Year 3 World War Two Afternoon

What better way to round off our topic on World War Two than with a trip back in time to the 1940s? 

First of all the children imagined themselves in a Blitz-era London classroom. After applying tape to the windows to keep us safe when the bombs dropped, we wanted to know; how well would the children of 2015 cope with thinking on their feet and keeping a cool head in the midst of a Luftwaffe air raid? As it turns out, the children of Ash Class did their 1940s counterparts proud with a textbook transition under their 'Morrison shelters'. Importantly, they also remembered to wait for the 'all clear' to sound before re-emerging!

We then sped forward in time to 1945 and listened to Prime Minister Winston Churchill addressing the jubilant crowds in London on VE Day to announce the end of the war. After seeing how ordinary British people celebrated the hard-won victory, it was time for our own 'street' party, complete with union jack bunting, 1940s-style fruit cake and ginger beer! 

Birch music 🎼

We began with a warm up activity, Miss Mosley our music teacher explained how we had to use our observation and listening skills to follow the movements she would be making with her hands. She tapped,clapped and clicked out a rhythm that we had to follow in line with the beat. Following this we worked together with our partners to perform a simple 'rap' chanting the names of coloured paper in front of us as we clapped out a rhythm. 

Colchester Castle

Last week the children of year 4 had a fantastic opportunity. Sequoia and Hazel visited Colchester Castle to further their learning about the Romans. During the trip the children explored the museum looking at many different artifacts, were able to build a replica roundhouse and a Roman villa, including a Roman mosaic. Finally, they ventured down into the caves of the castle where the children took part in a story telling activity. All the children thoroughly enjoyed the trip and the tour guide commented on how well the children answered questions, she said this was one of the best groups she had ever had, a very positive comment. Well done year 4!

Sequoia Star Writer

Star writer in Sequoia this week is Sienna Nickson. Sienna has successfully written her own dilemma story. Within the story she has included a range of descriptive language, similes and has continuously used inverted commas correctly. You are a super star, keep up the hard work!!

Year 4 spellings w/c 19th October

World War 2 Rationing Workshop

The multi-talented Mr Borrell joined Year 3 today to show them first hand the culinary 'compromises' that had to made in Britain due to rationing. First the children were shown a typical weekly ration, then it was time to get hands-on. Happy meals and Haribo were very much off the menu and in their stead, our travellers to the 1940s enjoyed the delights of vegetable soup, spam fritters and corned beef hash! 

Author Visit

The children of year 3 and 4 were extremely lucky this morning as they had the opportunity to meet Chris Powl, a famous children's author and a friend of Roald Dahl. He shared with them the 4 secrets of how to be a successful writer which the children thoroughly enjoyed hearing. Chris has inspired them to now use their own imaginations to write their own stories, we look forward to reading them!

Hazel Star Writer

Star writer in Hazel this week is Ella Nash. She has successfully described a fun fair using a range of descriptive language and some super adverb openers. Well done Ella!

Sequoia Star Writer

Star Writer in Sequoia this week is Ellie-Mae Wager. Ellie-Mae has successfully used descriptive language including similes to describe a fun fair setting. She has experimented with a range of vocabulary and has produced a piece of work to be extremely proud of. Well done Ellie-Mae!

Year 4 spellings w/c 12th October

Apprentice Project

Today, Miss Rooney set Year 3 the task to design and advertise a new toy.

The budding junior apprentices, started by conducting some market research to find out what sort of toys people liked.

Once they had completed to research they put their ideas together to design their toy.

Displaying their fabulous reciprocity skills the children split themselves to work on the different aspects of advertising. Some children worked on posters, while others write jingles.

See Mr Drakes school blog to find out who the winners were!

Willow Star Writer

Willow's star writer this week is Abena. Her description of a beach during the day was fantastic. The use of adjectives and verbs transported us, the readers, to the seaside!

Can you spot her 2A sentence?

Rashida's 100 word challenge

Last week a group of children in year 4 attempted the ZooKeeper 100 word challenge. The children were given the task of using a particular phrase within a short paragraph that needed to be 100 words long. All of the children were able to complete the task using a range of adventurous vocabulary. Rashida Sillah's was particularly good therefore she got the opportunity to publish her entry onto the ZooKeeper website. A very big well done to Rashida and I know the children are already looking forward to next weeks challenge. Until then...

Hazel Star Writer

Star writer in Hazel this week is Bradley Joy. Keep up the hard work Bradley!

Sequoia Star Writer

Star writer in Sequoia this week is Jacob Owsley. Jacob successfully used a 2A sentence, a comma in a list and a range of descriptive language when re-telling the story of The Emperors New Clothes. Keep up the hard work Jacob!