This week, Year 3 have been inspired by their topic on Stone Age and artists Hannah Hansen and Laura McKendry to create their own cave art. In true Stone Age style, they created their artwork on the walls, using earthy colours of charcoal and pastels. What do you think?
On Thursday, Year 3 kicked off their history Stone Age topic with an action-packed experience day. They spent the day working as historians, using different replica artefacts to help them learn about what life was like during the Stone Age and test different theories using the evidence we have. After meeting some Stone Age people, children travelled through a time portal in their classrooms to go back in time. They learnt all about jewellery and used clay to make their own. They worked as archeologists to dig for artefacts and had a go at cave drawings. They also learnt about different pre-historic animals, measured their footprints and dissected their poo to identify whether they were herbivores, carnivores or omnivores! In the afternoon, children also learnt about hunting and gathering and found their own sticks to make spears, needed for hunting animals for food. A fantastic day was had by all, the children learnt so much and there were some amazing costumes too!
This half term, Year 3 are learning how to work with charcoal as an art medium. This week, they learnt about artist Laura McKendry who creates gestural drawings of animals using charcoal. She uses chiaroscuro (light-dark) to add detail to her illustrations. We also learnt that Laura likes to work from the floor, so when it came to creating their own illustrations, children worked from the floor too!
Take a look at some of our work:
To end Book Week, Year 3 participated in one of Scholastic’s Book Club events with author and illustrator, David O’Connell. Having been introduced to O’Connell’s work earlier in the week, children heard all about how to plan a story, followed along with a draw-along of a treasure map and one of the main characters from his new book, Captain Slugbeard. They also listened to David O’Connell answering questions about his journey to becoming an author and where he gets his inspiration from.
This week, Year 3 have been exploring how mirrors work as part of their science topic on light.
They had 2 challenges using mirrors: to crack secret messages written backwards using a mirror and to follow a line on the ground while only looking up!
Year 3 have just begun their new writing unit where they are looking at scripts. This week, they have explored what scripts are and how scripts differ from narrative writing. As part of their lessons, they have learned about stage directions and how they are used by actors and actresses to bring scripts to life on stage and screen.
On Thursday, Year 3 learned all about using stage directions to reading with expression. They listened to some examples and then practised using expression when reading to bring scripts to life and add meaning. There are some great voice actors among Year 3!
This half term, Year 3 have been learning all about the Ancient Egyptians in their History lessons. As well as a trip to Norwich Castle, they also learned all about what life was like, how important the River Nile was, religious beliefs around gods and the afterlife and about the significance of the pyramids. With all that amazing knowledge, in writing lessons, children then wrote their own non-chronological reports to share their learning!
Here are just a few, but you can spot them all outside the Year 3 classrooms – see if you can learn something new!
This half term, Year 3 have been exploring the work of mixed-media artists Alice Kettle and Hannah Rae.
They began by making visual notes about the two artists in their sketchbooks and considered their inspirations: the land and the sea.
Children then had the opportunity to create their own land and seascapes on canvases. They started by painting the canvases, focusing on their colour mixing skills.
Once they were dry, the children learnt some embroidery skills to add texture and detail to their pieces.
We think their final pieces are excellent!
This week, children in year 3 had the fantastic opportunity to go to the newly refurbished Norwich Castle to learn more about the Ancient Egyptians. During the day, children learnt about the different Egyptian gods and spotted their trademarks on real artefacts, many of which were over 3000 years old! They also learnt what everyday life was like and were introduced to some of the foods they would have regularly eaten, such as pomegranates, dates, olives, figs and cinnamon. During the day, they also heard about ancient Egyptian beliefs around the afterlife and explored the discoveries of Ankh-Hor’s tomb, housed in the Egyptian display at the Castle. As a take-home, all of the children made their own Egyptian collar, carefully considering the different colours they used and what they would represent in ancient Egyptian jewellery. A truly wonderful day was had by all with lots of new learning and experiences.
This week, Year 3 have been continuing their exploration of Ancient Egypt by considering who built the ancient pyramids in Egypt. They had to hunt for different historical evidence around the classroom and decide whether it supported or opposed the common idea of slaves being the pyramid builders. As a class, these ideas were discussed and debated.
Children also learnt all about the purpose of pyramids and why they were built. As a challenge at the end of the lesson, children worked in pairs to build their own pyramid structures using marshmallows and spaghetti. Some children even chose to make tombs and chambers inside their pyramids!
