Year 3 Weekly Blog – a start to exploring Pompeii

It’s been a shorter week for the children with the bank holiday Monday and a training day on Tuesday – but we’ve packed plenty of learning into the days we’ve had!

This week, we began diving into our exciting new topic: Pompeii. In guided reading, we’ve already read the book Escape from Pompeii, a gripping story that introduced us to the ancient city and the infamous volcanic eruption. The children were completely hooked by the dramatic tale and are already full of questions and curiosity!

English

In English, we used the story as inspiration to explore how Pompeii might have looked, smelt and sounded before disaster struck. The children experimented with verb phrases to bring the bustling market town to life – we were really impressed with ideas like “children darting through the stalls” and “the smell of bread wafting through the air”. 3CW even went on to write full setting descriptions using prepositional and adverbial phrases to really transport the reader to ancient Italy – fantastic effort all round! Here is a selection of some of our fantastic setting descriptions.

Maths

Over in Maths, 3CW have been working on measuring and comparing mass in kilograms and grams. We learned that 1000 grams make 1 kilogram and practised reading scales to work out the mass of different objects. 3B have been looking at understanding the meaning of capacity and volume, and measuring in millilitres and litres.

Science

In Science, 3CW explored the parts of a flowering plant, including the hidden parts inside the petals. The children were fascinated to learn where pollen is made and how plants attract bees and insects to help with pollination. We took a trip around the school to examine and pick some of the beautiful flowers that we have on our school grounds.

Computing

In Computing, 3CW continued working with spreadsheets, learning how to create simple formulas so the computer can add, multiply, divide and subtract for us. A very useful thing to know!
3B have started some work on google slides , making a presentation, inserting text boxes and formatting.

PE

For PE, both classes have started new units. 3CW are getting stuck into athletics, while 3B are starting OAA – all about teamwork working in pairs and groups. Children enjoyed doing knee taps, running and reflecting on their run. The second hour continues as a rotation of football, skipping, and striking & fielding, which the children are loving, greatly helped by the gorgeous weather we have been experiencing.

RE

In RE, we began thinking about inspirational leaders, discussing both religious and non-religious people who inspire us, and what makes someone truly inspirational.

📢 News

Letters have gone home this week for our upcoming trips to Harlow Carr – we’re very excited! Please make sure that you have returned the reply slip and paid the £3 on parent pay. Thank you!

Reading scores:
3B – 82%
3CW – 58%

🎉 Congratulations to our special mentions this week: Tommie, Rahul, Elijah and Harry.
👏 Well done to our Dojo champions: Luca and Jessica.

Next week is going to bring us some very warm weather. Please ensure your child is wearing suncream for the hot days and has a sun hat. Children are welcome to bring sun cream into school in their bag and they can re-apply it through the day. Wednesday is our outdoor PE lesson, so it will be really needed on that day, and for 3B’s trip to Harlow Carr on Friday.

We look forward to more learning adventures next week! Have a lovely weekend.

Mrs Begum, Mrs Connolly and Mrs White