In 3vL we have been learning about different historical figures from the black community who have made immense and important contributions to the world. As well as recalling famous black role models, we have learnt about the founder of Black History Month, Dr. Carter G Woodson. He realised that in the books he studied, there was an under-representation of black people and their contributions to science and society. He was the only person in US history whose parents were enslaved and went on to earn a PhD.

We had a wonderful turn out and a wonderful time at our Stone Age workshop. Lots of adults left with new skills and others surprised themselves with skills they didn’t realise they had. The children love to show off their learning to adults at home and we really appreciate you taking time out of your busy days to support the event.

Visits outside of school are always incredibly popular with the children and they talk about them for many weeks afterwards. Our first visit this year was to Moor Allerton Library to learn more about how the library works and how to use it. It was so nice that some of our children even brought their own library cards with them and could take out books to read at home.

At ACE we love the arts and music is one of our great strengths with all the instruments and musical experts we have in school. The children love their music lessons as they get to try lots of different instruments and learn new skills.

This half term we have been using the chime bars to play along to a song we learnt. This taught the children all about pitch and how we can make notes lower or higher.

As part of our RE topic, we have been exploring natural creations as part of the world Christians believe God created land left mankind responsible for. We gathered some natural objects from our school environment that the children thought were wonderful and used them to make some artwork with.

Learning maths can be tricky, especially when we start to learn about larger numbers that are harder to contextualise. We have been using manipulative to help us tackle some tricky calculations and understand place value.

We have had a fantastic start to the new school year and it has been lovely to welcome the children back to school.

After a few days settling in, we have started our first writing unit with some riddles based on dragons. We drew our inspiration from a wonderful book called “Tell me a Dragon” by Jackie Morris.

To get our creative juices flowing, we had a go at drawing our own dragons. I’m sure you agree that the results are highly impressive!

What a wonderful day we had on Friday as the children all turned into Oopma-Lumpas to work in Willy Wonka’s factory. An important first step was to shed our human names and discover what our Oompa-Lumpa name should be.

Thankfully, Mr Wonka himself put in an appearance to help the children with pronouncing their new names.

With that done, there was a problem to solve, which was why the children had been drafted into the factory. The previous Oompa-Lumpas had eaten far too much chocolate and were struggling to lift the chocolate ingredients up and down the stairs. We needed a solution that would keep the factory running. Luckily, 3vL know all about pulleys and could use their imaginations to create a solution. The first barrier was deciding what shape the basket should be at the end of the pulley. We explored different nets and made 3D shapes so each group could make a decision.

Once our shapes were made, we could progress onto developing our pulley prototype. We looked at Mr Wonka’s specification and drew out a design that included a pulley and met his requirements. Using our cardboard boxes, some perseverance, careful cutting skills and outstanding teamwork, the children developed and attached their pulley systems to the roof of their factory models.

As with any good design process, our prototypes needed testing with real product. Each group had a set of sweets to load their baskets up with and test out their pulley systems. This allowed them to see where any changes might need to be made so that the mechanism worked perfectly.

The day was a resounding success! The children learnt some new craft skills, got to put their designs into production and, most importantly, gave Mr Wonka some working prototypes so he could continue his chocolate production. Well done 3vL!

We have been learning about different types of forces in science and how they affect the movement of objects. The children have discovered contact forces where to objects need to physically touch (friction, air resistance, wind resistance and buoyancy) as well as non-contact forces like gravity and magnetism.

We conducted an investigation to discover how different surfaces exert different amounts of friction. We attached Newtonmeters to our shoes and slowly pulled them across a table, smooth floor and carpet. By reading how much force was applied on the Newtonmeter, we could tell which surfaces needed a greater force to move the show. The greater the force needed, the greater the friction on the surface.

The children have been working hard recently as designers, creating their own personal portfolios to research, design and make their own mittens. We began by looking at existing mittens, learning about safer internet searches and how to evaluate existing products. using what we had found out, the children went about designing their own mittens to reflect their own interests. Moving on to the production phase, they drew around their hands and used the cut outs to sew on their designs and then sew together each half of the mitten to create prototypes.

Learning to sew is one of the trickiest skills we learn in Year 3 but through some resilience and determination, everyone made their own pair of mittens to keep their hands warmer through our changeable Spring weather.