Welcome to Class Three!

Autumn term 2020

It has been a busy first term in Class Three since returning in September, not only have the children returned to school with a fantastic attitude they have also produced some outstanding work within math, science, geography, art and English while studying 'The Iron Man' and 'Beowulf'. 

Geography

In geography the children have studied South America, specifically focusing on the Amazon Rainforest through the enquiry question 'Why are jungles so wet and deserts so dry?' The children have built upon previous physical geographical knowledge and studied: climate zones, biomes and vegetation belts, rivers and mountains. They can also identify the position and significance of latitude, longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere and the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

Science

During this term the children have been exploring electricity in the first half until October half term and forces and magnets in the second half up until Christmas. They have used the following practical scientific methods when carrying out experiments within the topics:

• asking relevant questions and using different types of scientific enquiries to answer them
• setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests
• making systematic and careful observations and taking accurate measurements using standard units
• gathering, recording and presenting data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions
• recording findings using simple scientific language, labelled diagrams, bar charts and tables
• using straightforward scientific evidence to answer questions or to support their findings

Electricity

During this topic the children looked at common appliances that run on electricity and safety surrounding these, they can recognise some common conductors and insulators and associate metals with being good conductors of electricity.

Through exploration and scenario cards the children were also able to:

• construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers
• identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete loop with a battery
• recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit

Forces and Magnets

Many different and complex 'tests' were run while the children were exploring force! Through these 'tests' the children now show an understanding that force is an act upon an object, whether this be push, pull, air, friction, gravity or magnetic. The children ran tests on different surfaces using objects to test force and also tested their own theory questions with magnets, some of their questions included looking at:    

• compare how things move on different surfaces                         
• notice that some forces need contact between 2 objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance

• observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others
• compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials
• predict whether 2 magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing

Art - Picasso

This term through art we have been studying Pablo Picasso and focusing on portraits, the children have made thoughtful observations about Picasso's art and selected ideas to use in their own work. Not only have the children explored Picasso's art they have researched and explored the roles and purpose of artists, craftspeople and designers working in different times and cultures, from this they have created their own biography to go with their art. 

For their final piece they have focused and built their skills using water colours. They have experimented with different effects including blocking colours, washes and thickening of paint - creating textured effects. Through this process the children had to mix and trial different shades of colour to create the dynamic contrast in shades that were needed.

Lockdown 2020 

Thank you to everyone who has been keeping me updated on what you have been getting up to while you have been at home. Please keep sending me messages and pictures of your activities - I love seeing everything you are doing. The art is looking fantastic and will all be going into our art gallery when we return to school!

I have put together a short video of some of your activities that you have been completing during this time at home. 

Stay active, stay safe

Miss Bettley