Year 3 Superheroes

Wow, what a busy week we've had and what absolute superheroes your children have been.

In addition to the normal timetable, the children have planted trees to combat climate change, started rehearsing their Christmas performance and completed their Big Write. What has impressed us most has been the children's fantastic attitude to their learning this week. It has been wonderful to see them working hard and trying their best.

Home learning
1) Read and complete an AR quiz.
This week we would like you to focus on reading with your child. Regardless of their reading ability, it would be helpful if you could listen to them read and discuss their book with them. Please also encourage them to complete an AR quiz once they have completed their book.

2) Science fair preparation 
If your child would like to be involved in next Friday's science fair please use this week's home learning time to prepare.

 

We hope you all have a lovely weekend.
The year 3 team 

The Big Climate Fightback- planting trees to save our world!

The Prince of Wales School have signed up to be part of the Woodland Trusts 'Big Climate Fightback'. We have pledged to plant over 100 new trees in our school grounds. 

'Trees are the ultimate multi-taskers, helping to combat the two environmental emergencies facing our planet: climate change and biodiversity loss.

They absorb carbon, fight flooding, reduce pollution, nurture wildlife and make landscapes more resilient'

We have a variety of different trees from Silver birch, Rowan, Oak to Cherry. Every class in the school will be partaking in the planting of these saplings. On Monday afternoon half of the class started the campaign off by planting Rowan saplings by our Forest School area. 

Everyone in Year 3 will have a chance to plant a tree by the Christmas holidays.

Clothes for tomorrow

Good evening

Just reminder that Ravenclaw and Gryffindor will need their Forest school clothes tomorrow

This week's Home Learning and upcoming dates

Hello everyone,

We have been delighted by the number of year 3 children completing their home learning each week.
This week all children were given a maths worksheet linked to the maths they have been learning in class.

The class were also asked to continue to think about their ideas for an adventure / explorer story that they will be writing next week. Talking and expressing thoughts verbally is a vital part of the writing process for children. If possible it would be very helpful if you could talk to your child about their story ideas.
Questions to prompt discussion:
1) Tell me about the main character of your story. What do they look like? What is their personality like?       
2) Why is your character going on an adventure? 
3) Where are they going to explore? Arctic or Antarctic?
4) What problem could your character face on their adventure?

There are lots of things happening in the next few weeks. Here's some dates for your diaries.

Monday 25th November - Deadline for returning Christmas cards order envelopes to school.
Friday 29th November - POWSA Christmas film night.

Friday 6th December - Deadline for online Christmas card orders.
Friday 6th December - Non school uniform day - donations welcome for the Christmas Fayre.
Friday 6th December - Christmas STEM fair (children encouraged to create Science, Technology, Engineering or Maths projects linked to Christmas).
Saturday 7th December - Buttermarket Christmas market.

Tuesday 10th December - Year 3 Journey to the Stable school trip (details to follow soon).
Friday 13th December - POW Christmas Fayre 3.30pm -5.30pm

Wednesday 17th December - Year 3 and 4 Christmas performance at 11am
Thursday 18th December - Year 3 and 4 Christmas performance at 11am


 
 

Land art and magnets!

This week in Year 3 we have had Rob in with us for a session on land art. Rob is a chainsaw artist who is very skilled in using the outside environment in his work. The children had to make a piece of art using inspiration from the artist Andy Goldsworthy. There were some fantastic results.

Also this week we have been investigating with magnets. Year 3 investigated 'Are all coins magnet? Prove it'. They worked in groups to find out the coins that are magnetic and the ones that are not. I wonder if your child can remember the differences in coins and why some 2p and 1p are magnetic and why some aren't?  If you look at the Science page of our knowledge organisers you can see everything that we are currently covering on magnets. We are using the terminology or attract, repel and north and south poles. 

Year 1 - Bits and Pieces!

Hello everyone,

Firstly, thank you to everyone for their effort with the first week of spellings last week! The children showed us that they had clearly been practicing these ready for the test! This will continue on a weekly cycle until the end of the year. 

Coming home this week will be a couple of things...

1. Weather Diary - the home learning project for this half term is to keep a weather diary for 2 weeks. It is up to you when you start and finish the weather diary as long as it is before the end of the term - 20th December! This will hopefully give way to conversation and observation about the world around us. 

2. Assembly lines - Our class assembly is next Friday (29th) and we are already hard at work preparing for it! Children will be coming home with their assembly lines before the end of the week for you to practice at home. This will help to build up confidence ready for day! 

Year 1 team

Home learning and outdoor clothes for all next week!

There is a definite chill in the air these days which helped us begin to imagine the cold temperatures that polar explorers experience.

As the temperature drops, could parents and carers label extra clothing items, like gloves and hats, with your child's name please. It will help us reunite any missing items that could be easily misplaced.
Please note that there is a slight change to the timetable. In response to the wet and colder weather we have been having, I made the decision to teach gymnastics this term instead of outdoor PE. Children still need their PE kit which stay in school for the term.

Outdoor clothes for everyone next week please
Next week all houses will be doing some sculptures with an outdoor artist. Please could all children bring in their outdoor clothing on Monday.

Home Learning
This week I was very impressed with the children's ability to verbally retell the story of Ernest Shackleton and the crew of the Endurance. This incredible story of survival and resilience has clearly captured their imaginations.
 
For home learning this week I would like the majority of the class to finish their retelling of the Endurance story in their writing books. These children have been sent home with their blue literacy books, some instructions and an overview of the main events of the story. Hopefully the children have what they need to complete their writing but if you need any extra support or you have any questions, feel free to email me  c.browne@princeofwales.dorset.sch.uk
Please return all literacy books by Wednesday, thank you.

For those children that completed their stories in school I would like them to complete some research on a polar animal of their choice.


Thank you for getting involved with BBC's Children in Need day today. The children looked fantastic in their spotty inspired clothes and a big thank you to those people that donated cakes and bought cakes, pin badges and keyrings. 

Ipad art with Jason Wilsher-Mills- WOW!

This morning we worked with Jason Wilsher-Mills to create a picture on the ipads of a person. The children started with the face and worked with layering the picture. They had to be brightly coloured. We then looked at the whole person, Jason specified that he wanted the children to draw someone with a physical disability. Jason will be using some of the pictures in his development of a computer game. The children loved the session and the outcomes were fantastic!

Outdoor learning in Year 3

Last half term in Year 3 we didn't stick to our usual Forest School sessions. Instead we had our outdoor sessions with the archeologist Julian where we fired our own pots. There was one 'Forest school' session. This half term it is very much the same. We have an exciting opportunity to work with a professional artist who is going to work with the children outside looking at sculpture using natural materials. For this we would like Slytherin and Hufflepuff to have their Forest School clothes on Tuesday pm please. Then the following week on the Monday pm Ravenclaw and Gryffindor will have their session.

I will keep you up dated with what groups needs their Forest school kits in school when but Tuesday is the first outdoor session of this term.

Thank you, and if you have any questions about this please do come and see me

Mrs Thorpe

Antarctic Explorers

This week year 3 explored the Polar regions and learnt about the incredible story of Ernest Shackleton and his crew. The children were fascinated by this true story that saw 28 men attempt to cross Antarctica, having to live on the ice after their ship the Endurance became stuck and later sank. They asked fantastic questions about the expedition and the men's lives and imagined what role they would have wanted if they were on the expedition. They acted out the main events before writing the opening of their own recounts of the story. If you get the chance to talk to them about the expedition at home it would be very helpful for their writing next week and I'm sure you will be impressed by the facts that they have remembered.

For home learning this week we would like the children to design their own menu for a Polar expedition. We discussed the need for high energy food that wouldn't take up too much room. Blank menu sheets were provided but feel free to design you own should your child want to.

Next week looks set to be another busy and exciting one for year 3 with the trip to the Children's Bookshow at the Pavillion on Monday. Please ensure that children are in their full school uniform (or their Youth organisation uniform for Armistice Day). After the bookshow the children will visit Weymouth Cenotaph and lay the poppy wreath they made in class on Friday.

On Tuesday Mrs Thorpe has two very special workshops planned, watch this space for details. 

It is BBC Children in Need on Friday. This day will be a non-uniform day with the theme spots. A donation of £1 is suggested for your child to come in non-uniform. Throughout the week keyrings and pin badges will be available to buy and on Friday there will a cake sale after school. Any cake donations will be gratefully received on Friday morning at the front office.   

We hope you have a lovely weekend.
The Year 3 team.   

Brrrr lets go on an adventure!

Welcome to Autumn 2 and the beginning of our 'Polar' topic. As highlighted in the Knowledge organisers we will be learning about Antarctica by visiting there! Tomorrow we will go to Antarctica with the use of the VR headsets. We will learn where it is in the world, some interesting facts about it and begin to learn about latitude, longitude, the Equator, Northern Hempisphere, Southern Hemisphere, Arctic and Antarctic Circle.

Tomorrow we will also be looking at the children's home learning and changing their library books. Please can we have book bags, home learning and AR books in tomorrow.

We look forward to hearing about your half term!

See you in the morning.

The Year 3 team