Branching Databases

Class Work, Computing, PSHE, Science

For the last two weeks in Bluebirds class we have been doing Computing in our topic lesson. The children have been using J2E Branch to create a branching database. This software included asking lots of yes and no questions which we did at the beginning of every lesson.

Before we started using the branching software the children started with organising different things into groups. The children worked in pairs and organised things such as sweets into colours and patterns. They also cut out lots of different food types and grouped them accordingly. A lot of the children put them into healthy and unhealthy food groups.

Then it was time to get the laptops out and have a go for ourselves, the children had options of animals, food, dinosaurs and aliens. They have to drag all the objects across and then begin to organise them through asking yes or no questions.

Excellent English

Class Work, English, PSHE

On Wednesday morning, the Bluebirds in year 3 stared English by writing a role on the wall for the character of Ellie in our class reader.  Ellie is the daughter in the family and an owner of Tuffy, the Killer Cat.

Our task was to rewrite the events of the story so far from the perspective of Ellie, remembering  to use adjectives, expanded noun phrases and to write in the present perfect tense

The Diary of a Killer Cat by Anne Fine

Class Work, English

The Bluebirds in year 3 started a new class reader this week. We are now reading The Diary of a Killer Cat.

On Monday, we used the first day’s diary entry to explore the idea of sarcasm, as the main character, the cat, is quite sarcastic in the book and it can be funny. We decided that sometimes sarcasm can be funny, but sometimes it can come across at rude.

 

On Tuesday, we looked at past and present tense. Miss Hookes also introduced simple past and present perfect tenses. The simple past tells us something that has started and finished in the past and included the past tense form of the verb. The present perfect tells us something has started in the past, whether the action has finished or not and it still affects the present in some way. The present perfect tense uses have or has and a past participle verb that usually ends in -ed and -en. However, some past participle verbs are irregular, like flown.

 

We wrote sentences in the present perfect tense about the two diary entries we’ve read from our class reader so far.

Fact or opinion?

English
This week, the Bluebirds in year 3 are focussing on retrieval in their Guided Reading lessons. On Monday, we were looking at facts and opinions. We decided a fact is a thing that is known or can be proved to be true and an opinion is a someone’s view or judgement.
Miss Hookes put some statements on the board and we had to decide whether they were a fact or an opinion. This helped us with our independent written task afterwards.

French

Class Work

This half term the Bluebirds in year 3 have been learning French. We know how to say pleasantries, like hello, good bye, please and thank you. We have also been learning numbers in French.

Hello – Bonjour

Hi – salut

How are you? – comment ca va?

I’m fine! – Ca va bien!

0 – zero

1 – un

2 – deux

3 – trios

4 – quatre

5 – cinq

6 – six

7 – sept

8 – hurt

9 – neuf

10 – did

Class Work
The Bluebirds have been researching about lighthouses. We looked at the design, how they were built, their purpose and their important features.
During a DT lesson this week, we made an electrical circuit that we could use in our lighthouse as the light. We drew our circuit and our design for our lighthouse in our DT booklet.
We have also had a go at making our own electrical circuit, using batteries, wires bulbs and switches which we will need for the light source.
Yesterday, we wrote instructions on how we would make our lighthouse, including the materials we would need.
Today, we started making our lighthouse! We decorated a cardboard tube as the body of the lighthouse and Miss Hookes  secured it to another piece of card. Our lighthouses are
stating to take shape

English Fun!

Class Work, English
On Wednesday morning, the Bluebirds in year 3 had a fun English starter. They were given some speech without inverted commas and some macaroni pasta! The Bluebirds’
task was to add speech marks into the sentences using the pasta. The Bluebirds worked with their partner showing their working together skills.

Observing music

Class Work, Music

This week, the Bluebirds in year 3 have been having music in the afternoon. We have been listening to music and trying to identify what instruments we can hear in the piece of music or song. We’ve also discussed what genre of music we thought it was, we particularly enjoyed disco!

We’ve been copying and following clapping rhythms and dance movements, showing our active listening skills and observation skills.

We have also been playing the xylophones along with songs, sharing with our partners, showing excellent team work.

‘Three by the Sea’ – Discussing adjectives

Class Work, English

This morning in English, we started reading Three by the Sea.

We discussed the three main characters of the dog, the cat and the mouse. As a class, we discussed adjectives to describe their appearance and what their personality could be like from the illustrations and the story.

Daisy B and Eason completed a role on the wall for the dog.

Liam and Scarlett completed a role on the wall for the cat.