What a fabulous way to end the term. We enjoyed party games - pin the carrot nose on the snowman was a firm favourite. We had a lovely visit from Santa and a lot of fun was had by all! Wishing you a pleasant and peaceful Christmas break and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

Lest We Forget...

We hope you enjoy our beautiful display of poppy poems just as much as the children did writing them.

Leisure and Entertainment

Through The Ages

The children have loved learning about the toys our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents played with when they were younger. We have sorted pictures of toys over the last 100 years into chronological order and also looked at how they compare to the toys we play with today.

The children have brought in toys belonging to previous generations of family members and have shown a real confidence in speaking about them in front of the class.

A huge thank you to all the grown ups for allowing these to be brought in and giving us the opportunity to bring our learning journey to life.

“This doll is of Shirley Temple who was an American actress. It was sent from America by my Great-Grandad’s cousin for my Grandma when she was a little girl. The clothes she wears now were made by my Grandma.”
                                               Phoebe 

Stone Age Day 

A huge THANK YOU to all the grown-ups, and to our special guest, Phil Huddart, for the amazing dressing up for our Stone Age experience. We all thoroughly enjoyed journeying through the Stone Age and experiencing the cooking, food tasting, making natural paints, cave painting and investigating Stone Age poo!! We hope you enjoy looking at our class photos. Have a wonderful half term.

Stone Age Come Dine With Us!

Early humans were known as hunter-gatherers as they had to hunt animals and fish and gather wild food. Evidence suggests that humans started using fire in Britain up to 400,000 years ago. The Stone Age period was extremely long and eating habits changed considerably. Around 4,000 BC, possibly due to climate change, people in Britain started growing their own crops such as barley and wheat. They even kept sheep and goats. We decided to make our own Stone Age feast and enjoyed chopping and peeling vegetables for a Stone Age soup and mixing ingredients to make oat biscuits with honey. They were absolutely scrumptious!😋 

What on earth is ‘coprolite’?
 

One of the ways archaeologists discovered what people and animals ate during the Stone Age was by examining their coprolite (fossilized poo)! Mrs Jones was lucky enough to find some coprolite during one of her walks so we stepped in as archaeologists and examined the fossil. It was delicate work, just armed with a toothpick and a small paintbrush! We soon got to the 'bottom' of this investigation, just in time for lunch!!

Cave Paintings

Paintings of animals and hunters on cave walls are common. Although historians are not entirely sure why people in the Stone Age created cave art, lots of people have different theories about it. Early humans may have used art to simply decorate a blue cave, to communicate a message to others, to keep a record of hunting events, as part of a good luck ritual before a hunt or perhaps this may have acted as a call for help from a spirit world the people believed in. Whatever the reason, we certainly enjoyed creating our own cave paintings using the natural paints we made. Take a look at our Stone Age peg dolls that we enjoyed making too!

Natural Paints

Stone Age paint was made by grinding natural materials like rocks, woods, bones or charcoal and then mixing the powders with water, saliva or animal fats. So, today we thought we’d have a go at making our own! We used mixed berries, beetroot, soil, grass, leaves, turmeric and paprika, as well as charcoal and wood ash! We made a big mushy mess of each material and used water (not saliva) to create a beautiful range of colours. We can’t wait for tomorrow where we will further use the paints to create our cave paintings.

A ‘Not-So-Delicious’ Digestion Experiment!

We have had a very interesting afternoon learning all about the digestive system. We replicated the journey our food takes inside our digestive tract starting from our mouths, using digestive biscuits, banana, orange juice, water and a pair of tights! 
 

First, the food was broken down and mashed into a freezer bag just like our teeth would do in our mouth. Next, we added water (saliva) and orange juice (acid in our stomach) and then squeezed it down the leg of a pair of tights. Our wonderful volunteers enjoyed moving the food along, using their hands to show peristalsis. To demonstrate what happens in the large intestine, the last of the nutrients were absorbed and the liquid squeezed out. Finally, we cut open the bottom to let out all the undigested food, to show what happens when we go for a poo(faeces)! Although the children found this experiment pretty gross, this is certainly an experiment they won’t forget and some have said they would like to replicate this during the half-term break. If you’re brave enough to endure the mess, please do send us some photographs at year3@torrisholme.lancs.sch.uk

Strike a pose with our Spectacular Skeletons! 

In Science, we have been learning the importance of our skeletons. Did you know that our skeleton is made up of 206 bones but babies are born with almost 100 more?! AND...more than half of our bones are actually in our hands and feet!

Mirror, mirror...

In Maths, we’ve investigated various 2d shapes and identified those which have a vertical line of symmetry using mirrors. The children have then made spectacular 2d symmetrical pictures applying their knowledge of symmetry, along with improving their cutting and stickability skills!

Our favourite shape joke: What did the triangle say to the circle? You’re pointless 🤣

What do animals, including humans, eat?

In Science, we have looked at the diets of humans and various animals and sorted them into herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, using a Venn diagram. The children were quite surprised that turtles were actually quite different to tortoises in terms of what they eat. They thought turtles were herbivores but they are actually omnivores because they eat fish, worms, insects and slugs too!

Making Rainbow Fruit Skewers.

We've had the most wonderful afternoon making 'Rainbow Fruit Skewers' as part of our 'Happy, Healthy Me' topic and seeing that it's quick and easy to make a delicious, healthy snack. The children have managed to practice the skills of peeling, chopping and slicing using a bridge cut and maintained good hygiene. I'm so proud of the children for trying out fruits that they haven't tried before. Felicity tried raspberries but said she wouldn't eat them again, whilst Violet tried mango and kiwi and can't wait to have it again!

There’s so many things we want to be in Year 3!
🐝Bee kind, bee honest and bee respectful! 🐝 

This week in PE, the children listened to a piece of music and within groups, discussed how the music made them feel, what it reminded of them and what instruments they could hear. They worked  as a team, using our learning pals ‘Give and Take’, to draw out their favourite ideas and created a dance movement to the piece of music. The children moved around as different animals, vines twisting and growing in the jungle and wild flowers opening. Their ideas and movements were very impressive!

Art Attack

Our collaborative artwork is well underway!

Meerkats on a Mission!

We have used our learning power pals, 'Give and Take', to think about what we would like to achieve in Year 3. First, we learned how to draw a meerkat together and then we set ourselves three targets, one for school, one for home and one in relation to choosing a child in our class that we would make a special effort to get to know better this year. I’m sure you’ll agree that our Year 3 display looks fabulous!