Welcome to the Trilby's Class Page!

Our teacher is Miss Maddocks and our teaching assistants are Mrs Peacock and Mrs Peake.

We are very creative in the Trilby class and our teachers love to use creativity to make learning memorable and bring learning to life.  

We care about our friends and look after each other in the Trilby class.  As well as looking after Cilla our school cat,  when she visits us every day, we have a furry friend who is a member of our class too.  We all work together to look after him.

Meet the class

Our furry friend, Smudge.

Cilla, our beautiful school cat.

Important Information

P.E. days  -   Thursday and Friday.  Please remember to come to school wearing appropriate P.E. kit on  these days. white shirts, black shorts and school jumper.

Forest schools  -  Tuesday afternoons.  Please bring wellies or old shoes and old clothes that you don't mind getting muddy.

Spelling test  -  on Friday mornings.  Please practise each night upto the day of the test.

Homework  -  sent home on Fridays. 

Reading  -  We read in class everyday,  so please remember to bring your reading book into school everyday.

Try to read at home every day too.   We would also ask that the children read at home every day too.

TT Rockstars - please use your login to practise your items tables at least twice a week.

Our topics this year are:

Autumn 1 -  The Empire Strikes Back !

Autumn 2 -   Ice Palace

Spring 1 -   Why did Delia buy a hat?

Spring 2 -  Bottoms, burps and bile!

Summer 1 -  Revolution!

Summer 2 -  Coastal Waters

SUMMER 1

Welcome back to the summer term.  We hope that you enjoyed a relaxing Easter break.

Our topic this half term is Revolution!   It is all about the Victorian era and the industrial revolution.

18.04.23  -  Topic Launch

We launched our topic today with a Victorian day.  We explored what is was like to be a Victorian child.  When we came back from assembly, our classroom had been transported back tot he Victoria era and our classroom was now a Victorian school.

We didn't like the teacher much, she was very strict!  Going to school back then was not much fun, we're really lucky that school for us today is much more exciting and we learn and a much wider variety of subjects.

We began the day with a hand inspection.  Dirty hands and nails were not allowed. "Cleanliness is next to godliness," the teacher said, Then we learned how to write in old fashioned, copperplate script.  It was really difficult!  We also chanted our time tables by rote and had to sit up very straight in our chairs and not speak unless we were spoken to.  "Children should be seen and not heard,"  the teacher said.

In the afternoon we began to think about the building of the railways and the age of the steam train.  Luckily for us, there was a steam scheduled to come past the school; so year 3 and 4 head to Westwood road where we could get a better view.  It came past past very fast.  It was a steam engine named the  Sir Nigel Gresley.

20.04.23  -  Gardening Club

The Year 3 gardening club launched today.  We took delivering of two huge bags of top soil from @AtherstoneLandscapes earlier in the day, ready to fill up our fruit and vegetable beds.  But first, we had to set to work on weeds them, they are a little overgrown after the winter months.

We planted 4 different types of sunflower seeds and onions and began weeded the strawberry patch and the vegetable bed.

03.05.23 - School trip to the Black Country Museum

What a brilliant day out we had at the \black Country Museum this week.  We learnt so much whilst we were there.  We saw lots of different modes of transport.

We looked inside lots of different houses and shops of the period.  We played games in the streets like Victorian children wood have.  We explored industry and watched a chain maker who made chain links using very hot metal and discovered that they made the chains and the anchor for the Titanic there. 

We found out about how coal was mined and we were shocked at the conditions down the mine.  We went on a tour down the mine and were horrified to find that children only just a little older than us, were working down the mines at the time.  We saw canal boats that would have been used by industry to carry the goods being produced at the time in the Black Country.  We couldn't walk past the the cake or sweet shop without buying a little treat!

SPRING 2

Welcome back to the new half term.  We are starting this term with a theme week.  This week every class will be looking at the same story book, "Journey" by Aaron Becker.

Trilby class were super excited to excited to explore the new book.  It was exciting to explore a book with no words, we scrutinised every picture in the book and it was exciting to choose our own words to tell such a beautiful story.  The author Aaron Becker is very talented and created an amazing book with just pictures.

We are going to write our own versions of the story, choosing only the very best rich and descriptive vocabulary to this.   We're very excited.

29.02.23  -  Maths

This week we are learning how to measure accurately in centimetres, metres and centimetres and in millimetres.

We have been measuring a range of different objects using a ruler or a metres stick.  We have measured length, width and height.  We have had a lots of fun this week.

1.02.03  -  Art

Today we explored the beautiful illustrations in the book.  We looked at our famous scenes from the story and studied the artists style.  We used water colour as he had in his book and mixed the colours to match the mood in the picture.

Our finished paintings are coming soon!

01.02.23  -  Book Donation

A very kind, young lady and friend of Miss Maddocks, Erin; donation a huge bag of beautiful, new books to our class.  We couldn't wait to dive and see what was in there.  There was something for everyone.  We have completely filled our book corner with wonderful new books and we can't waiting read some of them as our reading books.

Thank you Erin xxx

02.02.23  -  World Book Day

We had an amazing day today taking part in lots of world book day activities.  We began the day by sharing some of our favourite books.  Miss Maddocks brought in some of her son's favourite books.  We listened to some of them and then we chose others to read on our own or share with a friend.  They were very funny.  There were some great books by Sue Hendra.  Cilla's favourite was "Dave."

06.03.23  Topic Launch   -   Today we have started our new topic:  Bottoms, Burps and Bile !   It's all about the human body, in particular the digestive system.

We began today by looking at teeth.  We have explored the different types of teeth that we have and what they are used for.  We used dentist instruments to have a look at each others teeth and we used modelling clay to make teeth for our display.

06.03.23  -  The Teeth "egg" Investigation

In science we investigated the question:  "What would happen if we never brushed our teeth ?"

We used eggs to represent our teeth as the shells are the closest thing to bone and tooth enamel that we could use.

We placed eggs in apple juice, coca cola, vinegar and water.  The results were shocking!  The coca cola and apple juice stained the egg shells terribly and the sugar in them was beginning to react with the egg shell.  We think it was behaving  just like sugar would on our teeth, it would begin to attack the enamel on a tooth.  The worst result was the vinegar though.  It bubbled and fizzed away and began to dissolve the top layer of the egg shell. It felt rubbery like a bouncy ball.

We are all determined to brush our teeth every day so that we don't find out what will happen to our teeth if we don't!

09.03.23  -  Snow Play!

Thursday arrived and so did the snow.  Trilby class had a great time playing with their friends in the snow....oh and throwing snow balls at Miss Maddocks!

SPRING 1

Welcome back to the new half term.  We hope that you've had a wonderful Christmas break. 

Our topic this half term is called  "Why did Delia buy a hat?"    The children are still in suspense at the moment about who Molly is and why she bought her hat, but all will become clear, very, very soon!  

17.02.23  -  The Sinking of the Titanic

Today was the final history lesson of our topic.  We looked at a range of different sources of information and photographic images, to create a timeline of the events leading up to the sinking of the Titanic.  It was quite challenging because we had to put them in date order and also note the times and make sure we put them in time order too, to make sure the timeline was correct.

17.02.23  -  Strengthening Structures

Today we have been exploring how structures can be strengthened using supports.  We learned several new skills today,  including how to use a range of tools safely.  We had to create a wooden frame using 4 pieces of wood that measured exactly the same length.  Then we placed a bench hook onto the desk and used this to safely cut the pieces of wood to the correct length.  We sanded them till they were smooth so they would fit together well and then we used glue guns to stick the pieces of wood together and to place the supports in place to strengthen the corner joins.

17.02.23  -  Competition Winner

Yesterday our class voted for who they wanted to be the winner of the Titanic model competition.   We are super excited to announce that the winner, with a huge number of votes was July!    Well done to July and her Mum for their super creation.  It was crammed full of brilliant features such as windows that you could look through and see inside the boat, a grand staircase, lights and lollipop sticks with fun facts about the Titanic that could be pulled out and read.

16.02.23  -  Levers and Linkages

Today the children took part in a design and technology workshop all about levers.  We explored how levers are used in every day life in things that we use all the time.  We learned how levers work and how they are made containing a pivot.   We worked in pairs to create a range of different levers that we had looked at.  We used strips of card to make the parts of the lever and created fixed and loose pivots from split pins. We used guides to keep the levers in place so they could function properly. 

15.02.23  -  What do plants need to be able to grow?

One week ago we set up an investigation to find out what plants need in order to grow well.

We worked in groups and set up 4 plants: 

1)  Had no light, but did have soil and water. (we put it in the cupboard in the dark) 

2)  Had no soil.  We took the plant out of its pot, removed its soil and placed it in a cup with water. 

3)  Had no water, but was planted in the soil and placed in the sunlight. 

4)  This was a control.  It had sunlight, water and soil - all the elements we believed plants needed to continue to grow.

Today, after 7 days, we looked to see what the effects of no water, no soil and no sunlight were.  The plant with no sunlight continued to grow.  Its leaves were very long but were not as green as the other plants.  It was trying to grow tall to reach the sunlight.  The plant with no soil continued to grow because it still had water.  The plant with no water stopped growing and died and the control plant grew the best and flowered.

From our results, we came to the conclusion that plants will continue to grow as long as they have water which is what happened to all of our plants.  If we want a plant to continue to grow healthily, it needs soil to anchor its roots into and draw essential minerals from, it needs sunlight to create food using its leaves (photosynthesis) When a plant has all the right conditions, it will grow healthily with lush, green leaves and some will flower.

Results

10.02.23  -  Our Titanic Project

WOW!  We are overwhelmed by the entries we have had so far.  You have all worked so hard with your children and they have loved it.  Thank you and very well done!

There have been so many lovely comments from parents this week, saying that they have really enjoyed working on this creative project with their children, which is lovely to hear.

Here are our models so far.  The competition is still open until Wednesday morning when the children will vote for their favourite and we will announce the winner. 

09.02.23 - Safer Internet Day

This week we dedicated time to talking about staying safe whilst using the internet.  We discussed what kinds of things we do on line both at school and at home and what we can do to protect ourselves  whilst on line.

08.02.23 - Building Structures

This week the children were challenged to build the tallest structures they could.  They had to join the beams of the structures using linking techniques they had been taught.   They worked together in small teams to create their structures.  We learned that the more supporting beams we put in, the stronger this made our structures.

It was a lot of fun!

27.02.23  -  Homework Project

Today we launched our exciting design and technology project for parents and children.  Please see the attached flier.

27.01.23   -  Spanish

This week in Spanish, we have been learning the names for different animals.  We have using them in conversations, describing which animals we like and dislike and what the animals look like.

We played a game of spanish animal bingo to help us learn their names.  It was lots of fun!

25.01.23  -  Looking at sources of evidence in History

We have been examining sources of evidence in history.  We discussed what evidence we can be deduced from a photograph.  We looked at images of people from the Edwardian period and talked about whether they were rich or poor, based on what we had learned in the previous week about the lives of the wealthy and the poor and what we knew about their jobs, schooling, housing and clothing.

13.01.23    Postponed Christmas Production

Today was the final performance of our postponed Christmas production.  It seemed strange performing a Christmas play in January, but it was brilliant.  Year 5 were the main characters in the production, Year 4 were all secret agents, Fedoras class were the santas and Trilby class were the elves.  We sang our hearts out  and we were fabulous.  We are all very proud of our performance and our Mum's and Dad's and other family members were too.

Here is a photo  of us dressed in our elf costumes.

06.01.23  -  Topic launch

We launched our new topic this week:  "Why did Delia buy a hat?". 

We began looking at hats and the history of the hatting industry in Atherstone.   We welcomed a visitor into school - Mr Smith.  He used to work at the hat factory many years ago.  He talked to us about the kind of hats that were made there and who for.  They supplied hats to the RAF and the Army over the years.   Their hats went all over the country and to some parts of the world.   

We wondered whether the hat that Delia bought, was made in this fatory.

05.01.23  -   Geography

This afternoon our class enjoyed learned about the four cardinal points of the compass and then the four further points. We looked at how to use a compass works and how to find different directions using it.  Then we used these skills, to plot different things on map grid from directions we were given. 

We played a game of north, south, east, west; but then we made it even harder by adding in the further 4 points of the compass.   The children were brilliant at this and they really enjoyed their work today.

AUTUMN 2

Welcome back to the new half term.  This will be a very busy one, with the lead up to Christmas.

We hope that you've had a wonderful week off with your children, but we were excited to see them all back today.

30.10.22  -  History Curriculum Enrichment Week

We have kicked off the new half term with a History curriculum enrichment week, all about the life and work of Sir David Attenborough.   What a week it has been!  The children have loved finding out about this inspiring national treasure and are all fired up to challenge the world to listen and take notice about the things we can do to help stop climate change and help endangered animals.

01.11.22  -  Poetry

This morning we launched our topic by watching  the episode of Planet Earth II about deserts.   We are looking at deserts through our work about Sir David Attenborough.  We explored poems about the desert and camels today.  We collected some amazing vocabulary to describe the desert lands and then we used this, to write some of our own poems.   We turned them into a poetry book.

01.11.22  - Geography and Art

Today we explored the locations of the different deserts all over the world, on a world map.  We use maps and atlases to create maps of our own.  We found out that they lie in several different continents of the world and that strangely, there are deserts with hot and cold climates. 

We talked about the different types of desert and landscapes and drew and painted some of our own.

Please have a look.

03.11.22  -  David Attenborough's work

We looked at the work of David Attenborough today.  We were amazed at the range of jobs that David has had throughout his life.  He has spent the largest part of his career at the BBC making nature programmes about the earth, to teach us all about the plants and animals of the world.

He also spends a lot of time campaigning to raise awareness of the damage that humans are doing to our world and the effect this has on plants an animals.  He works with charities to raise awareness of climate change and endangered animals.  Today we made climate change posters and we wrote to him  to ask him what else we can do to help in the fight against climate change.

04.11.22  -  An Orienteering Quiz

Today we tested our knowledge of facts about about sir David Attenborough, in a quiz around the orienteering course in school.  we used our map reading skills to find locations on a map and at each location we had to answer a questions about David Attenborough's life or work.   It was great fun!

24.11.22   -   Our visit to Dudley Zoo

Today was our long awaited trip to Dudley Zoo.  We went to look explore some of the animals that live in the artic and Antarctic.  We took part in a workshop where we talked about which animals were located in which oceans of the world.  We discussed animals which live in arctic regions and how they have adapted to living there.

12.12.23   -   Christmas Craft Club

Children in Year 3 have had a lovely time over the past few weeks, at Christmas craft club.  We made some wonderful Christmassy crafts and they have really enjoyed themselves.

21.12.22  -  Film Night

We enjoyed a Christmassy film this afternoon, watching the Polar Express. 

Our favourite scene was where the children enjoyed a hot chocolate whilst watching the waiters pour the drinks and dance and sing to them.  Miss Maddocks surprised us with a delicious hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows.  Yummy!

AUTUMN 1

07.09.22   -    Topic Launch

Today we launched our new topic "The Empire Strikes Back!"   Our topic is all about the Romans and what they did for us.  We found out about why the Romans invaded Britain.  We looked at the uniform and armour that Roman soldiers wore and we designed and made our own Roman shields.  We explored the Testudo formation that the soldiers used and battle and we held our own Romans versus Celts battle.  We had a brilliant day!

16.09.22  -  Orienteering

In PE we are learning new cross curricular geography skills.  We are learning to read and interpret maps and to build and create our own in a fun, energetic way.

20.09.22  -  Forest School

Today was our first Forest schools session with Miss Beard.  We had great fun exploring the woods and  learning new skills today.   Have a look at what we got upto.  We will be doing this every Tuesday so don't forget your wellies and old clothes next week!

23.09.22  -  Roman Roads

Today we have been looking at what the Romans did for Britain.  They built a network of roads across Britain hundreds of years ago, so that the soldiers had somewhere sturdy to march.  They built very straight roads across the land, roads which we still use today.  They built strong, well-built roads and we explored how they did this, by using different types of cereal and biscuits to build our own.

They dug trenches then began by laying large pieces of rock or stone flat, then stone and sand, next sale and cement, then a layer of large rocks or bricks that fitted together tightly.

26.09.22  -  Maths

In maths today we were looking at place value and representing 3 digit numbers using a place value grid.  We used it to explore the value of each digit in three digit numbers.

05.10.22 - More Forest Schools fun

In this week's session we build shelters and created a campfire to enjoy roasting marshmallows on.

10.10.22  -  Learning to play the flute

The Trilby class are learning to play the flute this year.  We are really enjoying, but it's quite tricky.   Our music teacher is really patient and helps us.

21.10.22  -  Designing our own Bread

Our teacher set us the challenge this week, to design and make a new kind of bread for the Roman Emperor.

We tasted many different kinds of bread, some which would have been very close to those eaten by the Roman.

We recorded our favourite flavours, flour types and design and then produce a flavour and design of our own.

Everyone baked bread which was delicious and we taste tested our own bread and everyone else's bread.  We got to take home a mini loaf of bread we had made, to share with our parents.