In English we have been using freeze framing to infer different character’s thoughts and feelings from How to Train your Dragon. The children were fantastic at acting out the 4 key scenes – they really thought about the character’s emotions and what their facial expressions and gestures would be. We are using this to write a diary from the perspective of Hiccup and Toothless. Super acting Chestnuts!
Chestnuts have been using their Science knowledge in D.T. to design and make light-up Christmas cards. We came up with a design criteria for our Christmas cards (including having a Christmas theme, writing Merry Christmas and including the colour red) and discussed how we could make the card light up. We used copper tape for the wire in our circuits and followed a template. The folding was tricky!! We then attached a battery for our power source and an led bulb for the light. All of the children knew that the light would only work if there was a complete circuit with no breaks. The cards were beautiful and they all lit up! Well done Chestnuts!
In Design Technology and to link with our History topic of Ancient Egypt, we have designed and made pyramids using art straws. We planned our designs first by deciding how we would approach the task and thought about how we could make the structure stronger (for example bending instead of cutting straws and using double straws). We also thought about how the pyramids could keep their shape – adding in crosses and extra straws to add strength. Chestnuts then had the opportunity to make their designs. They adapted the structures as they made them and showed real resilience in attaching the straws together. We finally evaluated our designs and thought about ways we could improve them next time.
This half term, Chestnuts have been learning all about the importance of the digestive system in humans and our teeth. We decided to find out which drinks would cause the most tooth decay. We conducted an investigation by using hard boiled eggs in different liquids and we observed how they changed. We were surprised to find orange juice caused a lot of damage to the egg and we thought this may be because of the acid in it as well as the natural sugars. Water and milk were the best liquids we investigated.
As well as working hard academically, Chestnuts have also enjoyed being outdoors. They’ve been exploring lots of different places such as the beach, Hadrian’s wall and Jesmond Dene. On VE Day, Chestnuts enjoyed their own celebrations and afternoon teas. Some of them have even been litter picking, camping in the garden, fishing, seeing the 4:30am sunrise and strawberry picking. Well done Chestnuts!
Chestnuts have been working incredibly hard at home since lock down started back in March. They have been working through their work packs, creating some amazing art work, bringing their learning to life by planting and studying plants, researching their own projects and learning some life skills such as baking. They have been absolute stars.
As part of our Volcanoes and Earthquakes Geography topic the children spent the afternoon working in pairs to paint their paper mache volcanoes. They studied photographs of real life volcanoes and used their knowledge of the subject and their Art skills to paint their own volcanoes.
As part of our Geography topic ‘What makes the Earth angry?’ we invited our families in for an afternoon of D.T. We made volcanoes by attaching masking tape to half a bottle and base; making the volcano shape. We then used paper mache to cover the structure and build up the crater. Year 3 had a brilliant afternoon! We then finished off our afternoon by solving a range of Maths problem solving activities. We can’t wait to paint then explode our volcanoes.
