A final message!

We wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you for all you support with your child's learning this year. What a fantastic year the children have had. They have learnt so much, challenged themselves and displayed the Rucstall values consistently through some challenging times.

It has been an absolute pleasure to teach Lime class this year, my first year at Rucstall. A big thank you to you all for making me feel so welcome and continuing to support and challenge your children to be the best that they can be. (Mrs Murphy)

We wish you a fantastic and relaxing summer holiday, whatever you are up to. 

We can't wait to see the children again and wish them the very best as they head into Year 4.

Mrs Murphy & Mrs Lomax 

Update: Friday 17th September 2021

We have had a great first two weeks back into school; getting straight into our routine and learning.

Each child has been given a spelling sheet with highlighted words to practise at home. We will start learning new spelling patterns and words in class.

In a few weeks, we will do another assessment of those words to see how well children are progressing.

Update: Friday 24th September 2021

In Science, Lime Class have been learning all about magnets. They have learnt that magnets have 2 poles - North and South and how they either attract or repel each other. This week we also investigated magnetic and non-magnetic materials.

Update: Friday 1st October 2021

In English, Lime class have been reading Pumpkin Soup and writing recipes for how to make the soup. The children planned, edited and wrote their recipes up in neat and took them home this week.

I have uploaded a document to show how we are learning to add and subtract in Year 3. The children have been practising these methods over the past two weeks and will continue to do so in our maths and arithmetic lessons.

Update: Friday 8th October 2021

Today in Art, Lime Class had their first try at block printing in the style of William Morris. We used his pictures as inspiration to create our own designs and then drew them onto polystyrene tiles. Using rollers to apply the paint, we then printed our blocks onto paper. Here are some of our prints!

Update: Wednesday 10th November 2021

We have already had a busy couple of weeks in Lime Class since half term. The children have started to learn about new units of work including Stone Age to Iron Age and looking at artefacts in class, predicting what they might be and what they were used for.

We have also started our unit on Rocks in Science.

Today, the children learnt about the 3 different types of rock and we made them out of Starburst sweets. 

We looked at the structure and layers on a sedimentary rock, how heat and pressure turns into a metamorphic rock, heating the rock produces magma which once cooled, forms an igneous rock. 

Update: Wednesday 24th November

Last week, Lime Class got to experience some food tasting in DT!

We did this to try and understand how important our senses are when we eat. We always look at the food to see if it is appealing and use mainly our taste and smell to enjoy the food.

We sampled a variety of foods including: savoury, sweet, fruit and vegetables. We ate foods that had different smells, textures and flavours to really understand the wide variety of foods available.

All the children enjoyed it and nearly everybody tried everything on the plate! A great success! 

Update: Wednesday 1st December

We had an amazing time at Butser Ancient Farm today for our Stone Age to Iron Age trip.

The children behaved impeccably and listened and engaged really well with our group leader Zoe. She was so knowledgable and showed us a variety of Stone Age artefacts, housing, jobs and skills that they would have used all those millions of years ago.

As a class, we will now be using our trip experience today to write non-chronological reports in English for our last unit before Christmas. I think the children will write fantastic reports as they now have first hand of all the Stone Age experiences!

Here are some pictures we took of all the things we learnt and experienced today. 

Update: Wednesday 8th December

In History, we looked at Stone Age art. We discovered that in that time period, humans would create cave drawings and draw the animals that they hunted and ate, the tools and weapons they used and they would include a handprint, almost like a signature and a way to show that humans had been living there.

Lime Class got to make their own cave paintings yesterday in class. We turned the lights off, got under the tables and used scrunched up black sugar paper to create our cave setting!

Here are their finished pieces.

Update - Art January 2022

In Art, the children are learning about cyanotyping. This is printing using paper that turns blue when UV light hits it. We have looked at the work of Anna Atkins and her nature prints using this technique.

Last week, the children went to explore our woods and fields and created nature pictures. Here are some of their creations.

The children will then take some of the smaller, more detailed plants and use those to sketch a draft. We will then print them onto cyanotype paper and have a blue and white print as our final piece. 

Update - February 2022

We have been retelling stories and getting ready to write our own story with some adventure and a setting description in.

We took some well known traditional tales and used drama to really immerse ourselves in the stories.

There were actors, props and narrators!

Update - February 2022

In indoor PE, Lime class have been looking at gymnastics and using different shapes, positions and transitions to create group routines.

Update - 18th February 2022

This half term, we have been using a couple of different programs to create a finished stop animation in Computing.

We used Pivot animator to make a stick person move in various ways and change each frame. We then added backgrounds and .png images using Google and Power point. We learnt to save in different formats and how to crop, remove backgrounds, layer and create moving animations.

Here are some of the (albeit still!) images from the children's work.

Update - 29th March 2022

Today Lime Class were really lucky to have an all-day Roman workshop lead by Richard from a History team.

They learnt all about the Romans invading Britain, Emperor Claudius, the armour used in battle, how to battle, traditional Roman games and some special Roman stories.

The children are really enjoying our Romans History unit of work and this day really engaged and enthused them. Please ask your children about it and see what they can recall from today.

Below are some pictures from the workshop.

Update - 7th April

This week, Lime Class reading group have finished their book!

We have been reading Amelia Fang and the Barbaric Ball in reading lessons all half term.

The children have loved how funny, exciting and adventurous the book has been.

So much so, I have ordered some of the other books from the series!

Here are a couple of book reviews written in today's lesson to finalise our reading of the book.

Update - 29th April

Before Easter, Lime class worked on sewing and making a fabric purse with a tie and embellishment in DT with Mrs Hemmings.

They practised running and blanket stitching and then used these to sew fabric together to create a purse. they added a tie and Mrs Hemmings kindly ironed on chosen embellishments to personalise their purse.

Here are their finished products!

These will stay in school for display and be sent home at a later date. 

Update - 19th May 2022

Science

Our topic this half term has been plants. We have investigated whether plants need water, light, gas and how water is transported through plants.

Last week, we looked at whether leaves absorb water and how the roots transport water. 

We used food colouring to show the movement of water up the stems, from the roots and into the leaves and petals.

The children were fascinated and it has definitely given them a better understanding of how plants get water and nutrients. 

Update - 27th May

We have finished our science unit all about plants this week.

We have been running an experiment to see how important light is for broad beans to grow.

Each table group put their bean in a different place: windowsill, outside, under a table, in an unopened cupboard and in the classroom sliding cupboard.

Below are our results of their growth after 4 weeks. 

We all concluded that the windowsill bean was the greenest, healthiest and most likely to taste nice!

You can see the cupboard beans are very thin, pale and long - an indication that they did not have enough light!

Update - June 2022

The children have recently been looking at sculptures in Art lessons. They have been able to look at the work of Rita Floyd and the techniques she uses to make clay flower sculptures. Using these techniques, the children have made their own versions of clay flower sculptures.

They have evaluated their work and decided what they felt they did well, what they might improve on and why they chose the style and colours that they did. 

Update - July 2022

The last DT project of the year has finally been completed!

Year 3 have been learning about different bridges and their structures.

Over the last week of term, they have had the opportunity to saw wood, keeping safe whilst doing so and creating strong structures reinforced with tape, straws and paper.

Children will be bringing their bridges home for you to see the skills they have used and how they have strengthened their bridges.