Each student got a piece of paper and wrote their name at the top, then they passed passed their paper to someone else.

As the paper arrived they wrote something kind about that child then passed it to the next student along until every one has written something kind about everyone in the class.

Once they get their own paper back they  sat and read all the lovely things that their friends have said about them.

Today we spent the first part of the working in teams to sort words and punctuation into a sentence.  The learning intention was 'I can use commas in a list.'

Today the students worked with life size parts of a skeleton.  Without any teaching they had to work together to do their best to fit all the parts correctly together. Tomorrow they will labelling each part. Some new words they learned today were the scapula, clavicle, tibia, fibula, ulna, femur, ulna and radius! 

This week, as part of their mental maths warm up,  the students worked in table groups to practise their skip counting.  In groups, they each had to say the multiples from the 3 and then 4 times table. Once complete they had to quickly sit down! Perhaps you could play a version of this at home or on car journeys.

It was a rather quiet World Book Day today with only 6 students in the classroom but we still managed to celebrate our love of reading by connecting with everyone else who was isolating at home. You all looked fantastic dressed up as your favourite book characters. 

Last week was busy!  It was Mental Health Week and Tuesday was Internet Safety Day.  

The class created support balloons after watching a short media clip about the importance of having someone to talk to if and when they are feeling down.

 For Internet Safety Day they designed their own set of rules on how to stay safe when online and created posters.

This week the students familiarised themselves with a set of instructions these had used before the holidays.  They then had to identify the features of the instructional text.  After this they cut, ordered and labelled each of them.  

• Title

• A list of resources needed

• List of numbered instructions

• Imperative verbs

• Time connectives

• photographs/diagrams

They are now ready to have a go writing their own set of instructions next week.

Today the class were working on their dictionary and spelling skills through the Dictionary Race Game.  Using their knowledge of the alphabet, their understanding of how dictionaries work as well as their spelling knowledge, they worked in pairs to 'race' to find the word.

Practising listening and using directional language

Over the last couple of weeks, P3B have been working on spotting whether a statement is fact or an opinion.  

A fact is something that can be proven to be true or to have actually happened. An opinion is based on what someone thinks, believes and feels. Opinions can change and can not be proven. 

The activity generated lots of great discussion.

'But polar bears are cute! That is true!'

'But can it proven?'

'Does everyone agree with this statement?'

The class then worked in groups to read and sort other statements about polar bears as fact or opinion.

We read the book Leaf by Sandra Dieckmann. It is a moving story of a community coming together to conquer challenge and fear. It also explores the impact of climate change and our own impact on the world around us. 

Leaf is a beautifully illustrated book.  Some of the pictures prompted us to investigate the Northern Lights.  After watching a video clip of the Northern Lights, they used chalk to recreate the scenes with Leaf the polar bear in the forefront.

This week the class became familiar with the terms 'natural' and 'human- made' or 'manufactured'. After making some predictions we used a dictionary to discover the real meanings of the words.

They then sorted each of the materials into the two different categories. We found that paper and glass, although human made, started from natural resources.

The lesson ended watching some video clips of how glass and silk were made.

The next lesson focused on learning about the properties of materials.  The class learned what an adjective was and used this knowledge to describe each material. They worked collaboratively in their table groups, moving around the class recording their words about each material. 

Please excuse the poor quality of the photos below. Issues with converting HEIC files to jpegs.

Last week and this week the students have been practising the skill of Read to Self. We spent time unpacking what this would look like in the class and together drew up our very own anchor chart. 

Here are some photos of them reading to themselves and building their stamina with reading independently.

Read to Someone is all about sharing a book together.  Again the superstars of P3B practised this and learned the EEKK song (see above).  Ask them to sing it to you when you next share a book at home!