Wakehurst Place

As part of our learning about the rainforest and plants, we visited the botanical garden, Wakehurst Place. We had a workshop learning about the different resources, foods and spices that come from the rainforest and had a walk around the gardens to see how plants have adapted to suit their surroundings. We finished the day by 'discovering' a new rainforest plant and using natural resources to create a picture of this. Groups had to present their findings and tell us how the plant is suited to the rainforest and how seeds are dispersed. 

We had a great day! 

Forest School

Year 3 had a blast this week at Forest School. The weather was beautiful and we made the most of it. We worked together to build a fire which was later used for our cooking. An interesting idea - bake a cake inside an orange! Groups worked together to create cake batter, then scooped out the inside of the orange (made a nice orange juice too!). The batter went inside the orange, onto the fire in foil, and voila! Everyone loved them! 

We also crafted different things from bows and arrows to broomsticks! We also did some sawing. 

Art Exhibition

In a few weeks is our school art exhibition! We used our previous learning about Henri Rousseau to create paintings based on his work. 

Science - Roots

We looked at the parts of the plant with a focus on the roots. They anchor the plant and take water and nutrients up from the soil.

Geography - Dams

We looked at what dams are built for in the Amazon Rainforest (hydroelectricity) and how this impacts the environment and people living there. Whilst parts of the forest are meant to flood, dams cause flooding in areas not suited to flooding. Dams also stop certain species from travelling to other areas. However, it does provide electricity for many people. There are pros and cons! 

Geography - Palm oil and soya

In geography, we have continued to look at the causes of deforestation, with farming being a main issue. As well as cattle farming, cutting down trees to make room for palm and soy farms is the main cause of deforestation today. Palm oil and soya are used in many of our day to day products, from shampoo to chocolate and animal feed. We looked at the ingredients of different foods to see if it contained these products. 

We then thought about why this is happening, with the answer being demand. Countries want these products and the countries growing this need money, so trade happens. 

Art - Watercolour

This term, we are looking at watercolours and the ways we can use it to create different effects. We looked at the 'wet-on-wet' technique whereby we put some water on the page first so the paint would bleed out onto the page or into other colours.