Redwood 4

Firstly, we are so proud of Year 3 for their successful Nativity performance with Year 4 on Monday! The actors and singers all did a fabulous job! 

The children created hot chocolate reindeers with marshmallows which went down a storm at the Christmas Fair! 

The children all got into the festive spirit when opening their Winter books gifted to them by school. There were so many excited children who could not wait to start reading their books and have not put them down since opening them! 

In science, year 3 have explored the topic of plants. We have learnt about the life cycle of a plant, how seeds are dispersed and what plants need to grow. The children sorted a wide variety of seeds into categories depending on how the seed is dispersed. We observed the transport of water through a stem by putting carnations in coloured water and watching the flower change colour. We completed an investigation and observed the effects on plants when we deprive them of the requirements for growth.

Year 3 performed their dance to an audience during the final week of half term. The children enjoyed learning a routine with Embody Dance to the song “New York”. They included freeze frames and canons within their routine, and learnt to tell a story through dance.

Year 3 had a great time building bridges in DT. As we are learning about the USA, we have learnt about the Golden Gate Bridge, engineered by Joseph Strauss. We began learning about different types of bridges before building triangular and square frameworks whilst learning about how to ensure a bridge is strong and stable. The children used their knowledge to build a bridge out of new and recycled materials. We tested our bridges using a toy car and evaluated the appearance and strength of the bridge.

Thank you so much for sharing these stories with us. You’ve all worked very hard. We love the illustrations in the stories and the covers are very exciting. We would love to know what happens next to your brave heroes.

Have a great summer holiday!

Charlie Winwood

We love the title. We think it was clever to start your story with a question – ‘Have you ever met a pirate?’ It makes the reader feel part of the story immediately. We were taken to the action straight away. We like how you described the contrast between the dark cupboard and the bright deck - ‘When Nick’s eyes adjusted to the brightness’. And Nick’s dilemma with only salt water to drink was very real and made us worry for him. It was a good cliffhanger.

Evie

We think you set the scene well with Violet on the beach collecting shells when she finds the bottle. You introduced this cleverly by talking to the reader. ‘Did you think you would ever find an old rusty bottle, well Violet did.’ And ‘if you were Violet, would you believe it?’

You have written effective descriptions - ‘dark as the night sky’ ‘clouds turned grey’.

We think you built up strongly to the arrival of the Kraken and the encounter was terrifying. You used ‘show not tell’ by having Violet remember learning about Krakens at school.

Samuel Smalley

It was a clever idea to use the dog to start the action. We enjoyed reading about how the dog barked at the bottle as if it knew something was wrong. We were taken very quickly into the action. We like the way you used ‘show not tell’. Instead of just saying ‘it was bright’, you said, ‘It was so bright he could barely see’. And instead of saying Jake Sparrow was scared you wrote ‘a shiver went down his spine.’ You described the pirates very vividly and your story moved along quickly.

Maisie

It was an intriguing beginning to have Maisie Silver thinking she is imagining the bottle and then finding it’s real. We like your descriptions, ‘ruby red bloodstains’ and ‘deep dark water’. And we enjoyed reading as the tension built up - ‘footsteps getting louder and louder’ ‘bandanas that glowed in the darkness.’ We were thrilled by the cliffhanger where Maisie Silver’s friends had been eaten and she was left alone.

Conrad

Kraken Attack is a good alliterative title. We like how you use questions to build up the tension - ‘Where was I going to stop spinning round? Where was I going, I wonder?’ Your ‘furious pirate team’ and ‘rough fight’ are strong words that give us a great impression of movement and danger. The Kraken sounds terrifying with its ‘mouth sharper than a knife’ and the ‘deep murky water’ adds to the tension. 

Freya

We think it was clever to use Hugo sinking into the sand to go back in time. That was very original. You build up the tension by asking questions and you set the scene on the ship with good descriptions, ‘the shining sun went straight into Hugo’s eyes.’ Your pirates sound scary - and so does the Kraken. And you left us on an exciting cliffhanger with the coin missing from Hugo’s pocket.

Bobby Goddard

You took us very quickly into the action. Your pirates were scary in their ‘ripped clothes’ and armed with cutlasses and flintlock and matchlock pistols. You have given us a vivid description of the Kraken with its ‘gigantic tentacles’ and ‘powerful suckers’. And we felt the terror of losing the ship as it ‘disappeared in the darkness’. We like your cliffhanger where Steve had the coin but feared it might not take him home.'

Year 2 had a fantastic day at Weston-Super-Mare last Thursday.  Their topic is all about the coast so it was brilliant to experience the beach, see geographical features of the coast and learn about holidays of the past. The children visited the Grand Pier, played with kites and beach balls, built sandcastles, ate chips and ice-lollies, buried each other and ultimately had the time of their school lives. Many children commented that it was their best school day ever and we could tell because many bought socks full of sand and a huge smile back with them. The weather was excellent and so was the behaviour of the children with people even stopping us on the boardwalk to comment on how considerate our pupils were.  A trip that we will most certainly repeat.

We were sent a top secret mission by the Queen! She sent us clues based on the human and physical features of different seaside resorts in the UK and we had to identify where on the coastline of the UK Captain Redblood had buried his treasure. After looking at maps we discovered it was at Weston-Super-Mare! We are very lucky as we will also be visiting the seaside resort later this half term as a thank you for all our hard work.   

During Summer 1, Year 2 had a swashbuckling pirate day! We met Captain Jake from ‘The History Squad’ who taught us lots of interesting facts about pirates! To begin with he made sure we were familiar with special pirate vocabulary such as ‘stern', 'bow', 'port' and 'starboard'. Captain Jake then gave us orders of jobs he needed us to do on the ship. We climbed the rigging, swabbed the deck, hoisted the Jolly Roger and dropped the anchor. Captain Jake then showed us different pirate artefacts. We held gold doubloons, pieces of eight, different types of pistols, a cutlass and a 300 year old canon ball! Captain Jake then taught us about famous pirates in the ‘Golden Age of Piracy such as Captain Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Mary Read and Calico Jack! Year 2 loved their pirate day and would like to say a big thank you to ‘The History Squad’.  

Sam Silver Undercover Pirate: Skeleton Island was our driving text for Land Ahoy! This book is written by the wonderful author Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler (who have written over 200 children’s book). Year 2 have loved joining Sam travelling back in time and finding himself on Captain Blade’s ship so were thrilled when they found out they had a zoom call with the authors Jan Burchett and Sara Vogler! We told them we were about to write our very own pirate adventure story and they gave us some fantastic advice. Jan and Sara were very impressed when we showed them the moving pictures (when learning about mechanisms in DT) we had made to go into our story books. They even asked us to send some of our finished books to them so they could read them. You can see some of our moving picture books and the letter we received from Jan and Sara after our Zoom call below.  

As part of our learning on rainforests we visited the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham. Here we were able experience what a rainforest is like and learned about lots of different types of plants too. The trip also helped us with our artwork linked to Henri Rousseau as he was also inspired after visiting the Botanical Gardens in Paris.  

It’s time to get creative in your afternoon theme of ‘Muck, Mess and Mixtures’! We will be joining Roald Dahl’s George by mixing our own marvellous creations. By mixing colours and applying materials we will create our own unique masterpieces and have some fun getting messy in the process. Thinking about mess we have lots of scientific investigations to perform and we will create our own healthy recipes to form part of a balanced diet.