Year 3 Friday 12th March 2021 “It’s time to be happy again!”

It was absolutely wonderful to welcome all of the children back to school again on Monday and we have had a lovely week being a whole class again. There has been lots of chatter and smiles but lots of work done too. It has been super to see how all of the children have grown, not only in height but in their learning too.

The children have been amazing at remembering the routines that we have in place and taking care to look after each other. They have also delighted us with their “I can..” attitudes and their enthusiasm. We know that with positivity like they have demonstrated this week, the rest of the term and year will be a great success. Well done children, we are so proud of you all.

We have been busy all week with our learning and have shared feelings about lockdown, celebrated how much the children have grown and learned during lockdown, continued to learn how to multiply and divide in maths, been writing our own adventure stories, started our science topic of magnets, practised our tables, spelling and handwriting, enjoyed PE lessons, worshiped together, looked at the virtues of love and compassion and thought about how we can demonstrate these, discovered more about the Arctic, been creative in art, enjoyed our massage and music lesson, done loads and loads of reading and taken a new Star reading quiz and loved just being back together again. We are happy again!!!

Let’s Celebrate:

Christian, Lily-Mae and Daisy have reached 100% of their reading targets this week. Well done - What stars you are! Keep up the good work children.

This week we are celebrating Anncia, Lily-Mae and Alex. Alex you have been so enthusiastic this week and really wanted to get involved with all of your learning. It has been lovely to see your smile and excitement at seeing all of your friends too. Keep up the good work Alex. Anncia you receive a Sadie Spider certificate because you are so enthusiastic and such a Sadie Spider. You keep on trying and trying and trying and not giving up, because of this you are learning so much. Well done. Lily Mae you receive a Lizzie Ladybird certificate because you keep trying and want to keep improving with your learning. You have also been such an enthusiastic Bobby Bee too. Keep up this wonderful work Lily-Mae.

Things to Note:

· Mrs Curtis has asked that the children all have an art shirt (adult sized t.shirt to go over their school uniform) for art lessons on Mondays. These will stay in school until summer. Thank you. 

ALL children will now be doing art on Mondays.

• PE days have changed for some of the children too. Please see the lists below for the new grouping for outdoor PE (tracksuits and trainers needed please). All children will continue to have indoor PE on Friday (shorts needed please).

Monday PE lessons: Angel, Alexander, Betsy, Charlie, Evan, Franek, Francesca, Leo, Leon, Matilda, Max, Millie, Nicola and Owen.

Tuesday PE lessons: Alex, Anncia, Christian, Connor Sean, Daisy, Edi, Georgia, Harvey, Iris, Jay, Lily-Mae, Molly-Ann, Ruby Lilly, Rosa, Stanley and Tabby.

• Please make sure that the children have their PE kits on both of their PE days. Just a reminder that ear-rings can NOT be worn for PE. Also, if ear rings are worn in school they must be small, simple stud ear rings - for safety reasons.

•  Children complete lunchtime PE activities with Mr. Nay on Tuesdays and Thursdays—some children may find it easier if they change into their trainers for the lunchtime session.

• The children have come home with World Book Day vouchers today.  Storyellers Inc are putting on a stall outside the shop on Saturdays 10-2 during March, so that children can redeem their vouchers.

• Please look on the button below to see the letter from Fr Peter and Miss Hornby about this year’s Reconciliation and Holy Communion programme. Thank you

We would like to thank you all for your continued support.

Have a lovely weekend and Happy Mothers’ Day to all of our mums.

Take care and stay safe,

The Year 3 Team     

Miss Brisco, Miss Edmondson and Miss Woodrow

Contact us at:

l.brisco@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

k.edmondson@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

This week.... sinking and floating

The children have loved working scientifically and finding out through first hand experiences; the nursery ladies have too! It has been VERY exciting.

This week we have been exploring sinking and floating. Click on the button to look at our plans for the week.

We began our experiments by watching and listening to a song.. Click here to listen. We even learnt a new word buoyant! We like finding new words. Everyone then set off around nursery to find an object that we could put in a large water trough. Before we could test out object we had to predict what we thought would happen. Needless to say there were some surprises. Look at our photos; we loved experimenting!

As you can see some of the children went on to build boats from boxes others used a boat building construction set to test if their boats would be able to carry people and not sink! That was tricky!

Towards the end of the week we watched another video to see if we would be able to predict what would happen; we had learnt so much! Click here to watch!

Here’s another video to watch in case it’s raining at the weekend, we haven’t had time to watch it at nursery; we’ve been so busy! Click here.

Later in the week we had a visitor come to nursery. Can you guess who it was? Yes, it was the Gruffalo! Of course we had to read the story!

The children over the past couple of weeks have been making special surprises for Mothering Sunday. I’m not sure if they have kept the surprise secret, but here just a few photos anyway. I do hope all our mums have the most wonderful restful day.

Next week we will be having a number a phonics week so watch out for things to do on Purple Mash! I’ve pinned lots of things on the Mini Mash site.

Finally, I have a huge favour to ask. If anyone has any nursery clothing at home, especially underwear could you please return them. Also, if you have any clothing that you no longer use donations would be gratefully received. Our stocks of clothing are very much depleted.

I’m not sure about the weather forecast for the weekend but I hope everyone manages to have some time together as a family, and…..

Year 4 blog: 'Kindness creates a special sweetness in your mind and a super softness in your soul.'

What a memorable experience! Seeing children come together with such joy, laughing and playing together with such total exuberance this week! After the initial and understandable nerves of Monday morning the children have settled down so beautifully and with a new kind of confidence. Their focus and thirst for learning this week - their first week back has left me in awe!

We started the week by reconnecting and discussed our hopes for the rest of year 4. We made Adonis Blues butterflies to remember our beautiful lockdown story - ‘The Butterfly Lion,’ and to represent our eagerness to fly in Year 4! One boy said that when he thinks of love he thinks of this story because of how kind and supportive the lead character was.

In our relationships education, we thought about growing to become more loving and compassionate. Children read the story, Be loving Layla Lioness,’ and then we brainstormed what compassion truly is. They made hearts with messages of compassion which are now on our classroom wall. ‘See the world through the eyes of others, ‘Don’t judge because you never know what someone else is going through,’ and ‘Love never fails,’ were some of the inspirational messages they came up with. They have really been practising compassion with each other this week - what a lovely, kind class they are.

We have laughed along with our Brer Rabbit stories and reflected on the cleverness or foolishness of different characters. We have found out about the layers of the earth in Geography and then made an eatable model of it with a Malteser, (core) some red icing (mantle) and biscuit crumbs for the crust. Apparently the earth is delicious! After erupting our class volcano we then wrote some stunning explanation texts about how volcanoes erupt. Add to this recorder playing, gymnastics, Art and the children getting very excited about Fractions in maths - its like we never left!

Let’s celebrate!

We have a winner!

Great news! Amber has won the Lancashire school library service’s AMAZING CONFECTIONARY competition for the whole of Lancashire! Children needed to invent some form of sweet treat for a book character. Have a look at her entry below - so creative!

She has won a lovely bundle of books for our school.

Christian has already met his reading target! Wow! All that lovely lockdown reading has served you well!

Saul and Harriet were our recorder stars this week - very focused and deserved you two!

PE stars were very hard to choose. This week Lexi and Jack just pipped others - excellent effort you two!

Certificates of the week:

A Sadie Spider certificate went to Thomas for super determination in all subjects and being so hard-working. Two Bobby Bee certificates go to Evie and Julia who are showing a new level of self-belief and confidence which is allowing them to soar!

Notices

Homework will be given again now and is on the ‘Weekly Home Learning’ part of the Year 4 page. Please ensure it is handed in promptly on Thursdays and any online homework is completed by then too. Homework will mainly back up skills in maths and English learned in class that week - so is vital to complete.

Have a lovely weekend and I look forward to seeing your lovely lot on Monday.

God bless,

Mrs Lyons, Mrs Mather and Miss Forster.

Year 4 homework to be completed by Thursday 18th March

English - Spelling.

We are having a little block of spelling lessons all about homophones. These are words which sound the same but have a different spelling - eg main/mane here/hear

This week, children have:

1) A sheet labelled ‘Mark the teacher’ where they need to correct the ones that are wrong.

2) They then need to write a paragraph in their homework books, using the homophones on the sheet that we have focused on this week.

3) Finally, they need to complete the 2 spelling quizzes set on Purple Mash. These are Year 2 quizzes to revise our knowledge.

Maths - Fractions

We have worked really hard at recognising fractions this week.

1) Please compete YEAR 3 IXL units W5 W7 and W15. If you wish to do more from the W section of Year 3 please do! It is good for you!

2) Also we are trying hard to pick up our speed on TTRockstars. Please practise the tables I have set for you this week. Aim to do as many short sessions on it as you can.

Homework books are due in next Thursday. Please write down that you have completed the units set on computer/i-pad.

Mrs Hotchkiss' lessons from home - week beginning 8th March

LESSONS FOR TUESDAY 9TH MARCH

Tuesday 9th March Maths - mental division dividing multiplies of ten

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Tuesday 9th March Science! Are you ready to quiz?

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LESSONS FOR WEDNESDAY 10th MARCH

Maths Wednesday 10th Mental division continued:

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Wednesday 10th March - THE CENSUS - RHE/HISTORY

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LESSONS FOR THURSDAY 11th MARCH

Maths lesson Thursday 11th March

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Thursday 11th March RHE The Census Lesson 2

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LESSONS FRIDAY 12th MARCH

Half class Maths instructions

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Year 3 Friday 5th March 2021 “If you want others to be happy, practise compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion.” Dalai Lama

We have made it safely to the end of another week and the children have continued to work hard and grow their brains despite the continuing global pandemic. We are so excited to be welcoming all of the children back together again next week and we know that they will be both excited and a little nervous to be back in school on Monday. We know that this time has not been easy for anyone and we would just like to say a huge “thank you” to everyone for all of your support and dedication during the last couple of months. We really could not have managed without everything that you have done to help the children with their learning. We have loved receiving all of the photos, emails and the children’s work on Purple Mash and we know that when we are all back together again in school the children will continue to fly.

Next week is dedicated to welcoming the children back together again and to ensuring that they have time to reconnect with their friends and settle back into the school routine. We will be following the Jesuit virtues of Love and Compassion over the coming weeks and the children will be thinking of how they can show both of these to the people that they meet. This will also help us to grow in our relationship with Jesus as we begin our preparations for the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Holy Communion. (See below for more details)

Throughout the week we will be reminding the children of all of the procedures that we will need to follow in school to keep everyone safe and making sure that we follow these and embed them into our routine again. Please make sure that you have read the very important parental and children’s advice which can be found on the main school blog and discussed this with your child. Please look at the guidance and information on the ‘Keeping Safe’ part of our website under ‘Discover’.

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Let’s Celebrate:

Rosa and Franek have reached 100% of their reading targets this week. Well done - What stars you are! Your birds are up and I have reset your targets. Keep up the good work. Looking at everyone’s target scores, I know that there will be a few more children who will reach theirs soon. Keep reading everyone, well done.

This week we are celebrating everyone.

Children you receive the certificate because we are so impressed with all of you and how much work you have been doing during these Lockdown weeks. Parents you receive the certificate because we are so grateful for all of the work that you have been doing with your children at home, as well as doing everything else that you have been juggling too. You are amazing and we just wanted to show you how much you really are appreciated. So well done everyone. Click on the buttons below to see the certificates.

We hope that you enjoy all of the photos from this week’s learning. Thank you for sending them. We have loved seeing them all. We hope that you enjoy them too.

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Year 3 Friday 5th March 2021

Things to Note:

• Mrs Curtis has said that the children will all need an art shirt (adult sized t.shirt to go over their school uniform) for art lessons from Monday. These will stay in school until summer. Thank you. 

ALL children will now be doing art on Mondays.

• PE days are changing too for some. Please see the lists below for the new grouping for outdoor PE. All children will continue to have indoor PE on Friday.

Monday PE lessons: Angel, Alexander, Betsy, Charlie, Evan, Franek, Francesca, Leo, Leon, Matilda, Max, Millie, Nicola and Owen.

Tuesday PE lessons: Alex, Anncia, Christian, Connor Sean, Daisy, Edi, Georgia, Harvey, Iris, Jay, Lily-Mae, Molly-Ann, Ruby Lilly, Rosa, Stanley and Tabby.

• Please make sure that the children have their PE kits on both PE days. Shorts are needed for Friday indoor PE lessons. Trainers must be worn for outdoor PE please. Just a reminder that ear-rings can NOT be worn for PE. Also, if ear rings are worn in school they must be small, simple stud ear rings - for safety reasons.

• Please look on the button below to see the letter from Fr Peter and Miss Hornby about this year’s Reconciliation and Holy Communion programme. Thank you

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We would like to say another big “thank you” for all of your support and co-operation during the week and throughout the lockdown period. We really do appreciate all that you have done to help the children with their learning and all of your lovely photos and emails that you have sent to us. You have been truly amazing. Thank you.

We look forward to seeing all of the children again on Monday and also to seeing you at the end of the day.

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Take care and stay safe,

The Year 3 Team     

Miss Brisco, Miss Edmondson and Miss Woodrow

Contact us at:

l.brisco@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

k.edmondson@ourladystarofthesea.lancs.sch.uk

This week...all about magnets

We started out investigation of magnets on Monday by watching a short video about ‘Magnet Man’. He wore powerful magnets on his hands and feet and could climb tall buildings and towers! Mmmm… we wondered why he didn’t fall off. The children thought it would be a fabulous Idea to put magnets on Colette’s hands and feet to see if she could walk up the wall!! Guess what we found out, she couldn’t, but why?

Click here to watch Magnet Man.

The children all took a magnet and went to find out what the magnets would stick to. They discovered magnets only stuck to metal, but not all metal. We made a list of everything we could find that the magnets stuck to. Look at our photos below!

We found out that the magnets stuck to iron objects. Sometimes iron is mixed with other metals to make steel, therefore steel also sticks to a magnet. So if a magnet sticks to an object, the object is iron or steel.

We made our waterplay into a magnets fishing game and the sand a magnet minibeast hunt!

You will notice we are wearing bandana’s on some of our photo’s. That’s because later in the week we were Magnet Man superheroes! Ninja’s assemble!

At music time we made up a sing to the tune of Spiderman. We all sang and played the musical instruments whilst Colette played the guitar!

Magnet Man, Magnet Man,

Climbs a wall like a spider can,

Does he fall?

Does he fly?

No he can’t he’s a guy

Oh yeah, here comes Magnet Man!

I really don’t think Andrew Lloyd Webber has anything to worry about!

On Tuesday we built using magnetic construction toys. The children joined all the magnets resources together to see if they would reach from one end of the nursery to the other! It took ages as some of the magnets pushed and some magnets pulled. That was a puzzle so we had to find out about north and south poles! (not the Artic and Antarctic, that was confusing). Click here to find out!

Later in the week we watched a funny video about two mice using fridge magnets to climb a fridge door to reach some cheese sitting on top of it. They cleverly use another magnet to help them escape from a waiting cat! A bit like Magnet Man but with mice! Click here to watch.

You will be pleased to know that our beans have started to germinate! The children are very excited about climbing the beanstalk! Also, when we came to nursery on Monday our cress had grown. It look liked grass. We all had a taste a snack time, we were all underwhelmed!

I hope you have all managed to plant your sunflowers at home? The children all know how to do the planting and nurturing! We have all be using Purple Mash to create pictures of sunflowers. Well done to everyone who had completed the challenge at home. Keep a look out just in case your key person posts any new activities.

As you are aware we have had some glorious weather this week. It was so lovely to be able to play in the garden ‘coatless’. Have a look a the photos below to see what we got up to!

On Thursday it was World Book Day, so we had a day full of stories. The children love their stories.

There are lots of eBooks to listen to on the World Book Day website. Click here for audio books. Also, watch out for the World Book Day book tokens which are being sent out next week.

There are more stories for young children available on the Literacy Trust webpage. Happy reading!!

Lastly, as always I would like to say thank you for your ongoing support of nursery, we’re a good team! Please have a relaxing weekend enjoying each others company, but remember if you go our wrap up warm I believe it’s going to be a bit chilly (again!)! Brrrrrrrrr…..