English work - w/b Tuesday 1 November 2022

For our English work after half term, we will be exploring ‘The Day the Crayons Quit’ by Drew Daywalt.  You can watch a version of the story here:

The Day the Crayons Quit

In order to support your child at home, you could:

1. Practise using the word of the week, atrociously

2.  Encourage them to think about how each of the crayons is feeling in the story.  What were the clues in the story that helped you to know how each one feels?

Any work that your child completes at home can be used to support their work in class.

Thank you.

Mrs Vaqueiro 

 

Art - Henri Rousseau

This term in 3V we have been studying the works of Henri Rousseau. 

Henri Rousseau was a French impressionist painter who painted in the primitive style.  He is well-known for his paintings of jungle and rainforest scenes, depicting a variety of  exotic animals among flora. 

Rousseau was essentially a self-taught artist.  He claimed to have had ‘no other teacher but nature,’ taking inspiration from the  flora and fauna in the botanical gardens of Paris.  

‘When I go into the glass houses and see the strange plants of exotic lands, it seems to me that I enter a dream,’ he said.

Taking inspiration from Rousseau's jungle and rainforest paintings, we painted our own Toucan paintings, under the guidance of the lovely ladies from Artbase.  We used a variety of media and techniques to create a vibrant jungle scene with a colourful toucan taking centre stage.

We have used our artwork to decorate the corridor outside the Year 3 classrooms.  We hope you enjoy them!

 

History - Tutankhamun's Tomb

Today, class 3V continued their studies of Ancient Egypt by taking a trip back in time to 1922, and the discovery of the lost tomb of the boy king, Tutankhamun.  The children role-played the discovery of the tomb, making field sketches of the artefacts that they found in the burial chamber (which had mysteriously appeared in the corner of the classroom).  The children were asked to observe details of the artefacts and try to work out what they were made of, how they might be used, and to whom they might have belonged.

Piecing together the evidence the children decided that the artefacts - which were made of gold and other precious metals, and encrusted with jewels - must have belonged to someone very important... perhaps someone like a Pharaoh.

They were puzzled, however, that there didn't seem to be evidence of a royal coffin in the tomb.  We looked closely at some photographs taken by Howard Carter's team in 1922, and the children spotted that a patch of plaster on the wall of the chamber looked rather different to the rest of the wall.  When we scraped back the patchy plaster, we discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in all its glory!

Mummification Mayhem!

In our history lessons in 3V we have been learning all about the Ancient Egyptians.  Today, we looked at how the Ancient Egyptians looked after their dead.  

We learnt that the Ancient Egyptians believed that the body should be preserved as well possible, so that the soul could recognise the body when the two were reunited in the afterlife.  

We looked at all the grisly details of the mummification process and then acted out the mummification for ourselves.  We had brilliant fun mummifying a pupil and going through all the necessary steps to ensure that he was beautifully preserved!

Science - Water Transportation Experiment

Recently in 3V, we have been looking at the secret life of plants.  We have been learning all about how plants stay alive, including looking at the way in which they adapt to different surroundings.  We are learning how plants growing in desert conditions conserve water, and how plants growing under the dark rainforest canopy manage to maximise their exposure to light.

This week, we have been looking at the inside of plants, and how they transport nutrients and water from their roots to their leaves.  We have been practising our scientific thinking skills in order to design an experiment to try to prove that water travels up the stems of plants.  

To do this, we carefully measured out plain water and dyed it blue with food colouring, before adding a stick of celery to the water.  In order to keep the experiment fair, we also put a stick of celery in the same amount of plain water to see whether the results were different.  This is called the 'control.'

Normally, Mrs Vaqueiro would leave the experiment overnight and then have the class look at the results 24 hours later, but this year we didn't have to be so patient!  The celery drew up the blue water almost before our very eyes, and by the time we had finished writing up our experiment and drawing a diagram, the leaves at the top of the celery stalks had started to turn blue! 

English - Exploring Features of a Non-Fiction Text

As part of our English work this week, we have been finding out lots of information about the Ancient Egyptians.  We plan to use the information we have found to create a non-chronological report describing different aspects of life in Ancient  Egypt.

This morning, we have been examining the layout of different non-fiction texts, and learning that information is organised into sub-headed paragraphs in order to help the reader find the information they need quickly.

We then undertook a practical activity, organising some different facts about Ancient Egypt under different headings.  We worked collaboratively to sort the information correctly so that it could be added to our working wall for English. 

Ancient Egypt Fact Finding - Collaborative Research

Over the next two weeks in 3V, the children will be creating their own non-chronological report about life in Ancient Egypt.  Although we have been learning about the Ancient Egyptian civilization during our history lessons over the past few weeks, there is always plenty more information to find out!

This morning, the children worked in mixed groups to research a different aspect of life in Ancient Egypt.  Over the next few days, they will build on the information they have gleaned and present it to their usual table groups.  They will then use this shared research to create an exciting, illustrated information text all about Ancient Egypt.