Children Today, Citizens Tomorrow

On Tuesday Year 3 visited Bede's World in Jarrow. Bede was a Monk in Anglo Saxon times and was around when the Vikings were up to their tricks.

We began the day by finding out what every day life was like for ordinary Anglo Saxons.

This is inside an Anglo Saxon house. The floor is made of earth and the walls are made of mud, reeds and little presents left behind by animals...

Bede's World is also a working farm. It looks just as it would 1,300 years ago. These pigs aren't quite that old....

Meet Githa and Offa. Githa is spinning wool ready to make clothes. You can tell Offa is rich and important because his clothes are decorated and he has his own knife.

This Anglo Saxon garden grows only the plants you would find 1,300 years ago. Did you know, Anglo Saxons didn't eat chips because potatoes hadn't been discovered yet? And carrots were white, red or purple, but never orange!

After lunch we put on habits to find out what it was like to be a monk. Bede was sent away to a monastery when he was only 7, the same age as some of us!

In the museum we learned about all the jobs the monks had to do, like building, fishing and making beer! All work and no pray...

What's this? Working? On a trip? Surely not? Not really, just drawing some of the jobs the monks got up to.

We had a great day at Bede's World and the weather was fantastic. Oh, and in case you were wondering....

Yes, there was a giftshop...

Year 3 have been outside again to look at and record their shadows for Science.

They measured their shadows at different times of day.

To see what happened to them as the sun changed position.

They also teamed up to see what strange shapes they could make in teams.

The nice weather has seen Year 3 burning off lots of energy on the field in PE. We have been improving our throwing and catching skills in a variety of activities and games.

We like to warm up with a game of Freezeball.

We started by throwing to a partner.

Then we threw to each other in groups, getting further apart.

"I bet I can hit Mr Swan from here!"

Today Year 3 visited the CLC Centre in Gateshead where we had lots of ICT fun!

We read some short stories then made up some music to go along with them. Instead of using ordinary instruments we used Sound Beams.

Sound Beams work by passing your hand in front of a sensor. Changing the speed and how close you are to the sensor affects the sound that comes out.

Pressing these coloured pads also made strange sound effects. We had a great morning and Mr Swan was very proud of all our hard work and excellent behaviour!

Is what we've been up to in ICT. Simulations can help test things if they are too expensive, too dangerous or would take too long in real life.

Here is young Master N. using an ironing board simulator. His lust for excitement is boundless!

Is it a lobster? No, it's a monster. Year 3 have been learning about Myths and Monsters and created this monstrosity in PE!

She doesn't look very impressed, does she?

We've been learning all about Fairtrade products and what it means for thousands of people all over the world. To understand what life is like for people not so fortunate as us, we made paper lanterns to 'sell'.

Usually mild-mannered Mr Swan became a mean factory boss for the day. He only paid us a tiny amount for each lantern we made, some of us didn't even have enough money to buy food!

The worst thing was when Mr Swan sold the lanterns to Miss Cowley for a huge amount. He got rich from all our hard work, it wasn't Fair!

What has happened to our teeth? In Science, Mrs Kirkland gave us some disclosure tablets to chew. When we had finished they showed us how clean our teeth were. The more blue colour on our teeth the 'dirtier' our teeth! The less blue, the cleaner our teeth!

In preperation for our 'Awesome Author' week, we took a trip to Seven Stories to meet the author, Mini Grey. We have been looking at her books and it was great to meet her. She showed us how to make zigzag books.