Summer
Forest School - Pizza!
This week, we made pizza using pitta breads with a variety of toppings. We used our DIY handwasher to ensure our hands were clean before safely chopping and creating our pizzas. They cooked well on the fire and we even had a surprise hot chocolate at the end!
Science - Forces
This week, we were looking at resistance and how different surfaces affect this. Rough, bumpy surfaces meant that the car did not travel far compared to smoother surfaces.
Forest School
This week, we did some more sawing, learnt how to axe wooden discs safely and made peppermint tea. Cheers!
Trip to Wakehurst Place
This week, Year 3 visited Wakehurst Place, a botanical garden linked with Kew Gardens. We linked the trip with our topic on plants and rainforests. We first looked at different rainforest plants, thinking about how they are adapted to survive, where they grow and what uses they have.
Then we walked around the gardens, identifying plants that are growing here that could also grow in the rainforest. Some plants had giant leaves for catching sunlight, whilst others used trees to climb up.
We finished the day by using natural materials to invent a new plant, animal or 'thing' you could find in the rainforest. We had different birds, a bug hotel and even a bug theme park!
Forest School
This week, we learnt how to saw pieces of wood safely! One group was taught by an adult, then that group went on to teach another group, who then taught the next group and so on. Forest School is a great way to have children take responsibility.
Forest School
We made bow and arrows using the abundance of willow that we have in our Forest School area. It was lovely to see children supporting each other with the making and the correct holding position for firing.
Bows and Arrows
Forest School
Year 3 had another great time at Forest School, and improved their fire making skills. We collected all the sticks and arranged them in a way to allow air to circulate through the wood, but ensure heat was contained to help the fire get going. It took a long time, but a particularly well placed spark from Max got the fire roaring. We also had some sewing going on, making little pouches to hold our dragon sneezers. Some were decorated with leaf imprints too. And Phoebe made her very own bug hotel.
Forest School
This week, Year 3 started Forest School! Over the coming weeks, we will be learning many new skills linked to fire making, woodworking, cooking and more, whilst also thinking about sustainability. This week, as well as working as a team, we learnt how to safely create a spark to build up a fire. Afterwards, we played a game called 'What's my tree?' whereby a blindfolded person was led to a tree, had to feel/learn it, and later had to find it when the blindfold was taken off.
We finished the session by taking it in turns to exstinguish the fire and saying one thing we were grateful for in the session.
Plants: Stems
This week, we looked at the function of the stem/trunk in a plant. As well as holding the plant/tree upright, we are told that it also carries water around the plant through small tubes. To see if this is true, we put dye into water to see if it would be carried around the plant via the stem. Here are the results, proving that water is carried around the plant via the stem.
Plants: Roots
Year 3 are learning about plants and this lesson focussed on the function of roots. We learnt that they anchor the plant into place, and root hairs absorb water and nutrients in the soil. We loved using the handheld microscopes to see these root hairs.
What makes Brazil Distinctive? Rivers!
To finish our learning on Brazil, we looked at how the rivers are used in Brazil as a means to create power for the country. Many hydroelectric dams have been built or are soon to be built to provide electricity for the people living in the country. Brazil imports more energy than it exports, so dams are a good way to create their own energy. However, dams are not very good for the environment in that it can cause flooding and stop marine life from reaching their usual breeding spots. We recreated a dam to show what could happen in heavy rainfalls when water is not flowing through the dam. It flooded!
