New year, new topic!
Happy New Year! We hope you had a great break from school and are feeling refreshed.
With a new year, comes a new term and a new topic. This half term, we are being geographers and learning about natural disasters, specifically volcanoes.
This week, we’ve learnt about what’s under the Earth’s crust…
The inner core is made from a mixture of solid metals (nickel and iron). It’s the hottest part of the Earth at around 6100 degrees Celsius!
The crust is the thinnest layer and is where the Earth’s tectonic plates are. These plates move underneath the Earth’s surface and cause natural disasters like volcanic eruptions.
Help at home: Research the location of different volcanoes around the world! Where are they most common? Is there a pattern to where they are? Your child can share their findings during our geography lessons!
Royal Ballet and Opera School Set Design
Today, Year 3 joined a live lesson to learn more about how someone set designs for the Royal Ballet and Opera’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Visit this link to see more about this production: https://www.rbo.org.uk/tickets-and-events/alices-adventures-in-wonderland-details
We listened to how a set designer starts with their drawings to building a prototype to their final sets.
A part of the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland set is the trees. We had a go at creating our own prototype trees using different materials.
It was quite tricky to create the cone shape but once we did, we tried to add texture to make it look realistic. Here’s some of our final trees… 
Help at home: You can join another of their live lessons at home too! Visit this link here…https://www.rbo.org.uk/schools/teacher-training/live-lessons
Topic – Art
Our Art Topic has been made up of two parts: art history and art skills.
Our art skills learning is building up to creating a collage inspired by the architecture we’ve been exploring. We’ve been looking at buildings by our chosen architects: Zaha Hadid and Christopher Wren.
To create our collages, we’re using lots of different skills…
- tracing
- observational drawing
- collage
and media…
- carbon paper
- different background materials
- pencils, pens
The media might be different colours like primary, secondary or complementary colours! 
We’re using a lot of line and shape when creating our art. We also might use shade to show darkness and shadows.
Help at home by spotting what shapes you can see on or as part of the architecture you see!
How to write a set of instructions
Year 3 have planned, written and edited their writing this week – a set of instructions.
A set of instructions tells the reader how to do something.
They had the freedom to choose what they wanted to write their instructions for:
- How to spend a day without technology
- How to fly a magic carpet
- How to control a giant robot
- How to survive a day at sea
We needed to include bossy (imperative) verbs, time connectives and adverbs to help give detail the reader.
We also acted out each scenario to see what we might need and to generate ideas!
Here’s some of our writing.
Help at home: Can you spot the verbs, time connectives and adverbs?
Infant agility
This week, all of the class have enjoyed taking part in the infant agility event as part of our involvement in the Leeds Well Schools Partnership.
The event was designed around a set of twelve activities and the children rotated around these activities led by young leaders, that support the core physical skills of coordination and agility, core stability, spatial awareness and more.
I enjoyed the bowling activity the best because we used footballs.
I liked the sliding bowling activity because we used different balls and it was really fun.
I liked the jumping activity because I like jumping.
I liked the javelin activity because we threw the ball and javelin really high.
I liked everything because it keeps you nice and fit.
I liked the balancing activity because I was trying hard to keep my balance.
Living and Learning: odd socks day
On Tuesday this week it was Odd Socks Day! This was all in order to celebrate our differences and uniqueness. It was also part of Anti-Bullying Week. We spoke about how we use the acronym STOP at Moortown Primary School to help understand what bullying is as well as how to stop it.
We talked who we could tell if we saw or experienced bullying in order to make it stop. We knew lots of people we could tell and I was very impressed by the children’s knowledge, kindness and maturity.
Me and my community week!
This week has been all about me and my community!
We have been learning about what a community is and what communities we are a part of.
A community is a group of people who have things in common. This might be similar interests, neighbourhoods or religions. Communities help us to make new friends, learn new things and share ideas.
We’ve had some visitors to help us learn about different communities.
The Visually Impaired community talked about how people with visual impairments experience life and what we can do to help them.
Grandad’s Wheels came in to talk to us about a community that have spinal injuries or who need wheelchairs. He has written books about him and his grandson to help raise money for those who need it. We designed him a new, out of this world wheelchair! Have a look at what we did…
We also learnt how to support people who are deaf and how we can use British Sign Language to communicate.
We’ve also learnt about identities and what makes up our identity. This can include our interests and families. Everyone’s family and identity is different and that makes us special!
We finished of the week with ‘Identity Day’ where we dressed up in clothes that represent us or part of our identity. This could be a club we go to, a religion or a culture.
We linked our identities to our British Values and Protected Characteristics. To ensure that everyone is feeling happy and healthy, we must be respectful and kind to others.
Help at home by listing how many communities you and your family are a part of. What do you have in common with the people in your communities? How are you different to others in your communities?
Identity Day
Today, we came to school dressed as something that represents our identity.
Hidayah said, “I’m wearing a jubbah and scarf. I wear it to mosque.”
Ava explained, “I’m wearing my netball kit because it’s a hobby of mine.”
Grace said, “I’m wearing a Chinese dress because it represents my community and reminds me of my grandma who lives in China.”
Will shared, “I’m wearing my football kit from my team. I’ve played for them for two or three years now.”
Aryan beamed, “I’m wearing Bellingham’s name on my kit because football is like my home.”
Raheem explained, “I have a different type of jubbah and also my football kit because I go there every week!”
Summer said: “I’m wearing my cubs outfit and it’s important to me because we learn new skills.”
Vivienne shared, “I’m wearing my dance skills because it’s my hobby. It’s active and helps with your muscle memory.”
Performance Poetry
This week, we’re reading this poem by Nick Toczek – a Yorkshire born poet.
We watched Nick Toczek perform it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zxwqtfr/watch/z7w42hv
We had a think about what made his performance so good! These are the R2s (remember to) that we took from him:
- read with prosody
- add actions
- change tone of voice
- change volume of voice
- involve the audience
- well-rehearsed
We then used these R2s to do our performances! We worked in small groups to add actions, rehearse and practise reading with prosody. The performances were fantastic with some even memorising the words after 20 minutes!
Help at home by reading this poem at home and performing to each other! Can you use all the R2s?
It’s nearly time to elect our new junior leaders
We have recently launched this year’s Junior Leadership Team election process. Our Junior Leadership Team is one of the ways that children are encouraged to take an active part in pupil voice.
The election process allows children to develop an understanding of one of the British Values, democracy, with two representatives from each class, chosen democratically by their peers.
Here are some of the qualities our junior leaders think are needed to be an effective JLT member.
- use the 8Rs for learning
- be respectful and polite
- help others
- be a good speaker and listener (to members of your class and in the meetings)
- share and be confident with your ideas
- let others speak
- accept the views of others even if you don’t agree
- be friendly and approachable
- follow our school rules and make good choices in class and around school
This weeks’ whole school homework is all about the election and democracy, ready for the elections on Thursday 24 October. For children who want to stand in the election, they will have the chance to share their speeches in class on Wednesday or Thursday this week.
Well done to all our current junior leaders who have represented their class so well this year. Remember, you can stand again in the election.