Last day!

Thursday was the final day for the children in 3B. They started the day with a lovely merit assembly in which many children received merits for consistent good work and behaviour. Four children got special awards for the amount of progress made in Year 3 and Mrs Bell gave the teacher's award to Mitchell and Brenton, wishing them luck in their new schools.

The assembly was also for saying good bye to Mr Coles who retired after many happy years of teaching, welcome to teaching to Mrs Shaw who qualified as a teacher and good luck to Miss Tyler for her wedding and Mrs Love who is expecting her baby in September. It was a busy assembly.

All the juniors then got an extra playtime as well as refreshing ice-creams. The weather, luckily was sunny and warm. Everybody enjoyed the ice-creams, some wished they could have them more often!

Mrs Bell spent some time putting things in boxes ready for moving day on Friday whilst the children enjoyed each other's company. In the afternoon they watched a DVD before having ANOTHER playtime. Soon it was time to say, 'good luck' to Mitchell and Brenton and 'Bye' to everyone !

Mrs Bell thanked the class for being such a wonderful class to teach. She was touched by the many generous presents and cards she received. Her favourite rewards, however are the brilliant pieces of work the class have produced over the year.

She will remember many special events with pleasure. This year the class have been involved in Family Learning, including a first ever Residential Family learning weekend, we have helped with 3 parents meetings - Maths, Building Learning Power and Learning styles! And we have had a first ever class BLOG! It's been an exciting year, but we all need a holiday now.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, everyone!

Final week!

This week and the last week of the academic year is a 4 day week. Governors have given a very special day to the staff for all the changes for teachers. A lot of teachers are moving into different rooms and so the day will help to get everyone into new rooms. Mrs Bell is wondering how all her stuff will fit into a smaller room!

The Open afternoon was very successful on Monday afternoon. Many parents and children walked around school, looking at displays as well as the new classrooms children would be taught in next year. Tuesday was 'Move up' morning when everybody went to their new teachers for 2 hours. It was very good for the teachers to see their new classes.

Wednesday was great fun, as the class made their sandwiches! First they learned how to use tools safely. We had a go at grating and cutting with sharp knives. It made Mrs Bell nervous. She was pleased when Miss Painter returned from the Parent helper assembly. The sandwiches looked very interesting and delicious. Mrs Childs saved the day by letting us have a cucumber and tomatoes as Mrs Bell had left them in the fridge. Her brain was not working too well, after her night out with the staff on Tuesday! We all went into the Pavillion to eat the delicious sandwiches.

The afternoon brought gorgeous sunshine and a wonderful Planet Family meeting. There were 6 different activities organised and each Family went from one to another. It all ran very smoothly, with children managing one way traffic system really well. The class managed a quick lesson in the ICT suite, looking at the Blog one more time, before choosing an activity they have enjoyed in Year 3.
Thursday is the last day. Mrs Bell spent a long time moving manyof her things into her new classroom, a Year 3 mobile.

Performance Poetry!

This week the class continued their unit of Performance Poetry. Mrs Bell was thrilled with the way the class had attempted their own poems under the title of 'And my heart soars'. Miss Painter and Mrs Bell were choked up when Megan and Ellie-Mai read their their poem about Megan's cat, Tilly who went missing in March. The poem showed the love Megan had for her cat. There were some excellent poems by other children too. Jack had most of his family in tears over his wonderful poem which talked about his family life.

To follow this work, we read 'Bears in Groovy Shoes' and wrote our own poems in that style. Wil and Josh made everyone laugh, not just with the poem, but with their performance. The whole class voted that they should get the merit of the week! Well done, everyone for getting involved in selecting good work for this award.
The week ended with a disco on Friday night. There were lots of lower junior children present at the first disco, which went really well. Everyone looked very smart and happy. Next week will be the last week - we are looking forward to the holiday, but there is Move up' morning and Open afternoon first.

Transition Week

Transition week was specially geared towards preparing children towards changes in the future. Year 3 will begin to think about going into the next year group. For two children, this will mean new schools. Brenton and Mitchell will both be leaving us to go to new schools as they have moved house. We feel sure they will soon settle in. Brenton has been to spend a day at his school already and has a cousin who goes there. Good luck to both the boys.

The class went to spend 2 hours with their new teacher, Mrs Parker. They were very excited and eager to meet her, and found her to be pleasant and happy. This will make the start of next year much easier for them. Some children did suggest that Mrs Bell should think of devious means of getting herself in Y4 so she could teach them again! Mrs Bell has really enjoyed teaching her class and would love to spend a few more weeks with them, but she has to move on too! She met her new class on Friday afternoon. They seemed so small!

The week also brought about the final of Young Enterprise. Everyone has enjoyed the programme. Angela Buckley has been bringing something to do with her job each week. This has been very interesting. Mitchell found it useful as it helped him to deal with his Nanny's death in the summer term. Angela works for Wellings Funeral service and has been very good at delivering the Community programme to 3B. The class made her a lovely card to say 'Thank You'. Angela's item from work this week was BIG! Everyone got a ride in it - it was a great finale to the series of 6 lessons. Thank you, Angela.

Visit to Tatton Park

On Tuesday, a day after one of the most rainy days in history, Year 3 went to Tatton Park to do some activities related to The Tudor Times. Mrs Bell awoke at 5 to find the day was going to bring sunshine! She was really happy and had some more sleep before getting to school for 7.30am. Hurriedly, she photocopied some worksheets for the buses, in case children got bored.

Most children had brought little activities or magazines to read on the bus. We left at 8.50 and arrived in good time. There were 2 of four activities to fit in before lunch. Each group did4 altogether. Every one of them was fun and educational with children working hard to learn. They used their listening and 'doing' skills. All the teachers and helpers were impressed with behaviour and the good questions and answers they heard. The activities included: Weapons, Wattle and Daub , Spinning, Deer Walk, Pot Pourri, Corn Dollies, Sweet making.

At lunch time there was a whole year group picnic with hens joining us, looking for scraps of food. We managed a good play before getting down to the second set of workshops. The day finished with an excellent falconry display. Eight children got to call a hawk over for food.

The journey back seemed long; adults appeared to be more tired than the children!

Supply Teacher week!

This week Mrs Bell seemed to be out a lot! She had a course on Building Learning Power on Tuesday, she had to work from Mrs Hunter's office on Wednesday as she was the only manager in school (she even got to eat Mrs Hunter's dinner!) and she did a lesson observation in Mr Doherty's maths set on Thursday. 3B were rather glad she was back on Friday. It pleased Mrs Bell when they cheered to hear that news. She was also proud that the class had behaved so well and worked hard for 3 different supply teachers. Well done, everyone!
Some lovely work was produced in Literacy when children wrote a first person account related to the book they were using, 'Footprints in the Forest'. The class did reading on Friday - Niamh, Daryl, Kaisey, Toby, Matthew and Daniel have become really good readers. Well done.

The Young Enterprise was great on Tuesday afternoon, when the class learned how to use ballot boxes. Some very interesting suggestions were made for new shops in the fictious community.

The great news was that Matthew has done really well in 3B. Everyone got a sticker for helping and Matthew couldn't stop smiling! It's great to work as a team to help others. We are now aiming to help 2 other children in class. The class were also delighted with the news that Emily's mum had a baby girl. They know that Emily might feel a little jealous but we decided it was normal and natural to feel like that.
Nathan had a birthday - his mum got him a card on time, all the way from Australia. Again the class were happy about this. Nathan is having fun with his dad, and got some nice presents. he gave everyone a sweet at the end of the day.

Multicultural Week

The week was spent on learning more about India by concentrating 4 full days on the topic. The year group already learn about Chembakolli, a village in South India in geography in the summer term.

During the week, we tasted foods, learned some Gujerati, did a dance and some drama as well as some literacy based on a book called 'Footprints in the Forest'. Mrs Bell spoke to all the Year 3 about her trip to India, using music and a home-made video to show different parts of India. She had some table cloths with block printing too. We used that to create our own block prints in 3B.

The whole year group then did some printing from them. The results were amazing. Everyone will have some to keep from the

multicultural week at school.

Workshop on Family Learning

The week half term started on Tuesday for most children but Monday for Wil Pearson. He went to help Mrs Bell run a workshop at the beautiful Botanical Gardens in Birmingham. It was a very grand place with over 150 people there for the conference! Luckily only 25 had chosen the Family Learning workshop (there were 5 different workshops at the same time). Mrs Bell was very proud of the way Wil and Elliott spoke about Family learning at our school. They helped with 3 different activitites. The pace was so fast, Mrs Bell was grateful for Wil and his grandma's and Elliott and his mum's help. Everything went well and everyone seemed to enjoy the workshop. They joined in with everything.

Afterwards there was an ice-cream for the boys and a well-earned cup of tea for Anita, Freda and Mrs Bell. The gardens were nice, too. The journey back was not too easy though. There was so much traffic and WHY are there so many roundabouts in Birmingham?

Finished Sculptures!

This week, the week before a half term holiday was busy! Mrs Bell had 2 sessions she for doing performance management meetings so Mrs Gamell and Mrs Godfrey came to teach the class. On Tuesday the class painted their beautiful clay sculptures they had made the previous week. The results were delightful and some children were given merits for their artistic talents. We sneaked in an extra art lesson when we drew our sculptures too.

In Geography we continued to learn about India and how village life in India is different to Stretton. Children were very good at making decisions. The recording was cutting out the sentences and sticking them under the right heading. Mrs Bell was impressed with the independence everybody showed. Maham was very kind and wore her clothes to show us what Indian clothes are like. She looked really beautiful.

The week ended with an extra long session of 'Earthwarp', which has really inspired all the children to write creatively. In the afternoon, we increased our tennis skills by working in pairs to practice ball control with tennis rackets. We learned how to serve and receive a serve. By the end of the lesson, some children were managing to pass to each other! The longest ralley was 16, which was brilliant.

Mrs Bell had to have a special word with Wil before he went home. Wil will be helping Mrs Bell to deliver a Family Learning workshop on the INSET day in Birmingham. It's the NFLN (National Family Learning Network) summer conference and it's being held at the Botanical Gardens. Wil's grandma is going with him.

Have a good holiday, everyone. It will be the last half term in Year 3 before you move onto
Year 4, when you will be taught by Mrs Parker.

Creative Writing in Year 3

This week saw 3B using a book called 'Earthwarp' to do some wonderful writing. After reading the first chaper, the pupils had to imagine the kind of creature that may have come out of a spaceship! There were many fantastic pictures drawn, showing vivid details.
"I have never such brilliant and imaginative creatures," Miss Painter exclaimed.
This gave Mrs Bell the idea of putting them on display. Before the end of the week, the pictures were enlarged, mounted artistically by Miss Painter and put on a board for everyone to enjoy. Thank you, Miss Painter.
After drawing the pictures, the children wrote character studies, a newspaper report and a detailed description of the creature that Jenny and Amina had seen in the book. Luckily we have this story on video and every Friday, after maths we watch a little bit. Luke Gardner was so inspired he wanted to finish his writing in his own time.

In the role of a newspaper reporter, this is what he wrote,

"Yesterday night, I was at the beach fishing. Suddenly I saw a lazer shoot right up to the sky and it went red. I ran up to the top of the beach where the steps are. I peeped back and saw a shadow of an alien. I was shocked!!!
It had three eyes on green, wobbly bits. He had teeth like sharks. He had foru long, green arms and five legs. He had a glass helmet. He slithered along the steps. I ran to my house and went to bed. THEN I looked at my curtain and saw ANOTHER alien!"
Has anyone else seen any?

By Luke Gardner, reporting for W.S.P.S

Assessment week

After a long weekend off, we came back to school to complete the assessments. Mrs Bell is keen for children and staff to know that assessments are part of life and used to find out if pupils are making good progress. The test results will show how well the pupils have been learning and will give teachers a clear idea about what to teach next. This ensures everyone progresses and reaches their potential.

All Year 3 have worked hard and done their best this week. Well done, everyone and thank you to the staff who have supported us. We also managed to look the our BLOG in ICT and most of the class have made comments. It is a lovely way to keep a record of our time in Year 3.

Cricket was good fun too, on Friday afternoon. Team games are hard, and some times frustrating as everyone has different skills. Mrs Bell enjoyed watching the children in action and left some of them to solve their own problems. It all seemed to work well over the lesson. Next week, we start a new game.

First week of May 2007

Our science topic of electricity involved making a circuit. Niamh could not remember making one before but she worked well in the group to learn how to make one. Well done!

This week also saw the year group working hard and getting some practise in for assessments before doing spelling, mental maths and reading tests on Friday. Mrs Bell explained the learning objectives:

1. To learn life skills (tests are part of life and these prepare us for the important ones in the future e.g driving test)


2. To do our best (always important to show what we have learned)


3. To NOT panic, but think carefully and have a go

Miss Painter and Mrs Bell were very pleased with everybody's attempts. Some children did reading with Mrs Conner as her test was not time restricted. We have a long weekend to enjoy the sunshine and play at home with friends or siblings.

Learning Styles meeting for parents

The second week of term saw 3B using a combination of learning styles in a unit of work in Literacy. All teachers in school plan for the different learning styles on a regular basis but this unit of work was extra special. This was because Mrs Bell wanted to share examples of Literacy activities with parents during the information meeting on the 26th of April.
The learning objective for the lessons was to produce a sequel to the traditional story of Three Billy Goats gruff. The class first read Cinderella's sisters to learn what a sequel was. Their activity was to use literacy skills of speaking and listening, planning and writing to produce a sequel to 'Three Billy Goats Gruff' in a variety of ways. The lesson plan suggested visual learners should write a story, auditory learners should do a play and kinaesthetic learners should do a puppets show. However as all children at William Shrewsbury are encouraged to use all learning styles, the class had a choice.

There were 2 brilliant puppets shows produced, 2 excellent plays and many wonderful written stories. Mrs Bell was very impressed with the results and selected 15 children who could share their work with parents. Only ten were able to attend, but that was plenty to work with with.

During the parents meeting, Wil, Josh B, Lewis H and Lewis G did a fantastic puppet show, Suman, Emilia, Hope, Maya, Beth and Maham put on a super play and Emilia read her story out to 42 parents. Mrs Hunter, Miss Thompson, Mrs Tuckwell and Mrs Wodding, along with the parents were very proud of the children, who were loud and clearly spoken. Well done, everyone!

Summer Term

3B returned from their Easter holidays on a beautifully sunny morning. Everybody seemed to have grown taller and there were lots of chatty children catching up on news with their friends.Mrs Bell and Miss Painter were pleased to see the class but explained that this was the final term in Year 3. Everyone is expected to work hard, behave well and knuckle down to all the new topics for this term.

We are learning about Electricity in Science, Sculpture in Art, India in geography and cricket in games. Swimming will start again next week.

In the picture on the right, two boys show how their bodies can be used to show a sculpture. On the lesft you see a group working well together.
It was fun working in pairs or groups for this art work.

Mrs Bell was on a course on Tuesday but she turned up just to meet a new boy who has taken Dillon's place in class. His name is Nathan Adams and he was nervous on Tuesday. However, he has not stopped smiling since he arrived. Mrs Bell and Miss Painter are very pleased with the way the class have helped him to settle down. Nathan himself is a mature boy who is making every effort to work hard and get to know all the children. He thinks 3B are noisier than his last class! Mrs Bell will have to sort this out!

Last Day of term

Today was the final day of the Spring term. Children were excited at the thought of having a holiday. Dillon was excited about moving to Australia. Secretly the class had made him a lovely 'good luck' card and Mrs Bell got him a book with a character named Wilf. We thought that would remind him of 'Biff and Chip' books he had learned to read from at William Shrewsbury.
In class the children finished off a science investigation, did an assessment and even made Easter baskets with Mrs Godfrey. Mrs Bell was busy doing performance management meetings with two teachers.
The afternoon included a long merit assembly as so much good work had been produced by the pupils. Mrs Bell explained to the juniors about Dillon leaving and Daryl and Beth presented the card and gift. Dillon seemed a bit sad at this point but cheered up in class when he was sharing his sweets with his friends. The class gave him three cheers!
Happy Easter, everybody. Have a good holiday and rest up well.

Finale!

Friday 23rd was the final session of 3B's family learning. It was also the day the group met to talk about the previous weekend when they had all had a wonderful time at Pendrell Hall. Everybody was in agreement that the whole weekend had been great. Emilia has been telling people that she has never seen her Nanny like that before! Mrs Bell reminded the children that adults, like children really enjoy having fun. The residential family learning has been a lot of fun and we all hope the the school will get another opportunity to do it.

Today the children read an example 'thank you' letter by Mrs Bell before writing their own. The pupils had to manage their distractions as some of the mums were busy discussing events from last week and even planning what they might do next week! Luckily with our new Building Learning Power skills, the 'Thank You' letters were soon done. Children used interesting words to write detailed paragraphs of the things they had enjoyed. David Evans, Mrs Hunter and Mrs Bell will get a lot of pleasure from the letters.

The session finished with an evaluation. Mrs Pearson, on behalf of the pupils and parents thanked Mrs Bell for her time and organisation of the whole Family Learning and particularly for giving up her weekend last week. Mrs Bell added her thanks to the children and parents for being a great group to work with. It has been an enjoyable experience for all of us. Thank you, everyone for your participation and enthusiasm.

Mothering Sunday

Sunday began with children giving their hand-made cards to their mums. Mothers were pleased with the beautiful designs created by their artistic sons or daughters.
Mrs Bell and Mrs Hunter gave David a card to say 'THANK YOU' for all his hard work towards making the weekend so successful. They did not stay for the workshops this morning as they had to go and see their own children for Mother's Day.

Today's sessions were making musical instruments and then playing them with the help of Mrs Pearson, Wil's mum who is one of the Year 1 teachers at William Shrewsbury School. As a KS1 music subject leader, she was very happy to help the children to become creative with music.

Dinner Party

After some peaceful games with Mrs Hunter, everybody went back to their rooms to prepare for dinner. The girls were looking forward to dressing up, the boys were looking forward to the food!
The ladies looked very grand and happy and didn't seem to be missing the rest of the family very much. A wonderful home-made tomato soup was served as starter before the main course of chicken with fresh vegetables. The children decided to sit with Mrs Hunter and Mrs Bell whilst the mums had a peaceful meal. Lemon meringue pie finished off the meal beautifully.

Pendrell Hall serve delicious food. For Mother's Day lunch, they are expecting over ninety people, thirty four of those will be the party from William Shrewsbury.

After the meal, we had 'Play your cards' right and 'How well do you know each other?'. It appeared that the children knew their mums better than the mothers knew their children! But it was only a bit of fun. These games were followed by the story reading. Each child read their own story starter to the audience, who were amazed by their ability to write and read in public. Well done, children.

Mrs Hunter read out the parents' imaginative story starter. They had used powerful adjectives and described the setting very well indeed! Mrs Hunter had used a beautiful, wooden, ornamental box as a starter for creative writing, whilst Mrs Bell has used a muddy, brown boot. The results were amazing! Well done, potential authors.

Afternoon sessions at Pendrell Hall

After dinner, Mrs Hunter took the adults for a creative writing activity whilst Mrs Bell worked with the children on Design and Technology. As it was Mother's Day the next day, we made lovely pop up cards as a surprise. Children enjoyed using a variety of resources to create excellent cards. An hour went by so quickly, we had to send a message to the adults - they were given permission to have a cup of tea. Joshua came back saying, "They are all worn out!"

Children next had the task of showing how they write a setting for an imaginative story. They wanted to go out in the woods to get more ideas. Good try, Lewis, but Mrs Hunter was having none of that! Despite a slow start, we had eight fantastic pieces of writing by the end. Mums with their new found skills were able to help their children. There was evidence of paired discussion and use of powerful language. The stories were read out in the evening to a spell-bound audience. Even Mrs Bell was speechless with the high standard of work produced by her class, and she knows how good they are!

After all that brain work, David suggested making kites and flying them. What fun we had! There was laughter all around as the children, followed by the adults had a race. Emilia's Nanny was grateful when Mrs Bell asked if she could do the race for her.

Workshops at Pendrell Hall

The day dawned with the children trying hard not to wake up Mrs Hunter and Mrs Bell, who had been heard giggling and 'quietly' creeping around very late the previous night! Feeling hungry, everyone arrived for breakfast at 8.30am. There was a delicious aroma of food in the dining room.

Breakfast over, it was down to the serious business of morning workshops, which began with a tour of the grounds. David was keen to share valuable information about the main building, which was built in 1860. The Gaskell family who lived in it all those years ago had seventeen servants to look after them!

The tour was very enjoyable. We learned lots of things about nature as well as the interesting history of the place. This led onto Mrs Hunter introducing the alphabet collage. Mums/grandma and children set with great enthusiasm, looking for items beginning with specific letters as well making a collection for the collage.

The collages were brilliant - each one different, but it was the working together and discussion that impressed the staff.


There was little time for a break before it was the next activity - the number trail. It was important to fit in as many areas of the curriculum as possible. David explained the tasks and set them off. Mrs Hunter helped by guiding children around, from a sunny spot in the beautiful gardens. Pupils and their adults were running around looking for clues and doing fun maths.

Lewis and his mum had to look hard for clues as some questions had more than one answer.

We were all very impressed with Emilia's Nanny, who was smiling as she tried to keep up with her grand daughter. It was soon lunchtime! We were hungry again by now, and tucked into a superb buffet. Mrs Hunter enjoyed her small slice of pudding! Some of us went for the slighter larger portions though.

Arrival at Pendrell Hall

It was 4pm, and all the children were buzzing with excitement waiting for the bus to arrive. Just as Mrs Bell thought she'd have to ring the bus company, the coach arrived! Everybody went over to get their cases in the boot and ready for the off. The bus driver had a map route but seemed unsure of his destination so a quick photocopy of the directions and some discussion took place. Mrs Bell felt sure the driver would get everyone there safely and quickly, even though he said,"See you there at midnight!"

Luckily, it was nowhere near midnight when the full party was gathered together and comparing bathroom size! This was the boys! Mrs Bell was nearly speechless when Wil cheered at the thought of sharing her 'bigger' bathroom. There are limits, Wil!

Dinner was in a beautiful room, where two long tables were laid for the party. Fish and chips!Yummy! You should have seen the size of the puddings! David Evans assured us all that there were NO calories in any of the foods we were eating. We were all so relieved!

After dinner we had some wonderful games. There was much laughter and hilarity as we got to know each other better. Very soon it was time for story. Mrs Hunter produced a big box of chocolates to share. Then, Mrs Bell spoiled all the fun by saying it was bedtime! (She really only wanted to get to the bar!)

Everyone slept soundly, some dozed off sooner than others! There were star points and chocolates to be won by the person/s who went to sleep first. The decision is too hard, so it's star points all round!