The Year 3 contributions to this year's Christmas production are a song and a dance! They both follow our Spanish theme.

A letter is attached regarding outfits, as well as a link to the YouTube video we have used in school. We are looking forward to recording our pieces towards the end of this week.

This week we were able to release the violin sticks (sorry, bows) from their cases and use them to make sounds with the violins. Great sounds!

Today we were able to finish off our 'Forces and Magnets' science topic by playing and evaluating one another's magnetic games. Some people opted for a fishing theme, and others for a 'remote control' maze. There was lots of positive feedback between classmates and some competitive play!

Good afternoon, a quick reminder that this coming Friday, 26th November will be our Classwide Reward party! The theme is PJs/onesies, but please remember, no fluffy toys or blankets, etc. Well done on getting to 100 rewards, Borrowers - you well deserve this celebration!

Last Friday was the annual Children in Need day, and the Borrowers were very generous in bringing in donations for the charity, which will go towards helping other children, who are not as fortunate as we are.

Fund-raising activities included 'non-uniform' for staff and pupils, sponging staff members and attempting to make adults laugh (easier said than done for some of us!) We were also able to spend the afternoon learning more about Children in Need, playing games, including a beetle drive in our class, and drawing.

Here are some of the happy, smiley Borrowers...

Last week we were able to use the iPads and everyone had a go at making a stop-motion animation. Our work was based on the poem, 'The Sound Collector' by Roger McGough, but we changed the setting from a house to life at sea as part of Christopher Columbus's voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

There are some photographs below of the making of the animations, followed by a YouTube link to a compilation video of all of the children's work.

To kick off our new topic for Autumn Term 2 - Hola Mexico! - the Year 3 classes spent the day exploring the Latin American festival, Dia de los Meurtos (The Day of the Dead).

Many of us came to school in unusual outfits and face paints to really get into the spirit of the day.

We learned about how the Dia de los Meurtos (in fact 3 days) is celebrated and what it means to the people of Latin America. As part of this we made Papel Picado decorations using wax crayons and a water colour paint wash, as well as cutting out to create symmetrical patterns in the paper. A highlight for a few brave souls was the making and tasting of traditional Xocolatl (drinking chocolate seasoned with cinnamon and chilli!) The children made this frothy by pouring it from a height between two jugs - some of it even made it into the jugs and not over the tables and the floor... Mr Evans then made us a more recognisable, sweet, warm, hot chocolate, which most people agreed was much tastier! Finally, we drew and decorated sugar skulls.

A busy and enjoyable day!