2024-2025
Meet the class
Meet the Staff
Y3 Class Residential
Wow, what a trip! The children had a fantastic time on their 2 day residential with a sleepover at school.
Firstly, they were gifted the gorgeous sunshine which made their gorge scrambling activity even more inviting as the river was glistening. After getting kitted up at school with a wetsuit the children headed up to Meldon for a day of adventure. They all stepped into the river with a few hesitant smiles and a few shrieks as the water was a little chilly! After two minutes, everyone was laughing and joking as they manoeuvred their way up the waterfalls, down the rock slides and swam across the deeper sections. Then the real challenge came, the children had the opportunity to jump into the river on two occasions from some large rocks. Most of the class faced their fears and had a big smile on their face when the popped up from under the water!
After the class had changed and refreshed with their lunches, Alastair, Clare and Hannah led the class up to the reservoir to take in all the views of Dartmoor. Also to get an idea of the purpose of a dam, as their next activity was dam building in the stream. In small teams the children worked together to create magnificent dams which resulted in pools forming behind them. Each team was successful for different reasons. The children then located the source of the river before returning to school.
Back on the school field the children located their tents and began to unpack before playing in the sunshine. Ms McMillan had brought a suprise guest along - Blossom the lamb. The children did love having an animal at the party. Mrs Andrew had kindly made the class dinner and we all had an al fresco feast before heading into the woodland for a fire and hot chocolate and campfire games.
Eventually, the sun began to set and it was time to persuade the class it was bedtime. Everyone was very brave and all managed to spend the night sleeping at school (well done!).
Day 2
The children were up with the birds and keen to get going as we had another busy, fun filled day ahead. The class managed to eat a big breakfast to set themselves up for their first challenge - packing their bags! Once we had completed this task, Alastair and Hannah were ready to take us to the beach. We followed the river for most of the drive to Northern Burrows where the children got to identify the mouth of the river. Lots of them were astonished that the river they had been scrambling up the day before and building dams in was now the huge river in front of them, leading out into the ocean. The class had a lovely time, building, digging and drawing in the sand and exploring all the washed up shells they found. Alastair set them the challenge in teams of creating a sculpture of the journey of the river based on the activities they had completed. With a lot of laughter and getting wet the children had made their interpretation and shared it with the rest of the class.
Then it was time to head for the visitor centre to have our lunch. With their last bouts of energy some ran along the sandy path whilst others enjoyed the ocean views. As we had been in the sun all morning and it was getting late, the minibuses came to collect us to return to school.
The children all had a wonderful time completing all the activities with smiles on their faces. It was lovely to see them enjoy themselves outside of the classroom, being active and having fun spending time with their friends whilst learning. Now we will take all the facts they have learnt to help us when we start our new topic of Rivers in Geography. Well done Poplars!
Over the last couple of Science lessons the class have been looking at the different types of soil. For our last lesson in this module of Rocks and Fossils, we completed an investigation looking at the permeability of two different soil types. One was a clay soil and the other a loam soil. The children were really surprised to find the soil samples did not act as they had predicted in their investigation.
Farmwise Visit - Wednesday 6th November
On Wednesday the children enjoyed a visit from Bev from the Farmwise, where they got to learn about the story of the Devon scone.
The children participated in many different activities. They had the chance to mill grain, milk Daisy the cow and also make butter from cream, which they then thoroughly enjoyed eating on top of a scone.
On Tuesday, year 3 went to Merrivale on Dartmoor. We were looking at all the historical features that give us clues as to what life was like during the Stone Age. The children saw the remains of 32 round houses, the cist which was used as a grave and the stone rows. The stone rows were used as a place of burial and also for processions. Our guide was very knowledgeable and taught us a lot of safety features to beware of on Dartmoor too. For example, he used his walking stick to demonstrate the depth of the bog. Everyone had a wonderful day and got to enjoy the beautiful scenery and sounds of Dartmoor.
In Science the children have been learning all about light.
From using torches to identify the most reflective materials to help keep us safe in the dark to using mirrors to write a reflective message.
2023 - 2024
2022-2023
Meet the class
Meet the staff
2021-2022
Today we took part in a Live BBC Teach science lesson all about space. The children were very engaged and designed their own moon buggy. Everyone was very excited when we got a live shout out on their website for taking part!