Emmaville Primary School

Southern Europe Year 3

Welcome to the Southern Europe Year 3 Class Page.  Here, you can find out about everything that we've been doing this term.

Friday 31st March

 

Pedestrian Training

The children completed their 5 weeks of pedestrian training this week and received their certificates. They have been learning how to cross the road safely and practising this under the supervision and guidance of the lovely trainers! Every week, the children have been awarded marbles for the jar for their exemplary behaviour and superb listening. You can see some photos below.

 DT – Drawbridge with a winding mechanism

In DT this half term, the children have been learning about mechanisms. They designed a drawbridge to defend against a Viking invasion and then made a drawbridge with a winding mechanism to lower and raise it. This task was a huge challenge! The children had cereal boxes, a straw, some string, sticky tape and scissors. Everyone had to use their growth mindsets – including the teachers! Some of the folding, cutting and building had to be done and re-done. The children had to adjust things if they didn’t work, but they tried and tried and tried again; showing that good old Emmaville stickability! Naturally, a few children found it harder than others, but it was lovely to see their friends giving them a helping hand, suggestions and encouragement. In the end, everyone got there and completed their drawbridge. All I can say is ‘WOW’! What a fantastic achievement. I am very proud of you all! Have a look at the photos. I’m sure you will be very impressed too!

 Egg Decorating

It’s that time of year for our Easter egg decorating competition. The children had a lovely creative afternoon, freely decorating their eggs with paint, paper, glue, feathers, beads, stickers, fabrics and all sorts! It was very tricky judging the eggs as there were so many wonderful ones. Well done to our class winners: Jax (1st), Eva(2nd) and Grace(3rd). Photos below.

 

Friday 24th March 2023 

Enrichment Week - Enterprise  

What a great, jam-packed week we have had this week! This week has been Enrichment Week with the focus being entrepreneurship, enterprise and teamwork. The children have worked in teams on various activities throughout the week, such as building a bridge out of paper and sticky tape and also designing and making an eco-friendly toy out of recyclable materials. The children have shown fantastic teamwork skills; they have listened to each member of the team and negotiated and compromised with each other to reach a decision. They have worked incredibly hard! 

We also had a Forces Workshop and learnt about Sarah Goode who was an African American entrepreneur who made a foldable bed. In our teams, we created sculptures with our bodies as we learnt about her.

Have a look at the many photos below of the above activities.

In English all week, the children worked together in a team, created a business idea, wrote a persuasive pitch and then presented it to the class. There were some brilliant business ideas such as a health and needs theme park, a camouflage water bottle with a 15 year guarantee, animal treats and toys, a snow machine, making healthy food and a smart bean bag with wheels and comfy settings! It really was wonderful!

Have a lovely weekend. Mrs Hamilton 

Friday 17th March
 
We have had another fun-packed, hard-working week in Southern Europe.
 
 
Yesterday, the children all took part in a competition by designing a child's bedroom for Ashberry Homes in Ryton. The winning design will actually be created for a show home - how exciting!
 
They have been continuing with their pedestrian training - photos to follow in the next week or so.
 
One of the children's favourite things this week was singing. We practised 'This little light of mine' and 'What goes in must come out'. I was so impressed with their beautiful voices and their enthusiasm. They really did let their little lights shine!
 
 
 

Friday 10th March 2023

 

PSHE – Keeping Safe - drugs

I was absolutely blown away by the children’s maturity and sensible attitude when we learnt about drugs in PSHE this week as part of our Keeping Safe topic.

We learnt that medicine given to you by the doctor or bought from the chemist is good for you as long as you take the correct amount. We know that children should never take medicine by themselves, but it should be given to them by their grown up. We learnt that some drugs can be very bad for you and can even be fatal. One of the children brought up the word ‘addiction’, and we discussed what that meant.

I was really impressed with the children’s thinking skills and questioning around these issues. They came to the conclusion that even medicine from the doctor might be bad for you if you take the wrong amount or if it was meant for someone else. We talked about a scenario where two children found some drugs in the park. The children suggested that they should not touch them, but should tell their grown up. We discussed that the drugs that the children found might be very dangerous or they might have been some prescribed drugs that have been left by accident. For the whole lesson the children were inquisitive and mature and got several marbles for the jar because of their brilliant attitude! Well done Southern Europe!

All the children were able to say how to keep themselves safe.

Friday 3rd March
 
 
Kindness
We spent some time in PSHE this week thinking about kindness. We talked about what people do when they are kind to us and how this makes us feel. We mentioned that kindness doesn't need to be something big; it might just be a smile, or opening a door for someone. We discussed what we could do to be kind to other people and that this might make them feel good, but might make us feel good too! We wrote things that we could do to be kind to others and created a huge paper chain with Northern Europe class, which is now displayed in the corridor. Please do have a look at this when you come to parents evening. We are all going to try to 'Be the rainbow in someone else's cloud!'. Watch out, as we won't just be trying to be kind at school, but we will be kind at home too! See if you can spot us doing kind deeds.
Friday 17th February
 
Forest Schools
 
On Thursday afternoon, we all had a wonderful time doing Forest Schools activities with Mr Elliott. We had a few different activities to choose from and were free to move between them as we liked. Some children chose to get their hands dirty and create faces on the trees with mud, sticks and leaves or fir cones. Others enjoyed playing with the worms in the mud and creating worm houses. Some painted wooden medallions. There were also different types of branches, sticks and large parts of trees to be creative with. It was up to the children what they wanted to make. With adult supervision they learnt to use secateurs and even large 'loppers'! Everyone enjoyed themselves and worked so well with each other. It was lovely to see so much sharing, kindness, supportiveness and encouragement! We hope you enjoy the photos.
Friday 10th February
 
Adam Bushnell - Author and Storyteller

On Tuesday, the Year 3 children were very lucky to have a visit from Adam Bushnell. To link in with our history, the session was all about the Vikings. The children got to handle some Viking artefacts such as swords, chain mail, shields, fur and a helmet. They then created their own Viking character and used kennings to describe the items the character was using or wearing e.g. the sword could be called the ‘bone breaker’, the shield might be used as a ‘skull crusher’. The children had some amazing ideas! Later in the session the children, like the Vikings, had boasting competitions “I climbed 7 mountains!” “I drank the whole ocean!”. Finally, they created another character and planned a story about a battle between them. Great fun was had by all! 

Safer Internet Day

We also spent time on Tuesday reminding ourselves how to keep safe on line. The theme this year was 'Want to talk about it?', so we spent a lot of time discussing how we could keep safe and what we should do in certain scenarios. We also made posters showing the internet safety rules. 

Friday 3rd February
 
English - free writing - diary entry
 
We have done some free writing this week around a short film called 'Girl and Robot'. I have been really impressed with the children's understanding of the film and the way they have been able to think about how the girl's emotions have changed at different stages of the film. The children have written some wonderful predictions, diary entries and explanation texts.
 
Here is Charlotte's diary entry:
 
Dear Diary, 
When I arrived at the warehouse, I was excited to finish my robot. After that I found out my robot didn't work but I was determined that I could make it work. Then I tried and tried to fix it. When I was finished I tried to make it work again. So I pulled the lever but instead of it working the dial went up and I tried to stop it but the lever broke. Before I knew it, I was in the robot's hand and the robot killed himself to save me. I felt so sad but so loved at the same time.
 
 
Friday 27th January
 
Art - Environmental or Land Art
 
Thank you to all the parents for helping your children gather so many twigs, sticks, stones and other natural objects. We have been learning about environmental or land art for the last couple of weeks and discussing the work of famous land artists. The children had an absolutely wonderful afternoon yesterday practising the master technique of sculpture using the objects that they had brought in. They were completely engrossed in the activity and I'm sure you will agree, created some fantastic sculptures! Well done everyone!
Friday 20th January
 
Science - investigating and measuring a pull force
 
In Science this term, we are learning about forces. We worked in pairs and used pull and push contact forces. We held hands and both used the same amount of force so that neither of us moved. Then we found out what happened when one of us used a greater force than the other. Our next activity was to investigate the pull force of different objects and measure the pull force using a force meter. We found that the heavier the object, the greater the pull force it created.
Friday 13th January
 
Music Workshop - Through the Decades
 
Happy New Year to everyone! What a fab week we have had.
 
One of the things the children (and staff!) enjoyed best was the music workshop. We were taken through the decades and learnt about the news, fashion and music. We were taught different dances and some children got the opportunity to play percussion or sing into the microphone. Great fun was had by all!