May 6th - 8th

Hi everybody,

We now know we won't be back in school this school year. This is obviously very sad but certainly the safest decision for everyone.

Because of this, we really want to hear from absolutely everybody in 3rd class this week - especially those who haven't been in contact yet. Please email your teacher at 3rdclassteachers@virginians.ie and tell us what you have been doing during this time, any work you have done, any fun things you have done, any news, pictures, etc. We'd love to hear from everybody so please contact us.

This week is a short week as we were only supposed to be in school on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We want you to enjoy the good weather but also try to fit some schoolwork into your schedule too.

So see below for this week's suggested work. As ever, it is a menu so no pressure to complete everything. Just try to get a mixture of subject work done this week.

We'd also love to hear suggestions from pupils/parents/guardians on anything you would like to revise in the next few weeks. Or anything you miss doing in school that we could possibly put up in our blog. Just include these suggestions in your email.

Finally, we would like to remind you when sending work, that if you would like any work posted on the blog/website, please include parental permission. If not, it won't be posted.

Keep safe as always,

Mr Lyons, Ms O'Reilly, Ms McLean and Ms Peyton

Maths

This week we will look back at decimals. This was a topic we all have done recently but as it was a completely new concept for 3rd class children, we suspect there will be gaps in your child's understanding. This is expected. It's normally something we would revisit at the end of the year and obviously understanding will be revised and developed in 4th class. So please don't panic if your child is unsure of any concept here. We have attached videos to help with understanding. Even if your child has a good grasp of the content, allow him/her to watch the videos.

Book Work - Again, as we've already completed the corresponding chapter of our Mathemagic books, we have taken work from Busy at Maths. Please click the images below to enlarge the images or use the online version of Busy at Maths 3 pg 110-114 on the CJ Fallon website.

When beginning work on decimals, please watch this video based on page 110. Click here. It gives an overview of what decimals relate to and how we write decimals.

When moving on, a more advanced video on writing mixed decimal numbers is available by clicking here. It is based on page 112 below.

Figure It Out - This is extra optional work if pupils require so. Also based on decimals. It can also be found in e-book form on the CJ Fallon website in Figure It Out 3, pages 67 and 68.

Mental Maths - Please also continue with your Mental Maths books with Week 30, pages 89 to 91 in actual book or pages 93-95 online.

A sample digital book can be found here when clicking 'Preview Book': https://www.prim-ed.ie/shop/new-wave-mental-maths-3rd-class/

We have attached the answers for Week 29 below.

English

This week we are not going to ask you to do Reading Zone or grammar work, but instead focus on the below short film.

Oral Language:

Watch the first 20 seconds.

• How old is the boy?

• What time of day is it?

• What is his hobby?

• What type of video game is he playing? How do you know?

• Why do you think he is playing a war game?

• How are we shown he is engaged in the game? Wide eyes, dark room.

Pause at 30 seconds.

• Which character has now entered?

• How do we know she is his Mam? Greets with 'Hey Sweetie!'

• Why doesn't the boy greet his Mam?

Pause at 50 seconds.

• What impression do we get about Mam? Why do you think she is so busy?

• What do you think the present is?

• Why has the boy stopped playing the game?

Pause at 1 minute.

• Why has the Mam got the boy a dog?

• What is the boy's initial reaction?

• How do we know?

Pause at 1 minute 25 seconds

• How has the boy's reaction changed?

• Why?

• Do you think this is fair?

• What words can you think to describe the boy based on his reaction?

• Would you react in the same way? Why?

Pause at 2 minute 15 seconds

• Do you like the dog? Why?

• How does it react to being different?

• Does the dog's condition stop him in any way?

• How does the dog's action change the boy's feelings?

• How does the dog feel towards the boy? How do you know?

Watch the rest of the film

• What have we now learnt about the boy?

• Why has the creator only revealed this at the end?

• What effect does it have? Would that have been the same if we knew at the beginning?

• Consider some of the questions asked earlier about why the boy is playing video games and the boys initial reaction to the dog? Have our answers changed? Can we understand why he dismissed the dog initially?

• Why do we think the Mam bought the dog now? Has that changed? Has the present done what Mam wanted it to do?

• Why do you think the dog inspired the boy to leave and play outside?

• Do we like this video? Why?

Writing: Many pupils may still be working on their forest stories from last week. We received some beautiful stories so would love to see some more of those forest ones this week too. But for those who are finished, we'd love you to write a diary entry this week based on this video below.

• Pretend you are the boy in the video (you can change to a girl if you wish) and you are just about to go to bed at the end of the day after all of this has happened.

• Write about what happened in the morning - just another regular day.

• Write about playing the video game - why you don'y want to go outside. How do you feel?

• Use descriptions - adjectives, adverbs, ISPACE

• Describe your mother coming home - do you notice anything different?

• Describe initial reaction to box - what could it be? How do you feel now?

• You open the box - describe feelings. Detailed description of dog.

• Describe how you notice the dogs amputated leg. Describe your feelings now.

• What changes your feelings?

• Describe your journey with dog outside - mentioning your own crutches.

• You could add anything else to rest of day - calling friends/family to tell them about the present, giving the dog a name etc.

SESE

We've seen some lovely videos this week and seen that many of our pupils have pets. Others may not but could still research and create a fact file about a pet just like the dog in the above video. How does it behave? What food does it eat? How should its owner care for it?

There's a great website you could use to help you here - https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets and also about caring for pets at this special time here - https://www.ispca.ie/news/detail/caring_for_your_pets_during_covid_19

We'd love to see these fact files, so when you're finished, try to email them to us at 3rdclassteachers@virginians.ie and include any other work you do this week.

Art

This short film is based on a comic strip. Could your create your own comic strip to retell the story?

Music

Listen to the music used in the film. Does it suit the mood/story?

Try to create your own music to suit the end of the story or pick a song you know to accompany the end of the film and the credits? Why did you pick that song?

P.E.

We'd love you to get outside this week and practise your GAA/ball skills. Using the video below as an example, try to kick and catch a ball against a wall. If you're confident, you can alternate between right and left feet. Let's set it as a 30 second challenge and see how many you can get.

Make sure to ask your parents if you are allowed to kick a ball against a wall and definitely don't kick near a window like in the video! Best of luck!