Six more sleeps to go!!

As I write my final blog for 2014 I cannot believe all that the School has achieved since September and how proud I am of my class for their part in this.  We really have grown as Team 3, it often takes a while for children to settle after their transition from KS1 to 2 but we have got there.  Such a wonderful group of children to teach.

A couple of different arrangements for next year: the children will have Squash lessons on a Monday afternoon and Football lessons (Colchester United) on a Tuesday morning.  Homework will now be given out on a Wednesday and is asked for return Monday for marking.  We intend to have a more vigorous focus on  times-tables, incorporating a weekly check of where the children are in their tables knowledge.  We would like to encourage more from Class 3 to take part in Mr Wainwright's times-tables challenge!!  You will be informed of our curriculum coverage on the first day back in the new terms.

So here are a final few photos and a video of the children singing in French!

All remains for me to say is have the most enjoyable Christmas holiday.  Relax, enjoy and I hope that the children are suitably tired that you will get a lie-in or two!!

Mrs Smith

Thursday, 11th December 2014

I science we recordid a vido of are science investigtigation.Are investilgation was does the tempurature of water affect the speed of dissolving. I found out that the hotter the water the quiker sugar disolved.  i enjoued the lesson and loved making me video  emily cook

Our Sheilds

I really liked painting and designing my shield.  I really liked making the bosses out of mudrock.  The most challenging part was making the ball (the boss).  Louis

I am very pleasd with my shield because I made lots of mistakes. so the the shield was very difrent to my desin.But the mistakes actuly improved my shield! By Saxen bailey toyne

Balanced Arguments and Debates

Dear All

We had much fun today in class with our debate.  We are looking at Balanced Arguments in Literacy and children were split into four groups.  Two groups had to come up with reasons 'for' and two 'against'.  We hope to have another debate nearer the end of our literacy unit showing much improvement!

Well done Calum who proved himself to be an excellent team leader.

Mrs Smith

Local Study

In our theme afternoon we looked on google earth and found different places in Fordham. We labelled them on our maps. Liberty

We had a look on our maps to find the three horse shoes and Fordham School. We had a look on the computer to look at photos of Fordham. Jessica


Dear Parents

The children were very enthusiastic to be introduced to Google Earth and Maps and used these to look at Fordham village this afternoon.  However each group only had about 5 minutes to use.  As the children were keen,  I promised that I would ask that perhaps you allow your child to use Google Earth/Maps at home under your supervision.

Many thanks

Mrs Smith

Are maths lesson Wednesday,26th November 2014

Today in maths we did some multiplication grids for example x  30   4  = 170 so we had a sheet to do it and we did section b and a bit of c. Daniel               5  150  20

Homework: 21st November 2014

Dear Children

Well done to those that remembered I had asked you to write a short descriptive paragraph to accompany the image stuck in your Homework books.  Apologies to those who couldn't remember, and couldn't find out from the Blog what to do.  You now have until Friday, 28th November to complete this task.

1. As we have been working on punctuation in speech I have copied a simple paragraph which  you will has at least no speech punctuation, some of you need to be careful as there may be other punctuation missing.  Your task is simply to show me where the correct punctuation should be.

2. As you know, you will be writing your own mystery and suspense story this week.  This is your chance to shine!  However, some preparation will be good - please therefore talk through a story plan with your parents or other adult and be prepared to write your story mountain on Wednesday.  Remember there is the Mystery of the Poisoned Pudding on Bug Club, or you can ask your parents to register on www.lovereading4kids.co.uk to access a copy of the text we have been reading in class entitled "Haunters".

3.I have allocated you all at least one new game on Active Learn for your maths homework.

Enjoy!  I can't wait to be reading your stories this time next week.

Off to Costa Coffee to buy a solution (Year 3s, you will understand!).  What might it be, what would be the soluble?

Mrs Smith

Week ending 21 November 2014

Dear Parents

The children have been working very hard this week,  They have taken on fractions with great enthusiasm - ordering, decimals, tenths and hundredths, equivalence, adding and subtracting.  Next week we shall be looking at written methods for both multiplication and division, this will follow the School's policy of introducing the children to the grid method, before both the expanded column and short methods.

In Literacy our emphasis this week has been looking at how authors have used ellipses, short sentences, powerful verbs, dialogue and similes when writing in the mystery and suspense genre.  To continue this next week we shall be looking at action within these stories and particularly how it helps to build up the story.  The children will be asked to write a 'warm' piece of writing (independent of adult support) to showcase their progression of learning over the last three weeks.

The children have been asked to discuss ideas for their stories with an adult at home in time for their writing of  their story plan on Wednesday.

This week, as part of friendship week, we considered what it is to be a friend and how we can unite to support a friend in need.  The children watched a short video and then created colourful ginger bread men to write their individual pledges on.  The ginger bread men represent that we may all be different on the outside, but inside we are just the same.  We continue to have much fun in creating a very short performance in PE entitled Children  in the Blitz, creating solutions in Science (see separate blog) and, of course, our Coding lessons with Mr Wainwright.

Can I just also add a very special well done to all the Year 4s for their great attempts at either knitting or cooking with the Oaks and Acorns this week.  As I write I have misplaced my camera - but look out for the photos soon.  It was another brilliant session with the older and younger generations enjoying themselves, we even managed to persuade our resident knitters - the office ladies, Mrs Smith and Mrs Thompson - to come and join us!  Special praise to Conrad, Thomas and Isobelle for their brilliant efforts.  We hope to have a St George's flag on display very soon.

Mrs Smith

Soluble or Insoluble - Does is dissolve?

Today Class 3 have been looking at dissolving - who can remember what dissolving means?  We also looked at saturation levels for salt and sugar.  I leave it to the children to explain!!

Dissolve means something becomes a solution .[ felicity and jake]

We had 8 diffrente matirils and tested which ones dissolve. emilycook                                                       In litrecy we are seting the scene we are also writing mystery narrative we realy enjoined it. Elliana      In maths we have done desermal points on the white bourd and fractions i realy enjoyed doing it. Callum E

Is sand a soluble or insoluble? 

Investigating how many spoonfuls to saturation

Our different materials

Bug Club Book Reviews / Feedback

Dear Class 3

Please don't forget to let me know how you are getting on with the Bug Club reading books!  It will be great to hear from you.

Mrs Smith

Is it reversible or irreversible?

Today in Science we have been learning about changes of state. We used chocolate, egg, cheese, b utter, plasticine, wax.  We have been testing out wether they would melt or not.  And turn into liquid.  Then you leave it for a while in the cup it will turn back into the same solid.  This is called a reversible chnage.  Juliette.

Well I thought the science lesson was quite fun and some of it was quite hard cos we had to keep the cus in the water properly so it would melt. In our groups we did experements to find out if they would melt nd then whether it was reversible or irreversible (it means doesn't turnback into what it started).

Elliana.

Before

Making prediction

 os

What fraction of eggs has disappeared?

Wax after it is heated

By Saxen, Emily Cook

In Maths we have lernt about money,problem solving and dessemall points. This is place value. (Emily Cook).  Decimal points are part of a whole number.(Eva J)There are fractions after the decimal point like tenths and hundreths.(kirsty)

In literacy we are lerning to write and follow instructions.  T oday we followed instructions to make poppies.  pleas see the photo of our display. Saxen

Next week we shall be continuing place value and subtraction as well as thinking things through in Maths.  Literacy will be looking at narrative, and in particular  Mystery and Suspense.  We shall continue to understand suffixes (who can remember what suffix we use if a root word ends in either 't' or 'te' and what about root words that end in a 'd' or 'se' - have you worked that one out yet, Year 4s?!).

Our main theme for the next two weeks will concentrate on World War I and II.

Mrs Smith

what we have learnt this week : 6th november 2014

By Lily, Matilda, Jessica and Phoebe,

This week we have been learning about instructions we have been doing instructions on how to make a jam and peanut butter sandwich.We also wrote instructions on catapults.I enjoyed writing them.  Jessica

We designed roman shields and painted them as well.  Mrs Sibley stapled some of the sheilds on the display. I learnt you need to design a pattern symmetrically.   Lily

This week in maths we have been learning place value and we have been taking away using numicon.  I loved using the numicon.  Phoebe

I'm writing about science and we are testing to see if different materials are waterproof, flexible and strong. I found out that iron is not flexible and very strong.  Matilda

We finished painting our fossils 

Testing flexibility and strength

Is it waterproof?

Recording our results

Matilda