Welcome to Maple 3!
2025 - 2026
Miss Houghton - Class Teacher
Mrs Oldham, Mrs Sullivan - Teaching Assistants
Spring 1
Forces, Magnets and Metals
Well done to our Maple 3 Spring 1 Dojo winners! You should all be very proud of yourselves!
Year 3 have been busy creating delightful breakfast pots as part of our learning about cereals. They chose a mix of yoghurts, fruits, and cereals to combine in their pots. The children thought carefully about how to present their creations, ensuring they looked as tasty as they were.
Maple enjoyed following a routine in gymnastics this week, combining all that we have learnt this half term - rolls, jumps and steps.
Oak 3 put their understanding of forces to the test with an exciting challenge. Each child was given a paperclip and asked to make it move in four different ways, but they were only allowed to touch it for two of those movements. The children confidently applied their knowledge, using pushes, pulls and even blowing air to create contact forces. They also explored non-contact forces by using magnets to move the paperclip without touching it.
Ten of our Year 3 children represented Birchwood at the North Warwickshire Gymnastics competition. We were extremely proud of the confidence they displayed while performing their individual floor routines and vault jumps. The team did brilliantly, finishing 2nd overall in their heat and achieving a 1st place win on the vault. Well done to everyone involved!
Year 3 have created their own Kandinsky inspired piece of artwork today, linked to the Fibonacci sequence which we explored by looking at 'The Rabbit Problem' book! Each circle was measured to a size which followed the sequence. We also completed a crack the code, testing our arithmetic skills.
What a treat we have had at forest school today! Freshly popped popcorn with a range of delicious toppings! Yum Yum!
Year 3 had an exciting and educational trip to the Thinktank Science Museum, where we had lots of fun while learning about science, history and the world around us. We explored the amazing human body and discovered how our digestive system works, as well as learning about the brain and how it helps us think, move and remember. The children were fascinated by how our bodies function every day.
We also travelled into space and learned about space exploration, including finding out that Neil Armstrong was the first person to land on the moon. This sparked lots of curiosity and great questions from the children.
Another highlight was seeing a wide range of taxidermy specimens, including animals that are now extinct. This helped us understand more about wildlife from the past and why it is important to look after the animals we have today.
Finally, we enjoyed looking at a collection of old vehicles, which showed us how transport has changed over time.
It was a fantastic day full of discovery, and Year 3 represented the school brilliantly. We returned with lots of new knowledge and wonderful memories!
This week, Year 3 proudly presented their class assembly to the rest of the school and their parents. The assembly focused on online safety, linking perfectly with Safer Internet Day, which takes place in a couple of weeks’ time. The children did a fantastic job learning and delivering their lines, as well as performing a song and a poem with confidence and enthusiasm. Their hard work and teamwork really shone through, and they should be very proud of themselves.
We hope that everyone in the audience enjoyed the assembly and, most importantly, learned something new about how to stay safe online. Well done, Year 3, for such a brilliant performance!
Today, Year 3 were introduced to 'factors' and 'product'. We were finding all of the factors for different numbers, by creating arrays and working systematically.
Year 3 planned their own investigation to find out how different materials affect how far a car can travel, or how quick a car can travel. We learnt that the force ‘friction’ slowed the cars speed when rougher materials were used. Some materials made the car travel further than others, such as wood.
In science, we are learning about forces. Today we discussed the difference between contact and non-contact forces. We explored contact forces first, like pushing in a chair and switching on a torch. We then tried to move a bee on a plate without touching it - we eventually realised if we drag a magnet beneath the plate the bee (with a paper clip attached) would move! After that, we tried to get a Pom Pom into a cup without physical contact. We decided to blow it into the cup. This is still a contact force as the air from our mouths touches the Pom Pom.
Maple enjoyed working with a partner to perform a range of balances. We needed to be steady and controlled in order to be as still as we could!
What a fun-filled afternoon Maple have had at Forest School this week! Mrs Smith and Miss Houghton were so impressed with their hard work, teamwork, resilience and determination. In teams of three, the children collected sticks to build their own fire. They then used a flint and steel to get the fire going - although we were unsuccessful, the children didn't give up and eventually sparks were created!
In Year 3, we have been learning about measurement. Today, we measured large objects around the classroom using metres and centimetres. We worked together to use rulers and metre sticks accurately, making sure we lined them up carefully. We also practised converting measurements from metres and centimetres into just centimetres.
We had lots of fun in PE playing different games!
With the items we found abandoned in our book corner, we decided on criteria for how to sort these items into a Venn diagram. We used our Year 2 learning to support this.
Year 3 returned to school to see the classroom book corner looking like a 'crash site'! Metal pieces of all different kinds and beach debris was scattered all over the floor, along with two huge metal footprints! Together we discussed what this could mean and who could have caused this - was it the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz? The rhino from last half term's book? Or could it be a ginormous man made of metal?
Why the beach objects though? Had they been collecting things along a beach? Had they been on holiday? Who knows? But then ... we found some pictures! The Iron Man had been to Maple class!
Once we knew who these metal pieces belonged to, we tried to piece them together. Maple children thought the bolt could be a part of the body, used to stabilise the giant. They thought the chain could be part of the neck, to support the head moving directions. We thought the spring could be the mouth as a spring is stretchy and the mouth would need to move. Maple had some fabulous ideas and used their inference skills well to try and come to a conclusion.
