Author: Mr Wain

Muffling Sound!

In our science lessons this half term, we have been learning all about sound.

Last week, we learnt about how sound travels in waves and that it has to travel through a medium to reach our ears.

Most recently, we have been learning about which materials muffle (make quieter) sound the best – these are called sound insulators.

Here are some pictures of us muffling the sound of a buzzer using different materials such as foil, cloth and a plastic box.

After we had observed what happened when we muffled the buzzer with the different materials, we measured the number of decibels the buzzer produced before and after we muffled it.

We recorded these using the Numbers app and then made our own bar charts to show the data.

Ask your child if they can remember which material was the best sound insulator and why!

As an added challenge for your child, see if they can remember what medium and sound source mean!

Living and Learning

During the last 3 weeks of term, in our Living and Learning sessions, we have been learning about relationships.

Recently, in Y3, we talked about the different relationships we have with our family and friends. We also discussed the stages of life that our family and ourselves are at, ranging from babies, children, teenagers, adults to elders.

Here are some pictures of the Y3s drawing the people in their family and labelling what stage of life they are in.

27 November 2020

This week, we’re focussing on the spelling rule: change y to i.

When adding suffixes such as ed, er and est to words that end in y, we normally change the y to an i then add our suffix.

However, If the suffix we are adding is ing, we don’t normally change the y – we keep it. For example the word party would become partying Practise by adding any of the above suffixes to the root words below – some will work, some won’t.

E.g. for cry, you will want to practise cried, crier, crying and adding est doesn’t work.

For busy, you’ll have busied, busier, busiest and busying.

busy creepy library ordinary worry
century marry naughty carry cry

27 November 2020

This week, the whole school has the same Practise Makes Perfect homework which children should be ready to discuss as part of our homework review on Friday 27th November.

I know the key vocabulary from our history topic.

This homework is a response to our ongoing learning in History.

Throughout the half term, Y3 and Y4  have been learning all about Ancient Greece. Within this learning, we have been exploring some relevant vocabulary, too.

For your homework, we’d like you to learn the different vocabulary. You may know some, all or none of the meanings of the words already.

The pieces are vocabulary are: oligarchy, empire, bias, government, democracy, chronology, influence, legacy, citizen.

The definitions are below.

There are lots of fun ways you can learn our vocabulary and help remember what each word means:
– Draw it – draw a picture to go with each word
– Flash cards – make a set of flashcards that have each word on
– Actions – you could create some actions to go with each word
– Sentences – can you make a sentence containing a word?
– Songs/rhymes – can you make these to help your remembering?

chronology empire democracy
Arranging events in the order in which they happened. A vast group of countries or states controlled by a single ruler. A government where all citizens have a say in how the place they live is run or governed.
government legacy bias
The group of people who run or govern a place. Something that is handed down or left by a person or thing. A preference for  something based on personal opinion rather than facts.
influence citizen oligarchy
Having an effect or power on someone or something. An inhabitant of a particular place. A government that is ruled by a small group of powerful and often rich people.

 

Times Tables:

Your child’s login details for Times Table Rock Stars is stuck into their homework books. Please login to both TTRS and Numbots and practise regularly.

Also, a huge well done to Y3 and Y4 who won their respective Times Table Rock Stars battles with Y5 and Y6! Amazing work! Keep it up!

Times Table Rock Stars!

Watch this video below to see the progress that Y3 have made with their times tables from when they were in Y2 back in January.

The lighter the colour of the box, the faster that particular times table fact has been answered. A white box indicates a times table that has not been attempted at that time.

There has been some amazing improvement in Y3 and we must keep going to get even better!

Now you’ve watched it, click at the start and then at the end to quickly see their entire progress!

Synonyms and Antonyms!

This week in Y3, we have been up-levelling our vocabulary using synonyms of words we commonly use to describe things.

We also found antonyms for these words, too.

As we’re preparing to write a setting description, the children made a bank of all the best, and relevant, pieces of vocabulary they found.

Here it is:

We used the iPads and thesauruses in order to up-level our vocab. The original words are displayed at the top with the synonyms below.

Ask your child if they can tell you what synonyms and antonyms are!

Times Tables Rock Stars/NumBots

As you all know, Times Tables Rock Stars is an app and website that we use in school to quicken the recall of tables facts.

Here in Y3, we have been using this app on a regular basis and there has been progress in our recalling speed of our table facts.

This post is simply a reminder that it’s something that you can use at home, too. If you have any questions, send me an email and I am more than happy to help.

Each game is short so you don’t need lots of time – ten minutes each day would be ideal.

Regular practise has shown great progress with children’s times tables.

We also know that our times tables open up the door to many other areas of maths.

We’ve just signed up to Numbots, too. Perhaps more suited to younger children or children who need a bit of extra support with the basics, this is a great app and website for practising addition and subtraction facts. Your child can use it at home too – they login using the same details they use for Times Tables Rock Stars. There are 15 different games, each with a different focus. Topics covered include doubles and number bonds to 10, 20 and 100.

Thanks for all your support so far this year and as always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, send me an email: oliwain@spherefederation.org

Living and Learning

Our Living and Learning statement this week is:

In Y3, we have been reflecting on this statement all week.

For our homework, we talked about and wrote down some of the things that make us special.

We also enjoyed an assembly about how we are all the same and different. The children in Y3 had lots to share about this statement – it was great!

I’m looking forward to our L&L session on Friday where we will revisit working cooperatively and remind ourselves to do this all the time!

If you haven’t done so already, ask your child what makes them the same and different!

Reading as Historians!

Continuing our Ancient Greece learning, we have been looking at the Golden Age – this was between c. 500-300 BC.

Here are some pictures of us ordering key events from Ancient Greece’s history chronologically. 

Ask your child what chronology means!

 

For us to be able to do this, we had to carefully read the different events throughout Greece’s history and match them up with the correct dates.

Keep up the hard work, Y3!