Angelfish class awaits you! :

April

It has been an exciting start to the summer term in Year 3.  The children performed brilliantly in our class assembly on Monday and really enjoyed sharing their time in Year 3 so far with everyone.  Thank you to everyone who was able to come and watch and support the children—it means so much to them.  We have started our new science topic about light and our new geography topic about the new Woking developments. 

     

The children have enjoyed learning about mass and capacity in maths and have taken part in lots of practical activities to apply their knowledge.  Some children used a thermometer to measure the temperature of water and to read the scale.

         

We have started reading our new class book together ‘The Enchanted Wood’ by Enid Blyton.  It’s a lovely way for us to share a story together and have some calm and quiet time amidst our busy timetable.

In Literacy, we have just come to the end of our unit based on the text ‘Beast Quest—Ferno.’  The children love this series of books and finished the unit by writing their own dragon stories using ideas from a range of sources.  Maybe borrow another of the Beast Quest stories from Woking Library or listen to an audio book online?

In PE, the children have been practising their cricket skills.  This has been a really popular sport as lots of the children enjoy playing cricket out of school too.  We have also been doing HRE (health related exercise) to improve our stamina and fitness and our ability to exercise at different intensities.

In Art, we have been studying the artist Andy Goldsworthy.  The children have been experimenting with collage by layering, tearing, cutting and crumpling different materials and sorting them by mood colours.  They are looking forward to imitating some of Andy’s artwork by creating their own sculptures/collages using natural materials in a couple of weeks.  Look out for the photos!

March

Year 3 have had a busy month with lots of new and exciting learning opportunities, including Book Week, and two trips to Horsell Common and Marwell Zoo, as well as our Walking Training to help us keep safe when we are walking.

         

In Science, the children have been carrying out investigations to test the best growing conditions for cress seeds.  They chose whether they wanted to put them in the dark cupboard or in the cold fridge.  They predicted what they thought would happen and why and were excited to check on their seeds after a week to see if their predictions were correct.  We have also dissected flowers to identify all the parts that are involved in pollination and fertilisation.

In Computing, the children are thoroughly enjoying our Creating media – Photo editing unit.  They have learnt how to crop, clone, rotate and retouch images.

In DT, the children have been working towards making their own rainforest animal out of felt.  They created their own rainforest animal design and sewed the felt together, before adding the stuffing and final details.  They all look incredible and so unique!

   

In PE, the children enjoyed Tag Rugby and Gymnastics, as well as 3 weeks learning Handball with a visiting coach.  They have learnt to pass the ball backwards, defend, attack and score a try in rugby.  They have worked with a partner to create symmetrical and asymmetrical balances in gymnastics.

        

February

PE days are still Wednesday and Thursday this half-term.  Please make sure children wear their PE kit to school on these days.

A group of children received their prize of either hot chocolate or making a keyring before half-term for completing their home learning every week.  Manta rays are working on our school rules, learning spellings, completing homework and reading at least 3 times a week at home each week.  Each week, the 5 children in the class with the most positive dojos will receive their treat of a hot chocolate!

We are starting our new Geography topic this half-term, comparing the Amazon Rainforest and Horsell Common.  The children were given a challenge in half-term to visit Horsell Common with their family and take some photos.  They could make a poster about Horsell Common and research some key facts.  It was lovely to see the posters the children made.

   

We have started our new Science topic about Plants this week.  The children recalled the key parts of plants and looked at the jobs each part does.  We are looking forward to carrying out some exciting investigations this half-term to find out the best growing conditions for plants.

In Maths, we have just to come to the end of our Multiplication and Division unit.  The children have been learning about remainders and explored this using lolly sticks.  In the next few weeks we will be looking at Geometry and Fractions, Decimals, Percentages.

In Literacy, we are looking at the text ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ linked to our Rainforest topic from last half-term.  Our focus is persuasive texts and how to write in a persuasive way.  We have explored the story through a playscript and linked this to our Reading focus this week.

In Computing, we are starting an exciting new Photo Editing topic!  The children love this topic and will get to edit, improve and create some funny looking images!

January

We have our new Geography topic this half term about Rainforests around the World.  We have located them on maps, found out that they are near the Equator and between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, as the climate and weather is the warmest there.  We found out that over half of the world’s animals live in rainforests, so they are a very important habitat! 

We have started our new Science topic about Rocks this half term.  The children have really enjoyed finding out that rocks and fossils are millions of years old and can be formed in three different ways.  The children learnt how fossils are formed and even made their own fossils!

In Maths, we have been continuing our learning on Multiplication and Division.  The children have been working so hard to learn the 8 times table and related division facts, using some friendly spiders in our classroom!  In Literacy, we have been looking at the story Dragon Post.  The children have been busy writing letters and including all the features of formal letter writing.

In Art, we have been learning about the artist Henri Rousseau.  The children have been learning how to mix yellow and blue paint to make different shades of green and adding black and white. 

In RE, the children have been finding out about the Golden Rules that underpin many religions.  They have been creating mindmaps of what they think Golden Rules should include.

December

It has been a busy time in Manta rays this month!  We all enjoyed taking part in the Christmas play and singing our songs about how Christmas is celebrated in Australia.  The children did so well and we are really proud of them. 

In Science, we have been learning about magnetic poles.  The children had fun exploring the poles and finding out that like poles repel and opposite poles attract.  They then created their own magnetic mazes using magnets that attract.

We have continued to learn about Fractions in Maths and have been finding out about equivalent fractions and ordering and comparing fractions, as well as adding and subtracting them.

In DT, we have designed and built our own pneumatic monsters.  The children have loved this project and each made their own monster which they designed themselves.

In Computing we are continuing with our Scratch unit.  The children are becoming confident at programming a sprite to move and make sounds.

   

The children behaved so well and showed great respect when we visited the church this week.  They spotted signs and symbols of Christmas and created some lovely artwork, as well as enjoying a drink and a biscuit!

   

November

In Science, we are learning about Forces and Magnets.  Last week we carried out an investigation to see 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.  This week the children were exploring magnetic and non-magnetic materials and how not all metals are magnetic.  They 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 and are developing lots of great skills 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!

      

October

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 a realistic images.  The children completed their final unique piece this week 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 leave 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 

The children have settled into Manta Rays class really well and have been enjoying starting to learn about the Ancient Egyptians. They have been learning about where to find Egypt on the map and finding out more about the fascinating history of Ancient Egypt.  

   

In Literacy, we are using the text, ‘There’s a Pharaoh in our Bath!’ and we are using a variety of adverbs in writing.  The children are excited that they can start using a pen to write in Year 3!

In Science, we are learning about healthy eating and bones.

In Maths, we are learning about place value and how to represent 2 and 3-digit numbers in different ways.

   

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