Author: year3

On Tuesday 18th July, year 3 visited Battle Abbey, finishing the year where we started… learning about the Norman Conquest.  We all had a great time looking around the abbey ruins, the museum and visitor centre and following the battlefield tour.

Waiting patiently to enter the abbey grounds.

Once inside the grounds, we separated into three groups all starting with a different area of this historic site. We moved around the site looking at all three parts.

The Ruins

Dairy

Latrines

The Novice Hall

Dormitory

Dormitory and Latrines

Bricked-up Fireplace

Undercroft

Location of High Alter and probably spot where Harold Godwinson died.

The Walled Garden

Beehives

Walled Garden

Wild flowers

Buitterflies

Walled Garden

Walled Garden

Walled Garden

The Battlefield Tour

The Museum and Visitor Centre

Today, the children started this term’s art unit about weaving.  They learnt how fabrics are made by weaving threads together.  To get started, the children created a paper weave using a cardboard backing and strips of coloured paper.

The final results were stunning coloured chequer-board patterns!

Having practised with paper, the next step was to use wool and fabric.  The children made a start on this ahead of the next lesson.

Today, the children led worship for KS2 talking all about the importance of trust. We started with four volunteers from across years 3, 4, 5 and 6 coming to the front and drawing around their hands.  We noticed that not only did they all use different colours, but their hands were also all different sizes.

Next, our volunteers used just one hand to pick up as many multilink cubes as they could handle. Our year 3 volunteer held 6, our year 4 volunteer held 9, our year 5 volunteer held 13 and our year 6 volunteer managed an enormous 19! We talked about why that might be and concluded that it was due to the size of their hands.

We also listened to a poem by Paul Cookson called Father’s Hands and thought about what the father in the poem had used his hands for – returning a swan to the water, pulling up thistles, pulling out nails, feeding a sick bird, lifting bales of hay and straw. Our hands really are so important to us, but how do they compare to God’s?

We sang Our God is a Great Big God (https://www.yout-ube.com/watch?v=q8fcpShP19c)* and thought about whether the adults we know could hold skyscrapers, submarines or even the universe? A resounding ‘no’ came from across all year groups! What we did know was that God can do that and that it is okay to put our trust in him.

* Please note, St Nicholas CE Primary Academy is not responsible for the content of external websites. Please proceed at your own risk.

On Wednesday 28th June, KS2 joined together for a fantastic sports day.  All children in year 3 took part in at least 2 races, most children were in more.  They ran, skipped, bounced tennis balls, dribbled hockey balls, balanced eggs on spoons and took part in relays in a wonderful morning of sport, watched eagerly by their families.  Well done to everyone!  The winners of the KS2 sports day were St Augustine house 🎉

Today, the children enjoyed a football coaching session from Sammy and Charlie, aka the Knuckleball Twins.

They taught the children the knuckleball free kick, giving them greater accuracy in their shots.  Before heading out onto the field, they told the children all about the famous players and managers they have met along the way and showed them the knuckleball technique in videos and images.

Once out on the field in the sunshine, the children started with a quick warm up.

Then, the boys demonstrated the knuckleball free kick before letting the children loose having a go themselves!

Check out more from Sammy and Charlie on their YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@KnuckleballTwins) or fansite (https://knuckleballtwins.fan-platform.com/).

* Please note, St Nicholas CE Primary Academy is not responsible for the content on these sites which may contain adverts. Please proceed at your own risk.

This week we were practising all the different events for sports day in our PE lesson along with some fielding practice for rounders. We had a carousel of different activities to visit during the afternoon.

a) Sprinting, relays and skipping

b) Egg and spoon, hockey dribble and tennis ball bounce

c) Fielding – throwing and catching

Today, year 3 joined schools from across the UK for a micro:bit summer code along, a live computer programming event using the BBC micro:bit.  The children created code for a random fitness activity picker using block coding which was explained as they went along by the tutors.  It was fast-paced event with recaps to allow the children time to catch up if they needed to before moving on to the next step.

The program used the accelerometer on the micro:bit to sense movement.  This allowed them to code the micro:bit to make a random choice of activity and number of times to undertake it when the micro:bit was shaken. For example, shake the micr:bit and complete 15 star jumps, 2 push-ups, 5 sit-ups, 11 squats, 7 lunges, etc.

To test their program, the children used the virtual micro:bit built into the makecode editor to allow them to see it in action.  We have downloaded their programs and will upload them onto a physical micro:bit to use for a warm up in a PE lesson!

This term in science, the children are learning all about light and shadows.  We started our learning understanding what is meant by darkness.  We hid objects inside a box and gradually illuminated them until we could recognise what the object was.  The children understood that darkness is the absence of light.

Using our class set of cameras, the children went on a shadow search around the school. We were lucky that we had a bright sunny day to do this! We found shadows both inside and outside. Before we set off on their search, we learnt how light travels in straight lines and this is why shadows are formed.

We also investigated why shadows are sometimes large and other times small for the same object. We learnt that the closer the object is to the light source, the larger the shadow. We used a torch, a metre rule, a puppet (Varjak Paw themed!) and some white paper to record our results. We started with the puppet 100cm away from the light source then gradually moved the puppet 10cm closer to the light source,  each time marking the top of the shadow on the paper until we were just 20cm away from the light source. Then we measured the height of the shadow at each point, recording our results on a table. We finished our investigation by plotting our results on a bar chart to see if we could see a pattern.

The children were very excited to meet Dominique from our French partner school, Saint Joseph.  She taught the children how to sing ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ and ‘Old MacDonald’ in French.  We also learned about what life is like in a French school.

Today, the children have enjoyed a rounders lesson outside in the sunshine all about striking the ball. We were lucky enough to have Mr Bridge, a PE teacher from Marsh Academy, leading the session.  It started in a very unconventional way, seeing how far the children could hit a shoe box!