Week Ending 28/04/17

On our final week in Year Three we have undertaken a project to teach others about the Water Cycle. For this, we are doing two things: we have started to build a model of the Water Cycle system and on our assembly (the last one for this term) we will be in front of the school describing the process of the Water Cycle system to the school.

Our first job was to go on a field trip around Onegino. On our trip, we were set the task to look for what is in the Water Cycle system around where we come to school. Here is what we found:

A good example of surface water:

We took notes on our walk so not to forget what we saw:

At Onegino's lake, we saw a great example of surface water:

We went on the hunt for examples of surface water, percolation and possible signs of surface runoff.

This  ground is a perfect example of saturation and percolation.

After this we started to write our notes so we could then use these notes for creating our A4 diagrams to explain to our school the Water Cycle process. We would use these diagrams in our lecture to explain to everyone the various parts of the Water Cycle. However, we did not take notes into this lecture as we knew what we were talking about! Here are some of our diagrams we used:

We've been so excited and driven with our knowledge of the Water Cycle, that when we return we are going to make a model of the Water Cycle to both further our education and teaching others about this wonder, natural phenomena.

This term has been a jam-packed one and we're now looking forward to seeing the world, or, staying at home with our families. Mr Ieuan and Mr Chris wish you a happy holiday.

Week Ending 24/04/17

In our penultimate week, we have yet again been exceptionally busy in Year Three.

We started the week in Maths looking at Venn diagrams. A Venn diagram takes two (sometimes three) different subjects and shows what they have which separates them and what unites them. This is expressed in a drawing of circles which overlap to show, visually, what unites them.

So, for example, let's say that we want to look at dogs and cats. We would start by drawing our circles, making sure to have an overlap (in the centre) which is the unifying part of our Venn diagram. We could then start by looking at dogs, and listing what we believe they have which cats do not have. This may include: "Bark" and "Come when called". We could then list under cats what they have which dogs do not. This may include: "Meow" and "Come when they feel like coming". In the middle of our Venn diagram we would list what these two animals have in common. This may include: "Fur" and "Paws". In the end, our Venn diagram may look like this:

Here are some more examples of Venn diagrams:

In English we have been looking at the features of a play script. Play scripts are the first step in a play being performed in a theatre. 

The Globe Theatre in London:

We started by looking at a cast list which is the first page of a play script and tells us which actor will be playing which character. It also details the technical staff of the play such as the director of the play and the playwright of the play. A playwright is someone who writes theatrical plays. The cast list that we read was from a play written by William Shakespeare. If you would like to know who Mr Shakespeare was (and see where he was born), please see the video below:

We then looked at Act I Scene I of Mr Shakespeare's play, Macbeth. The play begins with Three Witches. Here is the beginning of the play we read and analysed:

ACT I

SCENE I. A desert place.

[Thunder and lightning. Enter three Witches.]

First Witch

When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning, or in rain?

Second Witch

When the hurlyburly's done,
When the battle's lost and won.

Third Witch

That will be ere the set of sun.

First Witch

Where the place?

Second Witch

Upon the heath.

Third Witch

There to meet with Macbeth.

First Witch

I come, Graymalkin!

Second Witch

Paddock calls.

Third Witch

Anon.

ALL

Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air.  

Exeunt

We noticed a few things. Firstly, when people talk there are no speech marks unlike the books we read every day. Secondly, the setting and actions were written in the present tense. There was also something we hadn't seen before. Square brackets are used in a play to contain the setting and action so that the reader understands where the action is being taken place and how the actors have to move. Thirdly, each time a character talks, the dialogue (what they say) is written underneath the character's name. This is to signal to the actor what their lines are. By investigating in pairs we were able to understand all the basic features of a play script.

Finally, in Topic we have been looking at the Water Cycle. The water cycle describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the earth. Out of all the many facts that we have learnt while learning about the water cycle, perhaps the most impressive is this one: all the water on earth today, every drop, is all the water that there has ever been on the planet! To find out why this is, we started to look at all the different ways water is both stored and flows.

While there are many details to the water cycle (as you can see above), it is comprised of three main elements: evaporation, condensation and precipitation. 

Evaporation is how water leaves the ground by evaporating under the heat of the sun, becoming a gas or vapour. Water evaporates from every wet surface. Sometimes, snow can directly become a vapour or gas. This is called sublimation. One of our favourite words from learning about evaporation is evapotranspiration which is the process of water leaving the leafs of flowers.

Condensation is when the evaporated water molecules cool, becoming visible matter which we see as clouds. Clouds are moved by the wind into colder air, forming with other clouds. When they become too heavy to stay in the air, they find release and fall back to earth.

Which leads us to... 

Precipitation is the process of water falling onto the earth. Precipitation takes the form of rain, snow, ice, sleet, hail, fog and mist. While these all have different characteristics, they all remain the same: they are water.

For more information on the water cycle, please see these two videos:

Week Ending 17/04/17

Another week and another busy time in Year Three with lots done.

This week we have been doing two tests. We started with a Maths test which covered everything that we have been learning about this year.

Later, in English, we did a Russian/English language test. We have not done many tests before, but we are getting better at them!

This week in Maths we have been looking once more at coordinates. We have wanted to push ourselves this week and so have been making our grids smaller so that we can make our details more precise. We have also been learning about cardinal directions and the Compass Rose. The Compass Rose is a compass which is more detailed and nuanced than a regular compass which simply has the directions North, East, West and South. The Compass Rose is a sixteen point compass which breaks down directions to make them less vague when we are conveying on our maps where someone would need to go to get from one destination to another. We want the information on our maps, and the answers to any questions that arise, to be extremely accurate when writing about where certain locations are. This distinction of directions is also helpful to us outside of the classroom when we are looking at maps. We are learning that we can not simply give a vague direction, but that to convey our knowledge we have to be accurate.

In Topic this week we have started an investigation which looks at air resistance in more detail. Unsatisfied with just learning the theory of it, we wanted to practise our ideas. We solved this by performing a test which uses paper helicopters. Specifically, with relation to air resistance, we wanted to investigate the paper helicopter's wingspan and its effect on the speed of its descent. We done this by making not one but several paper helicopters with differing sizes of wingspan. We had ideas of what differences we would need to make the descent slower (and faster) by using different lengths and widths of wingspans but we would not know until we carried out our investigation.

The first successful helicopter was designed by Igor Sikorsky based on designs from the renaissance painter Leonardo da Vinci. Not having the tools in Year Three to build our own helicopters, we chose paper as the next best thing.

In our test we have become scientists. We have recorded the materials we have used, the method which we used to have our helicopters in flight, we listed the constants and variables of our experiment and we have wrote our prediction. 

Here are some videos of our tests:

If you would like to make your own paper helicopter, please see this video below (or, ask us!):

Leonardo da Vinci's sketch of a helicopter:

And finally, here are two videos about falling and gravity:

On Friday, as part of the Easter celebrations, we brought in decorated eggs as part of a competition. Here are some of our favourites:

Next week we will be looking at plays (such as those performed on the stage). As a taster, here is how plays are formatted:

MR IEUAN and MR CHRIS are about to sit down for some marking. Mr Ieuan turns to Mr Chris.

MR IEUAN:   Do you think it's funny how plays are written?

MR CHRIS:   (laughs) No. Why do you?

MR IEUAN:   Yes. I think it's silly how the words have to be italicised when I'm moving around the stage.

Mr Ieuan stands up and walks around the room.

Do you see? And what happened to my name? Why has that disappeared?

MR CHRIS:   It's because you are still talking.

Mr Ieuan walks out of the room.

Where are you going?

MR IEUAN:   (off-stage) This is just too silly!

Week Ending 07/04/17

Another week, another busy time!

In Topic this week we have been learning some more about our friend, Sir Isaac Newton. We discovered this week how Sir Newton was able to take apart light and put it back together again by the use of a prism.

A prism is a piece of glass, usually in a triangular shape which is used to refract light. By this, Sir Newton was able to show that white light is actually made up of many colours. People in his day believed that the colours that came out of a prism were not from the white light which shone into them, but were housed within the prism itself. Sir Newton, by using two separate prisms showed that if the two refracted lights were put together, one over the other, they would produce white light. If the colours had been residing in the prism only this would not be possible. By this, he expanded our knowledge of light and changed our way of thinking - forever.

If you would like to understand more fully how Sir Newton applied his ideas, please see the video below:

To understand why Sir Newton is so popular and revered amongst scientists, please see the video below:

If you would like to test yourself on your knowledge of Sir Newton, feel free to try this TEST. For more information on Sir Isaac Newton, please follow this LINK.

In English this week we have been looking at the principles and idea of Onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is a word which phonetically imitates, resembles or suggests the sound that it describes. This means that the onomatopoeic word sounds like the word that it is. We started our investigation into this by creating an Onomatopoeia Word Bank where we thought of a number of words which sounded like what they were. These included: bang, whoosh, crash, zap, swish and bop!

We then wrote our own onomatopoeia poem! We had fun while learning how to express our ideas in both a poetical way and a way for the reader to understand the idea of onomatopoeic words. We came up with some rather random, interesting and funny lines in our poems. Amongst our favourites were:

I come to a concert and I see my cat

She jumps on the stage and says,

"Meow! Aoo! Smash! Dash! We will have some cats!"

And,

A logical log crashed into a frog

and a frog crashed into a fog

and the fog crashed into a mug

If you would like to play an onomatopoeia game, please click on this LINK. And if you would like to have a try at your own onomatopoeia poem, have a look at this picture below for inspiration:

Finally, in Maths this week we have started to look at coordinates: how you draw them, their implementations and applications. At first we could not understand, apart from games we have played that use them, where else they would be used. We then started to draw our own maps before laying on top of it a grid system of coordinates. By doing this we then started to see where coordinates would be used in life and why they are so important. We are looking forward to discovering more about this!