Exploring Ancient Civilisations and Making Magnetic Discoveries

This week has been packed with lovely lessons and the children have shown incredible enthusiasm and creativity as they tackled each subject. Here’s a look at what we’ve been up to:

Guided Reading

For guided reading, we’ve been diving back into The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. We have been discussing character thoughts and feelings, such as:
How did the wolf feel when the pigs refused to let him in? How did the pigs feel when their houses were threatened? What might the pig be thinking when the wolf is knocking at his door?

Maths

3CW have been continuing to work on our understanding of multiplication. We started the week with reasoning about multiplication, then we moved on to multiplying a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number. This is a tricky concept so we took 2 lessons to help the children gain confidence working through problems practically using counters and whiteboards. For the final lesson in the week, we began exploring multiplying a 2-digit number by a 1-digit number with the extra dimension of changing a ten. The children worked hard to show their understanding through fluency work and explain their reasoning when solving trickier problems.
3B have been doing scaling and looking at combinations. This meant that they were comparing values and using their multiplication skills to figure out combinations.

English

In English, we’ve been preparing to write alternative versions of Jack and the Beanstalk. The focus this week has been on character development and using ambitious language to describe appearance and personality. We began by revisiting examples of successful character descriptions, and discussing the use of powerful adjectives and interesting sentence openers.

The children created detailed descriptions of the giant, using adjectives to bring their character to life. We had some superb descriptions that focused on physical appearance, personality and the characters interests and hobbies. Later in the week, we modelled how to introduce a main character and used ideas from The True Story of the Three Little Pigs to magpie creative twists. By the end of the week, the children began planning the opening of their alternative stories, thinking carefully about how to set the scene.

History

In history, we’ve been exploring what daily life was like for Ancient Egyptians. After learning about the Pharaohs and scribes, the children looked more closely at the hierarchy of Egyptian society. We discussed how people’s lives differed depending on their role, and the children created their own pyramids of society to add to their books. We reflected on how the hierarchy impacted everyday life, sparking some great questions about fairness and the challenges faced by those at the bottom of the pyramid. This led to thoughtful discussions about what life might have been like in ancient times.

Science

Science was all about magnets this week, and it’s been hands-on and investigative! Building on what we’ve already learned, the children came up with questions about magnets and magnetism. Could a magnet attract objects through cloth? Could magnets attract through water or even through their hand? Can a non magnetic metal become a magnetic metal?

We set up a carousel of experiments to test these ideas. The children explored how magnetic force works from different distances, whether objects can become magnetized, and how the strength of magnets varies. The room was buzzing with excitement as the children moved between activities, sharing their findings and testing new ideas.

PE

In 3CW, we’ve been continuing to look at our fundamental movement skills. Meanwhile, 3B has been focusing on invasion games. It’s always fantastic to see them develop their skills and gain confidence.

Spelling

Finally, in spelling, we’ve been looking at words with the ‘sh’ sound spelt in different ways, like ‘ch’ and ‘ssion’ or ‘sure.’ 3CW have been looking at the different strategies we can employ to help us to remember our spellings and the children tried different strategies to see what they thought might work for them. It’s great to see the children growing more confident with these challenging words!

News and Reminders

Congratulations to our special mentions this week: Enes, Matilda, Luca and Ihsaan.
Well done also to our dojo champions this week: Isla and Sev.

Reading scores:
3CW – 69 %
3B – 88%

Homework this week focuses on multiplying a 2 digit number by a 1 digit number and the different ways to spell the ‘sh’ sound.

It’s been such a busy week, and the children have tackled every challenge with so much enthusiasm and effort. We are looking forward to seeing all their creative ideas and hard work come together as we continue building on these topics next week!

Have a lovely weekend

Mrs Begum, Mrs Connolly and Mrs White😊