Mercury Class is one of our Year 3/4 classes, led by Miss Gethings.
Remember: Homework is given out on Wednesdays and is due in the following Monday. We encourage children to read as regularly as possible, and expect their school reading book to be read at least 3 times a week and recorded in their planner. PE days are Tuesday and Friday and children should come into school wearing their PE kits on these days.
Topic has been fun this term, learning all about WW1, including what life was like in the trenches. We did some research using some websites to teach us about what life was like in the trenches. It sounded awful!
After gathering notes and planning this, we turned our research into a non-chronological report, we could present this in our own way. Take a look!
In English this term, we have been focusing on letter writing. We based a lot of our work around the children’s book ‘War Horse’. For our Hot Write, we used our learning from Topic about life in the trenches to support us in writing a letter back home as if we were soldiers living in the trenches and fighting in the war. We then published this work so we could create a class book and read and share each other’s letter.
Mrs Kearney took us on a very interesting walk around the village, explaining some of the big changes that have taken place since the wars. It was interesting to see how people lived backed then, and to know what some of the buildings that still exist in the village today used to be. Thank you Mrs Kearney!
After looking at friction in Science, we then explored magnets! We used magnets around the classroom to find out what objects and materials were magnetic and non-magnetic. We concluded that ‘all magnetic objects were metal, but not all metal objects were magnetic’.
We are now beginning to explore the idea of attraction and repulsion!
In maths, we have been looking at place value and numbers to 1,000, including representing numbers in different ways. Today, we were representing numbers to 1,000 on a number line. We had a very fun and exciting lesson in the hall, taking part in an Active Maths session where we became human number lines and raced another team to see who could estimate the 3-digit numbers on the number line accurately!
In art this term, we have been working on our sketching skills by using different pencil pressures to change the shade and tone. We used these skills to shade in a propaganda war poster, and then the following lesson had a go at recreating our own. We are now using this skill with charcoal, where we are beginning to create some pieces of art in the style of Paul Nash (war artist). Take a look at our art so far!
In Science we have been looking at examples of when we want friction and examples of when we don’t. For example, we don’t want friction when playing on a slide but we do want friction between our shoes and the floor to avoid us slipping over.
We carried out an investigation to see which materials have more or less friction by attaching different materials to the bottom of wooden blocks.
