Tuesday 28 December 2010

Spring Summer Autumn Winter

Hello to all 3W readers. Have a look at http://mrwinter.edublogs.org for my latest blog...still very early days and I'm trying out edublogs for a change.

I hope you are all well. Keep in touch with your news.

Mr Ben

Tuesday 17 August 2010

How were the holidays?

If there are any ex 3W readers out there, then let me know, by commenting, how your holidays went.

I'm still on holiday and am busy settling into my new/old home...the same oneI left when I came to work in Bangkok.

I've been busy cutting the weeds down in the garden, buying bikes and helping the girls get used to the British roads. We have also been making plans to make our home bigger.

Bea is growing well and has learned to smile, gurgle and hold things in her hands. She is very good at sleeping and filling her nappy!

Please send a comment on your holidays!

Mr Ben

Wednesday 23 June 2010

500 Marble Reward tomorrow

Wow! The year has rushed by and we are in the final week.

We said goodbye to Samuel on Tuesday and will be saying goodbye to everyone else on Friday.

Tomorrow afternoon, Thursday 24th, we will have our final 500 marble reward for Y3. Come in your own clothes.

Party food will be provided by school.

Also please remember to bring a large plastic bag to school to put artwork, record of achievement and Egyptian books.

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Homework

This week's homework is to design and make a poster to advertise your busking day act (busking day will be on Tuesday 22nd June and Y3 will performing from 10:00 - 10:30).

Please spell all of these words correctly if you use them in your poster:

busking,
performance,
donation,
charity,
location,
audience,
listening.

Please make sure you tell the poster reader about where and when you will be performing.

It might be a good idea to draw a map of the walkway and the hardcourt to show exactly where you will be.

400 marble reward

Well done to 3W for reaching 400 marbles!
Each child received a marble for their reading during book week and this pushed the total past 400.

We will be having a classpartyDVDcombination reward from 1:30 - 2:30 on Thursday 17th June.

We will spend some of the hour watching a DVD and some of the hour playing games and eating nice snacks...but we will need children in 3W to bring the snacks.

You can also wear your own clothes for the day, to celebrate reaching 400 marbles.

Friday 11 June 2010

Egyptian skyline

Here are some of our Egyptian sklyine pictures.

Hope you like them:


Reading week

Great photos from today's event and also from this week's reading week.

Don't forget to bring in your reading minutes sheets on Monday so that we can add the last few days' information.

Have a look for the "Where's Wally?" photo.

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Reading minutes challenge - Day 1

Our reading minutes challenge started yesterday and today we have collected in the minutes.


Well done to Bubblegush group (what an amazing group name too!) for reading the magnificent total of 208 minutes yesterday. All 4 members (Melanie, Toby, Joe and Annabel) of the group:

  • read
  • wrote down their reading minutes
  • brought their sheet to school

Not far behind is The Beast Children with 175 minutes.

Ahead so far in the individual challenge is Seb on the page turning total of 101 minutes!

Have a look here for the scores.

How many minutes did 3W read altogether on Monday?

Parents, please remind your child to bring in the reading minutes sheet every day this week, with minutes written down and a signature from you (if possible) to "certify" the minutes.

Thanks.

Monday 7 June 2010

Mymaths - coordinates homework

Tonight's homework for maths is the Mymaths coordinates activity. It should be completed by next Monday, 14th June.

Reading minutes

I gave out the reading minutes record sheets today and will start to add the information to the class spreadsheet tomorrow.

Remember:

You must record your reading on the record sheet.
You must bring the record sheet to class every day so that reading minutes can be added to the class spreadsheet.
When reading at home, try to get an adult to sign for the minutes you read.

You will need to have a reading book in class - either a school book or a home book - so that you can Drop Everything And Read.

Today was great, with lovely, silent, enjoyable reading going on in class.

Keep it up at home!

Friday 4 June 2010

Sharing books with K2T

During book week we will be having

  • Character Day on Friday 11th June (come dressed up if possible and bring 100 Baht for the Y3 charity)
  • DEAR time in class (Drop Everything And Read) - so bring a favourite book to keep on your desk so that you can read it whenever you hear the signal...
  • Book sharing with K2T (Miss Tracey) on Thursday at 10:10 in our Library time
  • Story read by Mr Tilke on Thursday afternoon from 1:10 - 1:30
  • Reading Minutes challenge for Homework - who will be the winning team and winning individual reader for the week?

Tuesday 1 June 2010

Do you have any square pants?




For Y3 book day on 11th June, you could come as Spongebob Square Pants...if you have some square pants!



Come dressed as your favourite book character.

If you want to come with a few simple props, then that's fine.

If you want to make a fancy costume, that's fine too.

You could come as Charlie from the books of Roald Dahl...

You could come as Wally and dress in red and white striped clothes.

There will also be an individual and a team reading minutes challenge...details to come soon.

Egyptian Day
















































































































Thanks to Rachel for these photos...I was really pleased to see you learning and having fun.
Great costumes...well done for looking very authentic!
What material would the Egyptians have used to make their clothes?
How would they have made it?

























































































Wednesday 26 May 2010

Welcome!



As you may know, I have been waiting, usually patiently, for the birth of our third child.

Today at 3:30 am, Beatrice was born, weighing 3.23 kilograms.
Is this closest to 7 pounds, 7 pounds 2 ounces or 7 pounds and 7 ounces?

Thanks for your kind messages. I'm sure Miss Anne will bring her into the class for you to see in the next few weeks.

Friday 21 May 2010

Friday 21st

Good Morning,

I hope you all had a good day yesterday.
Please let me know what you have been doing at home.

Please check that you have done the activities from previous days.

Thanks to Samuel, Seb, Bua and Punn for responding to the Learning at home questionnaire. Please have a go if you have not done it already. I can see all of your responses when I look at my google docs. We will use some of the information when we get back to school...hopefully on Monday. Keep watching the school blog.

Well done to Joe - for contacting me about his wikispaces password...he now has a new one and can help add to the class wiki.

Richie now has his mymaths login details and so can now do the maths activities from a few days ago.

Today's tasks...

Maths - Answer these two maths activities. First this one, then this one.

If you make a mistake,
  • try to work it out correctly on your own.
  • If you cannot, ask an older brother or sister to try to explain.
  • If they cannot, ask an adult.
  • If there is no one who can help, please comment and either I will help or I will do a blog post and ask other classmates to help.
Read for at least 30 minutes. Comment either as a blog post, as a book review on the school library website (if the book is listed there), or in your blue reading record.

Keep adding to your research for your Egyptian book so that we can use the research in class. Adding to the wiki is another great way for you to share what you have found out.
Let me know if you want me to add another page to the wiki.

Please make sure you also do some exercise, eat healthily and help out around the home.

That's all for today.
Hope to see you on Monday, but keep checking the school website for details.

Thursday 20 May 2010

Today's learning from home

A big well done to Samuel, who has been editing the class Ancient Egypt wiki .

Many of you have logins for this wiki which allow you to read, edit and add information to the site. Please have a go, or let me know if you are not yet a member. I will then send you an invite and you will need to make up a name to use so that you can take part.

Here is an Ancient Egyptian quiz, which Miss Caswell kindly said we could use. You need to check whether facts are true or false and may use the internet. If you need to, please check with your parents first.

Please check your email inboxes and take the opportunity to read any old emails, keep the ones you want/need to, and throw the rest in the bin!

Log onto storynory. http://storynory.com/archives/educational-stories/ and learn a few tongue twisters! They are HARD!!

If you find any words that you do not know what they mean please write them in your Blue book. Later you can look up the meaning and write it with the word in your Blue book.

Don't forget to go to mymaths if you haven't done the two units from the last few days.
Here are some other links.

Please comment on the ones you find most helpful.

Maths Number
http://www.mymaths.co.uk/
http://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/math-trainer-multiply.html
http://www.mathszone.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/
http://www.bigbrainz.com/
If you have lego, bricks, boxes or anything like that try to build a map of the Nile and Egypt (Like the one in our shared area) take a photo for our blog!


Hope to see you soon.

Wednesday 19 May 2010

Egyptian Day Postponed

We have decided to postpone tomorrow's Egyptian Day.

That means we will still have Egyptian Day BUT it will be on another day.

All the teachers are very sorry, but don’t worry we will still do it.

Another day at home!

We are at home again! Bangkok is not safe for school buses to travel through so make the most of being at home.

Please check through the activities I have given for Friday, and Monday and do these if you have not done so.

Keep learning by:

Reading for 30 minutes...please read with an adult if possible...this might mean reading aloud, or it might mean the adult asking you about your reading. Please record you reading or thoughts about your book in your blue reading record.

Maths: enter data into this googleform. I will then ask you to interpret the data on another day.




Literacy and Humanities: carry on researching your chosen topic for you Ancient Egypt booklet. Don't forget to use the bloglinks here.

Please email me with your news or send a comments on the blog. I would really like to know what you are getting up to.

I hope to see you all soon.

Monday 17 May 2010

Is water a mineral?

During our learning about rocks and minerals, Seb came up with the question

Is water a mineral?

We weren't sure of the answer so looked in books and encyclopedias. There weren't any convincing answers.

We looked on the internet. This site, which is a site you can add your own answers to, gave the answer of NO.

However, you have to be careful what you read on the internet...Last year I was playing around with a site callled wikianswers, with my daughters. We thought it would be fun to ask the question...Who is the best in 4M?...as you can see, it is quite easy to put information onto the internet which may be an opinion or may not be true.

Anyway, Seb went away and thought and decided that he NEEDED TO ASK AN EXPERT.

Luckily for Seb, he has a relative who is a scientist.


I asked Seb
"Can I publish his explanation to the blog?" and "Are you happy with his explanation or do you need another expert to back up his answer? "
He said :
It is ok for you to put it on the blog and I kinda want another scientist to back it up to see if they have the same idea.

So here's the reply Seb got to his email:

Dear Seb
It's GREAT to get a message from you.
I am not an expert on minerals but it seems to me that ice fulfills all the requirements of minerals that I learned in school. I looked to see if the requirements have changed since then, that is, whether there is a new definition of mineral.
It looks like in 1995 some mineral experts added a new requirement, which is that the crystal be formed by geologic processes. If you follow that definition, ice
would not be a mineral because it's formed rapidly and reversibly. However,
by the standard definition, I believe that ice should be considered a mineral.

So, if there are any science teachers out there or experts in minerals, who could add to our discussion, please comment.

Egyptian Day 20th May...hopefully

What do shapes, pictograms and mummification have in common?

Good Morning 3W!
As you all know, there has been a lot of trouble and disruption in Bangkok and the school has had to close because of possible dangers on the bus routes to school.

So, to keep you busy and help you continue to learn, here are some things for you to be doing:
1.Read a good book for about 30 minutes. Afterwards spend 5 minutes writing your reaction to it...remember to use DETAILS from the story to back up your ideas.
2. There are 2 new activities on Mymaths for you to have a go at:
2D and 3D Shapes
Pictograms and charts.
3. Research Mummification and make notes.
After reading, answer these questions:
What does decompose mean?
What is an embalmer?
Why was the heart left inside the body?
Why was the body covered and stuffed with natron?
Why was the washed body covered in oils?
What does dehydrated mean?
Why was the body stuffed with dry materials?
Which god looked after the lungs?

Now try to get past the challenges of the underworld.

Don't forget to do some exercise, and I hope to see you tomorrow.

Oh...and what do shapes, mummification and pictograms have in common?

Sunday 16 May 2010

School Closed on Monday due to Bangkok Disturbances

School will be closed on Monday 17th May.



Learning will be from home on this day.



Check the blog in the morning for Monday's work.

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Building in 3D...sort of!

If you like making models using lego or other construction materials, then you will love this site.

You build in 2D and a computer 3D model is built. Have a go.

What can you build?

Have a look here.



Here is an example from Jessie and Annabel, which they very cleverly took a photo of as a screenshot (Shift+prt Scrn) and then saved as a word document and THEN emailed as an attachment:



If you know that you need to have some practice naming 3D shapes and giving their properties (faces, edges and vertices (or corners)) then this site is the one for you. We used it in class. Click on the STARTER ACTIVITY button. Follow the link here.

Do you want to help wrap up some parcels? You need to know which net is the right one for the diffeerent shaped parcels. Follow this link.

Own Clothes day AND extra break time tomorrow!

3W have done really well by reaching 200 marbles!

The rewards are
  • to wear your own clothes tomorrow, Wednesday 12th May, (some people brought them in today and so they will have this reward today)
  • 10 minutes extra playtime toworrow, Wednesday 12th May.

Monday 10 May 2010

Tonight's homework is 3D!

Make a shape from the net you were given today.

Remember to :

  • Cut the shape out carefully and accurately
  • Crease the dotted fold lines between the shapes faces and the flaps
  • Decorate the blank side of the net (you could make the shape look like a real Egyptian pyramid, or you could use hieroglyphics to decorate a border)
  • Cut a small hole in the shape for the string if you want to be able to hang up the shape
  • Glue the shape together
  • While it is drying, have a good chat with someone near you, sing a song or learn to recite the alphabet backwards...it's up to you, but it will help you pass the time as the glue dries.

Forgot your net? DON'T panic! Have a look here for some printable nets.

Have fun...in 3D!

Sunday 9 May 2010

Would you like to go to school on a boat?

That's what these children in Varanasi in India are doing.

Why do you think the school is on a boat?

Who organised the school?

Would you prefer to go to school on a boat? Why?

What do you think are the problems with going to school on a boat?

What kind of net do you not use to go fishing?

When you open up a 3D shape, you have a net.

If you open up a cube, you have a net with 6 square faces...but how many different nets could you make from a cube?

Try this site to have a go.
Solid shapes and their nets - cube


Thursday 6 May 2010

Egyptian Day - 20th May - get your costume ready!








































Costume ideas will be coming out in a newsletter soon.

If you have any friends in Year 4 they might have a costume which you could borrow from last year.

Wednesday 28 April 2010

How hard is rock?

Seb and Joe found out that a man called Mr Moh invented a scale of hardness, which we call the Moh scale.
Samuel reminded us that diamond is the hardest rock.
Seb and Joe also discovered that talc is the softest rock.

Due to the different properties of rocks and minerals, we use different rocks for different purposes.

Would you make a floor tile out of chalk? Why?
Would you make a roof tile out of diamond? Why?
Would you use granite for a wind screen (windshield)? Why

We use rocks for different purposes, because of their properties.

Here are some other interesting rock facts and questions which really make you think about how often we use rocks and minerals.

Here is a great site which shows how rocks and minerals are used around the home.

Monday 26 April 2010

Monday 26th Cake Homework



Your homework will involve making biscuits (cookies) using the recipe below. If you cannot do this sometime this week, then try to calculate double the quantities, for your maths homework.

Why?
  1. Because we are learning about metamorphic rocks and cooking is very much like the process of making metamorphic rocks...there is pressure (mixing) and there is heat (from the oven) and the result is that the ingredients change their structure and how they look.
  2. Also, you may decide to DOUBLE the ingredients because you want to bring some in to school...This is great for your maths practice.
  3. Measuring will be really helpful for those of you who need some practice at accurately taking measurements.
  4. Oh, it's also because they are tasty .

The recipe for Metamorphic Munchables is shown below...they will be lavaly.


WARNING FROM SEB:

The cakes were very runny with the recipe's amount of flour...you may need to add some more flour.

Ingredients:

125g caster sugar, one egg, 75g chocolate chips, 150g self raising flour, 75g soft butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence.

Utensils:

scales, a large bowl, a wooden spoon, a teaspoon, a dessert spoon, a greased baking sheet, a wire cooling rack, an oven and oven gloves.

What you do:

Ask an adult to turn on the oven to 190 C (375 F or Gas 5)

Cream the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg and vanilla essence.

Mix in the flour.

Stir in the chocolate chips.

Use a dessert spoon to drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto the greased baking sheet. Leave space for the mounds to spread as they cook.

Ask an adult to put the cookies in the oven. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes or until they are golden brown. When they are ready, ask an adult to take them out of the oven and lift them on to a wire rack to cool and harden.

Enjoy your Metamorphic Munchables.


Friday 23 April 2010

King Tut in New York

Great pictures here from an exhibition of artefacts connected with King Tutankhamen.

Thursday 22 April 2010

Another volcano link

Animated explanation of Earth's mantle and crust

The blog looks different doesn't it!

I had a few problems yesterday, but I hope it's now back to normal.

Please let me know if:

  • there are any problems,
  • if any links do't work
  • if you can't find something on the blog.

Thanks for reading and commenting.


What is in soil?

Choose the right words from the list below in the right sentence:
rock, four, magnifying glasses, sieves, microscope, three, organic, separated.



1. We used _________ to separate out the rocks and soil.

2. Soil is made up of _________ material (it used to be alive), as well as fragments of ________

3. We used _________ sieves and __________ the soil into _________ different piles of material.

4. Afterwards, we used __________ and a ___________ to look at the particles.

Wednesday 21 April 2010

Video Book reviews

Have a look at these video book reviews.

I think you can vote on your favourite...I haven't voted yet, but if you find out how to do it please let me know.

Some of them take quite a while to load so...be patient.

Please let me know which ones you really like and we can then look at them in class together.

How can we make sand for our model of Ancient Egypt?

We are learning about Ancient Egypt and want to make a large model for the shared area. We are making it from 8 squares of corraflute (60cm x 60cm) but we need to make it more desert like.

























We have some buckets of earth, soil, and rocks.










How could we separate the sand from the soil sample?

Please send your ideas in as comments.

Monday 19 April 2010

Volcano update

Animated map of ash fallout.

Video of helicopter flying near plume of volcanic smoke - lightning and debris are visible. See below:



These sites are from Lazzy Ferlazzo's blog.

38 is the answer...what is the question?

For your homework this week, I'd like you to make 10 facts with answers of 38!
  • Aim for 10 facts.
  • Try to include at least 1 question which uses each of the four operations (+ - x and divide).
  • Try to have at least one fraction question.
  • Try to have at least one money question.
If the calculation is complicated, show your workings (use grid method, a numberline or a compact vertical method).

This homework is due in on Monday, 26th April.

Spot the difference!

Can you find a difference between these two copies of the same page from different versions of the same book?



Maybe we should write to the publishers!

Well done to Tinn and Samuel for noticing the differences while they were researching.

The cycle of life

No...not the bicycle of life!

Today our garden monitor came into class with this!

We have successfully grown rice in our Year 3 garden!

As you can see there is not enough to make a meal but we have gone from seed to plant to seed...a complete cycle of life.



We were talking about the rock cycle earlier on as well as the water cycle.

Are there any other cycles which you can think of? (apart from the ones with wheels!)

Cool lava!...no really, it is actually cool enough to touch!

We are really lucky to have a recent visitor to Iceland in our class, who returned to Bangkok hours after the volcanic activity started.

Here are some pictures.

To be esafe, we have not included the visitors name. Remember not to include names in your comments or else they will not be passed.

Do you have any questions for our visitor?

If so, post a comment and we'll post a follow up article with some answers.

Ancient Egypt Vocabulary Graphic Organiser

We used this graphic organiser to help become more familiar with words connected with Ancient Egypt.

We worked in groups and this meant that we had to listen, talk, think, cooperate, and help each other learn to say and start to understand these words.

Here is a link to the googledoc that we used in class.

You can use the hyperlinks on the document to research.

Look at some of the pictures of us working together in groups.


Sunday 18 April 2010

Iceland Volcano affects worldwide flights

You must have been hearing about the volcanic eruptions in Iceland.

Flights from some parts of Europe have been delayed due to particles of rock, sand and glass in the air.  See this CBS news report.

Here are some links for you to find out more:

CBBC - What causes volcanoes?  You can also find out 2 helpful effects of volcanoes.
ABC -  Iceland Volcano: Spewed Ash Grounds Planes
BBC - animated guide to volcanoes

Also don't forget to look at the Rock Cycle post from last week which has a great animation of volcanoes as part of the whole process of how rocks are made from magma.

Thursday 15 April 2010

Rock Cycle

Find out about the rock cycle and then show your knowledge and understanding by completing the googleform.

Use this great animated site to help you answer the questions.

Add your answers to the googleform.

Right click on the link here and then open the google form in a new tab or window.

Remember to read carefully and repeat the animation if you need to.

Here's the animation.

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Volcano in Iceland Erupts - see video

Thanks to the 3M blog, have a look at this amazing video of a helicopter flying right past a gushing spray of molten lava.

Go here for video.

Here's another one.

Try this link too for an underwater volcanic eruption.

Monday 12 April 2010

Flat Anubis

You know the story of Flat Stanley, don't you?

Well, these children have written another version of the story and their Flat characters went to different places in the world.  Listen to their story and comment.

Today I just found this site which has a Flat Anubis.  You can print and cut out the Anubis character and then the idea is to take a photo of it in a special place.

Maybe Anubis could be about to go swimming in your pool...maybe Anubis could be about to get into a taxi...Anubis might be going shopping in Cantral Bangna.

Take some photos and then send them in, either to me or to the original website.

The website also allows you to send an ecard with an Egyptian theme...send to a friend or relative and let them know what you have been up to in the holidays.

Here's one I sent.



Friday 9 April 2010

Build the knowledge!

Here's the latest from the Ancient Egypt wiki...

Do we only know about them (the Ancient Egyptians) from hieroglyphics on papyrus paper?

Have a look here and add your own findings to our class knowledge.

Sunday 4 April 2010

Easter and Songkran

The assembly in school on Friday told us how we could get ready for Songkran.

Today Maisie and I were blowing eggs...we made holes in both ends of the eggs, wiggled a toothpick around in the egg to loosen up the insides (a bit like what the Ancient Eggyptians(!) did with the brains of people they were about to mummify) and blew out the contents.  We then painted them. 

How are Eggs and bunnies connected to Easter?  Have a look here.

Have a look at the wiki we have been taking part in, along with The Smarties, a class in Australia and many other classes around the world.  The aim was to discover how people celebrate Easter.  As Songkran is celebrated in Thailand, I said we would write about Songkran instead.  Well done to those children who sent in writing to be included: Punn, Annabel, Richie, Cane, Laure and Toby.

Have a happy Easter OR Songkran.

Friday 2 April 2010

Fantastic Photo Frames Finished, Finally!

Great work 3W!

What did you most enjoy about the project?

T Ball Success

Lesser known cousin of baseball and softball, Tball is a game which we have been learning in PE.

Here are some photos from our very successful TBall championship at school today.

The 3W girls team won and the boys came second. Great teamwork, strategy making, communicating, persistence and fun! Well done!

Thursday 1 April 2010

Egyptian Tomb Adventure

Thanks to Miss Jane's blog for this great site.

Find Egypt and have an adventure.

Click here to have a go.

Library Poster Competition

Design a poster which advertises the Library.

Look here.

Remember your question words...they will help you add detail:
who
what
where
when
why
which
how

There will be a prize for the best design in each year group, and for the overall winner.

The decision of the judges is final.

The closing date for all entries is Monday 26 April 2010 at 0800 hours.

Wednesday 31 March 2010

Gems with Ashish

Thanks to Ashish Kumar (Prabhav's Dad from 3w 2008/2009)for coming in and showing us lovely sparkly gems and explaining about how they get to be sparkly, where they are found, the difference between precious and semi precious stones and much more.

This week

Thanks to all the children who came to the Parent Teacher Student Conferences last night. 6 out of 10 were at the meetings.

I look forward to seeing more of you tonight and some more on Friday afternoon.

This week is the final week before the Songkran holiday. We have:

A visit by Ashish, Prabhav's dad (a parent from last year's class) to show some shiny gems!

Tomorrow we have our 500 Marble reward in the afternoon. This is a Splash Afternoon and you need to bring clothes which can get wet, a towel, suncream, maybe you want some goggles, and a watergun...not too powerful please as they can hurt eyes.
We need to find time for the 400 marble reward sometime!)

T-ball competition is on Friday at 8am.
Songkran assembly - Friday, after the Tball.

We will need a holiday!

Tuesday 30 March 2010

Smile Day Collage

Not quite everyone on this collage...but I hope you like this Picasa Collage.


:

The Twits

Love the Twits?

Do you enjoy reading about a smelly, dirty mean bearded man and his equally grotesque wife?

Then click here and use your BPS login to hear the story

What comes in 5s?

Potatoes come in packs of 5.

In Year 3 there are 167 students/pupils/children/small people.

Each child will eat 1 juicy, buttery, warm, tasty, sweet baked potato.

How many packs will we need to buy?
Will there be any left over?

How many packs would they need if each child had just played football for 3 hours and was really hungry and so wanted two potatoes each?

Please take some pictures at the supermarket if you see any things which are sold in packs of 5.

Monday 29 March 2010

Ch and tch sounds

We enjoyed playing this game today, and we came up with lots of words with the different spellings of the /ch/ sound (phoneme).


Have a go by clicking here.

Sunday 28 March 2010

Reading Challenge

We have nearly reached the end of Term 2 and soon we will have the Songkran holidays.

It's time to have a reading challenge! 
Have a look at this list which is on the School Library catalogue.
How do I get there?
From the BPS website, click on students, Library, Primary, Library Catalogue, Catalogue, Mr Ben's Reading Tips (Year 3).

What do I need to do?
From now until the end of April (that is about 6 weeks) I want you to:
  1. read as many books from the list as you can
  2. record details of your reading on this form
  3. write reviews on the school library catalogue.  Try to make them at least 3 sentences long.
  4. try to find connections between the books you read.  They might be about the same animal or they may happen on desert islands.
Happy reading!

There should be books for everyone in the class to read, but if you find these books challenging, read them with an adult.  That's just as good.

Saturday 27 March 2010

Easter and Songkran

Dear 3W,

Do you remember the school in Australia which wanted to find out how we celebrate Easter?

Well I said that most Thai people celebrate Songkran.
I know that some of you celebrate Easter as well.

Please have a look at their wiki here:
http://eastertraditions.wikispaces.com/

Have a look at how Easter is celebrated in Israel. Did you know what the Ceremony of Passover is?
http://eastertraditions.wikispaces.com/Israel

You cannot add to this wiki. but instead could you please reply to this email with a sentence or two about How you celebrate Easter or Songkran.

I would also like to do some learning in class about this.

Have a good weekend.

LATE NEWS: Annabel was the first to reply! Please look at her comment and add your own information by leaving a comment below OR emailing me.


Thursday 25 March 2010

Poo!

And here's the CBBC quiz we looked at in class today.

Here's a homework quiz for parents...see how well they get on!

For more BBC quizzez, go here.

If you want to make your own quiz try this site. You might need some adult help.

Good luck.

Joe's slideshow

Joe diligently researched rocks and also learned how to make and sent a powerpoint.

Great learning Joe!

What's rock good for?

That's what we were finding out about this afternoon.

We took photos around the school last week (thanks Miss Kem).

We uploaded the pictures to Picasa and then made a caption for each.



We used these words:
natural and man made
words for the sense of touch (bumpy, smooth, rough)
words for colour
words to describe what the rock is used for

We also made a cool collage (collage also has the /zh/ phoneme we were looking at today)


3W chess champs!

Look here for some pictures of pure concentration and focus.

Do you play chess?

Do you know the names of all of the pieces?

Do you know how each piece moves?

I wonder if chess pieces have the same names all over the world?

I wonder what the pieces are called in Australia and America?

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Do you like cars?

One of the blogs which I follow is by an American teacher called Larry Ferlazzo.
He writes lists of links to great websites.
One he made recently was a list of websites about cars.

I know that there are several car crazy members of 3W, so follow this link for a great list.

Here is one of the links from Larry's site:
The car that flies

Where would you go in a car that could fly?
Who would you take and what would you pack in your bag?

Rock or not?

Here are some samples which I brought into school.



Are they rocks or not?

Are they natural or man made?
Are they igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary? Why do you think so?

Most rock scientists (Geologists) need to use other senses to test rocks...Let's be geologists...how should we test these rocks?

Tuesday 23 March 2010

How do I get better at division?

We have been getting so much better at division.


First of all we read the question forwards and then backwards!


This might sound crazy, but we read 45÷ 5 as:

"fortyfive divided by five AND THEN how many fives are there in 45.


It makes the question so much easier to understand.


Have a look at the progression below, (thanks to StMichaelsLichfield for this great document.

Monday 22 March 2010

Add to the class wiki!

Do you know the answers to these questions about about rocks and soils?

Do you know the answers to these questions about the Ancient Egyptians?

You might be able to find some of the answers here.

If you do then log into the wiki and add some answers.

If you are from 3W and you don't have a login, email me and I'll set you up.

You have the chance to show your knowledge, research skills and writing WHILE helping others learn at the same time.

Punn has added to the wiki here. Great Learning, Punn.

Sunday 21 March 2010

Fabulous fiddlers!


Well done to our amazing violinists from 3W who performed so well at the lunchtime concert. They did a great job...especially as they didn't have their accompaniment CD!

Well done, you sounded note perfect.

Mr Parkin was good too...wasn't he!

Rock Song

Do you like rock songs?

Here's one which has words which you don't normally associate with rock songs...like schist, limestone, shale and granite.

Thanks to Joe for this link.

Thursday 18 March 2010

Stunning nature photos

The BBC has an incredible selection of photos in a really great format.
Look here and you can select what kind of pictures you see.
I found an amazing underwater image of an elephant.

Look here.

Types of Rock

There are three kinds of rock:

Igneous rocks - come from inside the earth...look here for a cool animated site.

Sedimentary rocks are made by particles of rock (or sand) being dropped or deposited in layers.

Metamorphic rocks are made by changing one of the other types of rock.

We call the process of making and changing rocks The Rock Cycle. Look here too.

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Why are diamonds so expensive?

Why are diamonds so expensiveis a question which lots of 3W want to answer.

Can you help us?

Please leave your answer as a comment.

Here are some links to help you research:
Warrinerprimaries
FOSS web rocks and soils database - includes colourful pictures of different sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks
40 common minerals and their uses

Here's a quiz for you to try.

Tuesday 16 March 2010

Granny Prix

If the idea of Racing Grannies on their wheelchairs sounds fun to you, then this is the site for you.

You can customise (change) the hair and skin colour of your Granny as well as the wheelchair design and wheel type.

Then it's up to you to race your Granny as fast as she will go, which depends on your addition skills.

What a great game!

Also a reminder that timezattack is a great way to learn times tables in an arcade style game.

Write better sentences

Are you bored of writing the same old sentences?
Do you always start off with the same words?
Would you like to make your readers sit up with surprise and be unable to put your writing down?

Then try this link to a very helpful site.

Sentenceplay lets you type in a basic sentence and then gives you ideas to help you improve it.

There are ideas like:
try starting the sentence with a verb which begins with ing
try starting the sentence with an adverb
start some sentences with details of WHEN the event happened
add better verbs

Please paste in some of your best sentences into the comment box...and don't forget your name!

Monday 15 March 2010

Tonight's homework

Please have a go at the multiplication activities on mymaths.co.uk.

Try to edit Punn's writing or have a read of Melanie's story, which has fantastic mythical beings.

Answer some questions on the wiki about rocks and soils or The Ancient Egyptians

Multiplying Marvels

Look at these great photos of 3W using the grid method to multiply!

Once you can partition numbers into Hundreds Tens and units, and you know a few times tables, the world is your oyster.























Here is a video of Adelia explaining how to multiply using the grid method.
Doesn't she explain her calculation well?