Regrouping in Year 3

The children were consolidating their understanding of column subtraction this week by using place value counters and dienes blocks to support them. They were able to apply the column method effectively and discuss exactly when it was necessary to regroup and why.

"You can't always subract if you just look at one column so you have to regroup the numbers!" Adam, Hazel class.

"Using the dienes blocks really helped me understand how to regroup." Ethan, Sequoia.

Great job, Year 3!

Year 3 spellings W/C 30.01.17

Please find below Year 3's spellings to learn for the end of this week:

Please ensure the children are practising their spellings for at least 15 minutes every night.

We were extremely pleased with their spellings test results last week so let's hope we can see even better results this Friday!

Willow Class Star Writer

In Willow this week, we are proud to announce the wonderful Aimee Borrell as our star writer and it is no wonder given the phenomenal retell she produced based on the Troll and Bogey children. After editing and evaluating her work, Aimee was able to create a publishable piece of writing. She ensured she included all of the features expected of her: speech, a range of openers and successfully wrote in first person. She also met our chilli challenge, to use a show not tell and tell:show 3. Not only this, but Aimee also added her own flare, embedding humour throughout. Well done Aimee, keep up the great writing!

Year 3 Spellings W/C: 23.01.17

Please find below this week's spellings for Year 3:

Birch Maths - what links isosceles triangles, tiger's faces, and the Taj Mahal?

Following on from Birch's work on shapes and angles, the next topic is...
Symmetry! If that was your guess to the title question, give yourself a pat on the back. However, before Birch Maths group dives into the ins and outs of symmetrical shapes, Mr Nicol needs some help working out a question...

Which of these flags have the most lines of symmetry? Why? The first correct answer will win 10 dojo points!

a)

b)

c)

d)

Post your answers in the comments box below.

Willow Class Star Writer

Willow class are proud to announce the wonderful Caydon Buckland as our star writer this week. Surprise surprise... All of Willow's writing was amazing. However, Caydon strived to produce the best piece of narrative writing possible during last weeks big write: fully focusing, engaging and participating in the lesson. As a result, Caydon produced a phenomenal piece of writing based on a new episode for the Troll and Bogey children. Successfully, he included a range of interesting sentence openers, speech and even met both of our chilli challenges: use a show not tell and tell:show 3. At one point, I even questioned whether he had swallowed a dictionary, due to the extensive array of vocabulary he was sharing with his peers.  Caydon, it is evident that when you commit and put 110% effort into your learning, you can achieve outstanding things! Keep up the great work, I expect similar outcomes in the future.

Volcano making in Year 3

This half term, Year 3's topic in Geography is Volcanoes. For our 'WOW' lesson, the children made their very own volcanoes which they will also be erupting - how exciting! 

To make our volcanoes, we started with a water bottle, newspaper and paper mache. We had to have a lot of patience and things did get a bit sticky to begin with. After leaving our volcanoes for a week, it was finally time to paint them.

'My favourite bit was when we got to paint the volcanoes! I liked painting the lava on because it made it look like a real volcano' - Sophie, Hazel.

'I really liked making the volcanoes, especially when we had to use the paper mache' - Ketty, Sequoia.

'I can't wait to erupt our volcanoes! I am so excited!' - Adam, Hazel.

Keep your eyes out for next week when we will erupt the volcanoes!

Natural History Museum - Year 3 Trip

Year 3 had a wonderful day at the Natural History museum last week! 

We started our day off by exploring the museum first. We were lucky enough to visit most areas of the museum; dinosaurs, creepy crawlies, mammals & birds and the human body. The children loved making links to their own learning and were particularly excited (some scared) about the life-size and very realistic T-Rex in the dinosaur area.

 

"I couldn't believe how much the T-Rex looked like a real dinosaur! It was scary!" - Adam, Hazel.

Year 3 were also amazed at the life-size model of a Blue Whale in the 'mammals' area. We enjoyed exploring the birds too where many children discovered birds they had never heard of or even seen!

 

"Is that really how big a Blue Whale is? That can't be true!" - Conner, Sequoia.

We ended our time at the museum by being shown an Earthquake and Volcano demonstration. Pupils were told how earthquakes and volcanoes can occur. Some children were lucky enough to be picked to test out different equipment that measures earthquakes and volcanoes! 

Year 3 had an amazing day exploring and discovering new facts! Let's hope they remember everything they have learned for our Volcano and Earthquake topic this term!

Year 3 Spellings W/C: 16.01.17

Please find this week's spellings for Year 3 below:

Willow class star writer

Willow Class Star Writer

Despite Willow making it increasingly difficult to select one star writer, we are proud to announce that Deniz Huseyin has stolen the title. Deniz has produced an absolutely phenomenal retell based on the story of The Bogeymen and the Trolls next door. Not only did he manage to incorporate the features expected of him: paragraphs to structure his writing, varied openers, alternative nouns, correctly punctuated speech and even our chilli challenge this week, to use a tell: show 3 and a show not tell, BUT he also implemented humour into his writing! 

In consideration of the humour threaded throughout his work, I particularly liked: 

'Dave had bad memories of Trolls. Once, he went to a shop and got humiliated by a Troll for what he was wearing (a yellow t-shirt with flowers).'

Keep up the great work Deniz. I can't wait to now read your new episode of the Bogey and the Trolls!

Self-Portrait Silhouettes in Birch

This afternoon, Birch Class spent their time refining their artistic skills. With a lamp and a piece of A3 paper to help them create their silhouette, they chose how to modify their drawing to suit their own personality with pastels and patterns. Some were neat, so were messy, and all were creative. Take a look at the pictures below!

University of Broadford: Scintillating Circus Skills

Scintillating Circus Skills

Ambitious Aims

Scintillating Circus Skills will give pupils an opportunity to discover new, lifelong talents. The 10-week course focuses on juggling and diabolo, both of which improve hand-eye coordination and spatial awareness. At the end of the course, the new graduates will showcase their skills to the rest of a school in a performance. Pupils will need to be aware that 'being good at it' is unlikely to happen after one session. A growth mindset is absolutely vital for success!

Amazing Activities

·     Diabolo Basics

·     Diabolo Basic Practice

·     Diabolo Throws

·     Diabolo Tricks

·     Juggling Basics

·     Juggling Basic Practice

·     Juggling Development

·     Performance practice

·     Performance practice and rehearsal

Fantastic Finale

The finale of the course will demonstrate the skills the pupils have learnt. With the thrill of having an audience before them, the graduates will opt to show off their juggling skills or their diabolo skills in a fun and impressive way that is sure to dazzle their peers.

University of Broadford: Bonkers Band of Broadford Course Overview

Dear Parents/Carers

Please find below the course overview for the 'Bonkers Band of Broadford' course:

The Bonkers Broadford Band

Ambitious Aims

What does it take for people to come together to create music? How does it feel to perform in front of a live audience? Get ready to leave your comfort zone and try something completely new! Building on the success of ‘Boomwhacker Bonanza’, 2017 brings a chance to work together and create a musical event that will be truly memorable. The Bonkers Broadford Band welcomes both those who already sing or play an instrument as well as those who have never played a note before. Together, we will put together a multi-instrumental extravaganza that will have the audience on the edge of their seats! By the end of the course, the children will have gained an insight into what it takes to create a musical performance and will hopefully develop and grow their own life-long interest in  

Amazing Activities

·        Choose your weapon! The children will be matched with their ideal instrument

·        Small steps Our budding musicians will begin to develop an appreciation of rhythm

·        Playing in time The instrumentalists will start to practice segments of their piece

·        Bringing it together 1 The Ensemble will start to take shape as we practice sections of a whole piece

·        Bringing it together 2 The Ensemble will continue to take shape as we practice sections of a whole piece

·        Bringing it together 3 The Ensemble continue to take shape as we practice sections of a whole piece

·        Bringing it together 4 The Ensemble will continue to take shape as we practice sections of a whole piece

·        Dress Rehearsal 1 Our awesome orchestra will do a full run through of the concert programme

·        Dress Rehearsal 2 Our awesome orchestra will do a full run through of the concert programme

Fantastic Finale

The final concert will be the climactic result of all the hard work the musicians have put in over the weeks. They will play at least two contrasting pieces and expect to hear something familiar and something a little more unusual!

Ash Class Star Writer

The star writer in Ash Class this week is Amelia Hynes. Linking to our previous topic of rainforests, Year 4 imagined that the area of forest near the Brazilian town of Aramanai was under threat of building development from tycoon Joao Mentiroso and his business, Malvado Corp. We then set about examinng both sides of the argument over whether to retain this precious natural sanctuary and save the unique ecosystenm of flora and fauna within it, or to bulldoze the lot and help the impoverished townspeople earn greater wealth and a better future for themselves.

Amelia's balanced argument sums up some of the strongest points for and against this proposed development and is written in an engaging and intersting way. Well done Amelia!

 

Hazel Class: Attendance Reward

As a reward for having the best attendance during the Autumn term, Hazel class have decided to choose Jump Evolution as their treat!
We will be going to Jump Evolution on Wednesday 11th January during the school hours. We are very much looking forward to our reward and will be posting pictures of our time there onto the blog!
Well done Hazel :)

Year 3 Spellings - W/C 09.01.17

Please find below this week's spellings for Year 3.

Bogey and Troll freeze frames!

This term, year 4 are studying the narrative poem 'The Bogeymen and The Trolls Next Door!' In line with this, Willow have been aiming to create the next episode for the story, involving the Bogey and Troll children creating their very own band. Not long after, the children are contacted by someone of high importance, asking them to perform. Ecstatic and thrilled, the children, of course, accept the offer. That is until, they are faced with a CATASTROPHE! Dun dun dun...

In order to generate ideas for our story, Willow have been using freeze framing, capturing the bare bones of our story. After, we used our images to create a human story board.

 Below, is an example from our new story.

Can anyone work out what is going on? 

Broadford University - Cracking Clay Club

Cracking Clay Club

Ambitious Aims

Cracking Clay Club is an exciting course tailored especially for children. Across the weeks, the children will master a number of skills in order for them to graduate as conquerors of clay! The course will start with the clay basics where the children will learn how to create pots using the pinching method. As the children progress throughout the course, the tasks will become more challenging as they learn how to coil, slip and score. The children will be well practiced in using a range of materials to paint and decorate their clay creations in order to ultimately make their ‘Fantastic Finale’.

Amazing Activities

·        Pinch Pots

·        Coil Turtles

·        Painting and Decorating

·        Slab Pots

·        Clay Animals

·        Painting and Decorating

·        Monster Faces

·        Painting and Decorating

·        Colourful Cupcakes

Fantastic Finale

Colourful Cupcakes: The children will apply all of their clay crafting skills to create fabulous looking cupcakes. They will decorate and paint them to make an array of colourful cupcakes. 

Willow Class Star Writer

Willow class star writer

This week, Willow's star writer is the fabulous, future Roald Dahl... Samanyu Handoo. As always, Willow made this a difficult decision to make. However, Samanyu fought hard to attain the title, producing an absolutely mind blowing, finalised piece of writing on whether to conserve or develop on rainforest land. Sam, the advanced level of language you incorporated, especially your alternative nouns, was incredible, the structure of your ideas allowed you to present convincing arguments and you used appropriate conjunctions to link and strengthen your ideas. 

Keep up the great writing Samanyu, I expect to see even greater things from you in 2017! 

Birch Maths Topic for start of Spring Term

The first part of this term, Birch Maths group will be studying shapes and their properties. Through the next few lessons, pupils will be able to define and find perimeter, angles, vertices, and scalene and isosceles triangles. Any examples of unusual 2D or 3D shapes found at home are welcome to be brought to school to explore!

Chilli Challenge: What is the name of this 3D shape? The first correct response in the comments section will earn 10 dojo points!

Birch Star Writer - 06/01/2017

This week's Star Writer award goes to Emily Clayden for writing a fantastic balanced argument on developing the rainforest! The piece of work, which rounded off our term topic of the rainforest, pitched reasons to preserve the flora and fauna of the forest's layers against the need to support local villages by creating farmland from deforestation. Well Done Emily!

Chilli Challenge: Can you remember the 4 layers of the rainforest? Write your answer in the comments below - first correct answer will earn 5 dojo points!

Year 4 WOW Day

Year 4's new topic this half term compares the reigns of Elizabeth I and Elizabeth II to ask the question, 'which monarch had the biggest impact on Britain?' To kick off this topic in spectacular style, yesterday saw Ash, Birch and Willow classes treated to not one, not two but three sessions of awesome activities!

The first of these was an exceptional Tudor-themed workshop led by Peter Balanck, an expert on all things medieval. The children were able to try their hand at an amazing selction of hands-on authentic experiences, including trying on Tudor clothes and armour, writing with a quill pen, having their own coin minted, spinning wool and trying out a range of games played at the time.

"The soldiers of Queen Elizabeth's time must have had great strength and endurance to have worn this protective clothing all the time" - Ellis Drummond

"I would have made a brilliant court jester!" - Adam Murray

With all this new-found knowledge of the Elizabethan days, it was now time to travel 300 years into the future and find out about how Britain has changed since our current queen, Elizabeth II, has been on the throne. Cue another workshop that gave us a whirlwind tour of Britain from 1948 to the present day. We learned about the founding of the NHS, the rise of the Beatles, England's World Cup win of 1966, the manned missions to space of the late 60s and early 70s, the controversy caused by the Thatcher government and the explosion of 'girl power' and the Spice Girls in the 1990s. Of course, none of this would have been complete without a chance to dress up!

"I jumped at the chance to play the Queen. Elizabeth II is an inspiration to us all" - Emily Clayden

"If I had been a Beatle for real I would have been Ringo - drummers have all the fun!" - Olivia Wheal

 

As if all this wasn't enough excitement, we also spent some time in classes making physical timelines to improve our chronological awareness of the two monarchs' reigns and the huge span of history that separates them.

 

"I had no idea the country changed so much between Queen Elizabeth II's birth in 1926 and now!" - Oliwia Bartink

 

"We found out from making this timeline that Queen Elizabeth I's era was a time of great exploration and a flourishing of culture in England" - Eriya Byamugisha