Week Ending 31/03/17

Another busy, busy week in Year Three.

We started our week in Maths by learning about Division. Division is one of the four basic operations in Maths. We have already tackled three out of the four: addition, subtraction and multiplication. Division is when we take a number which is going to be divided up. We then take a number which is going to be used to divide our first number by. This is our second number. We then have our answer. So, we find ourselves with the following equation:

First number ÷ Second number = Answer

(÷ is the mathematical symbol for division)

Here is an example:

20 ÷ 4 = 5

Division is a handy skill to have for many occasions. If you have ten apples and are looking to divide them amongst five of your friends, division will come to your aid (the answer is two). If you would like to play a division game with apples, please follow this LINK.

To advance your application of division, please have a look at these TIPS.

In Topic we have been learning about Friction. Friction is the resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving over one another. There are three types of friction:

- Fluid
- Static
- Rolling

Fluid friction is the resistance to an object's motion through liquid and gas. Static friction is the resistance to movement when two non-moving solid objects are in contact. Rolling friction is the force that is resisting the rolling movement of an object (such as a football rolling across a pitch).

With our new knowledge of friction we have been coming up with experiments which we believe can highlight one of the three different types of main friction that we have learnt about. With our experiments we have learnt two very important words which we need to think about as we draw up our plans. One is constant. In an experiment, what we are testing needs to be constant. So, if our experiment is regarding rolling friction and we use a toy car going across wood in test one and grass in test two the toy car needs to remain the same. But what do we call, in our test, the difference between wood and grass? This is called a variable. A variable is used so we can test out our constant in different conditions so that we can see whether our hypothesis is correct.

If you would like to learn more about friction, please see this video below:

In English we have been writing our final draft of our letter to NASA. We have been doing multiple drafts, making sure each time to place our school's address, the address of NASA and the date in the correct place. With each draft we have been improving on our letter, not just the content and syntax but with our handwriting too. We have formulated our reasons to go to the moon carefully (from finding resources to the fact that with new technology more people would be able to watch the landing) as well as reasons for not going to the moon (from safety to the fact that robots land on the moon and do a fine job). We have since made a display with our final drafts which have will be scanned and emailed to NASA on Monday! We can't wait to hear back from them and what they have to say!

Week Ending 17/03/17

Another busy week of learning and hard work in Year Three!

In Topic this week we have been learning more and examining what we already know about gravity. We have discovered that gravity is a force which surrounds not only our planet earth but other planets too. It pushes everything in and is the reason why the earth is spherical. We know now that gravity does not push down but merely towards earth (or other planets). We have learnt that when we are in motion this is counteracting against gravity and that gravity always wins. This is why we have life and why we don't float away into space. Gravity also affects the way how our earth moves around the sun.

If you would like to learn some more about gravity, please see this video below:

We also looked at the early life of Isaac Newton. We discovered that Mr Newton was inspired by the work of Rene Descartes and Galileo Galilei. Mr Newton made only a few friends, but one of those was his teacher Isaac Barrow who helped Mr Newton attend Trinity College in Cambridge. If you would like to learn more about Mr Newton, please follow this LINK. And please follow this LINK if you would like to try an experiment to find the centre of gravity using a common broom!

In Maths we have been yet again learning about fractions. We have been learning about mixed fractions. This is when we mix fractions with whole numbers. A whole number is a number without fractions or a decimal part. So, 1 is a whole number as is 2, 3, 4...etc. So, a mixed fraction is when a whole number is followed by a fraction. 7 1/4 is an example of a mixed fraction. We have a whole number (7) followed by a fraction (one quarter, or, one over four).

To understand more fully about equivalent fractions we have drawn our own Fraction Wall!

If you would like to try a game to match fractions, please follow this LINK.

This week in English we have been looking again at letters and have started writing a letter to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to ask them either why we shouldn't go back to the moon or why we should.

We have been looking at the first moon landing in July 20th 1969 to get ourselves inspired for our letters:

While there have been numerous unmanned landings since 1976, the last time a manned voyage to the moon was completed on December 19th 1972 when the crew of Apollo 17 returned back to earth. We are curious why this is and that in nearly forty-five years man has not touched foot back on the moon!

We started writing our letter by planning them, writing reasons for and against to go back to the moon. This way we could sketch our ideas down before we started the task of writing a formal letter. We then followed the conventions of a formal letter that we began learning last week. This is done so that we are taken seriously by NASA and that our purpose is both clear and insightful. We are looking forward to reading our finished letters and sending them to NASA with hopes that they will reply!

If you would like to see forthcoming NASA landings and launches, please look at this CALENDAR for dates and times. The website also has an IMAGE of the day.

Week Ending 10/03/17

Even though it has only been four days, our first week back has been a busy one.

In Maths this week we have been learning about fractions. A fraction, quite simply, is a part of a whole which is expressed by two differing numbers.

A fraction is made of two numbers. The numerator is the number above the line of a fraction which indicates how many of the number below the line are taken. The number below the line is called the denominator which represents the whole number.

We have learnt that fractions are nothing to fear and that by writing and thinking of our own examples we have started to tackle equivalent fractions which are fractions that look different but show the same amount.

If you would like to try your hand out at matching some fractions try so with this GAME.

In English we have been looking at what are the features of a formal letter. We have been looking at several different examples but have noticed that regardless of the content contained in the letter when we are writing a letter there are certain things we need to follow. We start our letter by putting our name and home (or if we had our own business) address on the top right-hand corner. We leave a line and then write the date that we are composing the letter. We leave another line and on the left-hand side we write the name and the address of the person whom we are contacting. Before we can then begin the content of our letter we write the word Dear followed by the name of the person who we are writing to always ensuring (because this is a formal letter) to write their surname as well. At the end of the letter we sign off our letter by writing Yours Sincerely followed by a space large enough to sign our name before we then print our name. By signing our name we are showing that we are the legitimate writer of the letter.

In Topic we have started to look at the fascinating world of gravity. Gravity is a natural phenomenon by which mass gravitates to all other mass (mass is another way for saying forms). Gravity influences us everyday to how a pencil can fall off a table to how we can fall off of a bike to how the world is a sphere. We have started to look at the ideas of Isaac Newton. If you want to know more about Mr Newton please have a look at these FACTS. So far, we have only started to look at the broad and fascinating subject of gravity!

Friday morning we celebrated Maslenitsa. We said goodbye to the Winter, hello to the Spring, hello to the sun and hello to the big bear! We had a fun time and enjoyed our blini!