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.

In our computing we have been learning how animation works and had a go at animating a scene from our class novel, ‘Ice Palace’. In the scene, the main character- Ivan – was being chased through the woods by a pack of wolves and had to climb a tree to escape.

The children learnt how to use specific software on an iPad to capture frames of the animation. We incorporated a backdrop and a few different characters to make the scene as dramatic as possible.

In our science this’s half term we have been learning about light and shadows. Over the weeks, we have scrutinised what a light source is and found different examples of light sources. Last week, 3vL worked with Mrs Brown on a science experiment to find different materials that were either transparent, translucent or opaque.

This half term has seen a step up in our maths learning and the introduction of complex multiplication and division beyond our times tables. This is letting us work out calculations such as 26×8 and 73×4. We have been using lots of physical resources to explore what happens to numbers when we multiply them together.

One of the highlights of Year 3 at ACE is our annual Lemminkeinen workshop. Matthew Bellwood, a local dramatist and storyteller, joins us to teach the children the story of Lemminkeinen – a prominent figure in Finnish mythology. The day allows the children to explore the story and characters through song, ,drama and puppet theatres.

We started the day with some warm ups and learning the two songs which tell part of the story. They were both sung to the tune of traditional Finnish folk songs, giving the children a chance to sing in a style they were not used to. Matthew then told the story of Lemminkeinen. He was so captivating and a fantastic role model for the class in how to keep an audience interested using just the power of your voice. The children were then able to retell the story through drama using some amazing costumes, props and masks.

How amazing do they look!

The final part of the day involved the children retelling the story in small groups using some puppet theatre. Each group had a section of the story to retell and were tasked with designing puppet characters and backgrounds. Those of you who were schooled in the 80s will be familiar with overhead projectors but to this class it was brand new technology. Using acetates and coloured pens they created characters and scenery and used card to make silhouettes as well. These were projected onto large screens so the rest of the class could be the audience.

With some phenomenal team work, the class retold the whole story with some imaginative puppets and scenery, capping off a wonderful day.

This week saw our long-anticipated visit to Murton Park to support our learning about the Stone Age. It was a cold day, but enthusiasm ran high as we took part in a variety of activities based around daily life for Stone Age people. Our day started in the biggest roundhouse observing Stone Age artefacts and working out what they might have been used for. As the Stone Age is prehistory (before written records) we can only make educated guesses at how people lived back then.

The middle section of the day involved us splitting into 4 groups to take part in different household tasks that would have been essential for survival.

• Weaving with wool to create new clothes
• Grinding wheat to make flour
• Using clay to create and decorate beaker pots to store ingredients or to cook with
• Working silently as a team to hunt with spears

Our day ended in one of the smaller roundhouses, which was darker and lit only by the fire in the middle. Out Stone Age guide, Moon, told us that at the end of the day families would gather to tell stories. The children enjoyed the gripping nature of the storytelling and its twists and turns.

Across school we have been focusing on anti-bullying week. The week started with the children and staff coming in with their odd socks on, mirroring schools up and down the country. Our class recognition board for this week was also turned over to the children, who were tasked with spotting and recognising children in 3vL who have shown kindness throughout the week. As you can see, 3vL are a *very* kind class!

On Thursday we worked with the Big Foot Theatre Company to create a music video for our school using the song Power for Good by the CBBC stars Andy and the Band. The children were encouraged to think about how they can be a power for good in the world by being an upstander (someone who stands up for others and is proactive in their actions) rather than being a bystander (someone who watches things happen but doesn’t step up to make a difference.

Our annual Stone Age workshop is one of the highlights of our Stone Age topic and a chance for the children to show off some of the skills and knowledge they have been learning about. This year was no exception and I would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents who were able to attend and make the sessions so enjoyable.
The excitement at being able to draw cave paintings on the wall of our building was palpable and the conversations I overheard between children and grown ups showed how much they have learnt in the past few weeks.