Larch Blog - Year 3
Spring 2 - 2024
D&T - Making Dal
All except two of the children had not heard of dal before this topic. They were very excited, yet apprehensive, to try something new. We watched how dal is made and listed all the ingredients, then we tried dal and after that we designed our own based on a request for a new dish for a local restaurant.
We were all very proud of the children as they all tried and loved making the dal. We made so much we had seconds and were able to try each others dish! Mrs Qureshi came to make chapati's with us and we saw how the bread puffed up on the heat, it was so much fun. Many of the children wanted the recipe to try making it at home. Fantastic!
A huge thank you to all of the parents who came to support the children when making their designs.
We also practiced chopping ingredients using the bridge and claw holds.
Larch Class Assembly
We loved performing for Y2 and Juniper Class, we sang three maths songs as we couldn't choose between them all! We shared some of the topics we have covered this year from each subject in our assembly and had great fun.
PE - Netball
PSHE
Creating a garden!
As part of our PSHE topic we worked together to design a new garden area for the wildlife area at the bottom of our field. We had a budget, we compromised and agreed on items for the area. Then we drew out where we wanted everything and presented it to the rest of the class. We learnt how to listen and respond to each other when we disagree.
Spring 1 - 2024
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN DAY!
Well done Larch, we have been transported back 5024 years to 3000 BC to the start of the Ancient Egyptians! Your outfits look AMAZING!
Many of us wanted to stand to the side like the people did in the pictures found in the tombs.
Science and PE
We were lucky to have Miss Brown from the Three Rivers Sports Partnership come in to talk to us about being healthy. We found out there are three types of healthy; physical health (our body), mental health (our brain) and social health (being a friend). We now know that we have to be healthy in all three of these areas to be fully healthy.
We also looked at what a balanced meal is. We know that we need fruit and vegetables, protein, dairy, carbohydrates, fats and oils and sugars. We identified a different colour for each part of the balanced meal and we played a game to collect cones representing a balanced meal in teams outside.
We had great fun and know the importance of exercise and a balanced meal in keeping healthy.
Autumn 2 - 2023
CHRISTMAS FAYRE!
We were super excited to meet Father Christmas and go altogether to the Christmas Fayre. Thank you to all the parents for helping and a special thank you to Miss Tish and her team for organising it.
PE
We had a visit from Mr Harrington at the sports partnership and we had great fun learning about rapid fire cricket. It's quite tricky getting the ball to go through the gates! We finished with a team game and had to count up the score. 
Geography
We loved learning about the rainforest and then making our own to put on our class rainforest. Each table focussed on a different layer of the rainforest to research and create the trees and animals.
Art
Wow! Here are our final cave paintings. They are amazing, we worked really hard and are very proud of our achievement.
Science
We had great fun investigating if a magnet could attract a paperclip through material. Which materials allow a magnet to attract a paperclip through?
Autumn 1 - 2023
Commonwealth Athlete Visit
On Monday 9th October, Steve Frew, a British Gymnast, visited our school. We took part in circuit training exercises with him and then he spoke to us all in an assembly. He talked about his journey to a gold medal and that it took him 22 years of training to get there! He is passionate about us all trying our best, following our dreams and being inspired to do well. We really enjoyed watching him do vertical pressups on a bench, a backflip and forward roll over Miss Rogers, Anaise and Ollie!
Celtic Harmony Trip
We were super excited to go on our school trip. We wanted to see how the stone age people lived and experience it at Celtic Harmony. We did so many things; we saw how they made fire from an ember by rubbing wood together, we saw them make flint weapons and we then used sticks to 'kill' the animals so that we could eat lunch! After lunch, we went on a nature walk and found out which fruits, vegetables and meats the stone age people ate. We then made, leaf soup with rosemary and thyme. It didn't look very appetising but we enjoyed making it.
Science Magnet Experiment
In science, we have been investigating how magnets attract and repel. We worked out that north and south poles attract but north and north or south and south poles repel. We had fun experimenting with this. We then wanted to find out how objects are attracted and wondered how far away the magnet needs to be from the paperclip before it is attracted. We discovered it was 3cm.
Cave Wall Making
In art, we are creating a wall ready to paint onto it. We are using cardboard, pva glue and lots of sand! We look forward to you seeing the painted wall at parents evening.
Mark Making in Art
In art, we are looking at cave paintings from the Stone Age and we are wondering how they managed to paint! They didn't have poster paint you can buy from the shops as they didn't have any shops or manufactured paints! So, we went on a nature walk in the school grounds and discovered that you can paint and make marks with nature. We found out that yellow flowers make a mark, the juice from berries you can paint with and mud, glorious mud mixed with water can make a mark too. We loved exploring this and discovered this is why the Stone Age people only used, reds, yellows and browns to paint with. They also used charcoal and chalk to draw with which we have already experimented with.
Stone Age History Topic
In our first history lesson, we ordered times in history to understand how long ago the Stone Age period was.........and it was a very, very, very, long time ago! In prehistoric times. This means it was before history was recorded. We ordered sections in groups and then we ordered it all as a class.
Summer 2
Sports Day
Sports Day 2023 marked the first time that the children of Larch took part in the KS2 version of Sports Day. They took to the field to perform a variety of events. They then gathered for the usual competitive running races at the end. All of the children represented the class with immaculate behaviour and it was full of smiles, laughter and enjoyment. Thank you to our parents for coming to watch!
Larch - Sports Day
Kew Gardens Trip
We visited the Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew as part of our 'Plants' topic in Science. In the morning, we took part in a workshop organised by the team at Kew. We then explored a variety of different plants that grow in different places all over the world. We looked at the glass houses and even did the very tall tree top walk! We had a great day out!
Larch - Kew Gardens
Carnival
Every year, Year 3 take part in the Carnival event that takes over Abbots Langley. This year, the theme was aimed at saving our oceans! The parent team worked tirelessly to create an amazing looking float and the children thoroughly enjoyed being on show and waving to the crowd. Well done to everyone involved!
Larch - Carnival
Athletics
We took part in an athletics event organised by the Sports Partnership at Abbots Langley School. The children had been practising during PE and all of the children performed amazingly well with some close scores. The results were counted and verified shortly afterwards and Larch Girls won overall! Well done girls - onto the final!
Larch - Athletics
Animals Workshop
We were fortunate enough to take part in an animals workshop organised as part of Science. The children were able to observe and hold a range of animals that live in countries across the world. It also gave the children an opportunity to build resilience against any fears that they had. We had a great morning!
Larch - Animals Workshop
Summer 1
History: King Charles III Coronation
We marked the historical celebrations of King Charles III's coronation by wearing blue, red and white to school. We had an assembly with Miss Reynolds who talked to us about the significance of the coronation. In Larch, we created a freehand painting of the Union Flag using the pointillism technique.
Coronation Celebrations - Larch
PE: Game On Session
We were treated to an additional PE lesson from Game On. The children enjoyed a healthy game of Dodgeball to start their day! They thoroughly enjoyed their session.
Game On Session - Larch
PE: Healthy Heroes
Larch were super lucky to welcome Mr Harrington to our classroom from the Sports Partnership. He taught us about the importance of maintaining a healthy, balanced diet and the benefits that this has on our daily life. He also explained how important it is to link this healthy lifestyle to being active during the day.
PE Healthy Heroes - Larch
Science: Plants
The children planted their plants as a table group as part of our light and fertiliser experiment. They thoroughly enjoyed the process and learnt a valuable skill in gardening!
Plants - Larch
Science: Water Transportation
Today, we explored how water is transported through a plant. We used a Chinese lettuce leaf and water that had been dyed blue. Within an hour, we were seeing some change to the leaf's colour. The following day, most of them had turned noticeably blue. The children were fascinated every time they walked past them!
Larch's Top Tip: Don't eat a blue lettuce leaf!
Science: Water Transportation - Larch
History: Verulamium Research
During this lesson, the children explored a variety of towns that the Romans built. The primary focus being the local town of Verulamium. The children conducted their own research and created a mammoth fact file as a table. They thoroughly enjoyed their research!
History: Verulamium Research - Larch
Mystery Reader
A big thank you to our Mystery Readers this half term!
Spring 2
World Book Day:
This year, Larch celebrated in style by creating a door display based on the children's classic, The BFG. We studied this during our English lessons, creating interesting recounts. The children decorated their door with their own Dream Jars and personalising it by having their picture displayed with them wearing BFG ears! Some of the children helped further by painting the BFG's trousers and colouring in Sophie. It was an amazing team effort that resulted in Larch winning the school's decorative door challenge - well done Larch! To the right of the display is a further display in the form of a book shelf containing all of the children's jars.
On the week itself, the children attended a workshop with a creative writing workshop to inspire the children with their writing. On Thursday, the children attended school in their costumes with great excitement. Their costumes were fantastic - a huge thank you all of the amazing parents / carers for your efforts - they loved it!
A successful World Book Day with a class of inspired children. What a great week!
World Book Day - Larch
FOTW - Egg and Spoon Race:
Larch took part in the Friends of Tanners Wood's Egg and Spoon race! The children had an amazing time and we couldn't resist eating our eggs before the end of the school day - don't tell our parents!
FOTW - Egg and Spoon Race
DT - Cooking:
Larch enjoyed exploring their favourite Italian cuisines during our DT Cooking topic. This linked well to our Geography topic 'Our European Neighbours' so the children were able to apply some prior learning. As you can see, things did get messy (and smelly)! But the children had great fun and really enjoyed developing their skills of handling utensils and ensuring they were safe. Some amazing dishes were created as a result. Some important life skills developed too!
DT - Cooking
Mystery Reader:
Thank you to our Mystery Readers for surprising Larch with some amazing stories!
Spring 1
Larch Assembly:
Larch Class practised, practised and practised and all of a sudden, our time to shine was upon us. We overcome fears and tried our very best to produce a performance our adults could be proud of... and we certainly delivered!
Well done children, all of your adults, in and out of school, are extremely proud of you and your resilience! We have had an amazing first half of the year and we have an equally exciting second half to come.
We hope you enjoyed our assembly!
Larch Class Assembly
Egyptian Day:
Larch thoroughly enjoyed their Egyptian day! A big thank you to all adults at home for preparing the children - they looked amazing!
Larch - Egyptian Day
Computing:
This half term, we have been using code to create a project on Scratch. As you can see, the current trend in Larch is the Duck Song!
Larch - Computing
Science:
Larch conducted an experiment to test if the rocks they were provided were permeable or impermeable. We discussed how we could improve the fairness of the test and we concluded that we could introduce stricter attention on measuring the amount of water used accurately.
Larch - Science
Mystery Readers:
A big thank you to our Mystery Readers this half term!
Autumn 2
Christmas Fayre:
A big thank you to the Friends of Tanners Wood for organising and putting on an amazing Christmas Fayre! The children in Larch Class thoroughly enjoyed themselves. With so many activities on offer, they were spoilt for choice! Nothing ever tops meeting Santa, though!
Larch - Christmas Fayre
D&T:
This half term, the children have been creating their own marble runs! Here is an assortment of images that show off their hard work throughout the term. They have produced some excellent and interesting designs. Well done Larch!
Larch - DT Marble Runs
RE:
Thursday 17th November 2022
Today, we had a visit from Reverend Waddell who discussed and taught the children all about the Eucharist. We are very lucky to have a local community full of interesting people - thank you for coming to see us Reverend Waddell!
Maths:
Children created scales using paper plates to begin their exploration of units of measure. They thought it was hilarious to use a paper plate to weigh things! But in reality, we were just using them to represent how a scale would work.
Maths
Mystery Readers:
A big thank you to all of our mystery readers! The children love their story time on a Friday afternoon.
Apologies if I have missed any images of any other mystery readers - I have done my best to find the images of all Mystery Readers amongst the hundreds of images on the iPad!
Autumn 1
Friday 4th November 2022
Mystery Reader:
This week our Mystery Reader was... Mrs Drake! The children really enjoyed the funny story and were hooked throughout.
Friday 7th October 2022
Artwork:
Children created their own version of Kehinde Wiley's contemporary style. This will be used for a display near Rowan Class so please be sure to check it out during Parents Evening!
Kehinde Wiley - Art
Tuesday 4th October 2022
Celtic Harmony Trip:
We had great fun exploring a Stone Age village. We used our learning in class to create rich discussion. We learnt how the people of the Stone Age started fires, the food they would eat, how they would cook the food, the tools used to complete these tasks and built our own Stone Age shelters.
Celtic Harmony
Wednesday 21st September 2022
Maths:
Today, we played the wonky game! This involved using a dice to generate 3 digit numbers and then ordering them.
Tuesday 13th September 2022
Today, we explored the effect of friction on an object. We used ramps, materials and cars to conduct a fair test.
Science - Friction Experiment
Friday 9th September 2022
Book Club
Our very first Book Club of Year 3 saw the children in the library. Our love for reading is growing everyday!
Book Club
Tuesday 6th September 2022
History
Today, we explored the meaning of chronology and created our very own human sized timeline!
Friday 1st July 2022
Sports Day!
The children took part in the Y3/Y4 sports day event in which they competed brilliantly against others in their year group. This was their first Sports Day in front of parents since Reception so they have done all of their adults extremely proud! Well done Lovely Larch!
Also a very big well done to Fine House for winning overall - Mr B and Mrs Turone were very happy with this!
Friday 17th June 2022
Book Club - Alfresco Style!
Thursday 16th June 2022
Athletics Tournament:
Today, Larch and Juniper classes took part in a Year 3 Athletics tournament at Parmiters School. The children completed a number of different track and field events, including 50m sprint, 100m sprint, 400m run, hurdles, obstacle course, long jump, vortex throw and speed stacking. The children applied themselves wonderfully to each and every event, despite the heat! At the end, their hard work was rewarded with Juniper boys taking 1st place and Larch girls taking 3rd! Well done everyone!
Carnival Weekend!
On Saturday 11th June, the children in Year 3 and Year 4 took part in Abbots Langley's Carnival creating two amazing floats that represent our Monarch's Jubilee celebration.
Here are some pictures of the amazing day. A big thank you to all of our parents who organised the event - the children really enjoyed themselves.
Verulamium Trip - Exploring the Romans
Tuesday 24th May 2022
The children were lucky enough to explore Verulamium museum and the local park. We were able to handle artefacts from the Roman era which included kitchen tools, bathroom equipment and building materials. We then moved onto exploring the museum, we came across skeletons dating back 2000 years, Finally, we found a mosaic tile and the remainder of the wall that surrounded the town of Verulam. We had great fun! A big thank you to our parent helpers Kerri and Hannah for attending with us.
Wednesday 25th May 2022
Jubilee Day!
The children were in tremendous spirit today as we celebrated the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. We enjoyed a morning of Jubilee themed activities which included a very British Picnic - yes it rained... we thought it was very fitting!
Friday 6th May 2022
Book Club - alfresco style!
Today, we made the most of the sunny weather to have the first of many Book Clubs outside. We also worked on our tans too!
Wednesday 30th March 2022
FOTW Bunny Hop:
Today, the children completed their bunny hops around our track. Thank you to the FOTW for organising the event and thank you to all adults who sponsored the children of Larch class - we raised a lot of money for charity as a class and as a school. As you can see from the pictures, your Lovely Larch's were hopping mad!
Have a fantastic Easter break one and all!
Tuesday 22nd March 2022
Geography Learning Walk:
Today, we visited our local village Abbots Langley to explore the features of a settlement. The children represented the very best of Tanners Wood and thankfully the weather was bright and sunny!
Monday 21st March 2022
Ancient Egyptian Day:
After a patient three months of waiting due to COVID restrictions, the Year 3 children finally got their Ancient Egyptian day! The children took part in a workshop in the hall during the morning, visiting the tomb of doom. In the afternoon they moved onto a workshop in each classroom where they learnt all about some artefacts and became explorers. We think you'll agree that the children really enjoyed their day judging from the smiles in the pictures.
Friday 18th March 2022
Red Nose Day:
Today, the children had the chance to dress up in yellow and blue in support of Ukraine. As you can see they looked fabulous!
Mystery Reader:
We were super lucky to have the amazing Tayiba from Willow Class come and read a Wallace and Gromit book that she brought in from home. The children loved sharing their classroom with her and loved her book, thank you Tayiba!
Friday 11th March 2022
DT CED Day!
Today, your lovely Larch's enjoyed an entire day of DT. They got the chance to interview a real life engineer called Ben who works for Dyson. We moved onto designing our own invention, some children opted to tackle the issue of pollution in our sea and others designed their own unique contraption.
In the afternoon, we built a tower out of spaghetti and marshmallows! The temptation to eat them was becoming too much by the end!
Wednesday 9th March 2022
Extra PE:
This morning, the children thoroughly enjoyed their extra PE session provided by our sports partnership. The children took part in Quick Fire Cricket which is something brand new to them. As you can see, the children put maximum effort in and were full of smiles!
Well done to our lovely Larch's!
Thursday 3rd March 2022
World Book Day!
The children thoroughly enjoyed their World Book Day and were so excited throughout the day. They enjoyed taking part in workshops, activities and showing off their amazing costumes to the Year 5's who looked equally fabulous!
Well done Larch Class, we rocked it today!
Week Beginning: 31.01.22
Book Club
This week's Book Club was fun!
Friday 28th January 2022
Book Club - Back as we know it!
Today, we were able to return our classroom back to some normality and have grouped tables again.
We also were able to sit in our chosen area of our classroom and enjoy some quiet time
Reading.
Friday 21st January 2022
Maths and Reading
A mix of Maths and Book club! We are making the most of the current situation and reading at our desks. In Maths we used our resources to create an array of multiplications. 
Friday 14th January 2022
Assembly
Larch class children were finally able to enjoy their first assembly at the third attempt! Here are some images of the day. Thank you to all adults who came along to find out what the children have been learning so far in Year 3.
Friday 7th January 2022
That’s right, we blinked and it’s 2022! Your lovely Larch’s returned to school with an amazing mindset and have given their all in every activity. They have earned a very restful weekend indeed!
Today in History, we explored the meaning of chronology and created our own timelines to show each major period of time in the order that they happened. We understand the meaning and difference between AD and BC and pinpointed where Ancient Egypt appears in the order.
Last Week of Term
This week, the countdown to Christmas started in Larch with some very excited children.
Tuesday
The children used their skills in Pointillism to create a calendar to use for the year.
Wednesday
We made Christingles to symbolise the world and it’s light.
Thursday
The children completed their DT photo frames and then had an amazing party!
We are grateful to all of our parents and adults at home for their support during a particularly challenging half term for Larch class. We hope you have an amazing Christmas!
Monday 6th - Friday 10th December 2021
This week the lovely Larches were able to return to class after their week of remote learning and they certainly have done everybody proud.
This week we have been able to explore more about Animals and Humans in Science, written a setting description in English and explored different Christmas traditions in other countries during RE. We also found some time to read in our festive looking book corner.
Friday 26th November 2021
Mystery Reader!
This afternoon we were joined by the fabulous Mr Pearson, who was our "Mystery Reader". He shared a wonderful book by Janet Allan Ahlberg "Cops and Robbers" All children were transfixed by the story.
Thank you Mr Pearson.
Thursday 25th November 2021
Perfecting our maths and computing skills
This morning, Larch have been perfecting their times tables and number skills. They have been playing TTRS, Numbots and Hit the Button. They have also been practising their computing skills when using the Chromebooks to login to the various games. Well done Larch!
Friday 19th November 2021
Anti Bullying Day- One Kind Word
Today, the children in Larch took part in activities linked to the theme of 'One Kind Word'. They made Kindness Keys and Kind word posters to make sure they understood what kindness meant and show how they would be kind others. Check out the our work below!
Tuesday 16th November 2021
Today, we had an amazing day at Celtic Harmony. We learnt so many things about The Stone Age and how the people of the era lived. We started off by exploring how they made fire and then onto building our own shelters - they must have been freezing as there were no radiators! Then, we learnt about the wide variety of tools created by the Stone Age people and then we made a meal using herbs. We followed this up by hunting a huge Wooly Mammoth and then finished our day with a story/play. The children had huge smiles on their faces throughout and we were very sad when it was time to leave.
Friday 12th November 2021
Today, we had the excitement of a Mystery Reader coming to our classroom to read us a book! Mrs Tish came in with the book ‘Can a Unicorn Help me Deal with being Bullied’ which links to Anti-Bullying week next week. The children were engrossed and learnt a great deal from the reading session. Thank you Mrs Tish!
Friday 5th November 2021
Today, our lovely Larches really enjoyed their first ever book club! Having the chance to read in the area of their choice was so refreshing and our imaginations ran wild.
Friday 22nd October 2021
Prior to half term we created freeze frames for the story of Muhammad during RE.
