History – Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age
A fascinating topic that took us from hunter gatherers to farms and ended with the Romans (which we will of course learn about in Year 4). The journey of learning took us through the Stone Age where we found out how early humans survived and developed strategies to stay alive that we take for granted nowadays. Moving on to the Bronze Age we discovered how the development of bronze helped people make better tools to allow them to thrive rather than just survive. At the end, we learnt how people were able to make better communities and use farming more efficiently. The children made their own roundhouses and also created their hill forts where tribes attempted to stop invasions from enemies. We are definitely ready to learn about the Romans in Y4 now!
Creswell Crags
Year 3 visited Creswell Crags; a place that is full of history dating back all the way to the Stone Age.
We had a brilliant day from start to finish. We went straight to the cave where we passed round animal skins, weapons and Stone Age tools. The tour guides were very impressed with our knowledge about the Palaeolithic era which we learned from our history topic ‘Would you rather live in the Stone Age, Bronze Age or Iron Age’.
Once we saw where a Stone Age person took shelter, we looked in to survival skills needed during the Ice Age. Firstly, we made our own shelters out of wood, animal skin and fur. The children worked great in teams to shelter from the elements. Afterwards, we hunted for food and practised our spear throwing skills to kill a bison. There were some excellent shots! Then we witnessed how Stone Age people created fire using flint.
Finally, we used a range of resources to create our own Stone Age cave art that showed how people back then were able to tell stories of their experiences. Overall, what a brilliant day out we had where we shared and learned so much knowledge!
Love of Reading – Stone Age Boy
Our story is set in the present day when Satoshi falls into a cave and finds himself in the Stone Age. He quickly befriends Om – a strange looking girl, who takes him to meet her family. He quickly learns the ways of living in the Stone Age before he finds himself home again. We loved this book and we have used it to link to our History topic and produce lots of writing from it.
We have investigated how to use inverted commas when writing dialogue, of course we had to act them out first of all! In Year 3 we love every opportunity to practise our acting skills!
Science – What do rocks tell us about the way the Earth is made?
Did you know that there are three different types of rocks? We do – they are Metamorphic, Igneous and Sedimentary – infact we know so much about rocks that when we grow up we could become Geologists! We are experts at sorting them into groups and classifying them depending upon their properties. We know that some rocks are dense, some are permeable and others are durable. We found out about the different layers of soil and why it is so important. It absorbs water so that we are not flooded, it locks in Carbon, it is the reason why plants grow and of course it is home to lots of different animals.
Christmas Countdown
Our favourite time of year….Mr Clewes’ Christmas Countdown! The month of December was, as ever, filled with festive joy. The children enjoyed a lovely treat every day on the build up to Christmas. This ranged from fun on the inflatables, wrapping children up in Christmas paper, making Christmas cards, enjoying our Christmas dinner…plus much much more! Take a look at some of our festive pictures.
Design & Technology
Here we looked at how we might make a paper box strong. We of course tested it out and decided which areas needed further support. We investigated ribbing, corrugation and triangulation and discovered that many buildings and bridges use these techniques to strengthen their supports. The Eiffel Tower AND the green bridge on the A50 are made out of triangles so they must be strong!
Then, using what we had found out, we constructed a much stronger box. This time we made it out of wood so that the edges were stronger and used triangulation to strengthen the corners. We were very proud of what we produced.
Computing
Recently, Year 3 children have been looking in to communicating through technology. We have looked at all of the common ways to communicate but they now have an email address. Mr Engleman is currently inundated with emails from nearly 90 children from Year 3!!!!
