Design Technology - Tasting Peppers

This week in Year 3, we will be completing our work on seasonal fruits and vegetables.  We are designing and making red pepper tarts and a rhubarb crumble.

In order to design their red pepper tarts, the children needed to explore how the taste and texture of red peppers will change depending on how it is prepared.

We therefore tasted some chopped raw pepper, some pepper that had been roasted in olive oil, and some red pepper puree.  The children tasted all three types of pepper, and decided how they would use these components in their final designs.

Everybody tried the peppers - some were keener than others on the taste!

We are now looking forward to putting our plans into action and trying out our recipes in the kitchen!

Music - Learning the Ukulele!

This term in Year 3 we are learning how to play the ukulele!  

Mr Heath from the County Music Service is teaching us all how to play some of our favourite songs on the ukulele.  A ukulele is a 4-stringed musical instrument which is a member of the Lute family.  The ukulele originated in Portugal but is probably more associated with Hawaii, where it is very popular!

Children are allowed to take the instruments home to practise, but should please remember to bring them into school every Tuesday so they can be used in our weekly lessons.

Maths Day at Swan Lane!

We have had a brilliant day in 3V enjoying lots of different numerical challenges as part of Swan Lane's Maths Day!

First, we headed out onto the playground in order to solve a maths trail.  There were 50 colour-coded challenges for us to tackle.  It was great fun and we enjoyed working in teams to solve the questions.

Then, Mr Warren set us some fiendishly difficult reasoning and problem solving questions.  We had to use all our Year 3 maths skills to solve the puzzles and crack the code.  Luckily, we managed to solve the riddles before the time ran out, and Mr Warren awarded us the Grand Prize of an extra playtime and a new book for the reading corner!

English - Reading and Retrieval Skills

Over the next two weeks, the children in 3V will be designing their own Roman city, and then using their designs as a stimulus for descriptive writing.  This unit links with and complements their new History topic, which explores the changes to life in Britain following the Roman invasion in AD43.

In order to help them design their Roman cities with some historical accuracy, the children have been carrying out some research using a variety of different non-fiction resources.  They have been practising their retrieval skills and recording their findings so that, later in the unit, they can write their own setting description all about the buildings and atmosphere in their bustling, Ancient Roman cities.  

Reading for a specific purpose in this way really helps to build and develop the children's reading comprehension skills.