Beech
Welcome to Beech!
We hope that everyone has had a wonderful and relaxing holiday. We hope that you are all looking forward to learning about new things this year.
Y3 Summer newsletter 2018
Y3 Newsletter Spring 2018
Autumn 2017 Newsletter
2017-8
We have had a great start to the year! Lots of children have brought in pyramids that they had fun making during the summer; sent in post cards written in hieroglyphics; created animation videos and taken photos of their visit to the Leeds Museum!
A few things to remember...
PE - Monday (Please send in kit for indoor and outdoor PE)
Swimming- Friday
(Children should bring a swimming costume/trunks, goggles -if needed and a towel only. We will not have time for shampoo etc!)
States of decay
Beech class have been investigating the states of decay of items, looking at how long things take to fully decay. This has helped us to understand the importance of recycling, especially plastics and metals, as they can take 100s of years to break down when put in a landfill.
We searched for objects in the playground that were natural (such as the feathers) and man made (the metal lamp post and plastic twine) and discussed how long they would take break down.
After our playground hunt, we investigated our compost bins and discovered an amazing birds nest with 3 eggs!
We will continue to look at this as part of our science and topic work this half term.
States of decay
Maths
Multiplication and division... acting it out!
Bioblitz
With help from the RSPB Beech class went looking for wildlife on our school grounds.
Computing
Beech class have been learning how to control things by giving accurate instructions. We have worked with a partner to give directions; programmed BlueBots to move around obstacle courses and we are now using an online Logo program to move a turtle to create shapes and patterns.
Sometimes it worked...
(Rufus and Aaron)
And sometimes it didn't!
Can you work out why it didn't?
James went on to using repeat command to write the commands quickly...
Music
In music we are learning to play the ukulele and we are also busy learning our harvest song.
Community Clear-up day
We helped Mr Ray to clear and tidy up our outdoor spaces ready for the winter. Our adults came to help as well.
Roald Dahl Day
We had a fabulous time dressing up as our favourite Roald Dahl characters, reading his books and drawing our own characters in the style of Quintin Blake.
Science
The amazing shapes our skeletons allow us to make!
Homework
In English this week we are looking at how to write instructions. Please help the children to make something simple like a drink, sandwich, toast or smoothie so that they can write the instruction to tell others how to do it.
New Beech Class Summer activities for Year 2017-18
Autumn 2016 Newsletter
Spring 2017 Newsletter
Sports day
Busting some moves on the hoops!
We are singing in the rain... Welly walk on our Superstars trip.
French
Beech and Elm class have been practicing how to order food and drink in a French cafe. They got a chance to put their learning into practice when a pop up French Cafe appeared in the school!
French Cafe
World Book Day
Diversity Day
Gorilla by Anthony Browne
Beech class read a wonderful story today about a little girl called Hannah. Hanna loved gorillas and most of all wanted to see one. Unfortunately her dad was always too busy to take her to the zoo to see one until one day...
The story made us sad in parts because some on the animals in the story were looking very unhappy. We talked about why they might be unhappy.
"The animals may have been taken away from their family and all their friends."
"They are behind bars."
" They are in cages and they look squashed."
"He might have not enough to eat or drink."
In groups we talked about whether we think animals should be kept in zoos.
PE Wake up!
What do you do to keep fit when it is too wet outside and someone is using the Hall?
-You wake up and shake up!
Making Butter
We made butter by churning a colloidal solution, (cream!) in a jar. It tasted so good that we all wanted more!
Science: Sow and Grow
With Spring just around the corner we planted some cress, carrot and bean seeds.
Just like us for a plant to grow it needs food, warmth and water. However unlike us, it usually gets its water from the soil and uses it along with other nutrients from the soil, carbon dioxide from the air and sunlight to make its won food. The children planted the seeds in nutrient rich compost following the same instructions so that all would have the same conditions. They were watered till the compost was finger damp and left by the radiator under a large window.
Day 2...
The first signs of growth!
Can you guess which plant it is?
Day 3...
The cress seeds were the first to germinate!
Day 4...
Day 7
And we have a new addition... it's a runaway success for Oscar! Our first runner bean.
Day 8
And the race is on! Over night Oscar's runner bean had a race on as other people's beans began to sprout.
The cress has continued to grow strong and healthy and should be ready to eat soon! Sandwiches or soup?
The carrots have sprouted as well today!
Day 9
The runner beans are really growing fast. Jack will soon be able to climb up one of the stalks!
Two of the runner bean seeds don't seem to have germinated yet. Beech class though about all the reasons why this could be. Louise suggested that the seeds might have been planted so deep in the cup that it was taking a long time for the shoot to come through the soil; Ben thought that it might be because the compost was too pressed down (compacted,) so the shoot was finding it too hard to grow through; it was also suggested that the soil in the cup may be too poor to provide the right nutrients or that the seeds in those cups may not have had enough water however, everyone quickly realised that all the cups had the same compost and the same amount of water put into them.
Ready to eat?
Our carrots. Not quite ready to sow on... yet!
Delicious! Sow it, grow it and eat it!
Our thoughts on the cress...
Ruth - The cress tasted hot and left a tingly feeling on my tongue.
Sophie - Tasted minty!
Nicole - Spicy!
John - Disgusting!
Jack - Leafy spice.
Ben - Whole handful tasted spicy!
Our Learning Logs: We have been really busy during the holidays constructing volcanoes!
Ruth's Volcano
Ruth made a volcano out of mash and ketchup!
Click on this link...
Music: We've got rhythm!
English: Visitors to Beech Class!
This term we had a couple of visitors. We learned about where they are from... where they live in the wild... what they like to eat and how they behave!
Reading: Every Wednesday we pair up with our Year 5 Partners to read and talk about books together.
Maths Problem Solving: How many presents did your True Love give you for Christmas?
-Really?
We worked out exactly how much our True Love loves us by working out how presents we were given.
Some singing was needed, lots of maths skills as well as lots of patience because it took us quite some time to sing the whole song!
To find out the answer... come and ask!
Design Technology: Gingerbread houses
We enjoyed making Gingerbread houses...
Following a set of instructions, we constructed gingerbread houses.
'Twas the Night Before Christmas
Weeks of rehearsal paid dividends as Beech joined forces with Elm (Yr 5) as part of the KS 2 production. Not a "Bah, Humbug!" in sight.
Thoroughly enjoyable, with huge credit to the children for learning a lot of lines. Well done all!
Body Tricks Science Workshop
On Tuesday 8th November Beech class went to the Otley Courthouse to attend a Science workshop called Body Tricks. We learned about some of the things our bodies do to help us live and survive without us thinking about it.
We discovered that we can lift someone... with a little help!
Ready... Lift!
And we can find our noses - even with our eyes closed!
Science
In Science we have been learning about Forces and Magnetism.
Happy Diwali
On Sunday 30th October Hindus and Sikhs all over the world celebrated Diwali or the Festival of Lights.
Mrs Patel, one of our school governors came to talk to Year 3, 4 and 5 about Diwali. We looked at the customs and compared them to how Christians celebrate Christmas.
Green Shoots of Spring!
Planting Bulbs ready for Spring.
We need to learn these spellings by the end of Year 4.
| accident(ally) | disappear | interest | pressure |
| actual(ly) | early | island | probably |
| address | earth | knowledge | promise |
| answer | eight/eighth | learn | purpose |
| appear | enough | length | quarter |
| arrive | exercise | library | question |
| believe | experience | material | recent |
| bicycle | experiment | medicine | regular |
| breath | extreme | mention | reign |
| breathe | famous | minute | remember |
| build | favourite | natural | sentence |
| busy/business | February | naughty | separate |
| calendar | forward(s) | notice | special |
| caught | fruit | occasion(ally) | straight |
| centre | grammar | often | strange |
| century | group | opposite | strength |
| certain | guard | ordinary | suppose |
| circle | guide | particular | surprise |
| complete | heard | peculiar | therefore |
| consider | heart | perhaps | though/although |
| continue | height | popular | thought |
| decide | history | position | through |
| describe | imagine | possess(ion) | various |
| different | increase | possible | weight |
| difficult | important | potatoes | woman/women |
We have the apples and now for the juice!
We started by washing the apples... well Mrs Brown, Mr Bradley-Hunt and Mrs Lunn-Varney Washed the apples!
Next the were pulped... using an electronic macerator.
All the pulp was then put into an apple press.
And the golden nectar started flowing!
"It is delicious!"
"Really appley."
"I want seconds!"
"I want thirds!"
Everyone in the school had some of the apple juice and what was left over was allowed to ferment. After a few weeks it turned into vinegar!
How do we get those apples down?
So how do we get the apples down from the tree to make our juice?
We could use...
But some of the ideas won't work!
All the ideas were evaluated to work out which one was the most suitable. It was decided that the best and safest way to get the apples down was to make Mr. T climb a ladder, pluck the apples from the tree and pass them down to the children.
Harvest Festival
On Thursday 6th we all went to the Bridge Street Church for a Harvest Festival Celebration.
Maths
Problem solving
We have been practicing to work systematically to solve problems:
Measuring
In centimetres accurately.
Not accurate...
Roald Dahl's 100th Birthday celebrations
Beech Newsletter Autumn 2016
Logo programming
We have been using the http://www.transum.org/software/Logo/ to for simple programming. Try it at home.
Swimming
Spring term swimming will re-start on Friday 13th January.
The children need to bring a one piece swimming costume (girls,) or swimming trunks/shorts (boys,) and a towel in a bag large enough to hold all their school clothes, (a sturdy shopping bag is ideal!)
We have been busy during our summer holidays
The children in Beech class have been busy during the summer holidays building models, visiting museums, writing postcards, reading, making posters and even doing some family gymnastics...
Beech class 2015 - 2016
