This week in Maths, we have been learning all about 2D shapes and their properties. We have been investigating the properties of squares, rectangles (and other quadrilaterals), triangles, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, octagons, circles and ovals! Did you know, for example, that a rectangle has two pairs of equal sides, four vertices and four right angles?

We have enjoyed practical maths activities where we worked with a partner to identify different 2D shapes and to sort them according to different criteria. In our 'Quadrilateral Investigation' , for example, we were given a selection of 2D shapes which we had to sort into groups after looking closely at their properties. We had to decide if the 2D shapes we cut out were squares, rectangles, other quadrilaterals or not quadrilaterals at all! 

Today we became 2D shape detectives! Our mission was to explore around and about the school in our groups, looking for examples of 2D shapes. We could look for 2D shapes in the classrooms, in corridors, in the halls, upstairs, downstairs, outside in the playground, in the woodland area, on the MUGA - in fact almost anywhere! Mr. Evans challenged us to find a variety of 2D shapes not just squares and rectangles. Could we, for example, find any pentagons, octagons or ovals? We set off in our detective teams with our iPads so that we could take photographs of any 2D shapes we found.   

We worked well in our detective teams and found lots of evidence of 2D shapes around the school. Here we are tracking down 2D shapes and here are some examples of 2D shapes we found. We had cracked the case! Crime solved. Case closed. Until the next time.........We are now going to look out for 2D shapes outside school -- at home, at the shops, at the park, in the street....... 

Today Year 3 enjoyed their visit to Caerleon's Roman Fortress and Baths. The remains of the amphitheatre, barracks and baths at Caerleon - or Isca as it was known in Roman times - provided us with a vivid picture of what life would have been like two thousand years ago in Roman Wales.

At the Capricorn Centre, we were lucky enough to enjoy a Roman banquet role play where we feasted on such Roman delicacies as peacock brains, oysters and stuffed dormouse! An impressive selection of Roman foods was laid out on the long banquet table. Some of us wealthy Romans, dressed in purple robes, were served delicious food by our Roman slaves. "Slave, peel me a grape and be quick about it!"  

Soon it was time for us to head off in the direction of the Roman amphitheatre that would have been outside the protective stone walls of the Roman fort. Here the Second Augustan Legion would have trained - exercising, marching and practising fighting with their swords, shields and javelins. Crowds would also gather at the amphitheatre for special announcements as well as entertainment such as fights between gladiators and wolves or bears! The Romans enjoyed a bit of blood and gore! At the amphitheatre we practised marching as a Roman legion to Roman commands and instructions. Forward march! 1..2..3..4, 1..2..3..4...  

Frigidarium, tepidarium, caldarium and natatio. Sounds like one of Harry Potter’s spells! In fact, they describe the wide range of facilities and rooms  on offer to the Second Augustan Legion at the Roman Baths. These included heated changing rooms, a series of cold and warm baths, covered exercise rooms and even an open-air swimming pool. The Romans liked nothing better than a relaxing bathe and swim. At the baths we saw the hypocaust - the heating system that heated the water of the bath-house. We also saw artefacts from two thousand years ago such as mosaic art and pieces of jewellery found in the remains of the baths. These must have fallen from people as they swam.   

At the museum, we were shown a multimedia presentation all about Roman Isca and the historical site at Caerleon. We found out lots of information about Roman soldiers and their way of life. Some of  us visited the reconstructed barracks room. We could see how six Roman soldiers shared two rooms where they would eat, sleep and store their equipment including swords, javelins and shields. They slept on wooden bunk beds with thin mattresses. In the barrack rooms, we had an opportunity to try on replica helmets and armour. We couldn't believe how heavy the armour was!  

Today J3 wore onesies to school to help homeless people off the streets and into safety.
As this is Homelessness Action Week, we wore our onesies to school and donated £1. Every £1 donated is enough to provide a warm breakfast, comfort and human interaction for a rough sleeper – helping them to engage with the services that they desperately need. Throughout the day we took part in some fun class activities focusing on homelessness.  

This afternoon we stepped back in time over two thousand years to the times when the mighty Roman army invaded our island's shores.  We have been learning all about the Roman invasions of Britain: how the Romans sailed across the English Channel from Gaul in ships and attacked Britain. The Romans first invaded Britain in 55BC led by Julius Caesar. His army soon left as he realized that he would not have enough army troops to keep defeating the Celts. Nearly one hundred years later, Emperor Claudius ordered an army to set sail for Britain. They fought hard and defeated the Celts in a fierce battle. The Roman army remained and took control of Britain.     

We role played the Roman invasion of Britain to help us understand what it must have felt like to be an invader and a defender. Celtic tribe J3 were busy farming and hunting at their Celtic hillfort (the school woodland area) when far in the distance, across the mighty sea (the playground), a fleet of Roman ships loomed, their sails billowing wildly in the harsh wind. The alarm was sounded as the Celtic warriors prepared to go into battle against the approaching Roman army to defend their land and people. They sharpened their spears and painted their faces with woad.  

Celtic tribe J3 waited on the shores of Ancient Britain, swinging their gleaming swords fiercely in the salty air as the Roman fleet approached. As the Roman soldiers invaded, driving the Celts back, a blood-curdling battle ensued. The clash of metallic swords and the hurtling of spears whistling through the air could be heard above the battle cries of courageous Celtic warriors as they fought for their lives in the face of the well-trained, disciplined  Roman soldiers with their superior weapons and armour.  

Later we swapped roles with J3 playing the role of the ruthless Roman invaders and J2 defending their Celtic homelands. We thoroughly enjoyed our role play and it helped us to understand all about the Roman invasion of Britain. We are having great fun whilst learning all about the Celts and Romans in our topic 'The Empire Strikes (Back!)'.

This week we have been using the notes we made about the Celts to help us write our own factfiles. We have aimed to present key facts and information about the Celts in clear sentences. The note:
 - painted bodies - blue patterns - woad
becomes as a factual sentence: 
Celtic warriors painted their faces and bodies with blue patterns called woad. 
We worked well with other partners to draft and write a final draft of our Celtic factfiles.

Some of our Celtic factual sentences included:
Celtic warriors had large shields covered in animal hide. They held long spears made from iron which they swung around their heads. They also fought with spears and daggers.

The Celts lived in roundhouses. These were made from wattle and daub, a mixture of straw, wood and mud.

There would be a fire in the middle of the roundhouse which was one large room. The smoke escaped  from a small hole in the roof. There were no windows as the Celts needed to keep the heat in. The roof was made from straw thatch.

We wrote our neat, final Celt factfiles into special frames designed  in the shape of Celtic roundhouses. This afternoon, we enjoyed using different media to create our own ' Celtic roundhouse' covers for our factfiles. We were able to choose the materials/media we used. We could use:
- a range of different collage materials including papers and card of different textures, fabrics such as organza, felt, hessian, foam and string.  
- paint using different shades of brown and yellow to represent the mud, wood and straw that the Celts used to construct their houses.
- a range of natural materials including twigs, wood, grass and leaves. 
OR we could use a combination of all three!
We had to make creative decisions ourselves when interpreting the brief of recreating our own Celtic roundhouses for our factfile covers.  

 Here are a selection of our 'Celts' factfiles and their roundhouse covers. We hope you enjoy looking at them as much as we had fun making them. What is lovely is that they are all completely different and unique - just like us!

This afternoon we had great fun in the school's woodland area making our very own Celtic roundhouses. During our research this week, we have been finding out all about the Celts including their houses. We have found key facts about Celtic houses such as  how the Celts lived in roundhouses made from wattle and daub (a mixture of wood, straw and mud). There would be a fire in the middle of the house with a small opening in the thatched roof above to allow the smoke to escape.
 

Today we ventured  outdoors to the woodland area in our old clothes where we worked in small groups to make our own Celtic roundhouses using a selection of natural materials that we collected in the woodland. We used mud, compost, straw, grass, sticks and twigs.

Together we worked in small groups. First we had to choose a suitable location to build our Celtic house - somewhere that would offer protection from attack by other tribes/invaders; somewhere where the Celts could see around them so that they could look out for attackers. We gathered natural materials to help us build our Celtic roundhouses. It was important to co-operate with each other as we had to make decisions about the size, shape and construction techniques for our Celtic roundhouses. We had such great fun learning outdoors in the sunshine. We hope you enjoying looking at out photographs.

In our topic work, we have been learning all about the Celts. We read and discussed an information text about the Celts and discussed its features such as:
- how factual sentences present key facts to the reader.
- use of headings and sections to organize the information.
- features of layout such as bullet-pointed lists.
- use of annotated diagrams to give information.

We practised making notes about the information text. We did this by:
- reading sentences carefully.
- deciding which is the important information / which were the key facts.
- noting down the key facts in short form.
For example, the sentence:
The Celts lived in roundhouses made of wattle and daub, a mixture of wood, straw and mud.
                       became in note form
Celts – roundhouses – made from wattle/daub – wood, straw, mud. 
 

We worked with a partner to read carefully the information about the Celts, to decide which was the important information and to highlight key words. We then jotted down out notes, organizing them into sections e.g. 'Homes', 'Warriors', 'Clothes and Jewellery'.
Mr. Evans was so pleased with our notemaking. Our notes showed that we had really read closely and understood the information. We will now use our notes to help us write a factfile all about the Celts.

As a class, we went to the start of the timeline that  is painted on the walls around our school and followed it in chronological order. The school's timeline starts with an early period of History and moves on until it reaches the present day. Our starting point on the timeline was: The Romans (approx. 2000 years ago) . We then moved on to  the Vikings, the Tudors and Stuarts (approx. 400 years ago), The Victorians (approx 150 years ago),       World War 2 (approx 80 years ago) before arriving at the  present day.

Along the way, we talked about the past and how History is based on evidence. We suggested that historical evidence might include:
buildings, shipwrecks, ruins, clothing, coins, artefacts such as pots and jewellery, documents such as letters, diaries and maps, and (more recently) photographs, films……..   We understood that historians do not simply make up stories about the past. History must be based on evidence or clues. In this way, good historians are like detectives who piece together clues to find out about the past. We enjoyed our time walking along the school's timeline and discussing the different historical periods in chronological order.

Today J3 visited Bridgend Library at the Bridgend Life Centre (or the 'Rec' as many of us know it). We were welcomed to the library by Rhiannon the librarian who talked to us about all the library has to offer - for free! We were amazed at the wonderful selection of colourful, interesting books available at the library for us to borrow - picture books, story books, information books, poetry books, comics, graphic novels and magazines.   

Rhiannon had kindly gathered a selection of books all about the Romans - our new topic. These included story books and information books. We laughed as Rhiannon read us a funny poem all about the Romans.

Soon it was time for us to explore the library. We were able to browse the row upon row of shelves packed with the most beautiful books for us to enjoy reading. Rhiannon very kindly told us that we would be able to borrow one book each to bring back to school. We all enjoyed browsing through the library shelves, reading different books that interested us. We read the book blurbs on the back cover to give us a taste of what the books would be about.

We had time to find a comfortable place to sit and to read the books we had chosen. Some of us were lucky enough to sit in the cylindrical book chair and others crawled through the book tunnel!  

Soon it was time to leave the library and to return to school. Before we left, Rhiannon gave us each a Roman wordsearch and a colouring page. We promised to colour the pictures in and to send her photographs to display in the library. There was just time for Rhiannon to sign out the books we had all chosen to borrow. We had a wonderful time at the library and many of us are excited about visiting again soon with our families. Thank you to Rhiannon and the other librarians for making us feel so welcome.