Spring 2

Week 1 

Our topic this half-term is called ‘Secret Garden.’ We will be learning about rivers and plants in our topic lessons. This week, as geographers, we used atlases to locate the main rivers in the UK. As biologists, we will be using the scientific enquiry skill of ‘Observing Overtime.’ We have set up an investigation with 5 different plants. We have changed the variable in each experiment to investigate what a plant needs to grow. As writers, we have been learning about similes, metaphors and alliteration. We have applied these to our very own poems inspired by Kit Wright's 'The Magic Box.'

Week 2 

As geographers, we have developed our learning about rivers and, by working interdependently, we drew a river and labelled the different features. As artists, we are learning about how Georgia O’Keefe uses shade in her artwork and we experimented with different pastels to create shade. As biologists, we have continued to observe our plants overtime and the one which is surviving the best is the flower where the temperature is constantly changing.  

Week 3 

This week, we have been celebrating National Science Week! We completed a different science activity every day. One thing we have been developing in Year 3 is our ability to ask scientific questions. As part of our weekly science lesson, as biologists, we have continued to observe our plants overtime and the one which is surviving the best is the flower where the temperature is constantly changing. We also celebrated World Book Day this week when the children came dressed as their favourite book character!

Week 4 

As writers, we have started to learn about recounts as we will be recounting our trip to Morden Hall Park soon. To help us, we are collaboratively writing a recount of our trip to Butser Ancient Farm last half-term, so we created a flow map to recap what we did there. As biologists, we did our final observation of our plants, which have all sadly died! This has helped us to learn that plants need water, light, space, nutrients and the right temperature to grow. We also observed our investigation where we were discovering the function of the stem. Our flower petals have turned blue, so we have found out that the function of the stem is to transfer water and nutrients! 

Week 5 

Year 3 visited Morden Hall Park as part of our learning in Geography about rivers.  Our trip was an opportunity to develop our geography fieldwork skills, as well as develop our knowledge about the topographical features of a river.  We measured the depth of the water at two points, the width of the river and also the speed of the water.  Measuring the speed of the water involved throwing a dog biscuit into the river and timing how long it took to travel between two points. This sounds easy enough, however, on Team Elder's visit, this was nearly scuppered after a passing dog jumped in and ate some of our biscuits!  It was a great visit, and we were lucky enough to be blessed by sunshine.