Hatherleigh Community Primary School Caring about learning and learning to care
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Poplars
Welcome to Poplars
2025-2026
Our Class - Poplars
Meet the Staff
Christmas in Poplars
Year 3 thoroughly enjoyed the Christmas period and the final weeks of term, which were packed full of exciting activities. We explored chalk pastels to create some beautiful and effective Christmas cards, and enjoyed a trip to the Northcott Theatre to watch Jack and the Beanstalk, enthusiastically joining in with all the traditional actions and phrases.
We were also incredibly proud to perform our Christmas play alongside Year 4. The children worked hard to write the play themselves and performed it with great confidence and enthusiasm. We finished the term with a festive class Christmas party, enjoying lots of fun games including pass the parcel, musical statues and the chocolate challenge.
Wishing all our Year 3 families a very Happy New Year!
Design & Technology – Levers and Linkages
In Design & Technology lessons, Year 3 have been exploring how levers and linkages work. The children investigated different mechanisms and discussed how movement can be created and controlled.
They then applied their learning by designing and making their own working systems. They created mechanisms that used levers and linkages to produce a waving motion in their chosen image.
The children were proud of their moving models and enjoyed seeing their creations come to life.
Well done, Year 3!
Children in Need Day – Year 3
Year 3 had a wonderful time supporting Children in Need on Friday. The children were excited to take part in fundraising activities and worked together to fill Pudsey’s silhouette with coins.
Their generosity and enthusiasm helped raise money for a fantastic cause, and the classroom was full of smiles as they watched Pudsey’s outline gradually fill up.
Well done, Year 3, for showing such kindness and community spirit!
Maths – Multiplication and Division in Year 3
T his half term, Year 3 have been developing their understanding of multiplication and division. The children used concrete resources to build arrays, helping them visualise and explore the relationships between the two operations.
Through practical activities, they discovered how the same array can be used to represent both a multiplication and a division calculation. This hands-on approach supported their reasoning and deepened their confidence in working with number.
Well done to all our Year 3 mathematicians for their fantastic focus and enthusiasm!
Year 3 Maths Parent Workshop
This week, our Year 3 children were delighted to welcome parents and carers into school for a special Maths Workshop. Together, they explored key mathematical skills including place value, addition, and subtraction.
Families took part in a range of fun, hands-on activities and games designed to deepen understanding and build confidence. It was wonderful to see children and adults working side by side, sharing strategies, and celebrating their learning.
Thank you to all the parents and carers who joined us—your enthusiasm and support made the workshop a great success!
Stone Age Cave Art
This half term, we have been learning all about Stone Age cave art. We discovered that people in the Stone Age used to draw the animals they hunted on the walls of their cave homes. These pictures told stories about their lives and showed the animals that were important to them.
To experience this for ourselves, we created our own cave art using charcoal and chalk pastels. We thought carefully about the shapes, colours and textures that Stone Age artists might have used. Our finished artwork looks fantastic – just like real cave paintings!
It has been great fun exploring how people expressed themselves thousands of years ago, and we are very proud of our prehistoric masterpieces!
English
The Tear Thief
This half term, our writing has been inspired by a beautifully illustrated book called The Tear Thief by Carol Ann Duffy. The mysterious and invisible Tear Thief visited our classroom and left us a special letter – along with a jar filled with stolen tears!
In the letter, the Tear Thief asked for our help to identify the different coloured tears: emerald tears of envy, clear tears of peace, and yellow tears of happiness. We worked together to imagine which emotions might match each colour and discussed what each one might look and feel like.
Over the next few weeks, we will continue exploring the story through creative writing. We’ll be writing our own poems, letters, and stories inspired by The Tear Thief, using our imaginations to bring new ideas and feelings to life.
It’s been a magical and thought-provoking start to the term, and we can’t wait to share our wonderful writing with you soon!
Role Play Fun in English
This half term, Year 3 have been captivated by the magical world of Leon and the Place Between, a beautifully illustrated picture book that has sparked their imaginations and inspired some truly creative writing.
The story follows Leon and his siblings on a visit to a circus, where Leon is chosen to step into the mysterious world of Abdul Kazam. As Leon’s adventure unfolds, the children in Year 3 were invited to consider: Would you enter the mystical box?
To help them explore this big decision, pupils took part in a drama activity called Conscience Alley. Each child took a turn playing Leon, while their classmates became the voice of his conscience—some whispering words of encouragement to step into the box, others warning him of the unknown. As they walked slowly through the alley, they listened carefully to the conflicting advice and, at the end, had to make their own decision: to enter or not to enter?
What would you do—step into the box or walk away?
Whole School Walk
On Friday, Poplars class joined the rest of the school for our annual walk around Broomford Manor. We couldn’t have asked for better weather – the sun was shining, the sky was clear, and the autumn colours were at their very best.
As we strolled along the paths, the children enjoyed spotting the broadleaf trees, especially the magnificent oaks. Acorns crunched beneath our feet, and the golden leaves created a beautiful, seasonal backdrop. It was a wonderful opportunity for everyone to appreciate the natural environment together, while also sharing time as a whole school community.
The children behaved brilliantly and took great interest in their surroundings. The walk was both refreshing and inspiring – a perfect way to celebrate the season.
Harvest Festival
Poplars Class gave a brilliant performance at this year’s Harvest Festival! They shared Jackdaws by Robert Macfarlane, a lively rap-style poem that celebrates the clever birds often seen swooping across fields at harvest time.
The children worked hard to learn the rhythm and words, and their efforts really shone through. With clear voices, great expression, and plenty of enthusiasm, they brought the poem to life.
The whole class performed together with confidence, and they should all feel very proud of themselves. A big well done to Poplars Class for their fantastic contribution to our Harvest celebration!
Year 3 School Councillors
Our Year 3 School Councillors had their first meeting this week. They are taking their new duties very seriously and are looking forward to representing our class throughout the year. We look forward to hearing from them on a range of topics.
Art & Design
We are studying the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser who was famous for designing buildings without straight lines. He loved bright colours and asymmetric designs which have influenced our ideas. We have used our sketch books to explore interesting shapes and vibrant colours to produce our own building designs.
Welcome to Poplars
2024-2025
Snowy Day plan 21.11.24
Meet the class
Our Class
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!
Residential
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.
History Trip to Merrivale
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.
Science - Light
Creative Thursday - David Jones art
Poplars Class
2023 - 2024
More photos from our river residential
Rivers residential 2024. The children have had an excellent residential and more photos will follow next week. Well done and enjoy your weekend Year 3!
Egyptian Masks March In Creative Thursdays the children have used the medium of mod-roc to create their own version of an Egyptian mask.
Welcome to Poplars Class
2022-2023
Meet the class
29.09.2023: Today the Poplars had a fantastic time on their whole school walk! They enjoyed all the puddles, mud and nature surrounding them! What a fantastic day for the whole school!
22.09.2023: Today the Poplars have a fantastic time singing their song "Floating through the breeze" at the Harvest Festival! Here is a recording of their lovely song!
12.09.2023: Today the Poplars a special workshop where they learnt the importance of their brain having that need time to be creative and mindful of their wellbeing.
08.09.2023: Today the Poplars had their first PSHE lesson! They discussed the importance of school rules and recreated scenarios in their groups in which they could use the school rules to help them!
Meet the staff
7.6.23 Today each class went up to the churchyard as part of the Gods Acre Churchyard survey. Organized by Mrs Gibb, the children spent time looking at the different flowers and grasses and trying to count how many were in a small area. Jo Pullin led the bug hunt and it was surprising how many different types of insects and bugs the children found.
12.05.2023: Today the Poplars woke up bright and early for an early start to Northam Burrows where we learnt about the mouth of the river. We also got to enjoy many fun activities such as a lovely walk across the sand and using our art skills to create fantastic natural art using sand, rocks and sea weed!
11.05.2023: Today the Poplars class started of their residential at Meldon Quarry where we learnt about river sources and the river cycles. We discovered various of beautiful places from the West Okement River to the Meldon dam to Meldon Viaduct! After our lovely adventure we split off into teams to build our own dams! We then moved on to build our boats and raced in the Okement River. Sadly the Teacher's team lost. We then returned to school where we help set up the bell tents and settled down into the night after our lovely meal!
30.03.2023 The Poplars are putting the final touches on their lovely canopic jars that they have been making with Ms Chauhan during Creative Thursday. Beautiful works of art by our talented artists.
10.03.2023 The Poplars learnt in History today how Ancient Egyptians used Plumb lines to build pyramids. We put the Ancient Egyptian method to the test by using straws, wool and a rock to recreate our own.
02.03.2023 The Poplars celebrated World book day by dressing up as our favorite characters and sharing our favorite books with the class!
27.02.2023 Today the Poplars class made chocolate cover bananas using a recipe we created during English for Fairtrade weekend! We learnt about why Fairtrade is important and how to find out what items in supermarkets are Fairtrade through the logo found on the front/back of the produce.
04.11.22.In RE we are learning what Christians learn from the creation story. Today we went to the woodland and looked at the creations around us. We looked through our view finders and then returned to class and drew some of the things we had seen.
Building Stone Henge! 6th of October to the 20th of October
Stone Age Dance! 20th October 2022
Stone Age Characters - 22nd September 2022
Welcome to Poplars Class!
2021-2022
January 2022 - Poplars Class
Second day - exploring a local estuary
Camping on the school field!
Our second activity - dam building!
Our first activity of our Poplars Rivers Residential - April 2022
February 2022 - Poplars had lots of fun learning how to play hockey today!
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!
04.10.21 Live BBC Teach Science lesson
22.09.21 Ordering a historic timeline.
On our first day we enjoyed recapping our partitioning knowledge from Year 2 and extending our learning by looking at 3 and 4 digit numbers!
13.09.21 Playing 'guess my number' outside for a part of our maths learning today.
14.09.21 Presenting our alien songs to the whole class!
