Year three enjoyed experiencing a short visit from a musician this afternoon. 

Ross, from Hertfordshire Music Service, visited each of our classes to describe where his love of music came from (learning recorders in infant school!), explain what the music service can offer and treated us to some of his guitar playing!

We were given the opportunity to ask questions- he hasn't yet been on TV but was on Jazz FM last week. 

His contact details are on the picture. Please reach out if this is something you are interested in for your child. 

Year 3 helped spread a little joy by creating some beautifully bright and creative gingerbread pictures for a unit at Lister Hospital. 

These are hanging with pride to help make some poorly, scared people feel a little bit happier. 

The manager of the unit gifted us a festive pencil to thank us. 

This morning eight children from year three took part in a bowling competition against 11 other schools at Hollywood Bowl. 

The event was organised by Stevenage Sporting Futures to aspire children. 

I am thrilled to announce that Fairlands won with an overall score of 645! This is a fantastic achievement for year 3 and Fairlands- many of the other schools had older children from Key stage 2. 

The good news doesn't stop there...one of our children also walked away with a medal for scoring the highest individual score-101! 

Well done Fairlands!

In year 3, we have been reading and writing 'Fables' which are stories with an important message to be learnt. First, we read 3 fables in class. The characters in the stories all learnt important messages. Keving the Koala learnt that trying new things was a good thing, the squirrels Cyril and Bruce learnt that helping each other was better than squabbling and the lillte mouse from The Lion Inside learnt that it is good to just be yourself. We then used these stories to help us write our own fables.

Today years 2-5 took part in an exciting launch assembly for RockSteady Music School. 
We played some fun games to understand musical elements and learnt about 4 instruments- drums, vocals, keyboard and guitar. We then formed a band and performed together. 

Children took home letters with more information on signing up for Rocksteady Music lessons in the spring term. 

On Wednesday, year 3 enjoyed their WOW day for our new topic: M is for Modern Art!

We learnt about modern artists who used different techniques and mediums including Matisse, Mondrian and Monet. We all had a go at creating a piece of artwork in the style of each of these artists. 

We are all looking forward to learning more about modern art for the rest of this half term!

This morning, year 3 were incredibly lucky as we had a visitor from Stevenage Sporting Futures with us in school for a yoga workshop! We thoroughly enjoyed our yoga, which included an imaginary 'trip to the zoo', where we we practised different yoga poses which are named after different animals. We had a lot of fun but also left feeling calm and relaxed...

In year 3, we have been investigating friction. We found out that when we rolled a toy car down a smooth surface the car travelled the furthest. This was because there was less friction. We tested cardboard, carpet, foam, wood and plastic surfaces. We also measured the distance the car travelled using a metre stick. In Hazel class, we found out that plastic was the surface with the least friction and foam was the surface with the most friction.

We had our introduction lesson to our half term's Science topic 'Forces and Magnets' today. 

We discussed what we already know. This included there being no gravity in space and not all metal being magnetic. 

We thought of things we would like to find out. These included 'Is gold magnetic?' 'Why is there no gravity in space?' 

We ended our lesson exploring a selection of magnets. We found lots of magnetic items around the room and were fascinated by the force field that is created when two of the same poles repel against one another. 

Year 3 have spent the last half term reading The Firework Maker's Daughter by Philp Pullman. We have carried out reading and writing tasks based on the text in our English and Guided Reading lessons and today spent the day celebrating all things fireworks! 

We worked in groups to create our own shadow puppets and theatres- we will perfom our stories later in the week. 

We used different media to create fireworks; chalk, marble rolling and a coded firework display on Scratch. 

Finally, a firm favourite activity among the children, we made star biscuits and decorated them with icicng and sprinkles.

The children have really engaged with the text and enjoyed today's activities.