I can not quite believe we have made it to the end of our final full week of the academic year. This year has been one of many great moments, inspiring students and fantastic learning. I am so very proud of each and every one of our Team and I will look back on the year with fondness.  Read below to find out what we have been learning about. 

Literacy: 
In our Literacy this week we have worked on securing our understanding of a variety of different SPAG concepts. We began the week focusing on apostrophes for contraction. We entered the doctor's surgery and fixed the contractions together using apostrophe plasters. The class absolutely loved this activity and physically cutting the words really helped children understand how contractions were formed. We then progressed to looking at apostrophes for possession in the plural form and children played a game of 'Plural or Possessive Plural' to secure their understanding of using the apostrophe if something belongs to someone or something. Later in the week, we spent time looking again at main and subordinate clauses to form complex sentences. 

Maths:
In our Maths this week we have rounded off our learning on parallel and perpendicular lines in polygons. At the beginning of the week we looked at drawing and making compound shapes with parallel and perpendicular lines now that our understanding of these are clear. We then spent time extending lines to check for parallel lines in a range of shapes. To conclude our week, we made triangles and quadrilaterals on geoboards. 

Art:
This week in Art we have been completing some sketching sessions. The sessions have been progressive, allowing children to learn how to draw spheres and create cast shadows from a light source. We also explored drawing cubes, hollow cubes and stacking cubes with shadows for effect to make the sketch appear 3D. The quality of the children's drawings were absolutely fantastic and clearly show the progress in their art skills over the course of the year. Well done Team!

I would like to take the opportunity to wish children, parents and carers a restful Summer holidays. I can not wait to hear all about what the children have been up to when they return in September. My door is always open! 

This week has been our penultimate full week in school and true to form Team CB are still running on full steam and giving their absolute all to learning. Read on to find out what we have been doing this week. 

Literacy:
In our Literacy this week we have worked hard to edit our letters to Professor Dumbledore, before writing these up in best. When publishing our work, we focused on ensuring that our letters were joined, legible and formed the correct way. We then delivered our letters to Mrs Lawson who agreed to have them sent via owl post directly to Professor Dumbledore himself. 

Maths:
In our Maths this week we have been exploring polygons. In particular we have looked at parallel and perpendicular lines within polygons. We began the week by making compound shapes by joining two polygons together before moving on to decomposing polygons and beginning to articulate some of their properties such as the type of shape they were based on the number of sides and vertices and if they had parallel lines. Later in the week we looked at drawing polygons on isometric paper and again tried to spot parallel lines as well as beginning to explore what perpendicular lines looked like before making examples using geosticks to help us.

SRE:
Across the afternoons this week we have started to cover some of our SRE content. The class have explored what makes a trusted adult. We discussed as a class why this is important and the role a trusted adult takes on when offering help. We then looked at why personal hygiene is important and ways we can prevent the spread of virus and bacteria through prioritising hygiene routines. Finally, we spent time learning the correct scientific names for body parts to ensure we can speak articulately and accurately about our bodies. 

Transition:
This week has involved transition day across the whole school. The class each spent the day in their next class with their soon to be new teacher. The children came back really enthusiastic and excited for the next academic year and it was lovely to see the confidence they have developed. 

Next week is our final full week in school so be sure to check back to see what we are up to before the year draws to a close!

As always, life in Team CB never seems to slow down. We have been full steam ahead this week in our final assessment week of the year and the class could not have tried any harder. I am so very proud of their efforts and they should be too. Read on to find out what we've been busy with this week. 

Literacy:
In our writing this week, we have applied what we have learned over the last few weeks to create our own letter to Dumbledore. The class could choose to either write a letter asking for Dumbledore to let them do magic outside of Hogwarts, or choose their own house instead of the sorting hat. The children have worked so hard to develop their points and explain them using causal conjunctions, as well as keep a formal tone when writing. They have really shown confidence in using rhetorical questions to help persuade the reader and I have no doubt after carefully building their sentences their writing will be too good for Dumbledore to refuse. 

Maths:
This week in Maths we concluded our work on fractions. The class have shown a really clear understanding of fractions over the last term and now better understand what a fraction is and how to represent this. We finished off this week by exploring how to subtract fractions with the same denominator, including subtracting from a whole and converting to fraction notation. We then demonstrated our learning over the course of the whole year by completing our end of year maths reasoning paper and arithmetic. Well done Team CB - you did awesome!

PE:
This week in PE we have been busy developing our mindfulness through the form of Yoga. The class spent time learning further yoga poses and using these to create a short phrase. They were excellent at showing mindfulness and exercising the power of now - all which links with our One Life learning!

Science:
In our Science this week we have concluded our learning on Animals including Humans. The children showcased exceptional knowledge of this terms learning in their end of unit assessment and have really grown to develop an excellent understanding of how we care for ours and others bodies. 

Today has been our Summer Fair in school. It has been lovely to see so many faces enjoying the annual event which the children of Park Street love. We hope you had as much fun as we did. Pop back next week to see what more the Team will have been up to.

The final few weeks of Team CB really do seem to be flying by and I am almost certain it is because the class are working so very hard in every aspect of their learning. Read below to see what we have been up to this week. 

Literacy:
In our writing this week we have drafted our letter of response to Professor Dumbledore explaining the reasons why we think Quidditch should be unbanned. We have included within it many of the skills we have been working on over the course of the last few weeks. Our writing is well structured and includes formal language, repetition, adverbs and rhetorical questions. The class have really enjoyed the chance to write this. Next week they will apply their knowledge of letter writing to produce their independent write based on either wanting to do magic outside of Hogwarts, or requesting their own house rather than the Sorting Hat deciding. 

Maths:
This week in our Maths we have focussed specifically on adding fractions. We have spent time understanding this in pictorial form and recognising that the denominator serves as the unit we are adding in, hence the reason it does not change. We have then worked to establish a generalised rule to make adding fractions simpler. We will secure our understanding further next week as we look at how to subtract fractions also. Next week will also be our final assessment week of the year. 

RE:
In our RE this week we have been exploring Hindu celebrations. We focused specifically on a Hindu wedding and learned about the different traditions within a Hindu wedding and made comparisons to those in Christianity. The class were very inquisitive about some of the events within the ceremony and showed excellent attentiveness to the information they learned. Perhaps you could ask them about some of the key aspects?

Spanish:
Today has been Spanish Day in school. The class looked fantastic dressed in their red and yellow attire and loved participating in the many events Mrs Crossfield had organised. We spent time developing our Spanish conversational skills with the help of Mr Nevins who came into school to teach the children. We were also lucky enough to have someone come in to teach some Spanish dancing. The class absolutely loved getting stuck in with the day and had a truly great time!

Pop back next week to see what more the class have been busy with!

What a week it has been! Even with a heatwave to contend with, Team CB have shown up as their best selves all week and demonstrated some truly fantastic learning this week! Read below to find out more. 

Writing:
In our writing this week, we have spent time looking at specific ways to develop our letter writing skills. For example, we have looked in detail at how we can use subordinating conjunctions to explain a point we will make within our letter to give further weight to our claims. We have also used subordinating conjunctions when forming a counter point in response to reasons for banning Quidditch according to Dumbledore's letter. Literary techniques such as repetition and rhetorical questions have also been explored. We then planned out our letter and will begin to write this next week.

Maths:
In our Maths this week we have concluded looking at comparing unit and non-unit fractions.  We have done this in a variety of different ways, exploring concepts both pictorially and in an abstract form. We have looked at how to place fractions on a number line between 0 and 1 and  this supported and reinforced our understanding that fractions are generally less than 1 as this is the whole. Next week we will progress to looking at how to add and subtract fractions with the same denominator. 

PE:
It has been a rather special week in our PE calendar as this week was our annual sports celebration. The class were absolutely fantastic in all of their races and it was so wonderful to see everyone participate! Children enjoyed the obstacle race, sprint, beanbag, egg and spoon, relay and javelin to name just a few. Their dedication on what was an unbelievably warm sports day deserves recognition. I am so proud of each and every one of you! Well done Team CB!

Design Technology:
This week in Design Technology we have been designing, making and evaluating our own healthy meal. The class spent time learning about the Eatwell plate and the different food groups within it. From this they then had to develop a meal which included each of the food groups. The class chose to make a healthy pizza with plenty of veg on top and some meat choices for a bit of protein! Once they had made it using their cookery skills, they spent time reflecting on what went well, problems they encountered and how they overcame them and what they would do differently next time.

Pop back next week to find out what more we will be doing in our final few weeks of Year 3.

It has been a truly wonderful week in Team CB! This week we have been busy developing our skills across a range of subjects and have had such a fantastic focus in our learning. I am so proud of all the class. Read on to find out more about what we have been doing:

Literacy:
In our writing this week we have started to explore our new focus for writing. On Monday a letter was received and posters pinned all around the classroom explaining that Quidditch has been cancelled for Year 3. We read the letter from Albus Dumbledore explaining why this was and decided as a class that because we wanted to play, we would write a letter to persuade him otherwise. Over the week we then spent time text mapping to help us hear how the letter should sound, boxing up the letter to support our understanding of its structure and then looking more specifically at some of the features of writing such as writing in the present perfect tense and providing points and explanations of these through subordinating conjunctions. 

Maths:
In our Maths this week we have continued to look at non-unit fractions. We have spent time exploring using division to find a fraction of an amount as well as explaining how non unit fractions are made up of more than one unit fraction. We have identified non-unit fractions in a range of ways and used them to solve problems before concluding the week by placing fractions on a number line between 0-1. 

Science:
In our science this week we have continued to explore animals, including humans. In particular we have looked closely at what animals need to survive and how their life would be impacted without these things. We have then looked at how food as an essential need can be broken down into those foods which are healthy for us and those which are unhealthy. We sorted a range of foods to help us understand why types of food help our bodies and which we should consume in small quantities. As a class we then created an experiment where we looked at how different drinks could affect our teeth (a hard boiled egg). The results of this were shocking and the class could not believe how the dilute juice caused the eggs shell to bubble and crack!

Spanish:
This week in Spanish we have been continuing with our work on vegetables. We have been busy learning 10 different vegetables in Spanish over the last few weeks and this week we added in explaining how much of these we had using the language of 'un kilo de'. The class are really enjoying how much they are learning within Spanish. Be sure to check back regularly to see what else they learn over the coming weeks. 

We have had a lovely first week back in Team CB and the class have been working really hard as we push through the final few weeks of Year 3. Read on to find out what we have been up to.

Literacy:
In our Literacy we have worked hard to edit our writing on the alternative scene for Harry Potter. Once we had proof-read and made improvements we have then spent time publishing our work to focus on our transcription skills. Finally to celebrate our hard work, we spent time with Team JF sharing our final work. The children listened attentively to Team CB's alternative scenes and loved the magic they created within this. Well done TEAM!

Maths:
This week in maths we have continued to explore fractions, looking specifically at how we calculate the value of a part. We began the week by constructing wholes before looking in more depth at the relationship between parts and wholes in order to solve problems. Later in the week we began to discuss how we could use parts and wholes to find a unit fraction of a set of objects and how we could use division to support us in this. We applied our arithmetic skills and understanding of the denominator to calculate fractions of a given quantity. Next week we will progress to looking at non unit fractions in more detail.

PHSE:
In our One Life session this week we began to explore balancing 'being' and 'doing'. We looked specifically at what made 'you' you and that it was important to like ourselves and develop our self esteem. To support us in doing this, we created our own posters about what made us 'remarkably you'.

Music:
In our music lesson this week we started our new unit focussed on composing using your imagination. We began by looking at the rhythmic patterns using minims, crotchets, quavers and their rests, as well as melodic patterns using notes F G A. We then listened to the song Imagination and reflected on our personal thoughts about it. We considered the style and what instruments we could hear. As a class we then proceeded to learn the song before playing the glockenspiels alongside it using E G A C.

Check back next week to see what else we have been doing.

This week is our last week before we enter into our final summer term. The class have been ultra-focused this week and have produced some work to be exceptionally proud of. Below is a summary of what we have been up to. 

Literacy:
In our writing this week we have been creating our independent writes linked to an alternative scene from Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone. Children generated their own magical moment where Harry begin to suspect he is magic. Children described the scene, carefully captured the magical moment unfolding and documented the realisation that Harry may be magic. I am so very proud of the pieces the children have produced and can't wait for them to share with Team JF after the holidays. 

Maths: 
In our maths this week we have moved on to studying unit fractions. The class first developed a core understanding of a unit fraction being anything with a denominator of one. Once we were clear on this, we began to look at comparing unit fractions. We used a fraction wall to help us see that the smaller the denominator the bigger the fraction. Having established this rule we were then able to do compare larger unit fractions. We moved on to using our knowledge to order fractions from smallest to largest and largest to smallest. We concluded the week by looking at unit fractions that cannot be compared when the wholes are different and how we may represent this.

One Life:
In our One Life session we have looked specifically at cyber bullying this week. We used our working knowledge of what bullying was to establish a clear definition for cyberbullying. We then discussed as a class what ways we could prevent cyberbullying and show more respectful relationships online.

Science:
In our Science this week we have been looking at animals, including humand and their offspring. We started off our learning by matching different adult animals to their young. This led into looking at how some offspring are born. We discussed how some animals give birth to live young and some lay eggs. Using venn diagrams we then sorted a series of animals accordingly. Finally, we looked at a life cycle of an animal and how they go from young to an adult. We compared the lifecycle of a frog, chicken and butterfly with that of an adult.

Please ensure you check back after the holidays so you can see what else we get up to in our final half term! Happy holidays.

This week has been SATS week through school for our wonderful Year 6 team. The rest of school have been amazing as supporting our older children by being incredibly quiet around school to make sure they can do their best so firstly, well done Team CB and thank you! This has not stopped the class from excelling in their learning however. Read on to find out what we have been doing this week. 

Literacy:
In our Writing this week, we have been completing a shared write of the alternative scene in which Harry discovers he has magical powers. As a class we constructed a plan and worked each day to write from this. Our plan began by setting the scene and describing the characters, before providing a magical moment where something happened to Harry that was unusual. We reflected on how Harry felt in this moment and others around him. We then concluded by writing about the realisation that Harry was magic. We discussed how he tried to cover up his powers to prevent people from learning the truth. Next week the class will construct their own version of the plan and write about their own magical moment.

Maths:
In Maths this week we have continued to develop our understanding of fractions. The children are beginning to establish a really clear basis for what a fraction is and this will support them greatly over the coming weeks as we study fractions further. This week  we looked at representing fractions in different ways, as well as identifying parts and wholes in the context of lines and 3D objects. Once we felt confident, we progressed later in the week to looking at identifying equal parts in a whole when they do not look the same. Next week we will progress to comparing and ordering unit fractions. 

Art:
In our Art this week we have created a fruit portrait of ourselves. We began by sketching what we looked like and then using images of different fruits to cut out and collage over. This was inspired by the artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Our theme over this term in our science learning is healthy eating so we will be creating lots of fantastically fruity art!

RE:
In our RE session this week we explored Hinduism. To begin with we looked at the special books Hindus have, known as the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana. We discussed how these books have to be treated before learning about some of the gods written about in the Bhagavad Gita. Specifically we looked at Krishna. We listened to the story of Krishna and the butter pot before listing the qualities of both Krishna and Yasodha. Once we knew the difference in how they as individuals we worked in pairs to dramatize the story to support our understanding of the scared stories and what they teach Hindus. 

Pop back next week to see what else we get up to in our final week before half term.  

Hello and welcome back to Team CB's blog. This week we have been celebrating some lovely national events as well as giving our all to our usual learning in class. Read on to find out more. 

Literacy:
In our Literacy this week we have continued with our work on writing an alternative scene for Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone. We began by revisiting some of the SPAG elements we hope to include in our next piece. We reviewed using speech in writing and created a conversation that may be had between Dudley and Harry in the zoo room. We then looked in more detail at using adverbials to describe verbs. We focussed on adverbs of time, place and manner. This allowed us to use image stills from Harry Potter to develop sentences and then rewrite the Vanishing Glass scene incorporating these. Next week we will move on to our Shared write of the alternative scene before we develop our own ideas. 

Maths:
In our Maths we have been focusing on fractions some more. This week we have specifically explored explaining the size of a part in relation to the whole. We then moved on to constructing a whole when given a part and the number of parts. Later in the week we looked at identifying how many equal parts a whole had been divided into before concluding our learning for the week with our first experience of writing an equal part of whole using fraction notation. This is something we will look at further over the next few weeks to ensure the class have a really solid understanding of fraction notation and what a fraction is. 

History:
In our History this week we focussed on the national celebration of VE day. In our class we spent time learning about what VE day stood for, why we celebrate it and how it is commemorated. We created our own handheld flags and took these on to the field in the afternoon for a whole school celebration with drinks and biscuits. Children looked perfect for the occasion as they dressed in their red, white and blue clothes to represent the Union Jack. 

Pop back next week to see what more we get up to. It will be a very busy week in school as our Year 6s will be undertaking their SATS.