Years 3 and 4 Become First Year Hogwarts Students!

Today, Years 3 and 4 were lucky enough to experience life as first-year students making their way to Hogwarts for the first time!

To start the day, the children were all given their own acceptance letters, confirming that they had a place at the prestigious Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.  

Next, the children made their way to the Leaky Cauldron, which is the secret entrance to Diagon Alley.  They then tapped a brick wall and made their way along the corridor, and into Diagon Alley itself.

Here they experienced the hustle and bustle of a busy marketplace as they began to find out about all the different items first year students needed, as well as the shops they needed to visit to buy the items.

When the children had finished in Diagon Alley, it was time to board the Hogwarts Express!  The children were seated in their carriages ready for the long journey ahead.  They found out all about the rules aboard the train and the sweets that passengers could purchase.

After we had arrived at Hogwarts, it was time to be sorted into our Houses!  The children were called up one by one, the Sorting Hat was placed upon their heads, and the chosen houses were revealed - Griffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin.

The children found out all about the characteristics of the pupils in each house and were then seated with the rest of their team.

We all really enjoyed our morning, and we are looking forward to writing a guidebook for other first-year students, so we can share our knowledge.

River Walk

Year 3 have started learning about rivers as part of their 'Go With the Flow' learning unit. To get some inspiration for what a river environment is like, we took a walk through Manor Farm Park this week to look at the River Hamble.

We used our senses to reflect on what we could see, hear, smell and touch near the riverside. We will be using some of these ideas to write some river poetry.

We used keys to identify the different trees and plants we could find that were near the banks of the river. We needed to look carefully at the plant shape and the types of leaves.

We noticed that the river bank has lots of browns and greens. To help broaden our vocabulary to describe the environment, we used colour charts to identify the names of different shades.

We also had the opportunity to do some sketching near the main channel of the river.

We had a great time exploring a river which is only a short walk from our school! We now have lots of ideas we can use as part of our learning this term. Thank you to all of the adults who also supported us on our visit.

Stone Age Pottery

We've been busy practising the coil method to make our own stone age pottery in Year 3. We needed to make sure that we attached the coils securely so that they did not fall apart when the pots dried. Some children kept their coils as a design feature, others decided to smooth the gaps to make smoother sides. The size of our coils would change due to the shape of pot we were making. Depending on the purpose of our container, some of us also needed to make lids and handles.

After our pots had dried, we painted them to make them look like artefacts from the stone age itself and added a glaze to give them a shine.

Year 3 and 4 Stone Age Day!

Year 3 and 4 have had a marvellous time learning about the 2.5 million years of life during the Stone Age! (Click on the images to make them bigger.)

As we entered the hall, we noticed a strange cave man who grunted at us with a spear and telling us where to sit! He seemed very scary!






We first discovered that humans have developed greatly over time and that most of Britain was too cold for life to survive in. However, there was lots of evidence of humans living an area known as Doggerland which is now under the North Sea.
















We saw lots of different skulls that told us how early human forms were very different to what our bodies are like today. We explored how homo sapiens didn't develop until long after neanderthals wandered the Earth. 

We then explored how they survived and tried to create fire. It wasn't a quick process but we noticed that the friction of turning and rubbing made the wood very warm.

One of our trickier tasks was to work out strategies to catch a mammoth without it harming us. It was harder than we first thought! Lots of teamwork and careful strategy was required to trap the mammoth in the marsh.

As the Stone Age went on, homo sapiens developed ways to help them to kill animals. These included spears and bow and arrows. We found out that it was rare to kill baby deer, mothers or stags for meat. They would only kill the mature female deer. Mr Earle, Mrs Wilkinson and some of the children were saved. Sadly, Miss Wylde had to be killed!

Once the animal had been killed, we needed to discover which bits were used for food and which parts were used for clothing. The yuckiest bit that we found out was that they generally ate the eyeballs of the animal first!

We then had the chance to explore the tools they would have used in greater depth. We noticed that different shaped flints were used for different purposes. Some were used for cutting, others were used to scrape the hide of the animals and some were used as an axe. 

We even managed to see some mammoth hair!

Can you work out what some of these tools were used for?

 We also took part in a Stone Age quiz - we needed to scan and explore the resources to try and find as many answers as we could. Everyone found out lots of interesting facts that they never knew before! 

Later on in the day, we discussed the mysteries of Stonehenge and how we still don't know what it was truly built for. However, we did find out that people used to travel for hundreds of miles so they could be cured from diseases and ailments. 

We then had the opportunity to try and build our own Stonehenge - a lot of communication and problem solving was needed to make the structure work successfully!

We also learnt that ancient people also used sacrifices to help wish for good weather or for crops to be successful. Because we had entered the Bronze Age, we now had a sword to sacrifice a child with! Sometimes just the tool was used as a sacrifice - it was usually put in a river or a stream.

Knowledge by the Iron Age had progressed. Rather than rubbing wood together, they now used iron and a sharp flint to make a spark. All of the teachers managed to make sparks which could have been used to make a fire.

Tools had also progressed a lot! We discovered the swords were very heavy - even if you tried to hold them with both hands. We also looked at different weapons that had been designed to protect people from the enemy.

We finished our day by creating a timeline of all of the things we had found out and the different eras that each tool had come from. 

A really fun but informative day was had by all!