A busy and eventful term awaited us all upon returning to Chrysalis in 2018.

We commenced the term with the ‘Literature of Creation and Tradition’ Main Lesson where opportunities to consider the great themes of humanity took place. Stories of creation, tradition and authority, and the impacts they had on individuals, were shared and explored. In ancient human civilisations these themes have been expressed in some of the great narratives that speak directly to the growing child’s imagination, particularly in relation to questions that start to arise at this age. It was a wonderful opportunity to continue developing language and literacy skills as well as explore different belief systems and stories from throughout the world.

After this the children delved into the ‘World of Measurement’ Main Lesson connecting with the different aspects of their surroundings and measuring everything in it. Through the experience of old Egyptian, Roman and English systems of measurement, the children used their feet, hands, arms, legs and body to measure length. They then utilised standardised units of measurement to do this too. Tape measures, trundle wheels and rulers were used to work out how short and long things were and the distances of places that were around us. From this we explored mass using balancing scales of traditional trading times and then learned about the standardised methods of measuring mass that are used today. Volume was also explored using many containers of varying shapes and sizes, filling them with various liquids and working out how much was in each.

Our third Main Lesson focused on drama and music and this intertwined with our Harvest festival performance of ‘Saint Michael and the Dragon’ as well as our weekly lessons on the violin and recorder. As a class we learned about different aspects of musical notation in conjunction with playing the violin and recorder and developed our skills in reading music.

As well as this the children continue to have learning adventures in art with Will, in gardening with Benn, in form drawing with Soli, in movement with Alison, in library with Dot, in singing with Kath, in violin with Jacquie, Kym and Janelle, in reading groups with Jacqui and in craft with Kamala. We thank them all for their wonderful contributions to class 3.

Warm regards,
Eric