Vile Victorian Prisons

For our history lessons this half term, 3V have been learning all about Crime and Punishment through the ages.  This week, we investigated Victorian times.  We learnt that the first police force was introduced in London by Sir Robert Peel (and were swiftly nicknamed 'Bobbies' or 'Peelers').  We also learnt that, in Victorian times, criminals were sent to prison to perform 'hard labour' as a punishment for their misdeeds.  Prisoners would have to spend hours every day turning a crank, stepping on a treadwheel, picking oakum or carrying a heavy weight around.  All activities had to be carried out in silence.

We recreated some of these activities for the children in the school hall: they spent fifteen minutes in total trying three different types of hard labour: the shot drill, the treadwheel and picking oakum.  I think they found keeping silent the hardest part! 

After they had completed their 'sentence,' the prisoners were marched back to the classroom to write a diary describing their experiences.

Literacy Work - w/b Monday 23rd May 2022

This week’s literacy task is to write a letter to HM the Queen in celebration of her Platinum Jubilee.  This has traditionally been one of Year 3’s '50 Things to Do at Swan Lane' – and the exciting thing about writing to the Queen is that she usually writes back!

It would be useful if you could discuss the following with your child in preparation for Big Writing:

·     Discuss the features of a letter. How should it be set out? How should we address the Queen?  How should we sign off the letter?

·     Find out some facts about the Queen.  Where does she live? What are her children called?  Does she have any grandchildren?  Does she have any pets?

Anything that we bring in during the week can be used to support our letter writing.

Thank you             

Mrs Vaqueiro

Glorious Glockenspiels!

The children in 3V had fun this afternoon getting to grips with glockenspiels!  As part of our music studies in Year 3, the children are developing their understanding of the language of music, learning how music is written on a stave, and finding the pulse or beat of the music when they listen and play.

Part of the Year 3 curriculum also includes learning to play basic pieces on a tuned instrument, such as a glockenspiel.  We practised playing single notes in time to the piece of music that we have been studying this half term - 'Bringing us Together,' before going on to practise three note sequences in time with the music.  

Literacy: Role Play Reporters!

As part of our continuing work on Ted Hughes' 'The Iron Man,' the children in 3V are stepping into the shoes of local newspaper reporters this week, gathering information for a breaking news story: a mysterious Iron Giant has been sighted in the vicinity of Swan Lane First School, and a number of vehicles, as well as the school roof, have been damaged.  Huge footprints were seen in the soft earth around the school, and what looked like enormous teeth marks were seen on the mangled remains of one of the teacher's cars!

An eye witness to the mysterious sighting - a boy called Hogarth - took to the hot seat for a press conference with our budding reporters this morning, who were keen to find out all the details.

Our 'Hogarth' did a brilliant job fielding all the questions from the children - it's a difficult skill to think on your feet and 'ad lib' answers to questions from the floor - especially if you are a child in Year 3!  The questions, too, were really well considered and helped the reporters find out all the juicy details they need to write this thrilling headline news!

Fossil Hunting - 50 Things to do at Swan Lane First School

As part of our wider programme of enrichment activities at Swan Lane, we aim to provide the children with 50 different experiences which we hope will be memorable, fun and worthwhile, for a host of different reasons.  Some of them are linked to our studies, some of them involve serving our wider community, and some of them we enjoy just for fun!

One of Year 3's '50 Things...' is to go on a Fossil Hunt.  This links back to our 'Rocks and Soils' topic from the Autumn term - and we have been waiting for what seems like forever for the weather to be kind enough to let us do it!  On Friday, we were finally able to head outside to see how many fossils we could spot within the school grounds.  You might not expect there to be many fossils so close at hand... but you might therefore be surprised!

Once you know what to look for, it's perfectly possible to find an astonishing number of rocks containing fossil fragments in amongst the soil and stones beneath our feet.  We headed outside with our friends in 3W to prove it...

Literacy Work - w/b Monday 9th May 2022

For our next Big Writing we will once again be basing our writing on Ted Hughes’ ‘The Iron Man.’ We will be writing a newspaper report describing the first sighting of The Iron Man.  This is a two week writing unit, so we will complete our final Big Write on Friday 20th May.

It would be useful if you could discuss and practise the following with your child:

· using the word of the week ‘surreal’

· Talk about the features of a newspaper report: the headline, subheaded paragraphs, eye-witness quotes.

· Try to think of a catchy headline to describe the first sighting of the mysterious Iron Man.

Many thanks,

Mrs Vaqueiro