Welcome to Rowan - Year 3!

Autumn Term

Rowan Class have settled into Year 3 brilliantly. They’ve shown such enthusiasm for their learning and have adapted really well to the new routines and expectations. It has been a pleasure to see how confident and curious they are becoming already.

In English, the children have loved exploring Aesop’s fables, especially looking at the different morals hidden within each story. We’ve spent time focusing on The Lion and the Mouse, which has captured their imagination. The class have enjoyed acting out scenes, stepping into the roles of the characters, and discussing how the story might change if the characters made different choices. They’ve also been creating their own new endings, which has led to some wonderfully imaginative ideas.

We’ve been challenging ourselves in our writing by including fronted adverbials, expanded noun phrases, and adverbs. The children are beginning to experiment with these features to add detail and variety to their sentences, and it’s been fantastic to see their confidence as writers grow.

Science

As part of Year 3 science, Sycamore and Rowan class had the opportunity to dissect some owl pellets!

It was a fascinating session where children learnt about how a pellet was produced and what could be found inside!

Many kinds of birds produce pellets, including birds of prey, crows and even sparrows. The appearance of the pellet depends on what they eat. These pellets were from barn owls and contained the undigested fur and bones of as many as 6 small mammals, sometimes even more! Occasionally, very unusual remains may be found such as moles, beetle shells or frogs! It was lovely to see the children take care when dissecting the pellets and the discussion around what they thought about each bone was wonderful to hear. 

Many of our bones came from rodents, but there were a few bones which looked to be from small birds. Children also managed to piece together a skeleton of a vole. 

It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and the 'awe and wonder' on the children's faces was a joy to see!