Friday 17th July - Goodbye to Year 3!

Good morning everyone!

Here we are, on the last day of the summer term, in what has been the strangest of school years - what a rollercoaster ride it's been!  

You have been amazing in adapting to all the changes this year has thrown at you!  Lockdown has been tough for everyone, but especially so for children, and I know how much you will all have missed seeing your friends every day at school.  You have shown great resilience in coping with the new routines, and I could not be any prouder of you all.  I have loved being your teacher this year: hopefully you've learnt a lot, and had a lot of fun along the way - it's just a shame that our time together in the classroom was cut short.  

I would also like to say a huge 'thank you' to your parents and carers, who have done such a brilliant job in helping you with your home learning in very strange and trying circumstances.  I know it cannot have been easy to juggle childcare, home schooling and your own work responsibilities, and I very much hope that you and your families will be able to enjoy a more restful few weeks over the summer.  

Normally, in the summer term, we would have a full class photo taken as a keepsake of your time in Year 3. Since we weren't able to have that this year, I've had a go at making a cartoon version on the computer - can you spot yourself?  I have printed out a copy for everyone and it will be waiting for you at school when you come back in the autumn (and it has people's names on the back, so you can work out who everyone is!).

It only remains for me to wish you all a wonderful, and hopefully healthy, summer holiday - I will look forward to seeing you all in school again in September, when you will be with Mr Forrester in 4F!  

My very best wishes to you all,

Mrs Vaqueiro

PS As it's the last day, I've recorded a video message for you, which I hope will have uploaded correctly!

Thursday 16th July

Hello everyone!  

It's our penultimate day together in Year 3, and normally at this point in the year we would be heading out onto the school field for stories and biscuits in the sunshine.  As we can't do that all together this year, why not recreate the experience at home?

First, you'll need some biscuits - but not just ordinary, boring biscuits: it's a special time of year, so we need to make it a special treat by decorating our biscuits with extra goodies.  There are lots of ideas here, but you can always make your own designs!  Once your biscuits are ready, head out into the sunshine, curl up with a drink, a book and a teddy bear, and have a mini picnic in the garden.  

Enjoy your day!

Mrs Vaqueiro

Wednesday 15th July

Good morning everyone!

How are you today?  I hope you are all still well and safe at home.

This summer ought to have seen the 32nd Summer Olympic Games starting in Tokyo on 23rd July, but owing to the coronavirus pandemic, the games have had to be postponed for the time being.  However, that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy a mini-Olympic event of your own at home!  

The Olympics is normally an opportunity for athletes to compete in all sorts of different sporting events, from swimming to hockey to high jump to gymnastics, and many more besides - so you could get together with your family in the back garden at home and see if you can complete different challenges.  There are loads of ideas for different games to get you started in this blog, including Endurance Hula-Hooping, Welly Throwing and Night Bowling.  You could design medals (or rosettes) for the winners of each event, and make a really fun afternoon of it!

Have a brilliant day, however you choose to spend it!

Mrs Vaqueiro

Tuesday 14th July

Hello everyone!

Today is 14th July, which is a very important day of celebration in France, called Bastille Day.  Long ago, France was ruled by a King who controlled everything in the country. The French people were tired of having to pay money to the King, and tired of not having enough food to eat themselves, so they began to grumble and protest.  The protests became very serious and there was rioting in the streets.  The rioters broke into an important prison, called the Bastille, and set all the prisoners free.  This was the start of the French Revolution, which was a really important time in French history, and which is still remembered today.

In France, there will be parades and celebrations, and in the evening there is traditionally a huge firework display.  So, with that in mind, how would you like to make some firework paintings today?  You can find instructions here for one kind of firework painting, or you can try the wax resist technique that I suggested a few weeks ago, or you can do your own thing!

Whatever you choose to do today, have a wonderful time!

Mrs Vaqueiro

Monday 13th July

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the very last week of this academic year, and the end of our time together in Year 3!  

This is the start of your fourteenth week of home learning - what an amazing achievement!  This has been a school year like no other: when you are older, people will ask you what it was like to be a child in 2020, when all the schools closed, and for a time, the world was quiet and still.  Your memories of this time will become part of history - maybe one day, your grandchildren will learn all about 2020 in school, and you'll be able to help them with their homework, because you lived through it all!

Our last week at school is usually a time for reflection: to look back on the year that has passed, and to reminisce over the fun times we had, remembering our favourite days and funniest moments, the games we played and all the new things we learnt - as well as a time for fun and games.  Our home learning this week follows the same theme, as we look back over this most extraordinary year, and get ready to look forward to the summer holidays and a fresh start in September.

The home learning activities can be found, as usual, in the 3V Google Drive, but there is one more very important task that I would like all of you to complete this week.   

Normally, at this time of year, many of you are kind enough to bring in special thank you cards for your teachers.  We always treasure them, but this year, I would like you to make a thank you card - or a special picture - for your parents and carers instead.  

Most of your mums, dads and carers didn't train to be teachers, but they've had to juggle the responsibility of looking after your school work, at the same time as doing their own normal work from home.  I think they deserve a huge round of applause, and a very special thank you from you, to let them know how much you appreciate all their hard work and support for your home learning.  So, even if you don't manage to complete any other school work this week, please make sure that you take the time to say 'thank you' to the grown ups at home for everything they've done for you during lockdown.

That's all from me for today - I will be back tomorrow with some ideas for fun and games this week.  

Take care, 

Mrs Vaqueiro

Friday 10th July

Hello everyone!

It's Friday!  Congratulations on completing your 13th week of home learning - what an amazing achievement!  

Let's celebrate by doing something fun today!  In school, my group of Keyworker children have really enjoyed trying out some of the routines on 'Just Dance' - although it's really a video game, there are lots of different routines uploaded to YouTube, so you can choose your favourite songs and try to perfect your dance moves.  It doesn't matter if you aren't the best dancer in the world (as I can confirm...!) - it's just great fun to sing and dance along with the music.

Here are some of our favourites from school:

There are hundreds more to choose from so why not search for your favourite songs and have a disco in your sitting room?!

Have a brilliant weekend, and I will be back on Monday with some more activities for you!

Best wishes

Mrs Vaqueiro

A Message from Mr Forrester!

Hello everyone!

I hope you’re all keeping well.

As you know, your teacher in Year 4 will be Mr Forrester, and he has recorded a special message for you, which you can find on the main school website, or by following this link.  I know he is really looking forward to getting to know you all better, and is planning lots of exciting lessons for you in the autumn!

I'll be back tomorrow morning with the final blog update for this week - take care and look after yourselves.

Best wishes

Mrs Vaqueiro

Thursday 9th July

Bonjour!

Can you guess what the theme of today's home learning might be?  If we were in school this week, we would be having our usual French lesson with Madame Evans, so I thought it might be good fun to include some ideas to help you brush up your French today!

A good place to start is with BBC Bitesize which has a sequence of lessons and games for you to follow, covering the basics in French.  If you'd like to combine your French practice with some PE moves, you could try this activity from BBC Supermovers, or this French disco workout from YouTube (there are Spanish versions of both as well if you really get into languages!).

Have fun and enjoy practising your French skills with your family.

Au revoir!

Mrs Vaqueiro

Wednesday 8th July

Hello everyone!

How are you today?  I hope you are all well and enjoying your week.

Normally, on a Wednesday, we would have Guided Reading at school, so today's challenge is for you to complete a reading comprehension based on the fairy tale 'The Princess and the Pea.'  You can find the text and the questions here.  

There are plenty of different activities there to keep you out of mischief, but if you need an extra challenge, maybe you could also take the story as your inspiration and create a new cover design for the book?  Make it really bright and colourful, so that people are interested and want to find out more, and then see if you can write a short summary of the story for the 'blurb' on the back, to really tempt the reader (without giving away the ending!).

Have a brilliant day!

Best wishes

Mrs Vaqueiro

Tuesday 7th July

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all still keeping safe and well.  I am at home today, and was wondering what on earth to put on the blog... So I did a quick Google and discovered that 7th July is Chocolate Day!  Yes, really!   Now, you may be thinking that every day is Chocolate Day - and you would be right - but today we have a genuine excuse to indulge.

So, with that in mind, here's a delicious chocolate-based recipe for you to try.  You will need an adult to help you because you will need to melt the chocolate.

Chocolate Rice Krispie Cakes

You will need:

150g chocolate, broken into squares (I like a mixture of plain and milk chocolate, but it doesn't really matter - it's all good!)

100g butter

4 tablespoons golden syrup

100g Rice Krispies

12 paper fairy cake cases

To decorate:

50g melted chocolate, plus any decorations you might want to use - mini marshmallows, sprinkles, Smarties, chocolate drops etc

Method:

1.    Put the chocolate, butter and syrup into a heatproof bowl.  

2.    You can either melt them together over a pan of simmering water on the hob, or melt it in the microwave (do this in short 20 second bursts, stirring in between, otherwise the mixture might burn).  You must ask an adult to help with this.

3.    Stir the melted mixture together until it is smooth, and then mix in the Rice Krispies until they are completely covered with the chocolate mixture.

4.    Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and decorate each cake as you like - drizzle the cakes with melted chocolate and add your chosen decorations.  Do this quickly before the chocolate starts to cool and set, otherwise the decorations won't stick properly.

5.    Pop the cakes into the fridge for about an hour to cool completely, and then serve.

6.    Apparently these will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight tin, but to be honest I've never met anyone who can resist them for that long.

Have a wonderful day!

Best wishes

Mrs Vaqueiro

Monday 6th July

Good morning everyone!

Welcome to your 13th week of home learning - hopefully it will be a lucky one!

I have updated the 3V Google Drive with this week's suggested home learning activities.  Our theme this week is 'Celebrations' and there are plenty of different ideas for you to try.   There are also some more literacy activities from Talk for Writing, as well as our usual maths and English tasks.

Hopefully, by now you should all have received your school reports, which also included information about your new teacher in September - Mr Forrester!  Keep an eye on the website this week for a special video welcome message from him.  I know he is really looking forward to teaching you all in September, and I am sure you will have a brilliant time with him in 4F.

That's all from me for today - I will keep adding new activities through the week so do keep checking the blog for updates.

Best wishes

Mrs Vaqueiro

Friday 3rd July

Hello everyone and a happy Friday to you all!

As promised, today's challenge is one of Year 3's '50 Things to Do at Swan Lane' - it's time to have a go at making some ice cream!

You might think that in order to make ice cream you would need a fancy ice cream maker or lots of special equipment - but there is a really simple and fun way for you to make it at home!

Although the Chinese are originally said to have invented ice cream, historians know that the Ancient Romans also enjoyed tasty frozen desserts.  Their ice creams were made using  snow (from the mountain tops) mixed with fruit juice and sometimes milk, and they were strictly reserved for the very rich.  Luckily, we don't have to be Roman royalty to try making our version!

In order to make ice cream at home, you will need:

300 ml semi-skimmed milk

1 tablespoon caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1kg ice cubes (that's a lot of ice cubes - you can buy them ready frozen from a supermarket or just fill up a lot of ice trays at home!)

6 tablespoons salt

2 medium zip lock freezer bags

1 very large zip lock freezer bag

Sticky tape

Sprinkles and ice cream sauce, to serve.

Method:

1.    Put the milk, sugar and vanilla into a medium zip lock bag, and tape up the seal.  

2.    Put this bag of ingredients into the second medium sized zip lock bag, and tape up the seal again.

3.     Tip the ice and salt into the large zip lock bag, and then place the doubled up ingredients bags inside.  Seal the large bag with sticky tape as well.  

4.    Now for the fun bit: you have to keep the bag moving for 15 minutes!  You can keep turning it over in your hands and shaking it, or if you are outside, you can play catch with it (carefully!). Your hands will get quite chilly so you might need to pop your winter gloves on to protect them.

5.    Keep moving the bag until you notice the milk is starting to thicken and freeze - this usually takes about 15 minutes but you might need to keep going for a bit longer.

6.    When the ice cream is ready, carefully remove it from the bags - make sure you don't get the salty, icy water in it as that would be disgusting!  The ice cream won't be as solid as the ice cream that you buy in the shops, but it is still very tasty as well as being fun to make.  Decorate your ice cream with sprinkles and sauce, and eat it quickly before it melts!

Buon appetito!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs Vaqueiro

Thursday 2nd July

Good morning everyone!

How did you get on with the Archimedes Puzzle?  I hope you enjoyed creating some different shapes and maybe challenging your family too.

Today I've got another challenge for you!  You might remember earlier in the school year, when we are all still in the classroom, we began to learn how to program a computer using code.  We began by using the Minecraft Coding game, and then a few weeks ago I shared a link to Star Wars coding.  Now I have a different coding activity for you to try.

Here is a link to the Scratch coding website.  You can use Scratch to create different backgrounds and to write a program commanding a character to do different things.  You can write your own cartoon or set challenges for your family.  Begin with the tutorials so you can get to grips with the basics, and then enjoy playing around with it!

Have fun, and I'll be back tomorrow with another one of our '50 Things to Do at Swan Lane' - to give you a clue, it's the one you were all most disappointed to miss out on!

Best wishes,

Mrs Vaqueiro