Wednesday 1st July

Good morning everyone!

I hope you are all still keeping safe and well at home.  

It's been a while since I set you an additional maths challenge, so today you're in for a real conundrum!  A very famous Ancient Greek mathematician called Archimedes created a puzzle called the Stomachion.  

A rectangle is divided into 14 different shapes, and then those 14 pieces are all used to create different shape patterns - it's trickier than it looks!  I've put the challenge in this week's Additional English and Maths file, so if you have a printer at home you could print it directly; otherwise, you could carefully copy the shapes onto a piece of paper.  Good luck!

That's all from me for today - take care of yourselves.

Best wishes

Mrs Vaqueiro

Tuesday 30th June

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all keeping safe and well at home.  Around this time, if we had been in school, we should have been taking our final school trip of the year to the Nature in Art Museum and Gallery at Twigworth in Gloucestershire.  The Gallery is closed at the moment due to the coronavirus, but you can have a look at some of the exhibits on their website - there are some amazing sculptures in the beautiful grounds.  We would normally spend the day doing different art workshops inspired by nature and using natural materials - and there's no reason why you couldn't recreate one of them at home, especially since finding some 'Nature in Art' is one of Year 3's '50 Things to Do at Swan Lane!'

Inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy, you could gather together some natural materials - sticks, stones, shells, leaves etc - and use them to make a picture or pattern on the ground.  Think about how you compose your piece - will it be a picture of a particular person or memorable scene, or will it be an abstract pattern?  If you would like to make a pattern, you could make a mandala like these ones.  I've put a short powerpoint about Andy Goldsworthy in this week's folder on the Google Drive, which might also give you some ideas and inspiration!

Have fun!

Mrs Vaqueiro

Monday 29th June

Good morning and welcome to another Monday morning!  

This is now your twelfth week of learning at home (excluding holiday weeks)!  What an achievement - I am really proud of each and every one of you for keeping going and engaging as much as you can with your home learning.  This week's suggested activities are in the 3V Google Drive as usual, and I will keep adding extra ideas every day to help keep you out of mischief!

It's a momentous week for Swan Lane children this week, as very soon your annual reports will be winging their way to your parents and carers, and of course that means you will also find out who your new teacher in Year 4 will be - so watch this space for updates!  I hope you are all excited to come back to school in September, when (fingers crossed!) life might have started to look a little more normal - we will be so happy to welcome you all back to school, and I am sure you will all be looking forward to spending time with your friends again.

Have a lovely day and be kind to one another!

Best wishes

Mrs Vaqueiro

Friday 26th June

Good morning everyone - and well done for completing another week of home learning.  You should be really proud of yourselves for the effort you've made.

Have you enjoyed learning about the Amazon Rainforest this week?  I have discovered this video which you might like to watch.  Called 'Under the Canopy,' the film allows you to move the camera around 360 degrees just as though you were really in the rainforest yourself!  

Why not use the video as a stimulus for some creative writing?

As you watch the film, you could try and think of some exciting positional openers to describe the various features you can see.  Jot them down as you watch the film, and then see if you can edit and improve them.

For example, you might begin with Through the trees.  You can uplevel this simple opener by choosing a verb to describe what is happening through the trees.

Let's say we are Peering through the trees.

It's time to uplevel again by adding in an adverb.  How are you (or someone else) peering through the trees?  Curiously? Cautiously? Gingerly? Excitedly? Fiercely?  It's up to you - and your choice of adverb will very much influence the tone of your description.

Once you have added in an adverb, you might like to add in some Wow Words to describe the trees.  What are the trees like?  Are they tall? Spiky? Green? Overgrown? The choice is endless.

Now you have a fantastic opener for your descriptive sentence - can you extend it further?  What do you see as you peer through the trees?  

See if you can put together a perfect paragraph to describe a rainforest scene - remember to describe not only what you can see, but also what you can hear, and smell, and feel.  Remember you can go back to edit and uplevel your work until you are sure it is the best it can be - and then please do send me a picture!  I am really missing reading all your creative writing.

That's all from me for this week - have a wonderful weekend, and I will be back again next Monday with some more suggested home learning activities for you.

Best wishes,

Mrs Vaqueiro

Thursday 25th June

Hello everyone!

I hope you're all well and keeping safe at home. 

Can you guess what today is?  Apart from 25th June, that is...

Apparently, it's Global Beatles Day today - who knew?!  I didn't even know there was such a thing until I began researching ideas for this Blog, and you all know how much I love the Beatles!  So, hot on the heels of last week's Beatles-themed homework in honour of Sir Paul McCartney's birthday, I bring you another activity linked to the Fab Four!

In 1967, the Beatles released one of their most famous albums: Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  The album was musically groundbreaking but perhaps the most famous thing about it was the design on its cover.  The artist Peter Blake used collage to create an iconic image of the Beatles standing in front of a crowd of famous and memorable people. Peter Blake used 9 waxworks (including the four Beatles in younger days) and 57 photographs to create the scene.

So now, over to you.  Why not create your own collage artwork in the style of Peter Blake?  You could cut photos out of magazines (please ask first!) or print pictures of people who are important and memorable to you, and arrange them in a group, just like the cover of Sgt. Pepper.  You could also add extra decorations such as flowers, just like Peter Blake did.

Maybe you could listen to some of the Beatles' music while you work - it will be just like being at school!

Have a 'fab' day!

Mrs Vaqueiro

Wednesday 24th June

Good morning - or bom dia, as they say in Brazil!  

I hope you are enjoying learning a little about Brazil this week.  Although our time together in the classroom ended rather sooner than we planned, I think you were with me long enough to know that I like to find an excuse for cake as often as I can... all in the name of your education, of course! 

Together, we've made chocolate rocks, and tried Portuguese chocolate salami... now it's your turn to try making a Brazilian carnival treat - chocolate brigadeiros!  These little chocolate truffles are delicious but definitely not for every day as they are very sugary indeed!  You can only make these sweets with a grown up's help as you will need to use the cooker.

You will need:

1 397g can of condensed milk

3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon of butter (plus a little more for greasing)

A pinch of salt

Some chocolate sprinkles 

A grown up to help you 

Method:

1. Grease a plate with some butter (or use non-stick paper)

2. Put the condensed milk, cocoa, salt and butter in a heavy-based saucepan and heat it gently over a low heat, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon.

3.  Gradually the mixture will thicken up - it's very important to keep stirring all the time or it will stick to the pan.  Soon you will be able to see the bottom of the pan when you scrape the spoon through the mixture.

4.  When the mixture is thick like a dough, rather than runny like a batter, give it about a minute more (stirring all the time) and then take it off the heat.  

5.  Carefully tip the mixture onto the greased plate, cool it slightly and then put it in the fridge to set.

6.  When the mixture is completely cold, pull pieces off the dough and roll them into little balls.  You might find it easier (and less sticky) to do this if you put a tiny bit of butter on your hands first.

7.  Roll the balls in the sprinkles so they are covered all over.

8.  You can serve them in mini paper cases, or on a pretty plate... if you can resist them that long!

Enjoy your day!

Best wishes

Mrs Vaqueiro

Tuesday 23rd June

Good morning everyone!

I hope you are all well and enjoyed making a start on this week's suggested home learning.  Did you find out anything new about the Amazon Rainforest?

The rainforest jungle served as inspiration for a famous French artist, Henri Rousseau.  Although he never actually visited the rainforest in person, he visited the botanical gardens in Paris and used the plants he saw there in his very vibrant paintings.  He also included a huge variety of colourful and exotic animals and birds in his work.

I've put a Powerpoint presentation all about Rousseau in this week's folder of suggested activities - perhaps you could have a go at creating your own artwork in the same style?

Have fun today, and enjoy the sunshine as much as you can!

Best wishes

Mrs Vaqueiro