Hawaiian Volcanoes and Halloween in P3A

The October holidays are now a distant memory and we have had a busy couple of weeks in P3A.

Last week we learned about the volcanoes on the Hawaiian islands. At the beginning of our geography topic the children planned what they would like to learn about and volcanoes was high on the list.  Actually,  without volcanoes Hawaii wouldn’t exist – the islands emerged from the sea millions of years ago forged by volcanic power.  We studied Kilauea more in depth – it is a volcano on the ‘Big Island’ and has been constantly erupting since 1983.  To help us to understand of how volcanoes work we got some really good information from the Reachout Reporter website –  we use this in class each Friday to watch the latest weekly science news from around the world, the website address is www.reachoutreporter.com it is really worth a look.

Although we couldn’t recreate an actual volcano we did some chemistry and experimented with the reaction between vinegar  and baking soda – creating carbon dioxide and making explosions of our own!  As part of this lesson we learned how to carry out a proper science experiment and we wrote a science report, writing about the equipment, method, possible hazards, prediction, what actually happened and what we learned from it.  It was messy but great fun!

To finish off our Hawaiian topic we researched and produced a final piece of writing.  Our job was to write a tourism leaflet to tell people about the best tourist attractions in Hawaii and to encourage people to go there.  Everyone worked really hard and they are all fantastic – eye-catching front covers, lots of good information, laid out really neatly – well done P3.  They made me really want to visit Hawaii!

One of jobs P3 do each year is to organise the Shoe Box Appeal, we launched this last week and worked in groups to make posters to let the rest of the school know about the appeal.  This week, we visited classrooms and told them about the appeal too.  We were all very confident speaking to other classes and lots of teachers have commented on how well we did 🙂 We have quite a few boxes already, please hand any others in on Monday, 4th November.

In numeracy, we are continuing to learn different methods of adding 2 digit numbers.  We have looked at adding multiples of 10, using this knowledge to add near multiples of 10 (9, 11, 19, 21…)  and how to add  teen numbers to a 2 digit number, by adding the 10 then the unit.  We often use 100 squares to help us, Splat Square is a good online one.  In outer maths we are now learning about information handling.  Next week in homework jotters there will be a numeracy homework sheet for term 2 with suggested activities.

In reading we have been working  on becoming ‘reflective readers.’  At the moment we are working on understanding what we are reading and increasing our vocabulary.  Last week we did an activity called ‘Blankety Blank’ where we read an extract from James and Giant Peach – there were some words missing and we had to fill in the blanks with the correct word and then think of other words that would also make sense.  This week we did a ‘Spot the Silly Word’ activity.  This was based on the book Funnybones.  Mrs Kennedy typed some of the book but she changed some of the words to silly words and we had to spot them, we then had to suggest a sensible word.  These are paired activities and as well as reading there is lots of good discussion about words and their meanings.

The highlight of this week was the Halloween party, we all looked really scary in our costumes.  The party began with a spooky story read by Mr Wells – who really got into character!  We played a team game where we had to make the best mummy using toilet roll and played a spooky corners game.  We then had a snack with our friends.  A big thank you to the PTA for organising the food and drinks and helping on the day.

On Friday, we did some French – learning how to say the names of some fruits.  We do a little French each day, including counting, ordering our lunch, classroom instructions and lots of French songs.  We really do pick up the words quickly!

Also on Friday, P1 came to visit to play a pumpkin game.  We worked in teams, rolling a dice and drawing part of a pumpkin according to the number on the dice.  The winners were the ones who drew all the parts first!  It was a fast and furious game and I was really please with how well P3 showed P1 how to play and they took turns really well.  We had lots of sibling teams too 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone – enjoy any bonfires and fireworks.  Stay safe.

P3A and Mrs Kennedy