Year3

November 13, 2024

Year 3 – The Awe of Stonehenge!

Welcome Back to Autumn 2! The children are still talking with such enthusiasm about our trip to Stonehenge. It was truly amazing to see the stones up close, trying to imagine the strength and effort required to build such a special monument. We were able to go inside the Neolithic houses and discover how the Stone Age people might have lived with such simple tools and resources. One of our favourite parts was the museum, where the building of Stonehenge was brought to life through projections on the walls. It was here that we were able to put ourselves in the shoes of the Stone Age people, imagining us stood in the middle of the stones during the summer or winter solstice. We are so proud of how well the children represented our school. A number of the Stonehenge staff and members of the public commented on what a delight they were. Well done, Year 3! Enjoy some of the photos of our wonderful day…

Put On Your Gumboots!

In our music lessons last half term, we learned about music from South Africa, in particular using body percussion for a gumboot dance. In South Africa, gumboots are what we know as wellie boots. We learned how to play glockenspiels correctly, holding the beaters loosely so they bounce off each note. We also learned about Harmonic Ostinato. This is where two notes are played at the same time whilst a repeated pattern is played. We tied all of these skills together to create our very own Gunboots performance. We were very lucky to perform this in a mini-concert to Year 4 and we filmed it for you to watch at home. During our performance you will see us doing body percussion. We hope you enjoy it!

The Mystery of Metal

The children have been excited to discover what our new topic for this half term is – The Mystery of Metal, a science based unit. We look forward to investigating metals and magnets in our science lessons this half term. The children were also excited and a little suprised to discover the Iron Man had paid a visit to St Mark’s over the half term! He clearly enjoyed finding any metal in our grounds that he could, leaving bits scattered around. Our writing so far has been focused on The Iron Man novel. Once the children have written their indepenent pieces, we look forward to sharing these with you.

Some dates for your diary:

‘The Christmas Journey’ Workshop at St Mark’s Church
On Monday 9th December, Year 3 will be walking to St Mark’s Church on Homesteads Road for a lovely workshop about the Christmas journey. An email will be sent shortly to inform you about this.

Christmas Carol Concerts
Monday 16th December at 2pm
Tuesday 17th December at 6:30pm
Wednesday 18th December at 10am

A final plea from the Year 3 team please. As part of our DT this term, we are making pneumatic design systems and require cardboard boxes which have a lid attached. Teabag boxes are perfect for this. If you are able to send any empty teabag boxes in, we would appreciate it very much!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do send us an email on year3@stmarksce.org.uk
Year 3 Team

September 25, 2024

Welcome to Year 3

We have had a great start to Year 3 and the children have settled quickly into their new classrooms. On our first day, we started the day with a letter from Mr Calver. During the holidays he discovered a possible site that would be of interest to archaeologists, so asked if we could help him and become archaeologists. We started by learning all about our new role and then headed to the site to complete our dig. We had to be very careful as the artefacts we found looked extremely old. Once we were back in the classroom, we examined what we had found and then waited eagerly for the results from the lab at the official Forensic Archaeological Society – Mr Calver had sent some samples off during the holidays!

After lunch, we received a thank you letter and they confirmed the artefacts we found were very old, and were from the year 5000BCE. We then completed an activity to make a timeline (using a toilet roll!) to help us understand just how long ago the Stone Age was. Our project is called ‘Dig and Discover’ and will be History led. We have also attached our topic web for you to see what your child will be learning this half term.

Awesome Artefacts

We were lucky to have a History box delivered filled with amazing artefacts to explore. The children got to handle these, find out facts and ask questions.

Year 3 – Dig and Discover Curriculum Information

Amazing Artwork!

Later in the week, the children began to observe artwork from the Stone Age period. They identified that natural materials were used as media. Following this, they sourced their own chalk and mud from the school grounds and made a paint like consistency with water to create imagery similar to that shown in Stone Age caves.