Welcome to Elm Class' information and blog page.  Here you will find general class information and see what we have been up to in our learning

Class teacher: Miss Speakman

Support Staff: Mrs Armstrong and Miss Jones

PE Days: 

PE will be on Mondays and Wednesdays. Please make sure your child has a PE Kit in school on these days. PE kit is: pair of black or navy shorts, a plain white t-shirt and a pair of pumps or trainers for going outside. Black or navy zipped hoodies can also be worn in cold weather. Children can wear their school kit all day on PE days if they wish - please note they are not permitted to wear other sports clothes.

Homework:

Homework will be available on Google Classrooms, the Blog and a paper copy will also be sent home. Please choose a task off the homework grid and submit via google classrooms or it can be brought in on paper. Homework is given out each Friday and needs to be submitted by the following Thursday.

Spellings will be given out each Thursday and children will be tested the following Thursday.

Reading and Times Tables:

Our school expectation is that your child reads at least three times a week at home to an adult. This needs to be recorded in your child's reading record and signed by an adult. This record needs to be brought into school every day. We will check this on a Monday and children achieve a reading sticker on their bookmark.  Once their bookmark is full they will receive a brand new book to keep as a prize  If your child has finished their reading book, please bring it in on any day to be changed.

Your child will also have access and passwords to Times Table Rockstars and Purple Mash. Their usernames and passwords will be put in their Reading Record Books.

Contact us:

If you have any questions at all, please don't hesitate to speak to us. You can catch us most mornings before school or wait to speak to us after the children have been released to parents/carers at home time. Alternatively, you can contact us via our class email address:

elm@newmoston.manchester.sch.uk

We are looking forward to having a positive, exciting year in Elm Class 

Art - Cave Drawings

Elm Class have enjoyed learning about the Stone Age this term. In Art, we have been focussing on cave paintings. Over the past few weeks, we have explored different types of media. Today, we have made our own cave drawings using our favourite media.

A fantastic fun day 🎪 🍦 

The children have had a great day today. From watching a circus show to attending circus workshops, ice cream and bouncy castles. They loved every minute ☺️ 

More from week 1 🎨 🧑🏼‍🎨

In Art, the children have started to explore different types of media such as: paints, charcoal, pastels and sketching pencils. 
 

The children were given the opportunity to use the different types of media in their Art books. The children created some fantastic designs. 📒

A lovely first day back. ☺️

English

Today, we’ve started to look at a poem call The Coming of The Iron Man. We read the poem as a class, looked at the features and then the children had a go at reading the poem to their partner. 
 

Maths

We have been working on time today. The children were using the clocks to find a start time, a finish time and then work out the duration. They did a fantastic job. 
 

Well done Elm Class 🌈

Party time 🎉 🥳 🎈 

We’ve had a fantastic end to the half term as the children celebrated earning 11 attendance certificates this afternoon. We often speak about the importance of coming to school and the children’s attendance.  
 

The children spent the afternoon with their friends, eating snacks, having some free time, listening to music and watching a film. 
 

Well done Elm Class. Well and truly deserved 🩷

Maths 

Over the past week, we have been learning how to use money and identifying the different coins and notes. 
 

The children worked really hard and have produced some fantastic Maths learning. Well done Elm Class. 🥳

02.05.2024 🐢 

Wow. What an exciting start to May.

The children thoroughly enjoyed having a class pet for the day. A big thank you to Mia and her mum for allowing us to look after Herman for the day. 
 

The children thoroughly enjoyed checking in on him and having a hold of him. Hopefully he will come to visit us again another day. ☺️

30.04.2024 🪴 

This week we managed to spare a little bit of time to plant our very own tomato and chilli plants. The children thoroughly enjoyed planting their own plant and can’t wait to take them home and look after them. 
 

A very big thank you to Erin and her mum for supplying us with the equipment to do this. ☺️

This half term our main topic is "Does it always rain in the rainforest?." In science, we are learning about 'Plants.'

We will be using 'The Iron Man' as part of our English lessons and Whole Class Reading to support us with our learning. 

Please take a look at our Topic Plan. 

20.08.2024

After looking at the features of a non-chronological report in yesterday’s English lesson, today, the children started their research on their chosen animal. The children were provided with different sources to carry out their research. They have drafted up some fantastic pieces of information ready to start writing their non-chronological report next week. 
 

Well done Elm Class 🦒🐘🐅🦓

18.03.2024 

Today, the children thoroughly enjoyed taking part in a fun and exciting English lesson. Over the next week and a half, we are going to be working towards writing a non-chronological report on African animals. Today, the children discussed what they already knew about non-chronological reports, what might be included in them, why we are writing about an African animal and finally chose their animal that they are going to write about.

The children spent some time discussing what they already know about their chosen animal and were able to link this to our current whole class read book The Butterfly Lion. 
 

Tomorrow we will be looking at the features of a non-chronological report. 
 

Well done Elm Class 🌈❤️

15.02.2024

Today, we started a new experiment in our science lesson. Our aim is to find out whether the temperature affects the amount of water that evaporates. We have used four of the same sized beakers, popped 300ml of water in each beaker and will check the water level at 10:30am for the next week.

We have put one beaker near a radiator in the classroom, one on the windowsill, one outside and one in the fridge. 
 

Come back on Friday 22nd to find out our results ☺️

12.03.2024 📖 

Below are some pictures of the children reading with their partner. Whilst one child reads, the other child uses a lolly stick to coach the child who is reading. All children worked together fabulously and thoroughly enjoyed reading through chapter 11 of the Butterfly Lion. 
 

Well done everyone ☺️🌈

This half term our main topic is "The Mayan Civilisation." We will be learning about: What life was like at the height of the Mayan Civilisation. In science, we are learning about 'States of Matter.'

We will be continuing using 'The Butterfly Lion' as part of our English lessons and Whole Class Reading to support us with our learning. 

Please take a look at our Topic Plan. 

Monday 12th February 2024

What a brilliant Monday we have had ☺️

Below are just a handful of photos from our day. 
 

P.E

During their P.E lesson, the children were working on their balance. They started off by walking across a beam. The children were given the option to use their partner as support to guide them across the beams. The children worked fantastically together ensuring that they travelled safely across the beam. The children then worked on balancing on the beam whilst alternating lifting each foot up. Again, the children worked fantastically in their pairs to support each other. 
 

Music

In our Music lessons, we have been learning a new song, how to find a steady beat and how to use the glockenspiels. The children have worked hard to follow music notes and replay them with their glockenspiels. ☺️🎼

Well done Elm Class. 🥰🌈

What a wonderful first week of learning in 2024! 
 

Welcome back everyone ☺️

We’ve had a brilliant first week back, the children have worked super hard and settled in well. 
 

This week we have started learning about the Human Body and the Victorians in our Science and History lessons. There are some images below of the children drawing around each other and having a go at placing the organs where they think they belong in the human body. The children absolutely loved this lesson and did a fantastic job. 
 

We have also started a new book called The Butterfly Lion. We read this book during our Whole Class Read and English lessons. This week, we have been getting to know the author Michael Morpurgo. Next week, we will start to ready a few chapters of the book in preparation for writing a setting description.
 

Well done Elm Class ☺️🌈 

Our first computing lesson of the year 💻 ☺️
 

We had lots of fun learning how to code during our computing lesson this week. The children worked hard to create their own backgrounds and worked together to think of ideas. 
 

Well done Elm Class! 🌈

Hello everybody and welcome to Elm Class!

Elm class is a year 3 class. In the class this year there will be myself, Miss Hewlett (Class teacher) and Mrs Armstrong (class TA). 

PE:

P.E will be on a Monday and Wednesday. 

Please make sure your child has a PE Kit in school. This needs to simply be a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and a pair of pumps or trainers for going outside. P.E kits can be left in school and taken home at the end of the half term for a wash. 

Homework:

Homework will be set on Google Classrooms as in previous years. 

Reading: 

We expect your child to read at least three times a week at home to an adult. This needs to be recorded in your child's reading  record and signed by an adult. This record needs to be brought into school every day. We will check this on a Monday. Children will earn stickers for their bookmarks if they read 3 times each week. Once their bookmark is full, they are able to choose a book to keep. 

Book Changes: 

Book changes will happen every Monday. 

Spellings:

Children will recieve 10 spellings each week and will be tested the following week. Spellings will be given out on a Thursday, with the spelling test being the following Thursday. Scores will be sent home for you to see how your child has done. 

Other:

Children will need to bring a water bottle to school and it would be great if all clothes and coats can be clearly labelled. 

My door is always open and I am only a phone call away. If you have any concerns or anything you want to chat about, please do so. Alternatively, you can drop me an email to the class email address which is elm@newmoston.manchester.sch.uk 

Here is to a great year and new adventures!

Miss Hewlett :)

Archive 2022-23

In our most recent PSHE lesson we learnt about LGBTQ+ and why people celebrate pride month. Each child created their own flag to represent them. The children used colours from the pride flag based on their meaning. 
 

Red - life

Orange - healing 

Yellow - sunlight 

Green - nature 

Blue - art

Purple - spirit 

Below are some images of the children and their flags. 
 

Well done Elm Class 🌈

This week, the children took part in a P.E lesson where they had to use their team work and organisational skills. 

The children were split into teams of six / seven and the aim of the game was for each team to stop the balloon from dropping on the floor. 

The children decided between themselves where they would like to position each player on their team. Some chose to sit close to the front, towards the back and towards the edge of the bench. 
 

The children worked hard and said how much they enjoyed this P.E lesson ☺️

From cave paintings to yoga to pyjama parties 🎉 

We have had a jam packed 7 weeks and we have loved every minute. Another half term of hard work and determination from the children in Elm Class. 
 

The children thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Stone Age and completed some fantastic pieces of History work and Homework about the Stone Age! 
 

We also had a lot of fun celebrating the children filling their marshmallow jar and had a pyjama party during the last week! 
 

I hope that everyone is having a lovely break and I can’t wait to see you all when we return to school. 
 

Miss Hewlett ☺️🌈

Please be aware that Pine Class and Elm Class will be welcomed into school and dismissed from school via the side white door near the rear school car park. This is due to building work that has started. Please follow the signs:)

This week we learnt about verbs in one of our English lessons. All of the children worked hard to think of their own sentences and include at least one verb in each sentence. 
 

Some of the children had prompt sheets to help up-level their verb for example: walked - stumbled. Other children used colourful semantics to help them produce their sentence before copying these into their books.  Colourful Semantics is a system for colour coding sentences according to the role of different words. (If you look at some of the images below this should become a little clearer to understand or you can google colourful semantics and there are lots of helpful images.) These are fantastic for supporting children when writing sentences. 
 

Take a look at some of the images below of the children writing their sentences. I am sure that they will make you smile as much as they do me. 

As always, I am super proud 🌈 

Well done everyone ☺️
 

Below are some images of the children working together to make two piles. One being a list of time adverbials and the other being a list of non time adverbials. The children did this as a starter activity and did a fantastic job. ☺️
 

We were learning about time adverbials as the children we working towards writing a set of instructions during English that week. 
 

As always, everyone worked extremely hard and the children successfully used a range of time adverbials when writing their instructions on how to wash a woolly mammoth 🦣 ☺️ 

Well done Elm Class 🌈

What a fantastic first week back! 🌈 
 

The children have been learning how to multiply and divide 2 digit by 1 digit numbers. We have used counters, base ten and column addition to learn how to complete both calculations. 
 

The children have also been working hard to compare different calculations. The children have had to work out the answers to each calculation and decide whether one is larger than the other or whether they are equal. They use the following symbols to show their answers: <  >  = 

Please take a look at some of our pictures below ☺️ 

Well done Elm Class! 

Happy New Year 🥳 

Hello everyone, 

I hope you’ve all had a lovely break over the Christmas holidays. I just want to wish the   children and families of Elm Class a very happy new year. 
 

Let’s have a fantastic spring term! 🌸☀️ 

Miss Hewlett ☺️ x

Hello everyone ☺️ 

I just want to say a massive well done to all of the children in Elm Class for a fantastic start to the year. Everyone has settled in really well and worked extremely hard over the Autumn half term. 
 

It has been a pleasure to work with such a wonderful class and I’m already looking forward to welcoming you all back in January! 
 

I hope that everyone has a well deserved break and gets lots of rest over the holidays! 
 

Have a lovely Christmas and I will see you all in two weeks. 
 

Miss Hewlett 🥰 x 

Geography 🌍 

This week in our Geography lesson, the children used the atlases to locate the worlds famous Volcanoes 🌋 

We had some fantastic discussions about the Ring of Fire which is a long line of volcanoes located in the Pacific Ocean. This is home to 452 Volcanoes. 
 

The children thoroughly enjoyed doing this and used their learning from their geography lesson when writing a non-chronological during their English lesson. In their report’s, they included a section about the Ring of Fire! 🌋 

Well done Elm Class ☺️

In our Maths lessons this week, we have been learning how to do column subtraction with exchanging. The children worked hard to learn how to complete these calculations and should feel very proud. We completed lots of practise questions using our whiteboard pens. This allowed to children to correct any mistakes and learn from them. 
 

Well done Elm Class! 
Miss Hewlett is proud 🥰

For any parents that were unable to attend today, there will be another reading morning before Christmas. ☺️

CONGRATULATIONS! 
 

To our:

Homework hero - Lilly 

Star of the week - Olivia 

Lilly produced a fantastic set of instructions on how to mummify a body. 
 

Olivia really pushed herself in maths this week and completed some fantastic column addition calculations! 
 

Well done girls ☺️ 

During Maths this week, we have been learning how to add one and two digit numbers to a three digit number. The children used green, yellow and red counters to do this. The different colours represent different amounts for example:

red - hundreds

yellow - tens

green - ones 

So if the children were to make the number 241 they would use two red counters, 4 yellow counters and one green. ☺️ 

With the counters they added either a small one or two digit number to three digit number. For example, if they were adding 40 to 241 they would add an additional 4 yellow counters to the counters they already originally had to show the number 241. 
 

With lots of practise, the children did a fantastic job of completing a number of calculations. They worked extremely hard using the counters to help them answer the questions. 
 

Well done Elm Class! ☺️

This week in our English lessons we have been reading Cinderella and working towards writing a character description. On Tuesday, the children worked in pairs to highlight all of the adjectives they could find in a given text. 
 

They did a fantastic job at locating the adjectives and using the highlighters for the first time in year 3. 
 

Well done everyone! ☺️

This week in one of our Topic lessons the children were learning about vertebrates and invertebrates. The children worked together at their tables and did an amazing job of identifying an animal as a vertebrate or invertebrate! 
 

Well done Elm Class ☺️

Welcome back! 

Hi everyone and welcome back to school. I am so pleased to be back and starting this year in year three! I hope you are excited too :)

Over the the past week we have been learning about Ancient Egypt and the children have spent one of their lessons mummifying an orange. Next week, the children will be taking part in a Egyptian workshop which will be fantastic. I will upload photos to follow. 

Miss Hewlett. 

Archive 2021-2022

Sports Day 

We had so much fun on our Sports Day! We were lucky to have nice weather so we had lots of fun with all the activities! There were lots games such as; sack races, bean bag races, hurdles and relay running. We even had a dress up race which was lots of fun and a lot trickier than it looked! Last up there was the Parent races! Well done to every Year 3 member who took part, tried their hardest, showed great sportsmanship and had fun!

Queen's Jubilee Celebrations!

Last half term we had an amazing time preparing for our Queen's Jubilee party. We made lots of decorations like crowns, baskets, buntins and flags. We even made a card to send to the Queen! 

On the last day of the half term we set up a street party in the playground where all the classes got together to celebrate the Jubilee and it was so much fun! The children had a great time and did not want it to end. 

World Maths Day 23/3/22

Today is World Maths Day. 

Below are some ideas of activities you can do at home with your child. 

We hope you enjoy doing some of them.

Suffragettes Workshop

Today the children were visited by a Suffragette!

During the workshop, our visiting Suffragette spoke to the children about many different things including the history of the Suffragettes, their fight for their right to vote and their struggle for equal rights to men.  The children also had the opportunity to get involved in some drama to get into the mindset of a real Suffragette as well as singing some of their songs and chants.

The children learnt a lot during the session and really enjoyed themselves.

Please take a look at the images and videos below :).

Mr Darlington

World Book Day!

Wow!  Didn't you all look fantastic on World Book Day!

I really enjoyed spending the day with the children who were thrilled to show off their outfits, the adjective they'd chosen and why they'd chosen it.

Following the book swap, the children completed an activity in class inviting any three characters from books to a dinner party hosted by them.  They had to explain why they would choose that guest and take into account which guests would and wouldn't get on!

Here are some photos of the children and their work.

I was extremely impressed with their pieces of work and the explanations they gave.

Please take a look below :).

Mr Darlington

The Suffragettes

This week we began our new topic, The Suffragettes.

In our first session, we completed a class vote where only boys were allowed to take part!  The boys voted to play ball games whilst the girls had no choice and were asked to tidy the classroom.  

When we returned to class to discuss what had happened, the girls were understandably furious!  During this discussion many of the boys voiced their unhappiness with what happened and this led to a great discussion between the children.

The children were shocked to hear that around 100 years ago this was what life was like for women and girls.

I've added some pictures below of the session.

Computing

This week the children had their second computing session using our brand new laptops in our computer suite.  The children spent the session practicing logging in and out of the laptop as well as logging into apps and websites such as Purple Mash, TT RockStars, Google Classroom and Reading Eggs.  I was extremely impressed with how quickly the children have learnt these skills and it was brilliant lesson to be a part of it.  The children had a fantastic time exploring the different apps in their pairs with a variety of activities taking place.

Please take a look at some of the pictures from the session below :).

Mr Darlington

Chocolate Hook - New Topic!

Hi Everyone! Welcome Back and Happy New Year!

The children have begun a new topic for this half term which is... Chocolate!!

As you can imagine the children have been very excited by this new topic and have really enjoyed what we have been doing so far.  Today the children had the opportunity to taste different types of chocolate including white chocolate, milk chocolate and dark chocolate.  There were lots of funny faces pulled whilst eating the dark chocolate which ended up being the least favourite.

Have a look at some of the pictures from the session below :).

Science Electricity Hook

Earlier this half term Elm Class were visited by some scientists to introduce us to our new science topic, Electricity!

The scientists showed the class some exciting and interesting experiments linked to electricity and the children even had a go at creating their own electrical circuits!

The children really enjoyed the session and I've attached some photos for you to have a look at :)

Designing, Creating and Painting Roman Shields

This week the children created their own Roman shields using designs from their book.

Each shield looked slightly different depending on the details the children had added plus we also had some Barbarian shields created too.

The children absolutely loved making and painting their shields and were thrilled with the end result.

Here are some photos of the making of them and the completed product.

Demolishing Our Roman Roads!

Today the children finally got the chance to eat their Roman roads!

Many of them loved it so much they vowed to re-create it at home!

Here are some photos of the demolition!

Roman Roads

Today in Elm Class we have been getting creative!  

First we learned about Roman roads, finding out what they looked like and why they were built in that way.

Once we understood what they were and how they were made, we attempted to create our own using more delicious ingredients!

In small groups the children created their own Roman roads, using a different food item for each layer,

We used;

Biscuits for the bottom rocky layer

Crunched up cornflakes for the sandy layer

Custard for for the cement

And finally we used custard creams/Bourbon biscuits for the slabs on top.

The children absolutely loved this activity!!

I've attached a slideshow of images from our session.  Please take a look and enjoy.

Mr Darlington

The Romans 

Last week a wonderful Roman sword and shield which had been designed, created and painted by Bobby was brought into school.  The whole class (including myself) were amazed by this brilliant piece of which art work which then inspired many others in our class to do the same!  I've added a couple of pictures of the Art work below with other inspired children's work :)!

P4C - What is Bullying?

This week in our P4C session (Philosophy for Children) we discussed the term bullying and what this meant.  This was a very interesting conversation with lots of different ideas shared.

I have attached the ideas the children had on the subject.

I've also added an image of our starter where played a game identifying different animals. It was lovely to see the children becoming excited by the string, which symbolised our collective ideas, developed our group bond and modelled respect for one another whilst each person spoke and took their turn.

The Romans - The Barbarians are coming!

Last week in our English lessons we were imagining that we were Roman Soldiers living inside of our fort.  We'd just heard the news that a hoard of Barbarians (our greatest enemy) were preparing for an attack on our fort,  In groups, we discussed and recorded problems that we may need to solve and how to solve them.

Following this we did a drama session with the children role playing different members of our Roman Society and asking their opinions on the Barbarian attack.  A blacksmith, a woman and a child were all chosen as roles played by the children :).

Have a look at some of the images from our session below :)

Elm Class - Key Information

Hi Everyone!

Here are some key points of information to be aware of for our class.

Reading Books

On Friday 10th September your child was sent home with two reading books.  When your child has finished reading them, bring them both back together and we will change them for two new ones.  There is no set date for return.  We do suggest that children should be reading at home at least three times a week though :).

There are also rewards to be won by returning reading books for new ones, with stickers being added to the bookmark inside of your reading record.  When completed a reward will be earned!

Log Ins

Inside of your child's reading record are their log in information for TT Rockstars, Purple Mash and soon to be added Reading Eggs.  These can be found at the front of the reading record.  Please use these apps to support your child at home :).

PE

The children will have PE each week but the timetable is subject to change.  Please ensure that your child keeps their PE kit in school at all times so that they are ready to take part.

Homework

Homework will be set every Friday beginning on Friday 17th September.  The homework will be set on Google Classroom and should be completed by the following Thursday.  If you have any problems regarding homework, please don't hesitate to ask for help :).

That's it for now.

Keep an eye on the blog for any more updates :).

Mr Darlington

The Romans!

Our new topic for our first term in Year 3 is The Romans!

To begin our first week on The Romans, we have been learning a little about their lives as well as writing questions of what we would like to find out about them. We have also been looking at where they fit on a timeline in regards to the present and in relation to other key events in history including The Great Fire of London and the life of Florence Nightingale.

Here are some pictures of the children completing their Topic Pages.

Mr Darlington

What a First Week!

Wow!  What a wonderful first week we've had in Year 3! 

It has been lovely see all of the children this week and to get to know them better.

All of the children have settled in well and that has been pleasing to see :).

We began the week with some getting to know you activities. This was very important for us all (especially me!) as I hadn't spent much time with the children before.  The children were full of energy and had lots of fun seeing old faces and making new friends.

Here are some pictures from our first few days.

Well done everyone for a fab first week!

Mr Darlington

Welcome Elm Class 2021-2022!

Hello all and welcome to our class blog for this year!

Over the coming weeks and months I will be posting a variety of different things on to our class blog including children's work, information on what we are doing in class including photos as well as general information regarding our class.

Keep your eyes peeled!

Mr Darlington