Week Ending 27/01/17

Another week and another load of work accomplished! We have been busy looking at time and space and everything in between!

In Maths we started looking at time: how to tell it and the different ways it can be told. We looked at the differences between analogue and digital time. In analogue time we learnt the difference between a.m (ante meridiem which is Latin for before midday) and p.m. (post meridiem which is Latin for after midday). Each period in analogue time consists of one period from 1 - 12. In the morning we have to have put a.m. at the end of our numerical representation of time. So, one o'clock in the morning becomes 1:00 a.m. If we are talking about any time on noon or after it up until midnight then we must write p.m. So, one o'clock in the afternoon becomes 1:00 p.m.

In digital time we have been introduced to the concept of the twenty-four hour clock. In digital time a twenty four hour day is divided up into twenty-four parts. There are two differences in this way of telling time compared to that of the analogue way of telling time. Midnight is represented as 00:00. The hours that run from this move incrementally one at a time to midday. So, in digital time one o'clock in the morning is represented as 01:00. After midday in digital time we do not have a.m. or p.m. but time still moves forward! As the hours pass by after midday so does our digital clock...so, one o'clock in digital time becomes 13:00. We have not been scared by this new adventure into telling the time and if you feel brave enough to tell the time with an analogue clock, try this game:

BANG ON TIME!

In English this week we have been learning about speech marks and the punctuation we use in speech marks. We have learnt that whenever anyone speaks we need to show this by using not only speech marks but the correct speech mark. When a character or person starts to speak we use opening speech marks: “ .  When the character has finished speaking we use closing speech marks: ”. We also learnt that before we use our closing speech marks we must always use punctuation to denote either the way the words have been spoken or punctuation that signals if we are telling the reader who is speaking. The punctuation we use is either a question mark ? or an exclamation mark ! or a comma , which we always use before we close them to tell our reader who has been speaking and finally we have a full stop . which we use whenever we are finishing a line of dialogue with no need to write who has spoken.

In our Topic lessons we have been finishing up the reasons why Rome was geographically situated where it was (which we have told the whole school about in our assembly today!). We started this week to look at the differences between an Empire and a Republic. We learnt that in a Republic people had been given the chance to vote (although in Roman times it was only men who could vote for men) where an empire was a vast area of land ruled by one person called an Emperor. We focused mostly this week on the Republic which involved the male citizens of Rome and who worked to pass decrees in either the capacity of assemblies or the Senate. To get an idea of the nature of how these committees worked we looked both at a painting (Cicero Denounces Catiline, by Cesare Maccari) representing the Senate...

And Prime Minister's Questions from Britain to get a sense of what Ancient Roman politics would have sounded like:

At the height of the Roman Empire it looked like this:

If you are interested in learning more about the differences between a Republic and an Empire please click this link.

Week Ending 20/01/17

This week in Year Three we have been storming into our work! Running forward and learning new things and challenging ourselves. If we were Romans we would say: Carpe Diem (Seize the day) and our teachers would say Docendo discimus (By teaching we learn).

And so it is with the Romans that we begin this report of the week. We finished our studying of Romulus and Remus: the myth creation of how Rome was founded. From here we started to learn about the real founding of Rome. Looking at a map of Italy we discussed why it was that Rome was built where it was. We learned about the Tiber river and how this provided sustenance (fish) and clean drinking water as well as being used for transporting goods. We also saw that Rome is geographically situated in the middle of the peninsula making it an ideal spot for trade and for what the Romans later loved to do - conquer! In this, being by the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Romans were able to venture forth into what is now Africa, Monaco and Spain. We discussed why the Romans built their city on seven hills, giving them strategical dominance over any one who would be invading them.

We also discussed Greco-Roman architecture. This is architecture of the Roman world which followed the principles and disciplines of the Greeks. We looked at aqueducts and columns which can be found in different areas of the world (something we will look at later).

If you would like to look at a brief history of the founding of Rome, please see this video (the commentator is trying to be funny - ignore that):

As part of our Topic work we have made a display showing the evolution of Rome while incorporating the story of Romulus and Remus in our own words:

This week during morning stretch we have been focusing on teamwork. We have been assigned to move just one person from our team to get from one island to another but with the caveat that we must only use our hands! Through this we have been discussing many different ideas and trying to solve, together, the big task that we've been set. While we haven't been able to (as yet) crack this we are determined to do so!

In English we have been learning about apostrophes. We have been writing down examples of apostrophes that we have found in our guided reading books and have then explained why the apostrophe has been used. We discovered that there are two common ways that apostrophes are used: contractions and possessives. Contraction apostrophes are when two words are joined together, such as: can not becomes can't; it is becomes it's and will not becomes won't (a tricky one). Possessive apostrophes are used most commonly when we are talking of someone's possession where we add an apostrophe and an s. These are some examples: a rugby ball belonging to Mr Ieuan becomes Mr Ieuan's ball, a purple doll belonging to Sara becomes Sara's purple doll. One exception to this rule is when someone's name ends in a s which means if Mr Chris has a book it becomes Mr Chris' book.

In Maths we have been extending our learning and application of the stand up multiplication method. Again we would be happy to show what we have learned in Maths.

Week Ending 13/01/17

Happy New Year! We hope that you've had a good break and you managed to relax and discover some new things during your time away.

In Year Three we have been hitting the ground running (this is an idiom) with a new topic: the Romans. The Romans were a society of people founded in the modern Italian city of Rome who through military tactical excellence was able to become one of the largest empires the world has ever seen. Over the coming weeks we are going to be learning about law, military techniques, slavery and the Freedman system, art, taxation, economy, city and country life, religion, arts and literature.

In our topic this week we have been learning about the creation myth of Rome through the story of Romulus and Remus. We learnt that Romulus and Remus were the sons of Sylvia and Mars: the God of War in the temple of Mars which Sylvia had been banished to. Their uncle Amulius sent servants to kill the newborns. The servants took the twins to the Tiber river and left them to drown. But, they did not and instead floated downriver into reeds where they were rescued by a she-wolf who raised and nurtured the boys. The boys were raised as wolves until they were older and started to explore the world where they were then taken in by Faustulus a shepherd who with his wife raised the boys as their own. When they grew up they helped the local villagers from attacks from bandits, stopping them and then returning the stolen goods. When they heard from their grandfather the truth of their origins and their evil uncle, the boys rounded up the villagers who had helped them through the years and as an army they stormed the temple of Mars to rescue their mother. Having done so they then settled on building a city in the place where they had been placed in the river as babies. Remus designed the temples and baths. Romulus designed the streets and houses. But, they could not decide on a name for this new city. Romulus wanted to call the city Rome, while Remus wanted to name it Rem. The twins, never having lost their wolf-like nature, fought each other and in the fight Remus was murdered. So, the myth creation of the story of Rome goes. And there are several versions of this story. Here is the one that we have been learning:

And, while you are reading information about the Romans here is Gustav Holst's Mars from his The Planets:

In English we have been reporting back about what we have been doing on our holidays. We have been learning once more about The Five Ws and how answering these five points we can give a really good account. We have learnt that it is not simply filling in the answers but that we must weave our information into a story regardless of whether it is fiction or non-fiction. We know that a simple sentence can really lead into rediscovering more about what we did. This is the power of revision to re-see what we have so we can create more. Next week we will be doing another draft of our story and we our confident that we will remember more of what we did during our holidays. Here is a song describing the Five W's (plus a bonus word that doesn't start with a "w"):

In Maths we have been learning about stand up multiplication method. With this method, as opposed to the box method, we are challenged to do similar calculations as the box method but in a more challenging way which is making us think more about our times tables. If you would like to know how to do the stand up multiplication method yourselves...just ask us! We'd be happy to show you.

It's been a fun first week back and we're looking forward to learning more about our topic, describing more about our holidays and creating a better draft and learning more about multiplication. We ask this week if you could help us with our times tables this would be greatly appreciated.

Week Ending 22/12/16

Due to a technical issue we apologise for the delay in this post:

Christmas Mubarak! Joyeux Noel! Sheng Dan Kuai Le! Mele Kalikimaka! Nollick Ghennal! Blithe Yule! Feliz Navidad! Nadolig Llawen! С Рождеством! In other words...Merry Christmas!

You may have noticed that we have been inspired by our show Children Around The World and all the different ways that "Merry Christmas" is said. Our teachers have been telling us how well we have been doing and the hard work that we have been putting in has come to fruition. We hope that you have enjoyed the show and we appreciate all your clapping and cheering!

When we haven't been rehearsing our show or performing our show we have been spending the week discovering more about Christmas: making a blueprint for a toy factory for Santa, designing toys that can be made in the new factory as well as learning about Christmas traditions and the ways how storytellers have been telling stories with the Christmas message of forgiveness and tolerance.

We have been learning about the fantastic Charles Dickens story, A Christmas Carol. We have been learning about Ebenezer Scrooge and his decent into loneliness and his ultimate redemption from that when he is visited by four ghosts: his old business partner Jacob Marley, The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. We've been enjoying this story and if we've been very good this year Santa may be giving us our own copy! If you have time over the Christmas break to watch a version of Scrooge our teachers tell us that the best version is the one below with the wonderful Alastair Sim:

We also saw how Charlie Brown and friends tried to put on a show of their own in A Charlie Brown Christmas. If you would like to see how they do, please watch the video below:

And this is the wonderful jazz score from the film by Vince Guaraldi:

Finally, we learnt about The Snowman by Raymond Briggs. In this animation we saw how you don't need to use dialogue to tell a compelling story. A young boy wakes up one morning to discover the fields outside of his bedroom window are covered with snow (an occurrence which is far rarer in Britain than here). In his excitement he runs outside and starts to build a snowman who magically comes to life! If you would like to watch, please see the video below:

Mr Ieuan and Mr Chris would just like to say how much we have enjoyed this term and the fantastic children that we have. It is a pleasure to teach such a diverse and intelligent class and we look forward to the new year. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!