Year 3
Welcome to Year 3! Our Teachers are Mrs Balmer, Mrs Trigg and Miss Philpot. We are also supported by Mrs Whitwood, Mrs Beasley, Mrs Mazurkiewicz and Mrs Stanley. We are a lively and enthusiastic year group who enjoy learning about a range of topics throughout the year and visiting places in our local area. Please read the articles below to find out what we have been learning about recently. You can also find this week's homework and links to other exciting websites at the bottom of our page.
Creating Islamic prayer mats
We have been studying Islamic culture in our History lessons, and have used cross curricular links to study the patterns and shapes of Islamic prayer mats in our Art lessons - where we explored using masking tape to conceal and then reveal areas of our fabric to construct borders and outlines. We used the three primary colours of: Red, Blue and Yellow to experiment with mixing secondary and tertiary hues. We even brought it into our Maths lessons by exploring symmetry, bisecting two-dimensional shapes and exploring what happened when we drew lines that made connections between vertices in polygons, to create our own beautiful patterns. We hope you enjoy viewing our journey...
Design and Technology/Science pneumatic Christmas toys
First, we explored how air pressure is able to make toys move. We then experimented with plastic tubing and plastic syringes to experience what would happen if we attached the syringes to the ends of the tube and trapped the air inside. We found out that if we set up the syringes with one plunger in and one out, when we depressed the plunger on one, their air trapped inside was squeezed along the tube to the other end and pushed the opposite plunger out! We thought that we could make great Christmas toys with this and set about in Maths lessons creating our own nets of 3D cuboids to create boxes to encase our pneumatic components. We used glue gun technology to fix it all in place (which was fun!) and in Art lessons, decorated them to create chimneys. Here are a few examples of what we managed to achieve. We took them home and gave them as Christmas presents!
Science, History, Geography and Art ~ exploring Rocks and Soils
We have been exploring the topic of Rocks and Soils in our Science lessons, and wanted to go on a field trip to explore how types of rock and stone materials were used in our local area and environment around our school. In small discussion groups, we set off with our local OS maps of the streets around our school, and planned a route to Grays Cemetery to explore what happens to stone as it ages. On the way, we were able to identify loads of historical evidence which hinted of changes over time. We found a plaque on the corner of a crossroads which we found out was from an old Boys' School called Palmers. As we carried on along the road, we followed the curve of the pavement and could see changes in the brickwork walls which we deduced meant that there used to be entrances to the school at those points. We noticed lots of different types of rock and stone being used: polished marble, sandstone, terracotta tiles for Victorian pathways, cement for lamp posts and lots of different types of bricks which changed over the centuries. We could even spot which houses had had extensions added! When we arrived at the cemetery, we used our Art sketching skills to sketch images of the headstones (identifying many different materials being used over time) and noticing how they changed as the wind, rain and weather took its toll on those which were permeable. Here are a few images taken along our route.
DT topic - Sandwiches and healthy eating
At first, we learned about the five sections of a healthy diet - called the 'eat well plate', which is made up of a variety of foods in the following categories: 
(see the picture)
We then identified the foods we eat regularly and assessed how healthy we
were - we were all pretty healthy. Some of us are vegetarians or vegans and enjoy a well-balanced and healthy diet - but we don't eat products from
animals.
Subsequently, we had a super sandwich tasting experience where we had
the opportunity to try and explore a variety of ingredients; of textures and
flavours of different foods. We really enjoyed trying new things. Marmite was a bit of a 'love it or hate it' sort of flavour, but most of us came away from the tasting willing to have a go at trying many more new foods - at least once!
Finally, we designed our own sandwiches, and made them for our lunch - we were very proud to eat a beautiful creation we had made all by ourselves! Our teachers are hoping that we will now be keen to help in the kitchen at home.
Please check out our gallery, showing a selection of our delicious food:
SANDWICH TASTING AND MAKING - OUR D and T TOPIC FOR THE SPRING TERM
Making our sandwiches for D.T.
Class 3T Book Day
Mothers' Day ~ March 2015
We made lovely 3D cards for our mums this year. We began with 5 template pieces and assembled them to create a three dimensional teacup. We learned how to cut a piece out of a circle to then overlap the ends and create a curved shape (for a saucer) dressmakers use this technique when creating shape over hips, shoulders or the chest in a garment. We used 'tabs' this time to add the teacup handle - by folding the tabs inside the join of the teacup, we made sure that it was strong as there were four layers of card keeping it in place. Once we had assembled our cup, we iced a cake and placed it inside. The final flourish was a teabag tab or a biscuit on the side of the saucer, which held our messages of love and thanks to our lovely mums! Check out our gallery of our cupcakes!
Easter egg hunt
NEWSFLASH - There have been curious incidents of GPH in Year Three this week! 
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
This week there have been rumours circulating around the Year Three corridors that the teachers have been witnessed causing GPH (also know as Grievous Plant Harm) to innocent fuchsias and other young plants. Investigators in 3B spotted Mrs Balmer cutting the leaves off of one poor specimen and covering the soil of another over with selotape - SHOCKING!
Mrs Trigg has been caught by 3T locking a whole tray of poor little plants in a dark cupboard and refusing to let them get any light.
3P reported only two days ago that Miss Philpot was refusing to water one of the baby plants in their classroom - no matter how much they pleaded with her - have you ever heard anything so awful? The teachers claim that it's all to do with a science experiment - but we are not so sure, so we are keeping our eyes on those plants (and those teachers) just to check!
Week one evidence below (see what we mean about those leaves? - Mrs Balmer - evidence caught on camera!)
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Visit to Brentwood Cathederal
