Thursday 12th December
Enrichment Week - Black History, Music and Art
On Tuesday we took part in an African textile art workshop. We listened to a story called The Spider Weaver, all about how two boys named Kofi and Yaw who live in an Ashanti town in Ghana. They were expert weavers. These boys wove a simple cloth named nwen-ntoma and everyone, from the King to the poorest child wore it. Late one night, Kofi and Yaw were returning home from walk in the great Ashanti forest, where they came across what they described as a small miracle. In front of their eyes was the most beautiful, intricate spider’s web. They had never seen such a wondrous design before. It had been woven with a single unbroken thread, finer than any strand of human hair. The boys were distraught when they tried to take the web home, but the web collapsed, sticking to their fingers.
The next morning, they eagerly made their back into the forest in search of another extraordinary web. Sure enough, in front of them, were the beginnings of a new masterpiece. Once it was completed, the boys were desperate to take the web home, but did not want to destroy the spider’s home a second time. They were about to leave when the spider looked directly at them and began a weaving dance. Dip, twist turn and glide! The spider made her way across and back over the web. She moved like a woman dancing, regal and very graceful. What a wonderful teacher she had been!
With great joy, they returned to their village. Inspired by the spider’s weaving dance, they copied the patterns into black and white thread. Eventually they started to weave different colours into these patterns. They named these cloths the ken-te-nwen-ntoma, commonly known as thee ken-te cloth. Soon the two weavers were well known all across Ghana. They created designs and patterns that are still worn throughout the world today. We took inspiration from this story and created our own ken-te cloth designs. We used pieces of card, but followed the weaving motion the boys learned from the spider.
Take a look at the photos below of us creating our ken-te cloth designs.
Friday 6th December
Computing - Programming
Our computing lesson today was called ‘unplugged debugging’. We learnt that a computer bug is not an insect, but is when something goes wrong with an algorithm (a clear set of instructions to carry out a task).
In order to demonstrate and understand this properly, we all started with 6 small rectangles of card. Mrs Hamilton’s pieces of card were placed in a particular format and she asked us to copy it. We found this quite tricky because she hadn’t given us any instructions.
Then she repeated the activity but this time, even though we couldn’t see her cards, she gave us verbal instructions for what she wanted us to do. We discussed why we found this easier and realised she had used prepositions such as: next to, underneath and above. She had stated whether the card was landscape or portrait and whether it was to the left or right. We worked out that precise language was very important when delivering these instructions.
Then we played a game with our partner. One of us was ‘the computer’ and the other one ‘the computer programmer’. We put a whiteboard up between us so that we couldn’t see each other’s cards. The programmer gave instructions to the computer for how to place their cards. When we had finished, we debugged our algorithm by comparing the 2 sets of cards and looking for where the algorithm might have gone wrong. Then we swapped roles.
We loved this activity and have kept the cards so that we can play again during wet playtimes!
Friday 29th November
Art – Prehistoric Painting – Charcoal Animals
First of all, we watched a video of charcoal making and saw how it was made from wood, usually willow, that had been burnt on a fire for a long time. The people we saw doing it sealed the willow in a tin to burn it.
Then we watched a short clip of someone scaling up a drawing of an animal. Mrs Hamilton also showed us how she would scale up one of our drawings. Then it was our turn. We used the animal drawings in our sketch book from the previous lesson as a starting point. We looked for the basic 2D shapes within the image and drew them faintly on our paper, but in a larger size. Then we used charcoal and charcoal pencils to draw around the edge of the image and fill in some of the details. We experimented using the charcoal on its side and blended with our fingers to create form, tone and shape. We really enjoyed doing it and imagined that we were living in the stone age and using charcoal sticks from our fire to create images on the walls!
Have a look at some of our work.
Year 3 Neighbourhood Life Enterprise Day
On Tuesday 19th November, Year 3 took part in a ‘Neighbourhood Life’ workshop; and we had SO much fun! We discussed what a neighbourhood is and some of the amenities and facilities you might find in a neighbourhood for example, a school, café and shops. Throughout the day, we had to work in teams and show good communication skills, team work and resilience. For our first task, each group were given a budget of £150,000 to spend on materials to build their house. They had to ensure all their money was spent by the end of the task, without going over budget. They also had to make sure that their house was watertight, it had a front door, the bricks all ran the same way and they had enough natural light. Then, we discussed which tradespeople are necessary to build a house and the order in which they would be required. To finish our morning, we learned about Government and Non-Government workers and the difference between the two. Including, how Government workers are all of equal importance, depend on one another and they play a vital role in how society works.
We had a very exciting afternoon, planning to save a struggling café. We had to think of ideas which would help the café attract more business. We worked in teams to come up with a business idea. We had to create a poster displaying our product, its name, a slogan, the ingredients, the cost, where the product could be purchased and any special offers. We then presented our ideas in front of the class, using our Oracy skills. To finish, we took part in a ‘blind vote’ and decided on which product would best help the café.
It was such a great day where we were able to explore ideas, work as a team and build on our speaking and listening skills.
Northern and Southern Europe
Friday 18th October
PE – Outdoor and Adventurous
One of our PE topics for this half term is Outdoor and Adventurous. This week, the objective was to be able to identify objects and draw and follow a simple map. They had to lay out some PE equipment in a particular way following a map with a key. The children worked in small teams and had to decide on roles for each member of their team. They had to listen well and be confident to share their ideas; their Oracy skills and stem sentences came in really handy here! I was very impressed with how well the children made sure that everyone in their group was included. After reading and following some maps, the children assessed each other by checking that another group's objects matched their map. Then, the children had to set out their objects in their own way and then draw a map of what they had created. They demonstrated super teamwork and map skills! Well done!
Friday 11th October
Design and Technology - Improving a design for a Stone Age Dwelling
This half term, we have been learning about Stone Age homes in Design and Technology to link in with our History topic of The Stone Age. We started off learning about the different types of Stone Age homes and that because of availability of resources, different types of homes were made in different locations. Next, we designed our own Stone Age homes.
Last week, we started to make our designs using sticks and clay. This week, we have come back to our creations and evaluated them. We have used clay or sticks to repair or strengthen parts that needed it. We have refined as our work has progressed, continually evaluating the product design.
We had to use our growth mindsets in order to be resilient or try another technique when things didn't go to plan. Well done Northern Europe! You have great stickability!
Friday 13th September
Northern Europe’s Polish Vegetable Bigos
Throughout this week and last, we have been learning lots about our class continent; Northern Europe. Today, Emma from Tiny Tasters came in and we made a traditional Polish dish called Bigos. This dish is a vegetable stew which includes ingredients such as dried porcini mushrooms, sauerkraut and a small amount of allspice. We had lots of fun exploring these unique ingredients, learning new cooking techniques and trying food we had never eaten before (and as you can see from the photos, some of us were not as keen as others!). We all took our bigos home with us to sample and enjoy with our families.