English – Monday 6th July 2020

Unicorns Uncovered

Unicorns are one of many mythical beasts that have been written about and talked about over time. Let’s have some fun with my ‘mythical beast mix-up’!

Legends and stories are full of mythical creatures and fantastic beasts that are made up of parts of other animals mixed together. These are called ‘hybrids’. They are fun to explore. For example:

Centaurs have the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse.

Griffins have the body, legs and tail of a lion and the wings of an eagle.

The Minotaur has the head of a bull and the body of a human.

Invent your own mythical beast To start our unit of work, spend some time making up your own mythical beast. It could have different parts of interesting animals. Think about its legs, body and head. It might have a tail, wings or fins. I had a go with some pencil crayons in my notebook. As you can see, I am not brilliant at drawing, but I had a lot of fun. My creature has the head and neck of a flamingo, the body and wings of a penguin, the legs of an elephant and a skunk’s tail. I have called it the Flamenguin.

What hybrid creature will you create?

There was a time when the unicorn was hated and hunted. During this time, all books referencing the creature were destroyed. Luckily, Professor Dame Folklore owns a damaged copy of ‘Unicorns Uncovered’. Unfortunately, the book is badly burnt, torn and water stained so, as you can see, the page I wanted to show you is impossible to read. Don’t worry, I’ve typed it out for you on the next page.

You can also listen to this model text online here: https://soundcloud.com/talkforwriting/unicorns/s-kpNjhGRD75A

The River Unicorn (Fluvis unicornis) The River Unicorn is a shy, solitary creature that has been seen only three times in the wild.

It has a sandy-brown coat, a mane like sea foam, and a transparent horn that seems to ripple and flow when the light catches it.

The River Unicorn is the same size as a Shetland pony. Unsurprisingly, most River Unicorns live along the of rivers. But you might be surprised to learn that these animals are swimmers. Occasionally, they have been spotted sleeping in dens under the roots of ancient willow trees. It is thought that the power of the water and the willow flows through the River Unicorn and enhances its magic.

Much has been written about the River Unicorn’s magic. Typically, the River Unicorn’s power lies in its horn. When ground into powder and mixed with the correct ingredients, the horn can heal almost all human ailments. In addition to this, legends tell us that one drop of the unicorn’s blood can make a human immortal.

Another interesting feature of the River Unicorn is its ability to disappear instantly. Just like water, it can slip through your fingers and seem to be everywhere, and nowhere, at the same time. Therefore, it is often viewed as the most extraordinary of all the unicorn species.

Glossary:

solitary: alone, being the only one

transparent: something is transparent if it lets light through. You can see through transparent objects like windows and cling film.

enhances: to improve (make better) the quality, amount, or strength of something ailments: illness or injury

immortal: to live forever

Here are some of the tricky words from the text.

Go back over the River Unicorn page and underline or highlight any words that you don’t know. Ask an adult to help you find the meaning or look in a dictionary online. You might also want to use google images to see pictures of the word.

Now you will have your own glossary of words and their meanings.

Guided Reading Monday 6th July 2020The Giants CupStory starter!Have you ever wondered what causes the waves in the ocean?Sometimes in life, things are not as they seem.Footsteps could be heard in the distance. Not careful, quiet footsteps, like those someone like you might make as you move about your living room. No. These footsteps were different: they shook the very earth with every colossal stride. He was coming…

Perfect picture!Can you draw a picture of the thing responsible for these enormous footsteps?

Active Learning

MathsComplete the coloured work you would normally do in class. If you want to try the

other challenges, please feel free ☺

Purple group: challenge one

Blue group and green group: challenge two(blue group, you can also finish off your maths workbook if you haven’t already, one page for each maths lesson instead of or as

well as the challenge)

Orange group and red group: challenges two and three

Challenge OneWe are building our maths knowledge.

What if I changed the machine to find 10 less? What would happen if

you put the numbers at the bottom in now?

Challenge Two

Challenge Three

Which 4 clues were not helpful in finding the number? Why?

Reading Independently

Read for at least 15 minutes independently. You can read a book of your choice.

If you would like to read an online book, follow this link.

When you have finished a book, use the book review template on the Year 3 learning page to write a book review to send to us.

Second star to the right and straight on till morning!

We can fly!

“ “

Adventures in Neverland

Tick tock! How can we tell the

time in Neverland?

Learning aim: To explore how and why the position and length of a shadow changes

Success criteria:

• Describe the changes you observe in the shadows.

• Explain what causes these changes in the position and length of the

shadows.

• Predict how changes in season might affect the position and size of a

shadow.

What’s a sundial and how does it work?

gnomonface

Before clocks were invented, people would use sundials to tell the time. In Ancient Egypt, they used a stick pushed into the ground to act as a sundial. As time went on, sundials became more advanced, like the examples on the previous slide.

Has anyone seen a sundial before?

A sundial uses the sun as a light source and an opaque object - the gnomon (pronounced ‘know mon’) - to cast a shadow which helps to tell the time!

Has anyone ever worn sunglasses before? Why do we wear them?

The sun is a powerful light source - looking directly at it, even for a short amount of time, can be really damaging to your eyes as they are extremely sensitive to light. This is the same in the Winter as well as in the Summer.

.

Make your own

1. Make a hole in the centre

of your paper plate with a

sharp pencil.

2. Make a cut of about 3cm

in the end of your straw.

3. Place the straw through

the hole and flatten it out

to make an anchor. Add

sticky tape.

4. Your straw – or

gnomon – should stand

up straight.

5. Find some sunny spot

and turn your plate until you

see a shadow – label that

spot with the time.

6. Repeat this process

throughout the school day.

Sundial complete? Test it!

What time of day is the gnomon shadow longest?

When will the gnomon shadow be shortest?

Now you have made your gnomon does the shadow on their sundial points to the correct hour?

A human sundial:Use the instructions on the previous slide create a human sundial – only this time, you will act as the gnomon.Use a chalk to draw a large circle in an outdoor area where there is plenty of sunlight. This will be your sundial. Mark the centre of your sundial with chalk too – this will be the place where your human gnomon stands. Use the chalk to draw around the human gnomon’s shadow each hour.

Top tips to get your sun dial readings:• Just make sure you mark the actual time on your sundials.• You can take sundial measurements at more convenient times – for instance, every 2 hours or once in the

morning, once at lunch and once in the afternoon. As long as the sundial is left in the same spot, you will still observe the same changes in shadows.

• You could test your sundial over a few days or over the weekend and leave it in a spot outside which gets plenty of sun.

What did you observe?

What did you observe about the shadows? How did they change at different times?

Did you notice the two key facts: • The gnomon’s shadow falls in different positions at different times.• The shadows get longer or shorter at different times – it is longer in the early morning, shortest at midday and gets longer again in the afternoon

Why do you think the gnomon’s shadow moved across the face of the sun dial?

The shadows cast by the gnomon will always be on the side of the plate opposite to where the Sun is. The Sun’s position in the sky changes gradually as the day goes on – it ‘rises’ in the East and ‘sets’ in the West. It is this change in the suns’ position in the sky that causes the position of our shadows to change too!

Watch out though – it isn’t the sun itself that is moving. It just seems to be moving because the Earth itself is rotating –which means it is spinning around really slowly, so slowly in fact, we cannot feel it! The Earth is always rotating and it completes a single rotation once every 24 hours. Sometimes from where you are standing on the Earth, you can see the Sun (day time) and sometimes you cannot (night time).

Can we explain why the shadows change in length?

The higher the light

source, the shorter the

shadow.The lower the light

source, the longer the

shadow.

Shadows will also change in length at different times of the day: • when the sun is higher in the sky, its shadows are shorter (because less of its light is

blocked by the gnomon).• when the sun is lower in the sky, its shadows are longer (because more of its light is

blocked by the gnomon).

At what times did the gnomon make a longer shadow? Longer shadows might have been spotted in the late afternoon or in the early morning –because this is when the Sun is lower in the sky.

At what times did the gnomon make a shorter shadow? The gnomon’s shadow would be shortest at midday because this is when the sun is highest in the sky.

Remember that the sun isn’t actually lower or higher in the sky – it just appears to be this way because the earth rotates each day.

This rule applies to all light sources– not just the sun. A shadow’s length will change depending on whether the light source making it is positioned higher or lower.

Finishing thinker

My shadow is

longer than it

was an hour ago.

What time

could it be?

Finishing thinker

When might a sundial not

be able to tell us the time

in Neverland?

Can you explain

why it would not

work?