Although it has been a shorter week in school, we have still been busy producing lots of fantastic work in Windrush Class!

In English we have finished writing our own disaster stories based on extreme weather. All of the class should feel proud of the effort that have put in to these pieces of writing, they have worked hard on their presentation, as well as their ideas.

In maths, we have been learning how to add and subtract lengths; this was trickier when we had to convert between different units of measurement, but the children were Steadfast Squirrels and persevered! We also learnt how to measure the perimeter of shapes – I was very impressed with how accurately the children did this!

Our music lesson was very exciting this week as Mrs Davies taught us how to play some of the Star Wars theme tune. We played a simplified version and Mrs Davies played the full theme tune – the end piece sounded really good! All of the children have now been given their log-in details for Charanga which they can use to practise at home. 

In Science, we continued to think about how we can describe different rocks. We began by learning about permeable and impermeable rocks, and rocks with high or low density. We then carried out a practical investigation using lots of rocks samples to test the durability, permeability and density of the rocks. The children did a brilliant job of being really precise with their observations!

​We have had another great week in Windrush Class!
In English we have finished our sentence stacking using Flood by Alvaro F Villa, and we are now planning our own disaster story based on extreme weathers. In maths, we have been working hard on measuring lengths in centimetres and millimetres, as well as converting between the different units. 
In PE we continued to practise our basketball dribbling; we learnt how to dribble under our leg and behind our back. We also learnt the main three passes used in basketball: the chest pass, the bounce pass and the overhead pass. I was so impressed with the focus and determination the children showed to master these skills!

​We enjoyed our music lesson with Mrs Davies again this week; we continued to revisit some of the pieces we had learnt in the Autumn, as well as developing our understanding of pulse. It was also very exciting to be able to take our instruments home!

​In Science, we started to think about the different ways that we could describe rocks. We thought about the size, shape, colour, texture, and then thought about how the rocks might have changed over time. We went on a rock hunt on the field and thought about how we could describe the rocks we found.

We have had brilliant first week back in Year 3!
In English we have started working on a new book called Flood. We have been focusing on sentence stacking, and we have been thinking about how we can build tension in a disaster story by using repetition and rhetorical questions. The deepening the moment that the children have written has really impressed me this week, we have had lots of Bold Badgers!
In maths we have just finished our work on Statistics; we have covered bar charts and tables this week. Next week, we will be moving onto measurement, with a particular focus on length.
This week we have started our PE unit on Basketball. We have started off by learning how to dribble with the basketballs, and we have been trying to use the right amount of pressure to keep the ball dribbling as we move about. I have been really impressed with how the children have improved over the two lessons and how much their confidence has grown already!
It was brilliant to be able to have Mrs Davies back for our violin and cello lesson on Thursday! We practised some of the pieces that we had learnt in the Autumn, as well as reminding ourselves of how to use the bow. Mrs Davies was really pleased with how much the class had remembered!

We have had a fantastic two weeks in Windrush Class; I have been really impressed with the children’s Must-do Mole attitudes and it has been lovely to have a full classroom again!

In our English work, we have been writing diary entries inspired by the book, Escape from Pompeii. The class have worked so hard on completing their first drafts and have all been Steadfast Squirrels! We will be writing our best copies next week.

In maths, we have been recapping some work on Multiplication and Division. We have practised using partitioning and groupings, as well as the written method for multiplication. 

In our PE lessons, we have had lots of fun trying out different Boing Games which focus on teamwork and problem solving. This week we played ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’; the children had to cross the space by stepping on the spots, and try to collect as many items to fill their ‘honey pots’. They all showed great team work skills!

In the afternoons, we have continued with our whole school project using the book, What We’ll Build. I have really enjoyed working on this project with the class; we have had some thoughtful discussions and produced lots of brilliant work. On Friday, we enjoyed having the afternoon to build the objects and inventions that we designed. 

​We have all been working hard in Windrush Class this week as we finish off lots of our topics before the Christmas holidays!
In English this week we have planned, written and edited our own stories based on the book, ‘Star in a Jar’. We chose a different piece of treasure that our main characters could find and wrote about their discovery and adventure with it. I have been so impressed with all of the Must-do Mole attitudes as the children are so determined to produce their best piece of writing.
This week in our History lessons we have been using our knowledge of the Iron Age to write a letter. Inspired by our recent class book, ‘The Wild Way Home’ we imagined that we travelled back in time to the Iron Age and we wrote a letter to our families about our experiences. Although, the letter had a fictional theme, we had to make sure that our facts about the Iron Age were accurate!
The highlight of the week was definitely watching Cinderella on Friday afternoon; despite not being able to do our normal trip to the theatre, the class really enjoyed watching the virtual pantomime and having the treat of some popcorn as well!
                                                                                                                                              

We have had another great week in Windrush Class and the festive excitement is building as we get closer to the Christmas holidays!
We have finished recording our parts for the Key Stage 2 Christmas Service this week and next week we will be completing our artwork to go along with it.
In maths this week we have started our new unit of work on Multiplication and Division, focusing on the 3, 4 and 8 times tables. In English, we have finished our sentence stacking lessons based on ‘Star in a Jar’ and next week we’ll be completing a piece of independent writing which links to this book.
This week in our RE lesson we looked at how the Trinity is represented in different pieces of art. We looked at a variety of paintings and stained-glass windows. We then wrote about the art that we thought best represented the Trinity and had a go at creating our own Trinity design.
In our Science lesson on Friday we learnt about magnetic and non-magnetic materials. At the start of our investigation, we predicted that all types of metal were magnetic. We then used magnets to test different objects as well as different types of metal. As we tested more objects, we realised that not all metals are magnetic and we learned that, in fact, there are just three magnetic metals: iron, steel and nickel. We were also surprised to find that parts of the classroom wall were magnetic and discussed how they may be lined with one of the three magnetic metals!

This week in Windrush Class we have come to the end of our sentence stacking lessons for our explanation text, ‘How does a robot dog work?’. On Friday, we started the first step towards planning our own explanations texts; we designed and drew our own robot pet and started to think about its features and functions. I was really impressed with the range of creative ideas!
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In our PE lessons this week we completed our second inter-house competition of the year. This time we focused on basketball skills; we spent our lesson on Tuesday getting used to passing and dribbling the basketballs. On Thursday we played games in our teams and everyone worked really hard trying to score points for their houses!

In our History lessons for the past two week we have been learning about life in the Bronze age. We have thought about how the Bronze Age compared to the Stone Age, how things improved and became more advanced. We have also learnt about the Bell Beakers that were made during this time period; on Tuesday we designed our own patterns which we will be using when we have a go at making our own Bell Beakers in a couple of weeks.

We have also enjoyed celebrating Children in Need this week. In particular, we have had lots of fun doing the Strictly Come Dancing Children in Need challenges as well as watching the Five to Thrive videos that Children in Need have filmed with Joe Wicks!