It has been lovely to welcome back Kingfisher Class this week. Here are a few of our highlights...

• In English we are reading The Egyptian Cinderella as well as going over some of our next steps in SPAG to help us improve our writing. 

• Maths this week has been an introduction to fractions. We have learned about unit and non unit fractions, numerators and denominators.

• Djembe drumming  is coming along nicely. We have lots of confident soloists as well as a core group of confident drummers.

• In Science we have been exploring the forces of attract and repel with magnets - discussing how this language links with pushes and pulls.

• Bath Rugby came to work with the boys and some of us enjoyed additional PE sessions from sports coaches too

• In RE we have been finishing our Judaism topic learning more about the Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim.

• In History we have loved beginning our topic on the Ancient Egyptians. We looked at the chronology and how the period fits in to other elements we have studied. 

• In French we have been practicing telling each other our favourite animal.

This week has seen the start of our biggest class challenge ever - let's see if we can loose 51 stars in The Kingfisher Class Good Behaviour Game and earn the reward of watching Night at the Museum!

• In English we are continuing to read The Egyptian Cinderella, practice many of our SPAG topics and write all about The Rollercoaster - inspired by a piece of visual literacy.

• In Maths we have continued our work on fractions. We also spent 2 days at the end of the week doing collaborative maths work. We worked together in small groups to solve problems. We learned that 4 heads are better than one when it comes to maths- especially if we listen carefully and share our ideas respectfully. below are some photos of us working. 

• In assembly on Monday we sang and recorded a song which will be shown to Team GB athletes before they compete in Paris 2024. We even saw a real life Olympic torch. How many holes does it have in it?

• We've begun our new topic of 'Light' in science.

• In History we have continued our study of the Ancient Egyptians by using different sources to find out how the Egyptians lived and what they believed.

• In Art we have begun to look at Ancient Egyptian artwork. We found out that they used papyrus for paper!

• PE was fantastic. Developing our balancing skills through some fun skills based games with our friends.

• In RE we have started our learning about Judaism - God and Covenant.

This week has been full of coughs, colds , World Book Day and assessments. Everyone has shown great aspiration at all times- well done team.

• In English we edited our Rollercoaster writing with purple pen. Everyone is trying hard to improve their handwriting.

• Maths this week has been special booklet assessments and times tables! 

• In drumming we are now preparing for our djembe demonstration on Tuesday 19th at 11am - all welcome.

• In Science we have been exploring light, thinking about how light helps us to see and considering why we need sunglasses to protect our eyes from the sun.

• Bath Rugby came to work with the boys once again which was enjoyed by all. The girls enjoyed some nurture time together.

• In RE we  are beginnning to learn about how Jewish people have a covenant with God and what this means to them.

• In History we have learned about the pharaohs and how Ancient Egypt was ruled.

• In French we listened to a story all about animals.

• We loved World Book Day on Thursday. We recorded ourselves performing a simple version of Cinderella- you can watch it above- and  also loved dressing up as an adjective. Can you guess what we were from the pictures below?

STEM week has been really exciting in Kingfisher Class. Here is a roundup and some photographs for you to enjoy.

• In prepraration for the STEM Fayre on Friday, we collaborated with our buddies to produce a pizza box marble run. This was then shared with the rest of the school community at the STEM Fayre. Our challenge, following the STEM week theme of 'Time', was : Who can complete my marble run the quickest?

• The whole school challenge on Tuesday saw us working in house teams to find out who could create the tallest tower using a maximum of 30 sheets of A4 and one roll of masking tape. The tower had to hold a can of beans for 10 seconds without it collapsing. 

• Our Roots Connection trip on Wednesday was amazing! A lovely spring hike through the muddy woods (the new waterproofs were so useful here!) was just the tonic for all of our coughs and colds. Scavaging for all sorts of things natural, we had some really interesting finds - not least a miniscule snail, animal skull and leaf skeleton. Then Cathy lit the fire which kept us cosy while we chopped up some parsnips - which we had harvested on arrival- and made them into a delicious soup. Many of us tasted it and lots of us really enjoyed. it. Plant art with David - in the outisde classroom illuminated by fairy lights-  was a lovely relaxing task after such a busy stroll. 

It was such a proud moment to perform with Kingfisher Class today in the djembe drummin demonstration. You were amazing Team Kingfisher - well done! Apologies for the short video but the system did not allow me to upload a longer one.  Note: This should now be working - apologies.

It has certainly been a week for showing our courage value - even though our focus value was responsibility! (which we also used in abundance)...

• In English we wrote our own story based on The Egyptian Cinderrella. Now we have begun a new unit on Egyptian poetry.

• Maths this week has been all about reading scales to measure mass. Why not try some cooking at home and talk about g and kg?

• A top highlight was our drumming demonstration - my proudest moment so far this year - Mrs S :)

• In Science Miss Moon helped us learn about how light helps us to see.

• In RE we  found out about the role of Moses in the Exodus.

• In History we have learned about the pyramids - why? where? and how? they were built.

• We all loved the Rocksteady concert on Thursday - well done Kingfisher representatives - photos are below.

• Coredelia spoke confidently about a range of Egyptian aretfacts that she brought in from home.

• We missed Mrs M as she was poorly - get well soon Mrs M :) Love Kingfishers

This week has seen our Kingfishers develop their knowledge and understanding of what it means to be unique in a wide range of ways.

• In English we performed our Egyptain poem - 'Mummy'' thinking of our own individual ways to present it using expression, gestures, actions and speed to express our ideas

• Maths this week has been all about reading scales to measure capacity. We have also been adding and subtracting mass.

• Wellness Wednesday meant that we took part in some extra PE as a class which we always enjoy.

• Well done to our performers at the Dance Umbrella on Tuesday. You were amazing and we are all very proud of you!

• Another big well done  goes to all of the children who entered the PTFA Easter competitions - it really is lovely to see your unique design ideas.

• Happy Easter to all of our Kingfisher families. We look forward to welcoming you back in April when hopefully the sun will be out and we can enjoy our wonderful outdoor space even more.

Welcome back Kingfisher Class and Happy New Year to you all. 

Here is an overview of our planned learning for this term.

From this term, it is expected that ALL children will complete their Look/Cover/ Write sheet at home as part of Year 3 homework. This will be sent home on a Friday and is to be returned the following week also on a Friday. If this is NOT done and returned to school on Friday then they will be expected to complete it at lunchtime before going out to play. Thank you for your supporting in encouraging good and responsible homework skills in your child. Children are reminded to bring the sheet given to them home, but should they forget, the spellings for the week are available on the week's learning page. 

This week we have enjoyed getting stuck into our new topics.

• In English we are preparing to write autobiographies using compound and complex sentences.

• Maths has been all about multiplication and making links. We have begun to multiply 2 digit numbers by 1 digit numbers.

• Djembe drumming was our musical highlight - Mr Hockey will be teaching us to play this instrument over the coming weeks.

• Exploring magnets around the class has been an interesting stimuli for our new science topic: Forces and Magnets.

• In PE we are learning all about Fitness and have begun our baseline fitness records.

• In DT we have used our knowledge of continents to look at which foods grow in which areas of the World.

• Tilley wowed us with her Silver Blue Peter Badge!

On this icy,cold week we have been busy...

• Writing autobiographies using compound and complex sentences in English. Mr Munroe popped in to see how we were getting on in English.

• In Maths we have begun to make links with multiplying and dividing. We have also used flexible partitioning to divide 2 digit numbers. Using part part whole models to help us.

• Learning some new rhythms on djembe drums with Mr Hockey.

• Considering how we use forces - pushes and pulls - in our everyday life. Presenting this information using a venn diagram.

• Finishing our fitness baseline scores - including a challenging longer distance run around the field.

• Computing with Mr Lyle - he now teaches us computing every week.

• Ember shared a mouse and bird skull which helped us consolidate some of our science learning from last term.

• We watched a live lesson on Thursday all about space, called Spaceship Earth. We learned how satellites worked and made some important decisions in this interactive show! Some pictures of this are below.

• PHSE has been about our dreams and goals and steps we might take to help us to achieve them.

• In French we have revised colours and numbers and are beginning to learn names of animals.

Wow what a busy week we have had being Geographers and Eco warriors as well as lots of our ‘usual’ learning…

• We published our autobiographies in English and started looking at a WAGOLL for our forthcoming character description of Mr Gum.

• In Maths we completed our work for now on multiplication and division and began to learn about measuring length using metres, centimetres and millimetres

• Everyone enjoyed our local walk - developing map reading skills.Before leaving school, we planned our route using a map and identified landmarks and features we would need to look out for. Then we set off making further observations as we walked such as: the River Somer, St John’s Church, Town Park, sports centre and cycle track. Our walk ended in the  new play park in Midsomer Norton. We all really enjoyed the great outdoors despite the damp weather conditions. Our mantra was “There is no such thing as inappropriate weather, just inappropriate clothing” so the new waterproofs were super useful to keep us dry. The grown ups noticed how happy Kingfisher Class were whilst enjoying the outdoors and we were all thrilled to have walked over 2 miles.

• We sorted a huge pile of waste - on a windy afternoon which highlighted for us the problems to the environment of litter being moved by the wind. Using the litter pickers we used our scientific knowledge from our materials concept to help us work scientifically and sort the waste ready for recycling. 

• Back in class the focus of our place study was Italy. We learned about physical and human features, climate and location. We found Italy on a map and a globe and looked at its physical features including volcanoes. We learned how a volcanic eruption destroyed Pompeii. We practiced a few Italian phrases and after learning about the foods Italy is famous for, we  made our own pizzas. We used a claw and bridge grip to cut safely. We had a go at drawing the Colosseum and the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Thank you for coming to share our learning with us. 

Another busy week in Kingfisher Class as the first month of 2024 draws to a close.

• In English, with our autobiographies proudly on display, we have been developing our use of figurative language to enhance a character description of Mr Gum.

• In Maths this week we have continued our work on measuring length. We have looked at equivalent lengths using mm, cm and m as well as adding and subtracting lengths. Just a reminder too about the importance of tables knowledge for all of our maths. Please help your child to become fluent in this with immediate recall of 2x,5x, 10x, 3x, 4x and 8x expected by the conclusion of this year.

• In drumming we have learnt some new rhythms and shown our courage value through performing solo rhythms within a whole class piece.

• Science was all about planning and carrying out a fair test to compare different surfaces. The photos show what we did - ask your child to explain. Do they know what a variable is?

• We have been developing our speed and agility in PE.

• Isabelle created a fab lego model at home.

• In RE we are finding out more about the Torah and synagogues.

• In DT this week we have looked at seasonal foods and the importance of eating seasonally. We linked our work to the geography study we are currently doing on different climates and we looked together at which foods grow when in the UK. We watched a video about how food reaches our supermarket shelves and discussed the impact of food miles on the environment when food is imported. 

The first week of February was certainly full of variety!

• We had a really long discussion as a class all about online safety and in particular the appropriate age to use certain online apps, such as Snapchat and Facebook. We found it really interesting talking about the changes in technology even over the time since the teachers have been alive. A great one to continue discussing at home.

• Children’s Mental Health Week was centered around the question, ‘What Matters To You?’ We really enjoyed completing the art activity that Mr Snell assigned us on this theme - whilst listening to some of our favourite music! We also thoroughly enjoyed the outdoor dodgeball tournament on Wellness Wednesday. Smiles all round :)

• In English, we completed our Mr Gum character descriptions - Miss Plaskett was super impressed when she popped in on Wednesday. We are developing our purple pen editing and really trying our best to improve our work using our toolkits and buddy support.

• In Maths we have been learning all about perimeter and using our conversion and addition skills to find perimeters of different shapes.

• DT this week was all about seasonal food and ingredients we thought would be good to make a vegetable tart. We thought about food that was grown locally and was cheap to produce. We linked this to our eco studies and discussed reducing food miles and making eco friendly food choices. We tasted new potatoes, spring onions, cucumber, tomatoes, radishes and spinach. We were all really adventurous trying foods we may not have encountered before. As a class, our favourite vegetable was spinach! Photos of us trying new things are below!

• In drumming we are really making progress and focussing on some rhythms we hope to perform to parents later next term.

• Science included investigating whether a material is magnetic or not. We really enjoy hands on Science learning in Kingfisher Class.

                       Happy half term Kingfisher families. Best wishes from Team Kingfisher