This week Year 3 have been working to plan their own narratives. After reading The Wolves in the Wall by Neil Gaiman and innovating on his story, Year 3 each now have a story plan for their own Tale of Fear.

By working collaboratively to discuss and share ideas around what the main character could be afraid of, Year 3 were able to plan effectively to include their own characters, setting and plot.

After completing their plans, Year 3 worked with a partner to retell their story  by following the plan. Everyone’s partner listened carefully and then shared what they really liked about the retell and also offered ideas for improvements.

I can not wait to read the final Tales of Fear!

This week in art, Year 3 have been looking at different still life paintings. Year 3 observed and discussed:  Still Life with Cheese (1615) by Pieter Claesz,  Still Life: The Table (1928) by Georges Braque and Still Life with a Pilgrim Flask, Candlestick, Porcelain Vase and Fruit by Willem Kalf .

Year 3’s used these questions to explore the paintings

What can you see in the picture?

Which colours are used?

When was it made?

What material is used to create this picture?

Why do you think the artist made it?

How does the image make you feel?

Afterwards Year 3 used charcoal to create their own still life sketches.

Year 3 have been busy in their science lesson this week in working collaboratively to make models to  identify that humans and some other animals have muscles for movement by examining how muscles work. With a partner , they have made models to explain how muscles allow movement.

Year 3 looked closely at their upper arm as they curled their arms towards their chest from their side and notices the muscle bulges! As the arm is raised the biceps (on the front of the arm) contracts, at the same time a muscle on the back of the arm, the triceps, relaxes! The muscles work together to control the lifting arm. As the arm is lowered the opposite happens, the biceps relax and the triceps contract.

Year 3 have found out that our bodies has over 650 muscles and many different types of joints to allow our bodies to move in different ways.

Also, ligaments and tendons at the ends of the muscles hold the bones together at the joints, while cartilage between the bones stops them from rubbing against each other.

This week Year 3 have been out to visit Pizza Express in the Bull Ring,  Birmingham. The purpose of this visit was to gain first hand experience in making a popular food and also start the learning for our topic after half term.

It was a  rainy start to the day as Year 3 walked to the train station but that did not stop our enthusiasm! Members of the public on the train commented about the wonderful behaviour and manners of the children during the short trip into the city centre.

The restaurant was not yet open to the public so Year 3 were able to work alongside Chef, Sally and Dani to all make their own pizza. After stretching the dough, forming the crust, spreading the tomato base and sprinkling cheese all over, the pizzas went into the huge ovens to cook. Everyone was very excited to take home their own creation in a huge box!

Chef was very impressed with the standard of pizzas produced and gave out a special award for the best pizza.

A big thank you to Chef, Sally and Dani at Pizza Express who were also impressed with the behaviour of Year 3.

This week Year 3 have been learning more about the famous painters George Seurat and Paul Signac who invented this style of painting. Pointillism uses small dabs of paint to create a painting. Year 3 experimented with this style of art by creating their own landscapes. All of which featured a river as part of their topic Flow.

This week our writing focus has been on poetry. The week started off by immersing ourselves in different poems all around the same theme – rivers. Year 3 spent time reading, discussing and also preparing their favourite poems for performance.  Performances were improved and  enhanced after watching different poets in action-Benjamin Zephaniah, John Agard and Michael Rosen . Year 3 were able to identify what made a great performance and used this in their own performance of Valerie Bloom’s  poem The River.