Pumpkin Class Blog

Date:

22 April

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Earth Day/Great British Spring Clean

To celebrate Earth Day year 3 participated in the Great British Spring Clean as part of an initiative ran by North East Lincolnshire Council. They very kindly let us borrow bag hoops and litter pickers. We walked around the perimeter of the field and playgrounds to collect as much litter as we could find. Taking part in the event linked to our PSHE topic of living in the wider community, our responsibilities and how we can look after our environment. A big thank you to Luke and Sadie for coming and supporting us with this event!

Date:

19 April

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Pumpkin Romans Hook day!

Today in Pumpkin class we had our Roman hook day. We have been looking at mosaics and how Romans used mosaics to show wealth and importance. We had a look at a mosaic we have in school of our badge for inspiration. Then we got designing our own mosaics using foam and paper squares.

"It was have taken the Romans a long time to make mosaics"
"The little stones they use are called tesserae"
"The tools they used to make mosaics with were a hardie and a chisel"

Date:

28 March

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Stone Age Quizzes

In Pumpkin class today to finish off our topic of the Stone Age in History we used our retrieval quizzes we made to make a quiz on Kahoot!

Well done to team soccer city on their victory.

“It was really fun”
“I was so excited the whole time!”

Date:

27 March

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Easter in Pumpkin Class

In pumpkin class we have been looking at the garden of Gethsemane. We looked at what happened and had a go are creating our own gardens. We then wrote about what we had included in our gardens and why.

A big well done to everyone who decorated an egg this year it was very hard to choose a winner as per every year.

Date:

27 March

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Easter in Pumpkin Class

In pumpkin class we have been looking at the garden of Gethsemane. We looked at what happened and had a go are creating our own gardens. We then wrote about what we had included in our gardens and why.

A big well done to everyone who decorated an egg this year it was very hard to choose a winner as per every year.

Date:

15 March

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Science week

For Science week pumpkin class have had a go at making their own biodegradable plastic. This experiment linked with science week the theme of 'time' but also our English book 'One Plastic Bag. We learnt that plastic takes many years to decompose; causing land pollution. Therefore, biodegradable bags are more environmentally friendly, reducing pollution.

Date:

15 March

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

VR workshop

Pumpkin class had a great time during the VR workshop. We got to see how global warming is changing the world and what we can do to become more environmentally friendly. We followed this workshop up by creating our own ECO manifestos of what we will do to help the environment.

"I wrote about walking to school more and reducing by carbon footprint"

"The VR headsets were SO cool!"

"It was so fun!"

"In my manifesto I am going to stop asking my mum to buy be clothes to reduce the production of fast fashion"

Date:

8 March

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Basic Skills

This week in our basic skills we have been looking at fractions of amounts. Today we worked together to have a go at drawing and labelling our own amounts outside. We worked on making sure the numerator and denominator of our amounts were in the correct places.

Date:

7 March

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

World Book Day in Pumpkin Class

We have had a wonderful day in Pumpkin class today, dressed as book character, we have been finding all about 'Out to Sea' by Helen Kellock. We wrote a book review, a letter to Helen explaining our opinions on her book and drew an alternative front cover for her book.

"The book was really emotional"
"I loved the ending of the story"
"I didn't like when the young girl was grieving"
"I've had a brilliant day! Drawing a different book cover was my favourite!"

Date:

6 March

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Pumpkin Class are sandwich artists!

Today in Pumpkin class we have been making our own healthy sandwiches. In our sandwich we tried to include each part of the Eatwell plate. We also tried to explore new food we don't usually eat or haven't tried before. Some of us tried some unusual choices of sandwich.

"My sandwich was amazing"
"Astonishingly good!"
"I want to eat it all over again"
"I like BBQ sauce now"
"BEST sandwich EVER!" 

Date:

5 March

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Pumpkin Class Reading Breakfast

Today Pumpkin class invited parents into their class to do some reading. We also had breakfast whilst we did our reading. This meant that we all got one more read in our reading dairies this week, just 2 more to go!

"I liked eating food whilst reading most"
"I got to read outside with my mum and my friend"
"It was great!"
"A lovely class of happy children"
"Great turn out and well-behaved class"
"Thank you for having us, we had a lovely time"

Date:

4 March

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Pumpkin Class Plant Trees

Today Paul from NELC came to school to help us plant 4 new apple trees.

The project was launched by NELC to help increase the canopy cover across our borough, which is currently one of the lowest in the country.
Paul talked us through each step of planting a tree which links to our science topic of planting. We hope one day we can use the produce off these trees in our cooking club to help us towards being more sustainable. 

Date:

28 February

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Designing Healthy Sandwiches

Today in DT we have been designing healthy sandwiches. Last week we looked at the eatwell plate and the different aspects we needed to include in our sandwich. Today we tried different foods we might include for each aspect of the eatwell plate and decided what we are going to include in our sandwich we make next week.

"I tried tuna and I have eaten it for years"
"I tried a gherkin and I always thought I hated them, but I didn't"
"I did not like the gherkin it was too vinegary"
"My sandwich is going to have all aspects of the eatwell plate; brown bread, butter, soft cheese, ham, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise" 

Date:

28 February

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Timestables Collaboration

Today in Pumpkin and Willow class we have been collaborating. We collaborated on timetables. Different tables had different activities to do such as; rolling a dice and multiplying, using iPads for 1 minute maths games, challenge cards and year 4 teaching 3 year how to work out different multiplication questions.

"Collaboration is always really fun"
"I like it because I learn things"
"We can be like teachers showing year 3 skills they not have used yet!" 

Date:

23 February

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Symbol Detectives

In R.E this week we have been looking at what visual symbols and symbolic acts can be seen in a Christian church. We watched a short video where we were detectives and looked for signs of this. Once we had watched the video, we used team work to create mind maps noting down all the things we had seen that were symbols and symbolic acts within the church. 

"There are lots of crosses within a church all a symbol of what happened to Jesus on the cross"
"Holy communion where Christians have bread and wine is a symbolic act that happens in church"

Date:

20 February

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Compass Go!

Today Zowie delivered an ANTS workshop. We learnt what an ANT is and what we can do to stop an ANT. Zowie also told us about having a brain bestie, and that when we have an ANT we can use our brain bestie to stop the ANT. We wrote down our ideas so we can look back at them if we have an ANT. 

After this we came up with ideas of what makes us happy, which we can think about, if we are feeling negative. 

"I am a fantastic friend!"
"Making mistakes helps me."
"I am always trying my best."
"I love football, that makes me really happy."
"I enjoy going to the swimming pool."

Date:

11 February

Posted by:

Mrs Smith

Key Stage 2 Disco 🪩

Pupils in Key Stage 2 enjoyed the Friendship Disco- a great time had by all!

Date:

9 February

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Wednesday Readers

Pumpkin class have a reading group on a Wednesday lunch time. Here we have an opportunity to get one of our three reads, especially if we haven't had chance at home. We can also read to a grown up, and talk about the books we are reading. All children in the class are offered this opportunity weekly if they would like to join us.
"I like being able to read my story to Miss Purshouse"
"I don't always have chance to read at home because I go to lots of clubs"
"I think coming to the club is making me a better reader"

Date:

8 February

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Stonehenge

We love celebrating the fantastic home learning that is produced in Pumpkin class. This fantastic piece of home learning took inspiration from us looking at Stonehenge in our recent History lesson.

Date:

8 February

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Science Investigation- Soil Permeability

Today in Pumpkin class we have been scientists. We identifed how to make careful observations and observed how much water had filtered through different types of soil. We made sure we used the same equipment and length of time for each observation to make our investigation a fair one. We also found that we were using skills from other lessons, such as maths for reading the units of measurement and time. The conclusion to our investigation was that the soil from our tyre plants was the most permeable. 

Date:

1 February

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Soil Formation

Today in science we have been learning all about soil formation. We looked at questions such as; what is soil and what is soil made from? We then moved onto looking at compost, learning what compost is, and why people choose to compost. To look at compost in more depth we made our own compost bins.

"I loved getting my hands dirty with the compost"
"I understand why people have their own compost bins as it is more environmental than buying it"
"It was so funny when Miss Purshouse got the jelly worms out! She pretended they were real!"

Date:

31 January

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Pumpkin class visit the library

Pumpkin class visited the library this week to help us with a research task in geography. Mrs Wink very kindly pointed us in the right direction to non-fiction books about coastlines and Cleethorpes. Once we got back to school, we found different pieces of information using our books. Thank you Mrs Wink for letting us visit and helping us to find interesting books on our topic.

"I would like to go to the library again!"

"I like that we got to borrow books"

"I liked working in groups to find information from the books we go"

Date:

26 January

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Conservation in Cleethorpes

In Geography Pumpkin class have presented presentations all about conservation of places in Cleethorpes. We learnt what conservation is and why places in Cleethorpes are protected and where abouts they are. We also looked at why Cleethorpes is called a Coastal town.

"I enjoyed presenting in front of the class?"
"I learnt that the pier is protected"

Date:

18 January

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Prehistoric palette

Today in Art Pumpkin Class explored how natural products produce pigments to make different colours, we used different spices as our pigments.

As well as this, another group used different materials to recreate the rough texture of a cave wall, ready to paint over the surface when it is dry using the pigmented paint. We will be continuing this activity next week so that both groups have had a good at doing both activities!

Date:

12 January

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Multiplication and division collaboration

Today Pumpkin and Willow classes have collaborated with multiplication and division. We paired up and each had a go at rolling the dice and adding up the sum to multiply this with the next roll of the dice. Once we had completed the multiplication sentence, we used this to write division facts.

"It was quite a fun game"
"I really like working with year 4!"
"I love helping the year 3, I feel a bit like a teacher"

Date:

12 January

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Road Safety Talk

Today in Pumpkin class we were very lucky to have a Mrs Griffith come in to talk to us about road safety as part of our PSHE lesson. We discussed how we could make the village safer, how we can be safe when crossing roads, and riding a bike. 

"I didn't know we don't have zebra crossings in the village."
"I'm going to tell my sister to start wearing her helmet when she is riding her bike!"
"I think the village needs more help with road safety"

Date:

8 January

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Pumpkin Hook Day!

We had a fantastic hook day in Year 3. We went in our nature area and role played for our English. We asked ourselves what would it have felt like to be in a cave? What senses would we have used? What would we have done? We then used what we role played to write a piece of descriptive writing using exciting vocabulary and expanded noun phrases. 

Date:

5 January

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Rocks

In Science we have started our new topic learning all about rocks. We looked at what different rocks there are; Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic Rocks. We compared the different types of rocks with the help of some sweets!

"Using sweets helped me understand the different types of rocks more"
"Making the sedimentary rock was my favourite because my hands got sticky"
"I know now that concrete is man made, I didn't know that" 

Date:

8 December

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Pumpkin class make Frottage pictures

In Art this week we took rubbings of different textures to make Frottage art work. We them ripped the paper of the rubbings to make a textured flower picture inspired by artist Maud Purdy.

Date:

8 December

Posted by:

Mr Middleton

Maths collaboration

Year 3 and 4 have been collaborating with their maths skills this half term. Year 4 have been learning all of the times tables and are helping to pass on some knowledge and skills to year 3. Today we looked at solving problems using the 4 and 8 times tables.

Date:

8 December

Posted by:

Mr Middleton

Year 3 and 4 Carol Service

Thank you so much to everyone who was able to attend the carol service on Tuesday evening. The children had worked really hard, practising their singing and Makaton movements. There was beautiful singing, great audience participation and even a magic trick from Reverend Mark. It was a great event to kick off the festivities of the month. Feliz Navidad!

Date:

7 December

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Sausage Making

Pumpkin Class got the chance to work with Gavin making sausages. Gavin told us all about what goes into shop bought sausages, and how we can make healthier ones ourselves. The sausages that Gavin made he knew all the ingredients that went into making them, however sometimes you don't always know what is in shop bought sausages. We then got to try the sausages ourselves and they got a thumbs up!

"That's the best sausage I've ever tasted!"
"I love sausages with beans and mash!"
"I really liked the sausage Gavin made"

Date:

1 December

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Mummification

In History this week we have looked at mummification and the process it entails. We learnt that when people were mummified to reduce the water in the body and to act as a preservative, they used Natron. We investigated using different kinds of salt on different fruits and vegetables to see which one would be a modern-day substitute for Natron. We scooped the insides of the fruit and veg out, weighed it and covered in different salts. Next week we will weigh the fruit and veg out again to see which salt has absorbed the most amount of water.

Date:

24 November

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Road Safety

After an insightful assembly on road safety yesterday today we recapped on all that we had learnt. We came up with posters to display in the classroom reminding us that we need to think, stop, look and listen.

Date:

21 November

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Our Metal Flowers

Today we put our metal flowers up in our reception area. I think you'll agree that the children have done amazing with these. Each of the flowers have incorporated an artist's design that we look at in each of these year groups. Be sure to look out for them as you come into school via the reception!

Another big thank you to Sam from Vanel for supporting us with this project.

Date:

13 November

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Anti-Bullying week

To start off our focus of Anti-Bullying week Pumpkin Class researched team building games that we could collaborate with year 6 to play. We also participated in a live Anti-Bullying lesson led by the BBC. We were all very excited to get a shout out on the BBC Teach website.

Date:

10 November

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Spoof websites

Pumpkin class has been focusing on E-Safety in ICT this week. We looked at examples of 'spoof' web pages and how we can tell if the information on these sites are accurate or not. We then had ago at creating our own 'spoof' web pages.

"I did mine about a player going to a football club when they aren't"

"I created a 'spoof' web page about spotting unicorns at Stanford"

"I wrote about elves helping at Christmas"

Date:

1 November

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Pumpkins bake for tuck shop for well-being Wednesday!

Pumpkin class have made some delicious oat-meal and raisin cookies for tuck shop this week for our well-being Wednesday. Children weighed out the ingredients and then added all the ingredients together to bake. Although Miss Purshouse nearly forgot the cinnamon, oops! We can't wait to sample these in our tuck shop on Friday selling for 50p.

Date:

31 October

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Metal Flowers Project

Today Pumpkin class were the first class to start the metal flowers project with VANEL. Year 3 created designs linking to their class artist Maud Purdy. They then painted these designs onto the metal flowers using key terms such as strokes, light, dark, pattern, layering. We were then joined by year 2 who came to have a look at how we were getting on and looking at the different designs we had created!

"I had lots of fun painting"

"I think they looked really pretty once they were finished"

"I liked mixing different colours to get the colour I wanted"

"I can't wait to see all the flowers when they are up!"

Date:

30 October

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Bollywood Dancing

Pumpkin class worked with Sunita this afternoon to do some Bollywood dancing as part of our Hindu experience work. Children wore suitable attire to dance in and Sunita showed us lots of different dance moves to try.

"It was so fun!"

"I really liked trying all the different dance moves"

"I got 2 team points for my dancing"

"It was funny that Miss Purshouse was the Queen"

"I hope we get to go that again"

Date:

20 October

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Presentations

This week in English pumpkin class have been discussing what they would like to change about the school environment. Linking to our class text 'Belonging.' Children used technology to research their ideas and then created a presentation. Today pumpkin class presented their presentations to Willow class. Pumpkin class did amazing to deliver their presentations to others. A big well done to everyone!

Date:

20 October

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Interactive Scenes

Today in computing Pumpkin class have been designing and creating their own interactive scenes. Children planned their scenes using different algorithms and made several things happen in the scenes.

Date:

18 October

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Pumpkin Class are artists

Today in art we have been using our designs to make Egyptian scrolls on papyrus paper we have previously made. We worked out what information we wanted to convey onto our scrolls using imagery, colours and patterns.

Date:

13 October

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Magnets

In Pumpkin Class we have been learning all about magnets. This week we made our own games using paperclips and magnets. We used keywords such as: attract and repel.

"That was so much fun!"

"I'm taking mine home to show my little brother"

Date:

13 October

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Behaviour Ambassadors

We love celebrating fantastic behaviour in Pumpkin Class. Today our behaviour ambassadors have seen lots of amazing behaviour.

"I saw people listening to what they had been asked"

"Someone held the door for me! I thanked them"

Date:

10 October

Posted by:

Mrs Smith

We love to read!! 📚

Barley and Pumpkin class came together to share their love of reading! Pumpkin class shared their favourite book with year 6 pupils whilst enjoying the sunshine!

"I loved reading with a year 6"

"The year 6 explained to me about speech marks in my story"

"I read my favourite story outside and it was very calming"

"I had a lovely time reading"

"Me and my partner took it in turns to read"

"I liked my partners book more than my own"

"I liked the author of my partners book and have looked for another book by that author"

Date:

8 October

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Basketball

Today Pumpkin Class have been practicing their basketball skills. We have practiced shooting, dribbling, and defending. We have been working really hard at remembering to bounce the ball whilst moving.

Date:

4 October

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Willow and Pumpkin Well-being Collaboration

As part of our well-being Wednesday Willow and Pumpkin class worked together to create some new recycling posters to put up around school. Willow class helped Pumpkin class with their spellings, and Pumpkin class helped Willow class with ideas they could have for their posters.

"I really enjoyed working with a year 4"

"Having the doors open was so cool!"

"It was nice working with a different teacher"

Date:

29 September

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Pumpkins are design technologists

In DT we having be learning all about mechanical systems and we have made our own moving animals using linkages and levers. We will back these onto a calendar ready to take home at Christmas.

"My fixed part is the head of my lion"

"My loose pivot was too tight so I had to loosen the split pin"

Date:

26 September

Posted by:

Miss Perrin

Harvest Festival

The Harvest Festival was an amazing event. Each of the classes prepared something to share - pieces of art, letters, poems and songs. It was lovely seeing the Foundation children join us to share their song. Rev Chris came to talk to us about harvest and spoke about how it is important to share and care for each other, qualities which we treasure within our school.

Date:

20 September

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Magnetic Forces

In Science Pumpkin Class have been looking at forces and magnets. We noticed how magnetic forces can act at a distance and attract some materials and not others. We sorted these materials into magnetic and non-magnetic materials.

Date:

15 September

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Class debate!

Today in English we thought about what happens to Rhodopis the main character of our book. We argued whether different things that happen to her are a positive or a negative. For example, she becomes a Queen. Which some children said would be a positive, but others said a negative. We then made a list and split them positives and negatives whilst debating which side they should go on.

Date:

8 September

Posted by:

Miss Purshouse

Egyptian Hook Day!

Today in Pumpkin class we have had our hook day. We have learnt lots about Egyptians and how they used to live, we even had a virtual tour of the British Museum around the Egyptian exhibition. Then we learnt all about papyrus paper and how it was used, then we had a go at making our own!