Steeple Morden Church of England
Primary School
Year 3 - Peacock Class
Welcome to Peacock Class!
In Year 3 there are 28 children.
Our class teacher is Mrs Seward and our Teaching Assistants is Mrs J Brown
Year Three promises to be an exciting year when your child will have many varied opportunities to learn from a wide range of experiences, helping them to become independent enthusiastic learners. Each term will have a new topic where the needs of the curriculum will be set in context to help give meaningful links across each subject. The first topic will be ‘Dahlicious’, followed in the Spring term by ‘Secrets In The Sand’, concluding in the Summer term with ‘Pathways Through The past’.
The children will be encouraged to become enthusiastic and inquisitive learners, developing a wide range of skills and techniques through a range of classroom tasks and activities.
Please see the documents below which will help you support your child and understand what we are learning in class:
Spring Term 2024
Spring term 2024 ‘Secrets In The Sand’, Through the discovery by Howard Carter in November 1922 of Tutankhamen's Tomb, we find out about the Ancient Egyptian civilisation.
Soup Day
Following their science work about heathy eating the children decided to try and help the farmers in Fantastic Mr Fox eat a healthier diet, they thought soup would make a good start.
All of the children bought in one ‘soup vegetable', and as the children washed and chopped the vegetables they found out about food hygiene and learnt some basic cookery skills and techniques. As the soup was cooking the children collected data about the vegetables used then collated and displayed this in a variety of ways. Eventually, the soup was ready! Most of us thought it was delicious and worth all the work.
The children hope that the farmers are feeling healthier and benefitting from all the advantages of a healthy diet!
Mayan Day
The children came to school dressed as Mayans and spent the day learning about the Ancient Mayan culture. They found out about their use of cocoa beans to make the first chocolate drink - quite different to ours and not to everyone's taste! Cocoa beans were also used as currency, to trade for other goods, as gifts to the gods and as a medicine.
They made clay chocolate gods, masks representing a god for the day of the dead festival, built temples and had a go at Mayan numbers and writing.
A splendid day!
Roald Dahl Dress Up Day
Year Three started their year and the term’s topic ‘Dahlicious’, with a Roald Dahl dress up day, the children , and adults were invited to dress as their favourite Roald Dahl Character. The children all looked splendid. Can you name the characters from the props in the picture?
During the day, the children were engaged in a number of activities inspired by characters, themes and events from some of Dahl’s stories. After thinking about the theme in James and the Giant Peach the question ’what makes a good friend?’ was answered in the making of 3D peaches. Holiday news
was reported “sdrawkcab”, after reading an extract from Esio Trot:
this gave us the opportunity to share some of the exciting things
the children had been up to and the chance to think about the
creativity of Roald Dahl’s use of words.
Favourite character wheels reflected the children’s outfits and
reasons for choosing their character. ‘Maths puzzle’ brains were
put to the test to see how many squares can be found in a bar
of chocolate, there are more than you think. And, what special
day would be complete without a sweet treat? Whipple
scrumptious fudgemallow delights were crafted, eaten and
evaluated in the school kitchen. I’m not sure Delia Smith needs
to be hanging up her apron just yet, but a few pulls at the cord may be in order.
A fun day was had by all.
...and here's some things Year 3 have done in previous years
Bewilderwood and Sleepover
On Friday 7th July Year Three spent an exciting and adventurous day at Bewilderwood. It was a long journey but worth every minute. On arrival we had a boat ride to the play area and whilst on the boat we were told the story of Bewilderwood.
First stop, once there, was for lunch - we were very hungry!
Then we had the best afternoon playing and exploring in
the wonderful woods. We found the muddled maze, the
slippery slope, the scary lake and the broken bridge. It was
so much fun.
We stayed until late afternoon and then made our way
back to school. When we got back, we had a lovely tea and
then played games on the school field. Before we knew it, it
was time to get ready for bed. Our sleeping bags were laid out
in the hall and we got into our pyjamas. We had hot chocolate
and a biscuit outside, in our pyjamas before getting into our
beds. Mrs Seward read a story and before long we were all
fast asleep.
Morning came quite early for some but we didn't get up until seven o'clock when there were sausage butties and a game of cricket before we were collected and headed home for a lazy Saturday.
The children were all able to enjoy the day and night so much because of their impeccable behaviour.
Ashwell Walk
In preparation for the walk and visit, we spent some time reminding ourselves about the facts we have gathered so far along our pathways through the past.
There is evidence of a settlement in Ashwell from as far back as
the Iron Age. We know this as archaeologists have found
evidence and artefacts in the form of postholes, pottery
remains, metalwork, and evidence of fires from domestic and
early manufacturing. We were able to talk knowledgeably
about these and how they would have been used by the Celts
and the impact they had on the development of farming and
daily life.
Jumping to the Tudors, we were able to talk about how and
why houses were built and what they looked like. We could
remember what show offs the Tudors were, given the chance,
about how wealthy they were. We also discussed how
superstition about spirits influenced their beliefs and lives. We listed what evidence we expected to find in Ashwell about its Tudor past.
Another leap through time found us in the 1940’s. We expected evidence of Ashwell life in this time to be more plentiful, there may even be people to talk to that were actually there! We wrote a considerable list of what could be stored in the museum about this period.
Following all of these discussions we came up with a list of questions to find out why people live in Ashwell today, what does it have to offer, why do people choose to settle there and why do people stay?
The walk itself went very well, the weather was kind and we had lots of fun, although we were sure the school had been moved further away while we were in Ashwell, as the walk back seemed very long and much brisker than the walk there!
While in Ashwell, we had a snack and play in the park, visited the museum, went in the church, had a walking tour of Ashwell, interviewed ‘Ashlothians’, had a picnic, and had a very enthusiastic paddle in the Springs, all before heading back to school for the end of the day.
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Life in the 1940s - 'Holidays at Home'
Year Three had the best of days working outside on a range of activities that were recommended by the wartime government for activities you could do while holidaying at home. These included a cross-country run, tennis, croquet, a beetle drive, cottage crafts (we made paper cottages that tessellated), homing pigeons that transported secret messages in Morse code and making peacocks from old tablecloths and curtains.
Our Day at Burghley
Burghley was fabulous, all the children were impeccably behaved and were a credit to themselves and the school. The staff at Burghley could not speak highly enough of them.
While we were there, we visited the Tudor doctor, learnt
some games that children would have played and learnt a Tudor dance. In small groups, we were given a replica of an everyday Tudor item and had to try and work out what it was used for, some were more surprising and revolting than we suggested! We visited the Tudor kitchen and were amazed at its size and the size of some of the trays and dishes.. We were then treated to a short tour of some of the rooms in Burghley House, the kitchen was fascinating. We finished the day by making Tudor pockets.
A wonderful day was had by all, some found it rather
tiring and had a snooze on the way home!
Celtic Day
To support the learning and understand of Iron Age life year Three created a Celtic village on the school field.
In our imaginary Iron Age village, the children worked through a variety of Celtic crafts.
The Celts were great craftsmen using metalwork to create brooches to decorate their clothes, clay for pots and smelting vessels, weaving for clothes, Celtic knots to symbolise the cycle of life.
In each round house, we had a different craft:
In one, the children designed their own brooch, considering what the design would represent. For the Celts, the brooches represented the wearer’s place in society; the more ornate they were the higher they were in society. Brooches were also often in the shape of animals, the more highly regarded the animal, the higher the status of the wearer would be.
In another, natural materials were collected and used for weaving. The Celts were some of the first early farmers, changing from hunter-gatherers to growing their own crops and looking after their own animals. Wool was used to weave into cloth for clothing and use in the home.
In a third, we used papers to create Celtic knot designs.
For the designs the children needed to think about the
colours and shapes used, explaining what they
represented in their design. eg. green circles showed
the changing of the season, yellow circles the life cycle
of man etc.
In the next, clay was used to create round houses, in the
classroom these will be put together to create our
own miniature Iron Age village.
In the open land of our settlement, the children invented
their own target games, in order to refine their hunting
skills (no animals or birds were hurt in the process, in fact I’m sure I heard muffled sniggering from on-looking rabbits!)
Modern technology (health and safety would not allow open fire cooking) was used to try out an Iron Age recipe for honey oatcakes. These were rather tasty.
A fun day was had by all.
Village Walk
As part of STEM week, around the topic of connections, Year Three enjoyed a lovely walk around the village. They spotted; buds, blossom, people working outside without coats, birds building nests, washing on the line, many different spring flowers and lots more.
Dear Year Three,
Thank you for showing so much interest in the above advertisement, I have written to Howard telling him all about it. He enjoyed hearing about the day I spent with you and how enthusiastically you worked on all the wonderful activities in an attempt to prepare yourselves for a visit to Egypt with him.
The map work you have completed about Ancient Egypt, where you had to locate all the places of interest will help you search in new areas for Tutankhamen's tomb, I do hope it is found soon, Howard has worked so hard for so many years and we are worried that Lord Carnarvon may soon run out of money to fund any more digs.
While Howard and his team have been searching, they have found relics in the sand, and like you needed to research and discover what they would have been used for and what this tells us of Ancient Egyptian life.
If you are lucky enough to end up helping Howard, your studying of hieroglyphic letters and numbers will come in useful as many of the tombs and monuments in Egypt have them scribed into them. Experts are always needing help in decoding what they say as it is such a complicated system of writing. Similarly, your interpretation of farming life from studying wall paintings showing the Nile will help you as you have learnt how to use evidence to tell you about the past.
It was quite brave of you to try Ancient Egyptian style bread; how did it taste? Did the sand make it very gritty? I do hope you didn’t find any preserved cats in the honey!
I hope you continue to enjoy finding out more about Ancient Egypt, I look forward to reading your application letters, make sure you tell Howard all the things you have been doing so that you can persuade him that you are the best people for the job.
Good luck
Your sincerely
Mr Howard Carter.
Year Three's Howard Carter day.
Year Three spent the day expanding their Egypt knowledge and developing their archaeological skills in a bid to convince Howard Carter to take them with him on his next expedition to uncover more secrets of Ancient Egypt
Cocoa, our Donkey
At Christmas Father Christmas adopted a Donkey for us.
Our Donkey is called Cocoa, we think Father Christmas chose him for us because we had just been learning about chocolate.
We look forward to hearing Cocoa's news through the regular letters and pictures we will have from him.
Autumn Walk
We made the most of a beautiful Autumn morning by going on a 'spot the signs of Autumn 'walk.
As we walked, we looked out for, deciduous trees dropping their colourful leaves, seeds, fruits and berries and animals preparing for winter. The sun was lower in the sky and we needed our coats on as it was a little chilly. The dew, jewelled grass, 'sparkled, as if it had been glittered' (Una).
An enjoyable time was had by all.
As each season changes, we plan to do the same walk to see what differences we can spot.
Our 'how do we know it's winter?' walk
We enjoyed a walk on a bright but cold afternoon to spot as many signs of winter as we could. We followed the same rout as our Autumn walk so that we could note the changes and make comparisons between the seasons.
Our favourite activity was hunting for hibernating mini beasts among the logs and seed heads, we managed to spot a total of seven.
We are looking forward to our Spring walk.
Coffee Morning in Year 3
Year Three invited their parents in to the classroom to share some of the work that they had been doing during the term. Cake, coffee and tea were also shared with a helping of lovely chatting.
French Day in Year 3
Year Three enjoyed two days finding out about France's's culture, customs and geography. Over the two days they found out about Monet and the Impressionists, followed a ballet lesson, discovered the inventions of Louis Braille and the Montgolfier brothers, plotted famous landmarks and regions on a map of France and enjoyed a 'visit ' to a French cafe to sample cheese, bread and croissant.
Beaucoup de plaisir a été eu par tous.
