Etz Chaim Jewish Primary School

Year 3

In PE, the children have had lots of exciting lessons, workshops and events. This term the children have learnt about Athletics, continued to practise ball skills and games, participated in Sports Day and have had a martial art, cricket and gymnastics workshop.

During the first half of the Summer term, the children learnt about plants. They went to our school garden area and in groups gathered samples of soil. Back in the classroom the children set up an experiment to test how easily water passed through the soil.

After reading the class book UG and discussing the cave symbols in the book, the children researched more historically accurate cave symbols. The children tried copying some of these and then chose a few symbols to sequence to make their own communication.

The children learnt about different rocks and their properties. They hypothesised about the water absorbancy and hardness of rocks and then conducted an investigation to test this on a range of rocks.

In Computing, the children worked collaboratively to research internet safety. They then created posters to share with the school to help keep everyone safe online. 

Year 3 started their Heads Up Kids sessions. So far, the children created a spiderweb using string to explore how we are all connected to each other, discussed a range of emotion vocabulary which they placed on a thermometer and learnt how to surf the friendship wave. 

In Maths, the children explored addition and subtraction and have been practising their reasoning skills.

In PSHE, the children discussed issues that are important to them. They looked at the British Values and debated these.

In Science, the children explored plaque and the impact that it can have on their teeth. They experimented with the foods that cause the most decay and the importance of brushing their teeth properly.

This term, the children have explored their Maths topics through a range of hands-on, practical activities. They enjoyed exploring mathematical concepts both inside and outside the classroom.

In our topic Active Planet, the children read the book 'The Pebble In My Pocket'. They worked in groups to create freeze frames of a given time period from the book. They took on the role of the creates and objects on teh page and thought about what time period they would like to travel to and why. 

In Maths, the children learnt about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. They played lots of fun mystery shape games and then worked in small groups to construct their own 3D shapes using a wide range of resources.

The children had an opportunity to share kookaburra, one of the songs the children learnt during their Ukelele lessons, with the rest of the school during the Music Concert.

Year 3 learnt about how different types of fossils are formed. The children then made either replica cast or imprint fossils using dinosaurs and clay.

In Science, the children explored light and sound. The children went on a sound walk around the playground and recorded the sounds that they could hear. Then then worked with their group to try to figure out what vibrations were causing the sounds that they could hear. 

In Maths, the children used a range of manipulatives and games to consolidate their multiplication, division and fractions learning. They even made their own games to play with each other!

In Art, the class practised observational drawing, shading and expressing themselves through colours and shapes. They have explored mixing primary colours, different ways of using a paint brush and shading. 

In Year 3, the children studied the human skeleton and digestive system. They created their own skeletons using cotton buds and took part in an exciting workshop about digestion.

In Computing, Year 3 explored Scratch. They learnt about algorithms, coding and debugging. 

The children explored Andy Warhol’s pop art style and produced fantastic pop art inspired portraits.

In PE, the children have been working collaboratively to explore basic gymnastic movements and began to explore sequencing movements.

In Design and Technology, the children have been doing lots of baking and practised their chopping skills. In this lesson, the children prepared the cake mixture for their Jubilee celebration cake. They later decorated their cake with white icing and blue and red sprinkles

During our Active Planet learning the children learnt about earthquakes. As a part of our Tohoku (2011) case study the children became reporters and entered an imaginary time portal to the earthquake. They gathered the answers to the five w's and used this information to write their lead paragraphs.  They then worked in groups to research further information for the rest of their newspaper articles.

The Spring 2 topic was Scavengers and Settlers, with a focus on the Stone Age. Following on from doing their own research into cave symbols, the children made their own caves using papier-mâché and painted their symbols onto the inside of their caves.

In preparation for Book Week, the children learnt a poem of their choice by Joshua Seigal. They then eagerly performed these to the Reception children.

The children worked hard on their Design and Technology project. They worked on their designs and then brought these to life by using tie dye and various sewing techniques. 

The children explored the value of coins and notes. 

Over Chanukah, the children worked with clay to construct their own Chanukiah, which they then painted, ready to use for the first night.

During Succot, the children built Succahs out of Lego and celebrated the festival as a Kehillah. They visited the school Succah and participated in fun activities alongside other year groups.

For National Wellbeing Day, the children participated in a variety of mindfulness activities, including singing, deep breathing exercises and mindfulness colouring.