Santa Tracker

Follow Santa's journey on Christmas Eve. Make sure you leave him a mince pie and a carrot for Rudolph.

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html

Happy Christmas

This will probably be the last post before we break up for Christmas. Year 3 would like to wish everyone who views this page a very "Happy and Holy Christmas."

Christmas Homework Activities

I want to try to make easy for you to find stuff over the holidays so I am going to repost all of the links you will need so you don't need to go searching for things over the holiday.

http://www.tutpup.com/
Remember our code is 4646780

http://www.spelltube.co.uk/
You will need your user name and password which is now stuck into your spelling book. Remember this is no substitute for writing the words out.

http://www.learnyourtables.co.uk/
Practice practice practice

http://www.simplescience.net/
Click on the materials and rocks and soils to get ready for January.

And
READ A BOOK.

Then when you have done see how well you can do flying a stunt plane
http://www.rocksolidarcade.com/games/stuntpilot/

Christmas Party

Today we were given our letters for our Christmas party. We do need the help of our mums and dads in providing nice food for us to eat at the party. If you could please send in the item on our letters that would be a great help.

Our party will take place next Wednesday 17th December. We can come into school in our own clothes, but we must remember that we also need to eat a dinner. So if we have sandwiches we will need to bring them into school as well.

Our Lost Sheep

Way back in November we watched a cartoon version of the story of the lost sheep. (See November posts). We had a go at creating our own story using the digital blue cameras. Mr Barton in his wisdom accidentally deleted it!! In the afternoon we had another go at creating a piece of animation. 500 pictures and 30 seconds later the results are here. Can you find your own title page?

Simple science

A wonderful site with video for each of the units that we will study this year.
It is great for revision and to get a head start on what we are going to study in class.

www.simplescience.net

Spelltube

Many thanks again to Tom Barrett for bringing this to my attention.

Mr Barton's literacy groups spellings are available at
http://www.spelltube.co.uk/
Details of how to log in and use will be given out on Tuesday.

Tutpup

We now have 28 pupils registered upon tutpup.
A great competitive site which puts children against others from all over the world.
Please try to remember your colour, animal and number and then you can play at home as well!

www.tutpup.com

We are being followed!

If you look to the left of the screen you will notice that we are being followed by St Edward's Catholic primary school in Selly Park.
Our year 3 and year 6 classes will be sharing their preparation for the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Holy Communion and Confirmation. This is a new and exciting development as we not only have faith friends within our own school but we now have faith friends in another part of Birmingham.

It will be interesting to see how this project develops over the coming months.

Have a look at the St Edward's blog by clicking below

http://stedwardssacraments.blogspot.com

Gabriel and Mary

Today we looked at the film of Mary with Gabriel. The was very little speech so we had to imagine what Gabriel said to Mary. We collected our ideas and shared them with our talk partners. We were able to feedback to the class what we thought.
We then compared our thoughts and ideas with an account from the Bible.

We were able to then produce a playscript of what we thought Gabriel said to Mary and what Mary said back.

Times tables resources

Many thanks to Tom Barretts ICT in my classroom site for these times table sites to help us reach our half term targets.
The Multiflyer site is a fantastic site which the player (it really feels like a game) travels around the solar system answering multiplication questions. It can give printout of results and can show progress over time.
http://www.brainormous.com/online/loader_multiflyer.html


A great game which players go on a real adventure. This is great fun
http://www.bigbrainz.com/



I have found another free resource to help the children learn their times tables.

http://learnyourtables.co.uk/

It is a simple site to use and useful to practice your tables. Then have a go on Tutpup to challenge people from all over the world.

Tutpup

We have now registered with Tutpup a basic skills practice site which allows children to compete against others from around the world.

Join our class by logging on yourself and use the code 4646780

Happy gaming.

www.tutpup.com

A reflect upon our first confession.

Today we collected our feeling about the Sacrament of Confession which we made last Saturday, here is a child's view of the service.

On Saturday 22nd November I received the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is the second Sacrament that I have received. I went to church with my mum,dad and sister. When I was waiting I felt nervous, sick and brave. Father David helped me as God forgave my sins.

By Ola.

Christmas Play songs

Yes its that time of year again and we are busy preparing for our production of "Are we nearly there yet."
We have been learning our songs which have been sent home tonight and we will from Wednesday be practicing with Year 4 so we are ready for our performance on the 3rd December.
You will see on your left we have selected five of the songs for you to vote fo. Please choose your favourite and next week we can see which song is the most popular.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

On Saturday morning the Catholic members of Year 3 celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation at Sacred Heart and Holy Souls Parish Church. This marked the end of our preparation programme which the Lost Sheep video below played a large part in.

A short prayer service led by Father David was followed by the children making their first confession and receiving God's forgiveness.

It was a spiritual occasion which was beautifully observed by all who were there.

The lost sheep

Please be aware that Holy Souls school takes no responsibility for the content of outside sites. Only the Lost Sheep animation has been approved.

Enrolment Mass

Today we gathered at Sacred Heart and Holy Souls church to enrole upon our preparation for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Blessed Eucharist.
Well done to all those who were there and a special mention of thanks to the readers who read well and the two children who had to stand in at the last moment. (You know who you are.)

Don't forget we have a meeting upon Thursday which will be led by Father David. This will explore the Sacrament of Reconciliation in preparation for our receiving the Sacrament on Saturday 22nd November.

Book Week

Last week we had our annual book week. Various activites took place during the week and culminated (ten house points to first who can tell me what that means) with a fancy dress day on Friday where we all came as our favourite book character.
The book fair also raised over £1000 which means school can claim over £600 worth of books for school.

Firework display

Today in class we had a silent firework display. We created calligrams of fireworks, such as rockets, sparklers and Catherine wheels. We discussed what noise they made and we put together with our friends a display of several fireworks going off at once.

Do plants need leaves?

Today we set up our investigation into whether plants need leaves in order to survive.

We have two plants, they will recieve the same amount of water, the same amount of warmth and will be placed in the same part of the classroom. The only thing that is different between them is that one plant has been striped of its leaves.

We have predicted that the plant with leaves will do well but the one with no leaves will struggle. We will check to see if this prediction comes true over the next few weeks.

Plants Provide Food

Today we looked at the role that plants play in providing us with food. We listed lots of different fruit and vegetables that we like (or dislike) and we created a poster to show how many plants (fruit and vegetables) we can eat.

Millilitres and litres

Today in our maths lesson we looked at how we can measure liquids. We found out that there are 1000ml in 1l.

Can you help the children by letting them bring into school tomorrow an empty pop bottle or container that has its capacity meaured in either ml or l. Thank you.

Photo Frames

These are the photo frames that were completed just before half term. They were left for the glue to set over the holiday.

On our return today the children have asked if they can take them home. I have suggested to them that if we wait until Christmas we can stick our calendars upon them. This way we can complete two jobs at once!

I will not tell you what the frames are made of or how they have been constructed, I will leave that to the children. Many thanks to Mrs Baresi for her help in completing these frames.

Half Term Homework.

Each child is bringing home a pack of activities based upon their maths targets for them to complete over the half term.

Also a book review is included. This is to help prepare us for our book week starting on the second week back after half term. Prizes will be awarded to those reviews which impress.

Have a safe and restful break and Mrs. Pugh and Mr. Barton will see you all in November!

Number Bonds

Our maths lesson is concentrating upon reaching our targets of knowing our number bonds to 10 and to 20.
We used the internet to find games and activities which help us move towards our target.
A good site for this practice is www.ictgames.com

Awards Assemby

Today we had our first awards assembly as members of KS2.
We all sat well and listened to Mr Kelly tell us more about the Rosary and we all prayed the Rosary together as a school.
Well done to Shona and to Sean for being awarded certificates upon their hard work.

Baptism

Today we looked at the sacrament of Baptism, more specifically at the signs and symbols that are used in the sacrament of Baptism.

We role played the rite of Baptism with Charlotte and Santino as parents and Jordan and Lauren Mae as Godparents. We were all witnesses to the Baptism of Grace!

We found 6 symbols of Baptism, they were: White clothes, Sign of the Cross, Reading from the Gospel, Holy Oil, Holy Water, and a lighted candle. Ask the children if they can tell you why these symbols are used.

A report upon teeth

Today in literacy, we began to write a report about our teeth.
We looked at the different teeth that humans have and discussed the jobs that they do.
We found out that humans have three different types of teeth. They are molars, canine and incisors.

Today we looked at the molar tooth. We discussed the job they do and the shape and position and between us all we came up with:

Molar teeth are found at the back of our mouth. They are used to grind and crush our food. They are big, wide and flat and are generally cube shaped. They are flat so they can crush the food between the top and bottom teeth. The molars are bumpy and rough to help with the grinding and crushing.

Middleton and Ash End House Farm

We had a great day out of the classroom yesterday.

First we looked at the sleepy village of Middleton, loking at the local amenities. Did you know they only have one shop! We found out that the church of St John Baptist has stone that was used to sharpen arrows from hundreds of years ago.

In the afternoon we toured around Ash End House farm. Feeding goats, sheep and chickens and holding new born hatchlings.

New spellings

This weeks spellings

enjoy enjoying
lead leading
pull pulling
look looking
drive driving
decide deciding
make making
care caring
stare staring

These will be tested next Tuesday.

Number bonds

Today in our maths lesson we played dominoes!!
We added up the two ends of the domino and scored a point if we got the correct answer.
It is a good way to speed up our number bonds and also a lot of fun.

Charlotte's Web

Today in our literacy lesson we were looking at the barn in Charlotte's web. We described the setting by using our senses. Mr Barton wanted us to concentrate on our punctuation. We had to make sure that we put a capital letter at the start of a sentence and a full stop at the end of our sentence.

Spellings

These are the spellings that the children in Mr Barton's group will receive. They will be tested next Tuesday 30th September.

help helping
ask asking
see seeing
do doing
spend spending
hope hoping
take taking
write writing
hop hopping
run running
shut shutting
shop shopping.

These spellings have been stuck into their book and the children have been shown how to use the book to help them to learn the spellings.

New Year

The first couple of weeks in year 3 have flown in and now that Mr Barton has returned from Alton Castle, we can finally get some meaningful hard work started.

Today we will celebrate our first KS2 mass and Mr. Barton will use this blog to explain what how to view the blog so we can complete some of our work on line.

Baddie bag part II

Today the children brought in their baddie bags, we had lots of different everyday items that had a truly bad history. Some of the items that were brought in were:

A case
a wooden spoon,
a toy mouse,
a spelling book,
a toy cat,
a football,
a rubber,
a train timetable
a pen,
a letter,
a spring.
a pin.
All of these items though were involved in something that was truly bad. The children stood in front of the class and told of the bad things that these items did.
Can you guess what they were involved in?
Tomorrow we will write up a poem based upon the items that were brought in by the children.
Thank you for helping your child prepare their "Baddie Bag."

Place Value

Today in our maths lesson we have been revising place value. We looked at the position of numbers on a 100 square. How we get from one number to the next. We solved some 100 square puzzles identifying the missing numbers.

We then looked at how numbers can be partitioned, that is broken up into its different parts.
426 becomes 400+20+6.

Baddie bag

We have all heard of a "goodie bag." Its the bag we get at the end of a party filled with nice things as a way of saying thank you for coming. We might get sweets or toys or even a book. It is a good thing to get.

Today at school Mr Barton produced a "Baddie bag," in it were things that had been involved in bad or nasty happenings. Some of the things in it were a tennis ball, a ruler, a calculator, a pen and a plaster. Not normally nasty things. They have become nasty when we found out what they did.

This is the ball that was hit and smashed a window,
This is the ruler that drew a line through someones name,
This is the calculator that stole someones money,
This is the pen that signed the letter for war,
This is the plaster that ripped and stung our skin.
This is a baddie bag.

Can you at home select 5 things that could go into your "Baddie bag" List them and ask if you could bring them in tomorrow and together we can create our own "Baddie bag" poetry.

Sports Day

Today was supposed to be KS2 sports day but unfortunately the weather has meant that we have had to cancel it. It will be rearranged for a later date next week.

The Holy Trinity

Trinity means three. The Holy Trinity means the three different versions of God.

We have God the Father.

God the Son, who we know as Jesus.

God the Holy Spirit who guides us and helps us to do good things.

It is this Holy Spirit that we have inside us. When we were baptised we received the Holy Spirit and all of the good things that we do is through letting the Holy Spirit do its work through us.

We thought of a lot of people who let the Holy Spirit work through them, these included, Priests, Doctors, Nurses, Policemen, Firemen and all who help us through their work. Others may let the Holy Spirit work through them by the work that they do for charity. They might be sponsored to raise money for that cause or they may volunteer to give up their time for others.

We spoke about how we can show the Holy Spirit at work in school some of the answers were being helpful, being a brilliant friend, be kind to others, stand up for each other, show forgiveness and showing LOVE.

A tortoise takes its time.

Yesterday we started to practice for our music assembly which takes place on 17th July. We will be performing three songs. First we will sing You are my sunshine, with a twist yet to be revealed. Our second song will be "A tortoise takes its time" (very apt for year 3). We will be using the E, D and C chime bars to help with the chorus. The third song is very scary indeed, so we will need to make sure the lights are turned on, it is called Haunted House.
Over the next few days we will be singing to make sure that our performance is spot on for Mrs Aldred's music assembly.

A letter to our new teacher

Today we started to plan and write a letter of introduction to our new teacher, whoever he or she maybe! We have told them what we like about school and what we enjoy doing in our spare time. We have also included what we think we could do better at or improve. we will spend tomorrow writing this up so it is our best work.
You never get a second chance to make a good first impression!

The conversion of Saul

Saul was a bad man he killed people who believed in Jesus. Saul was travelling to Damascus to arrest more followers of Jesus. On the way there a bright light knocked Saul from his horse. The light got brighter and brighter until it blinded Saul. A voice came from the light "Saul why are you killing me." Saul asked "Who are you?"

Saul was taken to a Christian in Damascus called Ananias who healed Saul and Baptised him. Saul changed his name to Paul and become one of the greatest followers of Jesus.

By Shane and Ciaran.

Romans at the glass cone

Yesterday we visited the Red House Glass Cone in Wordsley. There was a Roman exhibition and we were able to take part in an archaeological dig searching for Roman artefacts. We also watched the glass blowers at work.

It was a good day out and we had (as Granville our guide would say) a bostin time!

ICT safety

This afternoon in the ICT suite we looked at staying safe when we are using the internet.
We used the cyber cafe of the think u know site. We looked at using emails and chat rooms and how not to give any information about us to strangers or people we don't know. We helped people in the cyber cafe to stay safe online.

Life bus

Yesterday we visited the "Life bus," we learnt all about our brain.
We learnt that the brain is about the size of our two fists together.
It controls all of our body.
Our brain is a muscle and it needs to be exercised.
Our brain sends messages to all of the body.
Messages travel along nerves.
Our longest nerve ending goes from the back of our head to the end of our big toe.
Messages can travel upto 250 miles per hour. That is 100 metres per second.
The brain is protected by the skull.
We can damage our brain by drinking alcohol or using drugs. Some boxers have damaged their brain because of the amount of times that they have been hit.

Science Assembly

This afternoon we will attend our science assembly. Each class in the juniors will talk about the investigation and experiments that they did over the week. Mrs Pugh's class will talk about the shadows work that they did on Monday. Mr Barton's class will talk about their dried fruit in fizzy drinks investigation.
We tried two different fizzy drinks, lemonade and sparkling water, to see if there would be a difference in the reaction of the fruit. We found that the fruit dropped in the lemonade remained higher up in the liquid longer that the fruit dropped into the sparkling water. We think this is because the lemonade is a lot more fizzy than the sparkling water and has more carbon dioxide in it. These bubbles attached themselves to the fruit and lifted the fruit upto the top of the liquid.

Lauren and Sam will lead 3B as they explain what we did as a class and demonstrate the investigation in front of the whole school. Hopefully they will explain how the carbon dioxide lifted the fruit upto the top of the bottle.
Speak slowly and clearly and GOOD LUCK.

Dried fruit in fizzy drinks.

One of our science investigations this week is to see what happens when we drop raisins into a fizzy drink. We put a couple of raisins into a bottle of lemonade and small bubbles immediately attached themselves to the fruit. These small bubbles lifted the fruit upto the top of the bottle. When these bubbles burst then the fruit started to sink. More bubbles attached to the fruit and lifted the raisins again.
It worked better in the lemonade rather than the sparkling water.

Faith Friends Confirmation

Yesterday in the hall we presented our gifts to our faith friends as a thank you for helping us through the year and to wish them well as they receive the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation.

It was a wonderful service led by Bishop Philip

Science Week

This week in school is our science week. Here we will be conducting lots of fun activities to help us in our understanding of science.

This morning we have already looked at how shadows are created and how our shadow changes as we go through the day. We created a shadow sculpture and we will look at the sculpture again later in the day to see how it has changed. Its a good job we had a sunny morning!

You are my sunshine

Holy Souls is celebrating 100 years. Each year group has been given a different decade from which to sing a song from. Year 3 have been given the 1930s. The two songs we are singing are "You are my sunshine," and "The way you wear your hat."
The summer fayre is on Saturday 21st June.

Roman soldiers

This morning we examined a Roman Legionary. We found that he carries a spear.(pilum) and a sword (gladius) .
He has a helmet and body armour to protect him.
He carries a back pack which has bedding, rations, cloak and utensils. More information can be found here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/

Communion celebration

Yesterday we had a wonderful celebration at school to remember our First Holy Communion day on May 10th. We celebrated Mass at Sacred Heart and Holy Souls Church in Acocks Green, wearing the same clothes we wore on our special day.

In the afternoon we had a party in our classroom followed by a disco in the hall. It was truly a memorable day.

Adventure story

We will be writing an adventure story set in another world. We have to try to find our way back to our school and friends after travelling through another dimension.

This will be our assessed writing for the year. Mr Barton has helped to plan. We will write it on Thursday.

Our 2 times table.

Today we were looking at our 2 times tables.
We found out that multiplication is known as repeated addition.
We did a 2 times table test. Julia got onto the Hall of Fame.
We were asked by Mr Barton to learn our 2 times tables for a test on Thursday.

More Charlie and the Chocolate factory.

Today we finished off our newspaper reports. We made sure that our work made sense by 1. Saying our sentence before we write it. 2. Check what we have written. 3. We use a whiteboard to write the sentence down.
We also looked at our presentation to make sure our work looks good. We checked our punctuation as well.

After this we were asked to design a poster telling of the Golden Tickets. Where we could find them and what they were for.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

We have been looking at the film of Charlie, and for the past few days we have created our own newspaper report of the tickets going on sale.
We looked at the creation of headlines and sub headings which tease the reader into reading more and the all important first paragraph which allows the whole story to be told in one or two sentences.

5 Golden Tickets

These new bars are now relesed in shops.

Today Wonka is selling wonka bars with golden tickets inside. All over the country people will be looking for these golden tickets. The 5 tickets will take you to Wonka's factory There will be Wonka bars, Wonka chewing gum and Wonka sweets with tickets inside. Everyone in the whole world will be looking for this magnificent prize.
By Lauren.

walk to school week

In these five days of school, all of the teachers are trying to encourage the children to walk to school.
We are also encouraged to park at the Holy Souls Social club and walk across the road from there. More information about walk to school week can be found at www.walktoschool.org.uk

New way of giving out homework!

This is a first for Holy Souls school.

A daily (maybe) blog from one of the members of year 3, giving details of what goes on, reflections on our learning and even letting parents know about homework etc.

At the moment we are on trial and we will monitor how it is used and how we can use the web to help our learning.