St Philip's Catholic Primary and Nursery School

Exploring our creativity using oil pastels  18.7.22

On one of the hottest days of 2022, Year 3 were learning that everyone can be an artist and that simple lines can produce the most amazing pieces of artwork.  You can see by the happy smiles that all the children were very proud of their creations and have realised that art is individual and that everyone can succeed! 

All we needed was masking tape, a ruler, a pencil and some oil pastels (although you can use anything you have to colour with). 

I would happily hang all of these artworks on my own wall!

Our visit to Brodsworth Hall  20.6.22

As part of our History topic 'Victorians' Year 3 went to visit Brodsworth Hall in Doncaster. We learnt about how life was like in Victorian times for the more wealthy of society and explored how life has changed over the years. We were very lucky to have the church opened for us and we were able to explore it and find out all about the history. 

While we explored the house and gardens, we had to complete a few tasks. Using a map, we had find different areas in the gardens and also find different Victorian items in the house. We also had a photo challenge in which we had to recreate photographs by finding the area it was taken and then carefully looking at the perspectives to try and match our photos exactly.

It was a really fun day and we learnt lots!!

Making chocolate from cocoa beans  3.6.22

This week we learnt how to make chocolate from a cocoa bean. We wrote our own instructions. We thought it would be easy, but we soon found out that it was a very long job. First we had to roast the beans, then we had to take the shells off and break them into tiny cocoa nibs. We worked really well in our teams. Finally we put the nibs into a food processor with some sugar and left it to blend. It seemed to take forever!!!! Finally the cocoa nibs and sugar became and paste and we left it in the fridge to taste.  When it had set we were allowed to taste it. Most people thought that it tasted disgusting, but some people actually liked it! 

Designing and making Maya masks 

We have been learning about The Maya this half term so we decided to design and make our very own Maya masks. After we made them, we compared them to our original designs and suggested things that we would improve or alter if we were to do this again. 

We found a golden ticket!   18.5.22

Children in Year 3 were very surprised to find a golden ticket in a chocolate bar today. The golden ticket had a task on it for us to do and it also told us that we would be allowed to visit the chocolate factory if we were successful.  We were very excited about this. After each task we found a new golden ticket with the next task on. We never knew where they would appear! We have described the qualities of a good chocolatier and designed our own chocolate bars. We then wrote and performed persuasive adverts to tempt people into buying our treats.

Identifying the features of non fiction texts  3.5.22

In Year 3 today we have been looking closely at a range of non fiction texts to help us to identify the different features that are used to organise the information within them. We are going to be using these features to help us to organise our writing later in the week.

Drama - The Great Kapok Tree  18.3.22

This term we have been reading The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. In this story, a man enters the rainforest and begins to hack into the Kapok tree. Fortunately, he is lulled to sleep by the heat and sounds of the forest. While he sleeps, the animals of the forest come to him to explain the reasons why we must protect the rainforest. The children in Year 3 acted out this story. Some of the children became the tree, others became the animals and woodcutter. 

World Book Day 03.03.22

Follow the clues in this short video to find out more about the book that Year Three are going to be enjoying today......

Cave Painting December 21

As part of out topic about the Stone Age, Year 3 researched cave paintings and then became hunter gatherers. We went outside to collect natural materials to use as paint. We found a range of berries (strawberries, raspberries and blueberries), mud and sticks. When we came back inside we had to mush up our materials to make the paint and then we went into our very own "cave" and used our sticks and fingers to create our cave paintings. 

Look out for some exciting work coming soon!

Year 3 - Maths

Year 3 - English

Year 3 - R.E.

Year 3 - Other Exciting Topics

Maths

Adding 3 digit numbers using Base 10 equipment

Some children in Year 3 have been learning how to add 3 digit numbers by using our Base 10 equipment. It is really important that we learn skills by using practical equipment first as this helps us to really see and understand the value of the numbers that we are adding together.

Using a thesaurus to find synonyms 11.11.21

This week Year 3 have been working on synonyms to find better and more interesting words. We were introduced to a thesaurus for the first time and were amazed at how many different words we can use instead of the word said. It was very tricky trying to find some of the words, but we persevered and worked really well with our partners.

Today Year 3 worked with Luke from Alive and Kicking Theatre Company and were taken back in time 17,000 years to the paleolithic era where we were taken into a cave to meet the characters of the time. We were able to use our minds eye to imagine what life was like back then and we had to use our problem solving skills and bravery to help the characters in our story. We had to use our decision making skills to choose which course of action the characters should take and also were involved in a trial where we had to be brave and present our evidence in front of the whole tribe.

WANTED - THE IRON MAN

Year 3 have written their own 'WANTED' posters and stuck them up all around the school asking for anyone who sees the Iron Man to report back to them. They really enjoyed having a real purpose for their writing and used some amazing vocabulary! WATCH OUT! If you see him then let us know as a matter of urgency!!

Making predictions

Other Exciting Topics

Drums

In Year 3 we are learning to play the djembe drum and we have weekly lessons. We are learning lots about different rhythms we can play and how the different areas of the drums make different sounds. It's very noisy, but we love it!

Science Magnetic fields 14.10.21

Today in Year 3 we have been exploring how to make things move without touching them. Miss Meeson gave us the challenge of drawing our own road map and then to draw a little car to drive on it. We stuck a paper clip to the back of our car (Miss said it was so it didn't blow away). Miss M then told us we couldn't use our hands to move the car, so we thought up lots of really imaginative ways that we could move it. We used pencils, our elbows, noses all sorts of things. Then Miss Meeson said we couldn't touch it at all!! We stepped up to the challenge and tried blowing it and tipping the card up. Then Miss M told us we couldn't blow on it, tip it or touch it!! This had us very confused, until finally we realised that we could use a magnet as we had learnt about how they attract metal. We tried magnets but they just picked up our cars! We had to think again so we tried putting our magnets underneath the card and it worked!! We learnt how magnets can attract through materials but how they need to be stronger magnets to attract through thicker barriers. We then learnt about what a magnetic field is and got to see these in action using iron filings. We saw how the little magnets had a little magnetic field and the larger magnets had a much larger magnetic field.

Transitions in powerpoint 4.10.21

Here are a few of the transitions that children in Year 3 added to their powerpoints this week.

Computing - Transitions in Powerpoint 4.10.21

This week in Year 3, we have been learning how to duplicate slides and add transitions to them in Powerpoint. We were really excited to show our work to the rest of the class by attaching our lap tops to the smart board.