Today Year 3 took part in an amazing Minecraft computing workshop at Bolton School ICT! First, we had to choose our own skin for our character. After this, we learnt how to accurately use a mouse. We were able to use this skill to explore a maze in Minecraft! We had to use different keys on our keyboard to move, jump and chat. We had to complete different tutorials. We were able to travel through temples, build bridges, knock down bricks and even build our own sandcastles! We also had to use our Egyptian code to crack the questions! We then applied our knowledge to build Egyptian pyramids!  What did you enjoy most? 

This afternoon our digital leaders led a mini assembly to our class all about how to be kind online. We looked at how we could be kind to one another and if something unkind happens, what we should do in this situation. We also looked at some kindness challenges that can be completed online and around school! 

This morning Year 3 took part in their smiley reward! We have worked so hard in our learning, we have definitely earn this. We have also been behaving impeccably too! We listened to some fun music whilst taking part in an inflatable obstacle course! Have a look at our great morning! 

This afternoon our digital leaders led an assembly all about AI. Our Google Legends helped us understand what AI is and how it can be used. We had to use our knowledge to guess if AI can complete tasks or if we can complete them! Did you know that AI can learn? It can also create things! It cannot feel things though. However, it is all around us! We also spoke about what AI can do! Have a look below:

This morning our parents and carers came into one of our computing lessons! We started our lesson with a project evolve starter, where we looked at how we can live a balanced lifestyle whilst being online. Next, we moved onto showing our parents how we use TTRS and Spelling Shed. After this, we created different shapes using coding on Logo on Purple Mash. Our parents were very impressed with our computing knowledge. To finish our lesson, we got to play Interland where we explore how to behave online. Have a look below: 

This afternoon Year 3 took part in a fascinating workshop where Bart Gee revealed his life story all about his disability! When he was younger, he was told he wouldn’t be able to walk, yet he proved people wrong by walking with the help of his mum! After this, he played some brilliant music on the piano. We enjoyed this workshop so much because we learnt that anything is possible and differences should be celebrated! 
What did you learn today? 

This morning Year 3 took part in a Smoothwall workshop! We discussed what technology we use at home and how we use it. We also spoke about how we can feel when we using technology. Next, we discussed how much time we should spend on technology. If we spend too much time, it can make us react differently to different situations. We also looked at whether humans or robots can say different things online. For example, a human can say sorry and so can a robot. However, a robot doesn’t actually feel sorry, whereas a human does. We also looked at how information can spread online and how we can’t always trust this.  What did you learn today?

This morning our parents were invited to watch our fantastic Autumn assembly! We have been practising really hard over the last week to put on a confident and interesting assembly. We showcased our new knowledge learnt in D&T, Geography, Maths, English and in our Science. We also recapped what we have learnt in Year 2 too! Have a look below: 

In Year 3, we are so excited to celebrate Black History Month! Black History Month happens every October and celebrates how black people all over the world have made a difference. People such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks protested against what they believed wasn’t right. We have also looked at different musicians such as Aretha Franklin and have discussed how her music impact others. 

We are very excited to celebrate National Poetry Day in Year 3! We especially love reading poems from our class poet- Roger McGough! We have explored All of the Best poems! We’ve also loved reading our class author’s poems in Revolting Rhymes. We used this poetry book to perform and create our own poems! Have a look below: 

Author, rapper and singer song writer Alex Wharton visited Year 3 this afternoon! We started with looking at rhythm, clapping along with the harmonica! Next we all read a poem out together! Before we read we had to warm up our vocal cords, we had so much fun doing this! We really enjoyed reading the poem Jellybean, we had to use lots of expression and a clear voice. We used our roach skills to make sure we read at a good pace. We also had to listen to Alex and echo his expression and volume. After this, we drew pictures for four poems. This was amazing as we listened to music whilst Alex read the poems to us. Finally, we created our very own poems!
What was your favourite part of today?

This morning our parents were invited to watch our geography lesson! We were able to showcase our knowledge and skills that is taught and embedded throughout our fantastic curriculum. In our lesson we were looking at Ordnance Survey maps and learning what each symbol represented. We also chanted our key words that we RRR weekly. Have a look at our fantastic morning below! 

This afternoon our Digital leaders led an assembly all about how to stay safe online. It is important that we check everything we see online as sometimes there can be fake news! We also looked at how we need to make sure we are always kind to each other online. We also recapped the internet legend code, be sharp, alert, secure, kind and brave.

At Oxford Grove, we have a group of children who have a keen enthusiasm for history. These children support Mrs Johnston-Sweeney with competitions and assemblies and promote our amazing curriculum through amazing pieces of work.

Responsibilities:

* Helping Miss Johnston-Sweeney with assemblies on important historical days.

* Setting up/deciding on competitions/projects.

* Checking history displays have all the requirements

* Helping children with their history learning

* Checking the artefacts and resources are correct for each topic

* Promote the love of learning for History

* Checking the History texts in each year group

This afternoon Year 3 had their very exciting sports afternoon! We took part in three different races, thee included an obstacle course, sprinting race and balancing the beanbag on our head! We had to use our balancing skills, running skills and had to make sure we didn’t bump into anyone else! We all tried our very hardest, have a look below:

This week has been D&T week and we have been exploring Mexican cuisine! We have done lots of research and have been finding out about the Eatwell plate. We know that in our diet we need a range of foods from the different food groups.

Today, we worked with Classroom Kitchen to prepare and make our very own quesadillas. We used two new cutting methods: the claw and bridge. We also used the grater to grate cheese and scissors to chop herbs. We had lots of fun making our dish, have a look below!

Today, we have been learning how we are connected and how computers are connected. We thought about what a connection is and how we are all connected to different people and places. This is similar to how a computer is connected. We learnt that all digital devices are connected to a network that connects to multiple devices together. This is then connected to a server which is a networked computer for helping us store files.

In this lesson, we learnt lots of new key words – can you have a go at matching the word to the definition?

Today, we have been learning about what parts make up digital devices and how they work. We looked at what a digital device is and how digital devices work using inputs, processes and outputs. Next, we looked at some different digital devices and decided whether their job was to input, process or output information – for example a keyboard inputs information, the computer processes it and the output can be seen on the screen. We looked at lots of different examples of this and thought about which ones we use in our day-to-day life.

This half term, Year 3 have gone swimming! We have been going swimming because it is such an important skill. It keeps us healthy, but can also be a survival skill if we fall into water. We practised different strokes such as breast stroke and back stroke! We made sure we listened carefully to the swimming instructors and tried to improve our technique. 

What did you enjoy about swimming?

This half term 3 Grove have completed a D&T RRR. We recapped our previous topics, where we made our very own book marks and looked at different foods that make up the eat well plate. We recapped our key vocabulary and looked at previous skills we learnt. We are very excited to start our new D&T topic in Year 3! Have a look at our fantastic work below: 

This morning, our digital leaders led an assembly all about AI. We discuss  how to stay sharp, alert, secure, kind and brave online. We also talked about AI- what it is, where we can find it and what AI can do. Whenever we are online, we need to make sure we are safe. 

In Maths this week we have been recapping our place value knowledge. We have also recapped our 2,5 and 10 times tables! Have a look at our fantastic work below:

This week, we have been researching and writing about our new class poet and class author! Our class poet is Roger McGough and our class author is Roald Dahl! We have been researching all about their early life, later life and their careers! We also looked at how they impact us as children! Have a look at some of our fantastic work below:

This week, we have started settling into our new classes! We have been learning our new class rules, thinking about good and bad choices, creating our welcome books and looking at our class prayer and promise. We have also been choosing our class jobs! Some of these jobs include: teaching assistant, book monitor, ipad monitor and many more! Take a look at our class promise below:

Today, we have been discussing why other people’s work that they publish online still belongs to them and we looked at different ways of recognising this.

We all know that the work we do at school belongs to us, this is the same as the content that people post online. However, it is much easier to see who work belongs to in school because our names are on our books. Sometimes it is very difficult to find who a video, photo or piece of information might belong to online. We completed a scavenger hunt to find the owner of some of the content online.

Tell me more about today’s learning.

At Oxford Grove, we know the importance of our British Values. We promote the British Values through everything we do from day to day life to within our PSHRE lessons. 

Rule of Law – We always follow the rules of our school and make sure others are following them too.

Democracy – All of our voices are heard through pupil groups and discussions with our school councillors.

Respect – We respect each other and our school and correct those who don’t.

Tolerance – We celebrate our differences – whether this is gender, ethnicity or religion.

Individual Liberty – We are free to make our own choices.

Today, we have been discussing how we can use search engines correctly to find the most reliable answers to our questions.

We learnt that we have to use safe search engines such as Kiddle as this will make sure the results are safe for us. We also learnt that we need to type in questions that are very specific and use the keywords that we are looking for.

Tell me more about today’s learning.

Today, we have been discussing whether or not we should trust everything we read online. We know that people can make things up or post information that is not true. It is important that we use safe and reliable sources to ensure that we are getting the answers we need.

Tell me more about today’s learning.

Today, we have been identifying and discussing technology we might find at school, at home and in the world. We looked at examples such as laptops, televisions, washing machines, and phones and discussed the different things that we might use them for. We also thought about where else we might see them being used and if they are used in a similar or different way.

Tell me more about your learning today. What technology do you have at home?

In Year 2 we love reading, especially in our reading area! We have got lots of books to explore including books written by our class author, Mini Grey, and our class poet, Dr Seuss. We love t0 share stories, recommend our favourite books to a friend and learn new facts from the all of the amazing information texts we have! At Oxford Grove we are very lucky to have so many brilliant books.

What is your favourite book? Who is the author?

Earth Day is celebrated each year on the 22nd April. It is a global event which teaches us about important topics such as how to protect our planet, recycling and climate change. It focuses on taking simple actions, like cleaning up parks, planting trees, or saving water to keep the Earth healthy. As part of this we watched a lesson on how we can help to look after our planet and then made some posters to take home to our adults!

At Oxford Grove we work incredibly hard to make sure everyone in our school feels safe, valued and included. We understand that everyone is different, and that is what makes our school a special place. We always try to be kind, helpful, and make sure nobody feels left out.

We have lots of pupil groups that share the voices of our class, assemblies where we can share key messages and updates and class jobs for everyone to play their part in making our school the outstanding place it is!

We have even learnt lots of special awards in which inclusion has played a huge part in helping us to earn!

This half term we have been learning all about Easter in our RE lesson. We have looked at how different people celebrate Easter and how this may be different for Christians and people who are not religious. We learnt about Holy Week and the events that happened on each day and discussed why these are important for Christians

In our most recent Geography topic we have been learning all about Kenya and comparing what life is like in Kenyan villages to our life in Bolton.

We have looked at the location, climate and wildlife and have made observations about how this is similar and different to England.

This topic also links to our text in English, ‘Lila and the Secret of Rain’ which is about a little girl from a Kenyan village who discovers the secret to making it rain.

We have produced some amazing pieces of work with links to writing, maths and science:

This half term we have been learning all about crafts and sculptures. We have studied work from craft maker Victoria Fernandez. She makes vases, wall hangings and table wear from a material called clay. We have also learnt about Antony Gormley who is a contemporary sculpture artist. Antony Gormley’s work includes the ‘Angel of the North’ in Gateshead and ‘Another place’ on Crosby beach. 

For our final piece of work we sketched a self portrait and then used this image to create a clay sculpture of our heads! They turned out amazing and we are all very proud of our work:

In our PSHRE we have been working on our team work skills and how we can work together to achieve a goal. This week we have worked in pairs to create a piece of art. We needed to ensure we were communicating, listening, sharing and taking turns to have the best chance of success!

Our art work turned out amazing and we all had lots of fun working together:

Over the past two weeks we have had some very special visitors to look after in Year 2! After half term we came into school to find ten little eggs. Over the next few days we watched them hatch and start to grow their feathers and learn to walk. It was amazing to see them hatching from their shells on the ‘Chick Cam’! This has really supported us with our science topic for this half term and we have a really good understanding of animals and their offspring.

When they were big enough we took turn to hold them and give their little heads a stroke!

Today was World Book Day and in Year 2 we celebrated our love of stories, poems and reading. We really enjoy our Guided Reading lessons each week and working on reading with fluency and expression. In our classroom we have a reading area where we can choose books to read and each week we choose our own reading book to take home.

As part of World Book Day we all got to choose a book from our class library to take home and share over the weekend. We are very excited to share our chosen books with our families at home!

This week is ‘Children’s Mental Health Week’. The 2026 campaign focuses on helping children and young people feel that they belong, encouraging them to find their place in their community, school, and friendships.

Inclusion is very important to everyone at Oxford Grove and we all work hard each day to make sure all of our friends feel part of of Oxford Grove family. As part of our PSHRE lessons we learn about trusted adults and who we can speak to if we feel we need support. 

This afternoon, we completed an online safety quiz as part of our digital leader task. The quiz was all about self image and identify online which we have been learning about in our online discussions in computing. We needed to listen to the scenario and choose the most appropriate answer as a class. Miss Cowell was very impressed with our answers and how excellent our understanding is of online safety!

During this mornings class assembly we spoke about PSHRE, mental health and wellbeing. We recapped what PSHRE stands for and how all of our learning so far this year helps us to develop key life skills. We then reflected on all of the amazing opportunities we have at Oxford Grove that help to support our mental health and improve our wellbeing. We sang ‘The Kindness Song’ and loved sharing this message with our friends, teachers and adults!

Today we looked at using technology in different environments. We discussed how to keep our bodies healthy when using technology. We also discussed the positive and negatives aspects that using technology can have on our wellbeing.

See strategies that we can use to support our safe use of technology:

This week is Online Safety week across the country. At Oxford Grove, we know how important online safety is so we have an online safety discussion at the start of every computing session. This afternoon we watched an online safety video with some key reminders.

Some of the key reminders from the video were:

– check the age rating of a game before playing – remember Year 2, you are only 7 years old!

– speak to a trusted adult if we have an issue online – this could be someone at home or a teacher at school.

This half term in PE we have been focussing developing our dancing skills. We have been exploring movements and working together as a team to perform in time. By listening to different music and acting out different scenes we have developed our balance, coordination and strength to pretend we are making a secret garden, performing in a circus and even exploring a jungle. It has been lots of fun!

As part of our topic for this half term ‘What do animals need to survive?’ we have been learning about keeping our bodies fit and healthy. This is something we also discuss in our PE and PSHRE lessons so we have had lots of brilliant ideas to share.

This week we have been thinking about germs, how they spread and how we can stop ourselves getting sick. As part of this we did an experiment to see how easily germs can travel just by us touching different surfaces. We used glitter to see how many germs really are all around us and discussed they best ways of getting rid of these!

Activity 1- We first RRR’d what bullying is. The children know that bullying is being unkind several times on purpose. We then looked at some different behaviours that are regarded as bullying.
Activity 2 – We then looked at how online bullying might make someone feel. We then looked at different scenarios to identify how the different people might be feeling.

First, the children began the computing lesson off with completing a word search to find the words related the personal information that should not be shared online.

Activity 2- We then looked at how old the internet is and what life was like before we had the internet. The children were shocked to learnt the different ways that people communicated and played games together before the internet.

Activity 3- Finally, the children found out that we must always ask permission before we share information about anyone online. The children know that information posted online is there forever.

This afternoon we discussed ways of communicating safely online. We recapped what the words ‘communicate’ and ‘online’ mean and came up with a list of people that we might communicate with. We then looked at how we might do this and the reasons why. We know that we should never take to strangers online and if someone tries to communicate with us who we do not know then we should tell a trusted adult straight away.

Today we have been discussing how to keep safe online. We listened to the story ‘Chicken Clicking’ and reflected on what Chicken should have done to keep safe online.

What online safety issues did you spot in the story?

What advice would you give to Chicken?

This afternoon we had our Smiley Reward! We have worked very hard to earn our smileys with our fantastic work in lessons and impeccable behaviour! . The pantomime was full of magic, music and laughter — and we had lots of fun singing and dancing along with the show. It was exciting to see all the colourful costumes and hear everyone join in!