Year 3 - Larch

2.12.19

Today the Larch class pupils turned into Stone Age artists! We researched cave paintings, practised new skills of using charcoal and pastels, blended colours and developed our sketching skills. Did you know that the study of caves is called Speleology? We thought about how cave paintings tell a story without words.

The Larch class enjoyed spotting the different Stone Age animals and talking to each other about what each cave scene depicted. We also found out that Stone Age artists 'signed' their work with a handprint.

We created our own caves by working underneath our desks and drawing on crinkled paper on the wall. The lights were turned out and we lit mini (battery operated) tea lights and watched our drawings flicker and move in the light just like cave artists!

Mayflower 400 Poetry Competition - November 2019 

Congratulations to Toby and Emily who were the Larch class winners for their poetry writing about 'The First Thanksgiving'. They both used detailed ideas using their senses and feelings and good alliteration to create rhythm in their verse. Well done! 

Investigating the properties of rocks

This week the children have been investigating the properties of rocks.  They have been completing a scratch test to see how soft a rock is.  They also have been using a pipette to drop water onto a rock to test its permeability.  The children also used science dictionaries to find the definitions of scientific words and used non-fiction books to find out new facts and information.

Art in Larch!

As part of learning about Rocks and Soils in Science we have been designing our own fossil imprints. We  created a fossil shape on a Styrofoam tile and then we learned how to use printing ink, a wet and dry roller and our tile to print our fossil pattern. Can you spot which animals and plant shapes were used in our designs?

Summer Reading Challenge

Well done to everyone in the Larch class that completed the summer reading challenge. The children were presented with their certificates in achievement assembly today.

Fantastic fossils! 

This week we have been learning about the different types of fossils, how they were made and also making a fossil of our own! We have researched Mary Anning who was a scientist and famous for being the greatest fossil hunter of all time. She had to really persevere to uncover the fossils and her findings gave scientists the first look at which animals lived millions of years ago. Her most famous finding the 'Ichtyosaurus' is still displayed in the British Museum in London. We have writing about why she was so important as a science. Well done to Emily in Larch class who has written this brilliant report from her research! 

Why was Mary Anning so important?

By Emily I

Mary Anning is famous because she was the greatest fossil hunter who ever lived. She born in 1799 and her family were very poor. She lived in Lyme Regis near a lovely beach with a wonderful sea. She spent hours on the beach looking for things she never saw before. She always found strange creatures. Her father taught her how to carefully hammer the rock he said it took a lot of patience. Then when she found lots of fossils she sold them to get money for family. When she was older she went the beach and discovered a rock but it was different to all the others. It took a week for her find out what it so was, so she got a scientist . the scientist gave her 25 pound for her amazing skill. the scientist called it a Ichtyosaurus. 

September 2019

Your School Parliament needs you!

Larch class have been democratic this week, voting for pupils in their class that they would like to represent them on the Woodford School Parliament. Lots of pupils were willing to take on this challenge so well done to all of you for volunteering! The final vote count saw Toby and Olivia elected as the 2019 - 2020 Larch class representatives. Well done and we look forward to sharing our ideas and suggestions with you, to take forward to meeting with Mrs Parker and Mrs Johns. 

Plympton Cross-Country - 26.09.19

Well done to Ben who helped Woodford win the year 3/4 boys cross-country competition at Hele's School this week!

Salt Dough Fossils

Have a look at our salt dough fossils. We enjoyed making them. Can you work out which dinosaurs they are?

What are the stages of fossilisation?

This week we have been learning about the fossilisation process.  Today we had a go at acting out the process. Have a look at our photos and see if you can guess what stage of the fossilisation process we are trying to act out? 

1. The animal falls to the bottom of a river or sea bed.

2. The flesh is eaten by other animals or rots away.

3. Sediment settles on top of the creature or plant.

4. The sediment gets squashed and turns to rock.

5. Water dissolves the bones, leaving the mould.

6. Sediment and minerals fills the mould and turn to rock.

7. Weathering wears away at the rock exposing the fossil.

The ‘Starburst’ Rock Cycle!

We used Starburst sweets to model the rock cycle.

First we snipped different coloured Starbursts into pieces of sediment.

Then we squashed layers of each piece of sediment on top of each other to make Sedimentary rock.

After that we pushed and squished the rock in our hands to change it into Metamorphic rock.

  We then heated the rock to turn it into magma.

Finally we let the magma cool so it turned into Igneous rock.

Aspirations Day

The children came to school dressed up on Friday as a person or job they aspire to be when they older.  We had a variety of fantastic costumes and outfits. Thanks to all the parents for their efforts!

During the day the children listened to presentations from different parents about their current job roles.  They were keen to ask questions and find out more! We were lucky enough to meet Bee and Catherine (Mrs Andrews) from the Devon Wildlife Trust.  We had a chance to make slime from seaweed.  The children also looked at packaging and found lots of food and beauty products contain seaweed! Mrs Shearing-Brown discussed her role as an Information Access Officer.  She also shared all the other many roles from librarians, bin collectors, landscape gardeners to environmental health that are part of Plymouth City Council.  In the afternoon, we listened to Mrs Aryton who shared her role as a glass artist.  She brought in a range of items she had made and discussed her love of working with glass.  The children had a go at producing a glass window commission for a peer.  Mrs Blackler engaged us all with her audios of 999 calls. We also managed to say good afternoon to a police call handler on duty over her handset.  We finished the afternoon looking at our feet with Mr Oliver.  He discussed the issues that a podiatrist deals with from corns, verrucas, bunions to ingrowing nails.  Apparently the main reason for feet issues are incorrect shoe sizing and designs.  We all drew around our foot on a piece of paper and cut it out.  We then used the template to put inside our shoes to see if our shoes fitted nicely or whether our foot templates were crumpled. It was a very interesting day!

Safety Walk

During our first week back we have talked a lot about how to keep safe in school as well as the school respect rules.  We have walked around the school discussing the fire exits and the yellow markings. We acted out and discussed our fire drill procedures.  All the children passed the safety quiz at the end of the lesson!  Can you remember how to keep safe in P.E.?

Welcome to Larch

The children have had a great start to the term.  We have enjoyed seeing them returning to school with lots of smiles and stories to share!

Plymouth University geology workshop

Year 3 children had a great time at the university this week, looking at dinosaur teeth, fossils and minerals.

Enterprise Week

We had a great time in Enterprise week.  In year 3, we decided we would design our own cotton bags that would promote a message about reducing the amount of plastic and helping to save the planet from plastic pollution.  The children created great slogans and illustrations for homework which they used in their design. We used texile markers to add colour to our design and added a label to encourage people at the Summer Fair to buy our bags.  The bags went down a storm at the fair and we made over £100 of profit which the school is hoping to donate to Devon Wildlife Trust.  Well done Year 3!!!

Congratulations! 

Well done to all the Larch class Mathematicians who have worked so hard on learning their times tables and achieved their times table caps. 

Brilliant progress everyone! 

Chinese Dance                                                     

This half term the children have creating their own Chinese dance with Mr Wallace.  They worked in their house teams to create a dance which had a jump, travel and gesture included in the sequence.  The children used props such as scarves, ribbons and fans.  They performed their dance to Mrs Parker and Mrs Beresford who were very impressed.

Bake Sale

A group of girls from the Larch class today held a bake sale in aid of Children in Need.  They organised the event, produced posters and baked and purchased doughnuts, cookies and cakes for the event.  They even had a guess the number of sweets in the jar which was won by Elizabeth in the Cherry Class. They raised an amazing £74.36. Well done to everybody involved.

This week during our learning about Megacities in Geography we have been researching cities in South America and why Brasilia was built to replace the original Capital city of Rio de Janerio in 1960.

We studied maps, photos and watch aerial footage taken of Brasilia. Our class thought about what it would be like to have a new Capital city built to replace our capital of London. To show what we had learned we wrote a 'breaking news' report to present to the class telling the people of Rio de Janerio that a new capital city was going to be built and what it would include. We presented our reports at the news desk.

Excellent news reporting Larch class and Geography learning!

Signs of Spring

Today the Larch class went exploring the school grounds for signs of Spring.  We found different flowers, buds, catkins, blossom and even an empty egg shell around Katie's garden as well as lots of tadpoles in our new school pond. Spring has definitely sprung at Woodford!

Summer term 2019  - Welcome back Larch class!

Experiment!

We learned how to handle the clay and how to use water as a glue to join and to keep hydrated for moulding.

Next we experimented with creating different shapes using rolling, spiralling and cutting. Then we experimented with how to create different textures and patterns on the clay using tools.

Make!

To create each dragon eye we shaped a base of clay and chose a coloured eye. Next we moulded and shaped the clay to create pattern and texture for the eye. We were very pleased with our final masterpieces and everyone commented on how unique each eye was, well done Larch class! The next stage is to dry out the eyes and then we may add some colour using paint or just leave it grey which emulates the grey

 dragon style.

BIG Pedal April 2019

Congratulations to the Larch class who have been walking, scooting and cycling to and from school in the last 2 weeks.  You have all participated brilliantly in the school's Big Pedal event. On Thursday the class took part in an obstacle course; making their way expertly around the playground.

P.E. - We are active!

Basketball with our weekly Plymouth Argyll sports coach

Every week in the Spring term we have been enjoying a P.E. learning session with sport coaches from Plymouth Argyll. We have all learned some great ball skills and can work with control and accuracy. We think the photos below show how much the Larch class have grown in confidence. Well done Larch class!

Science Workshop 

11.3.19

Today, in the lead up to National Science Week, we had the pleasure of working with Mrs Brinkworth, who is Head of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) for Plymouth City Council. 

Mrs Brinkworth did lots of Science experiments with us first to warm up our brains and we discussed what we thought was happening in each activity. Next we watched a video clip about how engineering is all around us and how design has shaped the City of Plymouth from the Tamar bridge to Smeaton's Tower. Next we worked in design teams to complete a challenge! We had spaghetti and marshmallows and had to work as a team to build a bridge in 15 minutes. We did brilliantly as you can see from our photos below. 

Thank you Mrs Brinkworth for a really inspiring workshop in the Larch class. Perhaps a career in Engineering maybe in the future of our clever Year 3 pupils?   

World Book Day

Today we have been celebrating World Book Day. The children came into school wearing some fabulous costumes! Thank you to everyone who helped make today a success. 

As part of World Book Day the Larch class had to re-write the story of Cinderella using as many similes as they could. We also added in the names of famous pop singers and pop groups as a challenge. What do you think of our version? Click on the link below. 

Cinderella Poems

This week we have been looking at different kinds of poem.  We have been experimenting writing a Haiku and a Renga poems. We have been comparing the features of these poems.

A Haiku is a Japenese poem. Haiku poems consist of 3 lines. The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. The lines rarely rhyme. After a lesson in school, Freya decided to try and write her own Haiku at home. She created these verses:

A girl called Cinders,

Did all of the dirty chores.

She was so pretty.

She went to the ball

and met a very wise prince.

she danced all night long.

She ran out of the 

ball! Back to the big castle.

She married the prince. 

We all worked in pairs to create a Renga poem. To create a Renga, the first verse, which is three lines long with a total of seventeen syllables has the same structure as a Haiku. The second verse, is a couplet with seven syllables per line. Here are some of our creations:

Cinders goes to ball.

She wore a glittery gown.

She lost glass slipper.

Spell wore off at twelve o'clock.

Married prince at the palace.

By Layla S and Jessica C

Her sisters were mean. 

Cinderella mopped the floor.

She wore a nice gown.

She danced with kind Prince Charming.

She fled just before midnight!

By Caelan and Archie 

A girl called Cinders,

did all of the dirty chores.

She went to the ball.

She wore a beautiful gown,

She danced until midnight fell!

By Freya and Charley

There was a young girl,

Told do not ever be scared.

Never get days off.

She wore a glittery gown,

To a ball with Prince Charming.

By Lily and Savannah B

There was a young girl,

Sadly forced to do the chores.

Stepmother and sisters.

Invited to the ball and 

...Fairy godmother arrives

By Erin and James

Florida Maths                               

This week the Larch class headed to the sunshine state of Florida for their Maths lesson. They had food choices to make from the Big Thunder Mountain Bites Take Away and souvenirs to buy from the Magic Kingdom Gift Shop. They only had £10 to spend so they had to work out the amount spent and the change that they would be given. They used frog method for counting on as well as their mental maths to solve each calculation. Can they use Talk Maths to explain these methods to you? 

Ask an expert feature…  

This week, Year 3 have been learning about the Florida sea turtles, as part of their Geography topic ‘What is beyond the Magic Kingdom?’

‘Why are sea turtles endangered and what is the Florida Turtle Conservation Society doing to protect them?’

To answer this, the children have learned about the life cycle of a Turtle, the human and natural hazards faced by hatchlings and adult turtles and they have thought of ways to help conserve the turtle population. They used this information to design their own bumper sticker which could be used to raise awareness of turtle habitats for the tourists visiting Florida.

Can you ask your child to explain what they have learned, what facts surprised them and how they think the sea turtles could be best protected?

Pop Art

  Which types of Pop Art do you like?

We have been busy researching the artist Andy Warhol as part of our Pop Art unit. We enjoyed looking at lots of different examples of this type of Art and wrote our own success ladder for creating a piece of pop art:

Larch class' Success ladder:

1. Use bright, primary colours.

2. Be inspired by everyday objects or famous people in your composition.

3. Repeat images and vary the colours for impact.

4. Outline your image to create a 3d effect.

In our next session we learned how to sketch objects and use shading to create light and shadow. We used popular culture objects like soup cans and Dr Martin boots; which inspired Warhol in his work, to practise this skill. Well done to the Larch class for super, still life sketching, shading and attention to detail!

Celebrating Elmer

Thank you to all the parents who supported our event today. All the children came to school wearing bright clothes to celebrate Elmer's 30th birthday.  Today's event supported the fantastic charity, St Lukes Hospice.  They are creating an Elmer trail across Plymouth so look out for the bright colourful elephants!

Merry Christmas Larch class!

Thank you for an amazing term of learning and fun. Thank you too for all our lovely gifts, messages and cards at the end of term, we were very spoilt! We hope you have a very happy Christmas and a relaxing holiday and look forward to seeing you in 2019!

Mrs Beresford and Mrs Chivers.

Year 3

Barclays Bank Christmas window display

This week, Year 3 were invited by Barclays Bank to decorate a Christmas window in the Armada Way branch. We have been learning about the Victorians this term so we decided that we would make Victorian themed decorations for the tree and coloured illuminated letters for our window title. We also created silhouette carol singers to stand by our beautifully decorated tree. Well done to Year 3 for their creative design and artwork! Thanks too, to Mrs Walmsley who helped Mrs Beresford to set up the display.

Perhaps whilst you are in the city centre over the next couple of weeks you could go along to the bank and see the Woodford display?

Mayflower 400 competition

We have been writing poems about the sea using similes and descriptive language. Some of our super poetry has been chosen to be entered into the citywide Mayflower 400 writing competition. Our class entries are from Erin G, Jack D and Samuel W. Fingers crossed their work is chosen to be published. Watch this space! 

As a school, each class chose a winner from their three entries and we held a whole school assembly to celebrate and share each winner's work. Our class overall winner was Erin G with her fantastic 'Beyond the Horizon' poem.

The calm ocean's waves gently fall like a swish of a curtain

Silver streaks of light dance across the water

Waves move like a graceful dolphin

The breeze is invisible and sleeps above the ocean

by Erin G

Larch class

Take a step back in time...

Our Visit to Morwellham Quay  

2.11.18

We had a wonderful, living History day at Morwellham Quay. It was just like being able to step back in time to see what life was like in Victorian times. Set by the Tamar River, Morwellham Quay was a Victorian Mining village. Copper Miners and their families lived and worked there. The copper ore that was mined in the George and Charlotte Mine was transported and sold to all our Britain, mainly by boat. The quay would have been a very noisy, busy place to live and work. The mining community built their own school for the children to attend to the age of 8 and we were able to visit it and take part in Victorian lessons.

What was it like to work in the copper mine?

Copper was mined in the George and Charlotte mine. Men worked for up to 12 hours a day deep inside the mine. It was cold and very wet and the only source of light was a candle on the miner's felt hat. The miners worked in groups of about 6 - often Father, Son and family groups. Miners used candles to light up the rock to see where to hammer and drill but also to tell the time, as they didn't have or could see a watch. At the age of 8 boys started working at the mine too, collecting the rocks in wheelbarrows and carts and taking it up to the surface. Girls and ladies did not work in the mine but did work on the dressing floor - smashing the rocks to find the copper ore with lump hammers for up 8 hours a day.

Welcome to Larch class!

The children have settled into life in Year 3 really well. We are so pleased with the mature way they have come into class and been engaged in their learning. This first term's topic is Rocks and Soils. The children have fully immersed themselves in the learning and have been doing lots of exciting activities.

We have been looking at the rock cycle and used Starburst sweets to represent this.

Fossils!

We have been looking at fossils and how they are formed. Then we had a go at making our own fossils.