Term 6 Week 1 and 2

Money, money, money!

Welcome back! What a lovely break we have all enjoyed and we are ready to a very full and exciting term in Year 3.

In maths, we have been continuing to learn about money this week. We can now identify and order all coins and notes. In addition to this, we can count different amounts of money and make amounts in different ways. We have deepened our learning by adding and subtracting amounts in order to find change. We have had fun playing 'shops' with partners and we have loved using the Purple Mash app to play an interactive game giving change from £5, £10 and £20. We can access Purple Mash from home, so we look forward to sharing this game with our families! 

Just before the half term, we had a very exciting team of visitors who set us some maths challenges. Here were some of our favourite parts of the session:

'My favourite part was making the cube because we had to think carefully about where to put the 3d shapes.'

'My favourite part was making polygons because it made my brain think about the different sided shapes.'

'I liked the dominoes because it was difficult, but it was fun type of difficult, like solving a puzzle.'

Term 5 The Coronation

What a fabulous week of learning we have had at The Discovery School. Not only have we been learning about the upcoming Coronation, but we have each also been assigned a decade since the King's birth in the 1940s. Year 3 have been lucky enough to have the 1980s! With this in mind, we created colourful Sgraffito and researched an important event of the 1980s: the invention of the internet! In order to be able to provide our families and friends with commentary on the big day, we also learnt about the intricate details of a coronation. 

We ended our week with a wonderful, 1980s inspired party (see the classic buffet below), a picnic and a whole-school concert! To top off the excitement, we invited our adults from home into class so they could see all of the incredible work we have done this week. Have a look at our incredible 1980s inspired Coronation song, chosen because Year 3 really are a 'Kool' gang.Year 3's Kool and the Gang inspired 'Coronation' song!

Term 4 Week 5 and 6

Science Week 

Wow! What an incredible week we have had learning all about connections in science! We loved seeing Professor Lucy again and learning all about forces. 

Professor Lucy taught us that centripetal force is strong enough to keep the connection between a bowl and a tray when she swung it in a loop. The centripetal force even ensured that water stayed in the bowl rather than spilling out!

Using an energy stick, we learnt about the importance of creating a circuit connection in order for electricity to travel and light up the stick. We even created a circuit as a class! When we tried to use wood in the circuit, it didn't work as wood is an insulator rather than a conductor. 

Professor Lucy introduced us to a new word, 'plasma'. She explained that plasma is gas with lots of energy. We could see the plasma in a plasma ball and learned that when there is a thunderstorm, we can also see plasma in the form of lightning!

In the final part of our workshop, we had a hilarious time observing the effects of static electricity on our friend's hair. When his hands were fully connected to Van de Graaff generator, the positive charges repelled, making his hair stand on end! 

Term 4 Week 1 and 2 

World Book Day

What a wonderful celebration we have had this week. The whole of The Discovery School went over and above with their efforts for World Book Day! Children and adults alike transformed into their favourite characters from a vast array of stories, biographies, autobiographies and poems!

In year 3, we had a wonderful afternoon sharing our favourite texts with each other during our book club and enjoyed a buddy reading session with our Year 6 friends.

Here are just a few snippets of what the children had to say about their very favourite book choices.

'My book is Pipi Longstocking. She’s 9 years old and lives alone in a house and does crazy stuff. She has no mum or dad. I like this book because she’s very funny. One day, she went to a friend’s house and the mum had friends over for coffee and Pipi was found drinking coffee and she ate all of the cakes.'

'My book is Horrid Henry. In the story, Perfect Peter, his little brother loses a tooth and Horrid Henry tries to trick the tooth fairy. I’ve read almost all of the Horrid Henry books and I like most of them because he does really cheeky things which make me laugh a lot.'

'I’ve got a Neil Armstrong book. My favourite bit is when he went to university because it’s got loads of hard words and information. He was really lucky to make it to NASA because he had a friend working there who just slipped in his application at the last minute.'

'I brought in 'The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse'. I like it because it’s all about kindness love and respect. My favourite part is when the mole brings a cake for the boy, but he eats it!'

Term 3 Weeks 5 and 6 

Computing

In our computing work week, we have been gathering and recording data on Google Sheets. We have learned that Google Sheets is a 'cloud' based app. One of the benefits of this was that once we had signed in, we didn't need to press save. The app automatically saved our work for us which we really appreciated! First we inputted the data into a spreadsheet which we then converted into a bar chart. Presenting the data in this way made it much easier to compare. The data we collected was how many different birds we had spotted during The Big Bird Watch. Later on in the week, we showed our understanding of our learning again by creating a bar chart independently. This time, the data we used was based on our 'Safer Internet Day' learning. We discussed what we loved about the internet and recorded the frequency of each benefit. 

The Born Free Foundation

We had a visitor from the Born Free Foundation who held workshops with all of the children in the school. We were lucky enough to learn all about threats to wild animals who, in some cases, may be at risk from extinction. Curie class were thrilled when Charlie, from the Born Free Foundation, spoke about the orca that we have adopted, who is called Springer. In addition to orcas, we discovered fascinating information about tigers, elephants and even hedgehogs. We discovered the makaton signs for each of the animals and look forward to writing fact files about them soon. 

Let's Connect  - Children's Mental Health Week

We have had a brilliant week thinking about our mental health and how healthy connections with other people, animals, characters and communities can have a positive impact on how we feel about ourselves and the world around us. On Friday, The Discovery School expressed ourselves by wearing whatever we wanted to! In Year 3, we had astronauts, footballers, people in pyjamas, police officers and super heroes. We enjoyed expressing ourselves by singing and dancing (which are excellent ways to support good mental health), drawing and colouring, and just being our-wonderful-selves! 

Term 3 Weeks 3 and 4

Design and Technology

We have been very busy in Year 3 over the past couple of weeks. We are making excellent progress with our pouches for Charlie Bucket's Golden Ticket. Most of us have created pattern pieces for our decoration and used running stitch to attach it securely. Some of us have moved on to joining the pieces of felt together using blanket stitch. It's a challenging stitch, but we think you'll agree that the pouches are looking spectacular!

Science

We have begun our new topic in Science, which is Light. To begin this unit, we discussed what we have already discovered from our learning in EYFS and Key Stage One as well as what we have learnt at home. Then we visited activity stations to develop our knowledge and answer questions such as, 'What could we see if there was no light?',  'How can we protect our eyes from the sun's rays?', 'What is the difference between sunlight and moonlight?'. I wonder if you can have a go at answering any of those questions. 

In our next lesson, we learnt how to set up a enquiry to answer a question. Our question was, 'How does light help us to see?'. We set up a dark box which let in just a little light, placed different objects inside which were reflective and dull and then investigated which were easier to see with less light. I wonder if you can predict our findings.   

Lunar New Year

Lunar New Year is celebrated in many countries across Asia and this year is the year of the rabbit.

We are very lucky to have a child who has lived in Hong Kong in Curie class. She was very excited to share her knowledge of Lunar New Year with us, as it has been a very special celebration for her and her family over the past few years. We learnt about the importance of Chinese dragons and even learnt how to count to 10 in Chinese! At the end of the day, each child received a special envelope with a chocolate inside to share good luck and prosperity for the year ahead.

In addition, we were able to try on traditional Korean clothes called Hanboks. In Korea, Hanboks are worn at Lunar New Year (Seollal). During the celebrations, children bow to their parents and older family members and often receive money as a gift in return.  We loved the bright colours and beautiful fabrics of the Hanboks.  

Term 3 Week 1 and 2

Happy New Year! We hope you had a wonderful break and are ready for an exciting term learning about the UK. We started our term by thinking about a famous author from the UK, Roald Dahl, and one of his most famous books, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We were a bit concerned that poor Charlie might lose his golden ticket, so we are designing and sewing him a pouch using three different types of stitch! We have worked very hard to learn running stitch, blanket stitch and cross stitch. 

Can you answer the which stitch quiz questions?

1) I am a very strong stitch used to neaten up edges. Which stitch am I?

2) I am a strong stitch used to attach one piece of material to another. Which stitch am I?

3) I am a decorative stitch which can be used to attach buttons securely. Which stitch am I?

Answers:

1) Blanket stitch 2) Running stitch 3) Cross stitch

Computing

In our computing session, we have continued to explore how to design, write and debug an algorithm. We created an algorithm in Scratch Junior to direct a sprite to move and pause. Following that, we instructed a ball to bounce towards a basketball goal. Finally, we assessed our learning by creating a dance party. Independently, we chose a new background and sprites and then created an algorithm to make the two sprites dance repeatedly. Some of us even added music! I wonder if you can complete the computing quiz below.

1. A precise set of instructions is called an ________________.

2. A character that we created block code for is called a ______________.

3.  If there is a problem with the code and we need to make a change, it is called ___________.

Answers below:

1) algorithm        2) sprite       3) debugging

Year 3 Performance of 'Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday'

We really enjoyed singing this Christmas classic by Wizzard for our Carols in the Hall performance!

Term 2 Week 4

What a fantastic day we had at Canterbury Cathedral! In our RE lessons, we are learning about how and where Muslims, Hindus and Christians pray, so we thought we would join the thousands of pilgrims who had travelled before us, to visit Canterbury Cathedral. We gained a deeper understanding of how and where Christians pray and even heard a prayer led by the vicar. We also learnt about the unfortunate end to Thomas Beckett's life and wondered about some of the mysteries the Cathedral holds such as, 'What happened to the stone-mason who left a pillar in the crypt unfinished...?'. We also thought about our science topic, rocks. The cathedral is made of Normandy limestone, which is a sedimentary rock, which explains how Pilgrims could chip parts off as souvenirs and why parts of it have worn down over the years. 

What a fascinating day!

Question you might like to ask your child:

Who did you dress up as, why? 

Why were you crawling up the steps in the Cathedral? 

Who did you spot on the outside of the Cathedral? 

Term 2 week 3

On 10 November, we joined together with hundreds of other schools around the UK to celebrate our planet with 'POP '22 Day' (POP stands for Protecting Our Planet). The whole school took part in different activities learning about what we can do to help slow and stop climate change. In Year 3, we took part in interactive sessions about how to protect the forests and earth from climate change. We then read 'The Great Kapok Tree', and created scripts detailing the threat to wildlife from climate change and deforestation and what we can do to help.

Below you can see stills from our science investigation into how trees and natural barriers can help to stop the dreadful impact of flooding. Nathaniel explains that when the hill into the town has no trees, the rain (shown by marbles) will all run down the slope quickly, flooding the town. If trees and other natural barriers are planted and placed on the hill, the roots will take on some of the water and the obstacles will slow and trap some water, providing time for the rain to be absorbed into the soil. This will limit the impact of rain and flooding.

Term 2 Week 1 and 2

Welcome back to Year 3! Recently, we celebrated Diwali with the rest of our school. We loved learning about the importance of Diwali and the traditions that people enjoy at this time of year. We learnt the story of Rama and Sita and used our incredible acting skills to retell it. Below are some 'freeze frames' from one of our performances.

We have also been creating artist studies about an interesting and talented artist, Jackson Pollock, who was an American abstract artist. He splatted, poured and flicked paint onto huge canvases to express his feelings. As he was often sad, he tended to use dark colours. I wonder if you can guess how we were feeling when we created our Pollock inspired work by looking at the colours that we used. 

Term 1 Week 5 and 6

We have been very lucky recently as we stepped back in time with our Forest School leader, Mrs Chapman, to experience activities that Stone Age people took part in. We stepped back in time in Discovery Walk and made intricate, exquisite jewellery made from delicate bones, sharp teeth and beautiful shells (made from salt dough, but, shhh! don't tell anyone). We foraged for sticks and leaves to create fine paintbrushes before digging mud and collecting charcoal to make sludgy, dark paint. With all that creativity, we had worked up an appetite, so we sharpened our spears and launched them into the air to hunt for huge woolly mammoths, fierce cave bears and terrifying sabre-tooth tigers. We later used the paint to create our cave painting masterpieces. Finally, we relaxed around the camp fire and used spinach to dye fabric as people would have done in the Neolithic times. We are enjoying our learning journey through the Paeliolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic eras so far and cannot wait to learn more next term!

Term 1 Week 3

This week was our Computing week. We discovered the answer to the question, 'What is block code and how can we debug it?' We worked in pairs to build a robot and wrote code to pull stones from Wales to Wiltshire, like modern-day builders of Stone Henge! We displayed our school values of kindness and perseverance and we all found success by debugging any errors in our code. We wondered whether the builders of Stone Henge in 3000 BC would have used the same technique as us...perhaps not!

Term 1 Week 2 

Wow! What a wonderful start to our Year 3 journey. Our Question of Discovery this term is, 'What was life like in Prehistoric times?' 

We started year 3 with a fantastic WOW day where we travelled back to the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) times by creating cave paintings using charcoal (we got very messy!) and blow pens. We learnt that people in Paleolithic times would have blown particles of colour through hollow bones, but we thought blow pens would be more colourful! We then jumped forward in time to Neolithic (New Stone Age) times and made clay pots. We decorated them with our fingernails as the Neolithic people would have done. Finally, we explored the outdoors and went hunting and gathering. Some of us even took down huge mammoths with our spears (foam javelins!). What an exciting day of learning to get us asking questions about life in Prehistoric times.  

Welcome to Year 3 2022 - 23

Term 1 Week 1

What a funny and informative start to Year 3! We enjoyed a visit from Fantastic Fred who taught us all about how to look after our mental health. Fred was very silly, but he taught us that we can help ourselves to feel good by thinking carefully about the Food we eat, making sure we Rest, getting enough Exercise and limiting our use of Devices. 

Learning in 2021 -2022 

15/7/22 - Ancient Greek Workshop

Yesterday, the children had an amazing time working with the staff at the 'Living History' workshops.  They learnt lots about life in Ancient Greece.  The children got to dress up in the clothes they would have worn at the time, had their face painted and decided whether they were for 'Athens' or 'Sparta'.  As well as this, the children took part in Greek plays and visited Greek shops.  A fantastic day was had by all!

12/7/22 - Strange Goings On!

This week, the Year 3 classes have been investigating some very strange goings on at The Discovery School.  Some local residents reported seeing unusual lights in the sky and hearing unusual sounds.  Miss Gobell and Miss Hammond discovered strange hot green goo on tables, crumbs leading from the small hall as well as what appeared to be burn marks on the school field.  They have drafted in the Year 3 classes to write a newspaper report on the strange goings on.  The children are hoping to get to the bottom of what caused all these strange events and will report back directly to Miss Gobell. Have a look at some of the unusual evidence discovered below.

8/7/22 - Archimedes and Pulleys

This week the children's studied the Ancient Greek mathematician and inventor Archimedes.  They learnt that, although he didn't invent the pulley, he developed pulley systems to be able to move giant ships.  Archimedes then sent the children a challenge to create a way to carry water to the top of his house to water his house plants!  The children had great fun creating pulleys using wool, a cotton reel, a pencil and a cup.  They then were able to test out how effective they were.  Have a look at the pulley they created below.

24/6/22 - Block Code on Purple Mash

The children have had a wonderful week exploring block code.  They remembered lots about block code from previous lessons.  They knew that some block code is recorded vertically and some is recorded horizontally.  The children could remember how to create repetitions as well as debug simple algorithms.  This week they explored debugging in more detail by solving various challenges on Purple Mash.  You can see two examples of their problem solving and algorithms below.

27/5/22 - Jubilee Celebrations

The children in Year 3 had an amazing week learning about the 1980s and the key events of the Queen’s life in the 1980s. Year 3 found out that there were many key events during the Queen’s life in the 1980s.  This included the arrival of three grandchildren, a break in at Buckingham Palace and travelling to the Vatican to meet the Pope.  The children researched the key facts about this using the internet and created leaflets about her life.  The children also had great fun learning about the music of the 1980s and performed the Katrina and the Waves hit 'I'm Walking on Sunshine' to the whole school. They also had a special message from the Queen requesting some food for her Jubilee celebrations.  She gave some design criteria that they had to follow.  The children created a delicious leek and potato soup for her! 

You can see a selection of the children's work from the week below.

10/5/21 - Equivalent Fractions

This week the children have been exploring different fractions.  They have looked at fractions plates, walls and all sorts of other resources!  Today we have focused in on fractions that are equivalent.  The children learnt that equivalent fractions are fractions that are the same amount but have been divided into different numbers of equal parts.  For example, 1/2 is the same amount as 4/8 or 8/16.  You can see how they investigated this below.

25/4/22 - Damaged Plant Detectives and Contour Lines on Potatoes!

This week the children were called in to investigate damage that had been caused to plants in the small hall.  They had to analyse the damage done and consider whether the damage was repairable or not.  They had to draw on their knowledge of plants from KS1 and think about what they wanted to find out as a result of what they had seen.  You can see some of the questions they considered and the damaged plants below.

In geography, the children learnt about how contour lines are used to represent the height and steepness of landscapes on maps.  They learnt that the features of the land is called the topographical features.  To help show how contour lines work, the children marked 1cm height marks around the circumference of a potato and then joined the dots.  By looking down from above, they could see what the contour lines would look like on a map.  You can see some of their efforts below.

18th March 2022 - Science Week and Geography

The children had a fantastic science week.  They learnt about the damage that global warming and pollution is causing penguins in Antarctica.  The children decided that they wanted to help save the penguins and decided to design a raft that could remove metal from the ocean and from their nesting areas.  During the week, they learnt about the forces of gravity, friction and magnetism.  They decided to use magnets to help them remove the metal from the nesting areas and the ocean.

In geography, the children have been learning about compass points and how to read a compass accurately.  They then put their learning into action by undertaking some Outdoor Adventurous Activities in PE.  You can see some photos of them exploring the compasses below.

9/3/22 Professor Bubbleworks

Today, the children had the wonderful opportunity to learn science alongside Professor Bubbleworks.  They learnt about how a bubble is formed, surface tension and what affected the shape of the bubble.  The children were able to get inside of some giant bubbles too!  During the workshop, the children also learnt about gravity, the water cycle and the key words of evaporation and condensation.  As you will see from the pictures below, all the children had an amazing time!

11/3/22 - Shadow Puppet Theatre

To cap the end of a very exciting week, the children showcased their learning about light in their science topic by creating a show puppet theatre.  The children learnt how shadows are formed by opaque objects blocking light from a light source.  They learn how the shadows changed size depending on how close they were to the light source.  you can see a few pictures of how they got on below.

3/3/22 - World Book Day and 'Tin Forest' inspired art work 

The children had an absolutely amazing day celebrating World Book Day this week.  We had a very special assembly discussing lots of the teachers' and children's favourite books.  The children loved dressing up as their favourite book characters.  In Year 3, we studying the 'Tin Forest' as our World Book Day text all week.  We enjoyed creating our own version of the 'Tin Forest' as well as creating art work inspired by the text.  You can see some of our outfits and art work below.

2/3/22 - Bar Model Day

Today the children in Year 3 had a fantastic day exploring the bar model with our wonderful maths team.  The day involved hunting for problems linked to landmarks around the United Kingdom, considering the problem carefully and then representing the children's thinking using a bar model.  The children all really enjoyed the activities but also left the day with a much more secure understanding of how to model their thought process using bar models.  Have a look below at the how the children using manipulatives to support their thinking process.

2/2/22 - D&T - Creating a Golden Ticket Pouch for Charlie Bucket.

This week the children have had a fantastic time practising three different types of stitches.  They then used these to create a special pouch for Charlie Bucket to keep his golden ticket in.  The children worked really hard to master running, cross and blanket stitch.  Afterwards, they were able to evaluate their products and think whether it met the design criteria that was given to them by Charlie Bucket.  I'm sure you will agree that they look fantastic and the children did a really good job.

20/1/22 - Developing our coding skills and designing a product

This week in Year 3, we have been using our developing coding skills to try and problem solve and match design criteria.  The children were set a task of creating a dancing animation on Scratch Junior.  They had to make sure that the dancer had a partner to dance with.  They also needed a new background, a repeating part of the dance and had to make sure that the Sprite grew bigger and smaller and travelled slower and faster during the dance.  After supporting each other to find the correct blocks to make this happen, the children managed to create some fantastic animations.  They were then able to consider whether their algorithms were the most efficient way to make the dancer meet the design criteria.

The children have also really enjoyed starting a new design and technology topic.  Charlie Bucket has asked them to design a pouch to keep his golden ticket safe in.  The children found out lots of information about his likes and dislikes and then designed their own design criteria.  Using this design criteria, they have analysed other products and designed their own.  The children have also started to learn some different stitches.  Next week we hope to show you some of the finished designs.

10/2/22 - Year 3 Programming Animations and Creating Games

 This week the children have been building on their knowledge of algorithms and creating new forms of block code.  They have learnt that block code is always made up of blocks but these blocks might be represented in different ways.  When exploring Sprite Jr, the children found that the code went from left to right, just like it had on Lego WeDo2 earlier in the year.  However, they also found that, unlike Lego WeDo, they could write multiple lines of code to create a working animation.  Later in the week, the children learnt how to create their own 'Flappy Bird' game using 'An Hour of Code'.  The children found that the block code was represented vertically on 'Hour of Code' and loved solving the challenges.  You can see some examples of the games and code they created below.  

17/12/21 - Christmas Fun

The children have had a fantastic week this week.  They have been undertaking all sorts of Christmas activities.  They had a beautiful Christingle assembly by candle light.  Despite the assembly being held over Teams, the children loved singing together and enjoyed discussing the key features of the Christingle via candle light.  In maths, the children have tried to help stop Christmas events going wrong by solving a series of puzzles using methods they have learnt this year.  Luckily, they solved the riddles and saved the day!

Yesterday, the children had a fantastic day creating Christmas trees.  To do this, they had to paint paper plates, thread pipe cleaners through the plate to create tinsel and stick on various baubles on.  I'm sure you will agree that they look fantastic!  

The Year 3 team would like to take the opportunity to thank the children for all their hard work this term and also thank all the parents for your continued support.  We wish you a Merry Christmas a Happy New Year!

26/11/21 - Google Slides and Presentations

The children had an amazing week building on their word processing skills from last week by exploring presentation software.  This week they learnt how to insert text boxes and add transitions and animations to their work.  The children used Google Slides to present their work and were inspired by all the facts they have found out about life in prehistoric times.  We think you will agree that they look pretty impressive.  

22/11/21 - Modern Mammoths

This week the children amalgamated all their hard work in art into a final piece.  As you can see from the 'modern mammoths' we created, the children included pieces of their printed sequin rolls, bubble wrap and painted Ben Day Dots in a collages to create this very modern effect.  The children all loved working collaboratively on this project and I'm sure you will agree they look fantastic!  There is also a picture of the 'ink spray' hand prints that we created in the style of early cave painters.  They do look rather effective and the children had great fun making them.

19/11/21 - Word Processing

As well as having a great time exploring artwork this week, the children have also learnt about two Word Processors.  The children learnt to type using 2Type on Purple Mash and then used this skill to help them word process some new learning on the Bronze Age using 2Write.  They explored the formatting skills of adding bullet points, bold text, pictures and changing the font.  Later in the week, the children then typed up a best copy of their learning in English on Google Docs.  They explored the same formatting skills in Google Docs. Then they compared and contrasted which was the easiest and most effective program to chose and why.  Most children seemed to prefer the greater options that Google Docs enabled them to use.  You can see a few pieces of their work below.

15/11/21 - Exploring Artistic Techniques

This week the children continued on from their learning about Roy Lichtenstein and explored dotting in a variety of different ways.  They learnt how to print using printing ink and rollers.  This created a fantastic 'Lichtenstein style' pattern when they used printing techniques with bubble wrap.  Further exploration, enabled them to create Ben Day Dots using painting software on the i-Pads.  Once they had completed this, they then printed and painted using sequin roll to create further dotty patterns.

In the afternoon, the children learnt how prehistoric people used to spray paint onto the walls of caves through hollow bones.  They then explored spraying and flicking painting techniques in the style of cave painters by using hands to create a silhouette.  You can see from the pictures below that the children did really well when they learnt these techniques.  The next stage is to put them together to create a class piece of artwork.  We look forward to sharing this with you.

8/11/21 - Art - Roy Lichtenstein

This week the children in Year 3 have had a fantastic week exploring mixing different colours and trying to replicate some of the choices of the artist Roy Lichtenstein.  They build on their knowledge of primary and secondary colours from Year 2 by learning that tertiary colours are made from mixing a primary and secondary colour.  They also learnt that complimentary colours are opposite each other on a colour wheel and analogue colours are next to each other.  The children then used this knowledge and mixed paint to try and replicate the Ben Day Dots used by Roy Lichtenstein.  Next, they will be expanding this knowledge in a multi-media approach.  Come back next week to see what the final pieces are like!

11/10/21 - Fantastic Learning at Kent Life

Last week the Year 3 children had the amazing opportunity to broaden and deepen their knowledge of the Stone Age through some fantastic workshops at Kent Life.  The children learnt about weapons and tools from the Stone Age.  They also got to meet a tribe member and find out all about life within the tribe.  All the children came back with an enriched knowledge of this period in history and had a fantastic time.  You can see how much they enjoy it from the photos below!

Week Commencing 27/9/21

This week the children have been delving deeper in their search for the answer to their Question For Discovery (What was life like in prehistoric times?).  The Year 3 children all decided that they wanted to know what houses were like in prehistoric times.  So, they set about researching Stone Age houses and learnt that the houses changed over time.  They discovered that the human race changed from hunter gatherers to farmers and that the houses changed as they did this.  To demonstrate their deepening understanding of Stone Age houses, they created replicas of houses from the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic eras.  The children learnt that the early humans lived in caves and moved around as they needed to source more food.  They learnt that some early settlers built tent like structures to live in, using turf and animal skins to cover them and make them waterproof.  Finally, they built more permanent structures as they changed to farmers.  You can see some of the amazing designs the children created below. 

24th September 2021 - Amazing Algorithms!

This week the children in Year 3 have started to find out more answers about our Question of Discovery: 'What was life like in prehistoric times?'.  They have explored the different types of houses that people used to live during the Stone Age and learnt how these changed across the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic eras.  They had to be secret detectives and find out about their own individual type of house or shelter and then share this with the class. You can see some examples of the great work they produced below.  

However, I think most children would say their most exciting learning this week was a fantastic robotics project using Lego Wedo 2.0.  The children learnt about how the stones found at Stonehenge travelled huge distances to be placed there and the people who moved them had no technology to help them to do it.  So, we decided to design a robot that could do all the pulling for them!  The children managed to write an algorithm that would help the robot pull the stones.  However, they found that they needed to debug (adjust) the code to help the robot travel with the stones over different surfaces. They learnt about how a motor is an output device and it is controlled by the algorithm. You can see some pictures of the children developing their robots below.