Year 3: Core Subjects

Topic: 'The Romans (Swords and Sandals)'

Three lessons per week

This is the overarching theme of the term and links are made with subjects across the curriculum

English

Five lessons per week

In Year 3, we start the year by focusing on transition. We look at Anthony Browne’s Changes, exploring the idea that change can often be different from our expectations. Children have an easy introduction into their hopes and challenges for Year 3 and it allows for an open-ended question and answer session, building on transition sessions that have taken place in the previous Summer Term. During the term, a number of key writing concepts are covered through text analysis. Children study the features of report-writing through research into their topic, The Romans, and then they work to prepare their own report. We then study stories with familiar settings, including I’ll Take You to Mrs Cole by Nigel Gray. This text allows children to explore the features of descriptive writing, looking at the use of adjectives, nouns and adverbs. The children continue with report writing, linking this to our penultimate text of the term, Roald Dahl’s ‘The Twits’. In the second half of the term, we continue to look at descriptive language through poetry. The Autumn Term also includes Book Week where children are encouraged to dress up as a character from a favourite book. This is a great way of encouraging children to talk about their favourite texts, to explore and write their own book reviews and to compare and contrast books they have read.

Mathematics

Five lessons per week

In Maths this term Year 3 study the following topics:

• Counting forwards and backwards in hundreds, tens and ones
• Place value - to recognise the value of each digit in a 3 digit number
• Comparing and ordering numbers
• The four number operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division)
• Length – Writing length in centimetres, metres and kilometres. Comparing length and solving word problems

It is vital that the children in Year 3 start to develop a quick and accurate recall of multiplication tables. There are numerous ways to learn these. Some children learn best by listening to and singing the songs, others will need to write them out. Regular questions on the tables orally can also help.  The children can also login to our Bede’s account for TT Rockstars which helps with learning multiplication tables.

Science

There are two science lessons each week in the science laboratory of the Main School. Over the course of the year, the children study five topics and through these they are taught practical scientific methods, processes and skills.

Autumn Term:

• Animals including humans (skeletons, muscles, joints and healthy eating)
• Rocks and soil (identification and properties of rocks, soil formation, fossils and volcanoes)

Topic: 'The Anglo Saxons and Vikings – (Myths and Monsters)'

This is the overarching theme of the term and links are made with subjects across the curriculum.

English

• The children read the myth, Beowulf; creating their own oral re-telling and performing it (inspired by Pie Corbett’s ‘Talk for Writing’).
• The children study the features of myths and descriptive writing. They create their own hero/ine and monster who feature in their own myth writing.
• Linked to their topic work, pupils become‘Anglo-Saxon Estate-Agents; creating their own settlement and using persuasive language to ‘market’ it to new settlers.
• The Spring Term also includes Instructional writing, in which children read and follow instructions, observe the features of instructions (the format and language used), and write their own set of instructions.
• Alongside all of this, the children are developing their drama skills; reading and performing from a playscript whilst working on play rehearsals for the Year 3 & 4 drama production.

Mathematics

• In Maths this term Year 3 study the following topics:
• Mass – Reading weighing scales and solving word problems
• Volume – Measuring volume in millilitres and litres
• Capacity - Measuring capacity in millilitres and litres, solving word problems
• Money – Adding and subtracting money, calculating change and solving word problems
• Time – telling the time, measuring time in seconds, minutes and hours

Science

Spring Term: 

• Forces and Magnets (friction, types of magnets and their properties)

Topic: Kenya (Kenyan Safari)

This is the overarching theme of the term and links are made with subjects across the curriculum.

English

Year 3 will read Alexander McCall Smith’s Akimbo and the Elephants this term. This links in to our overall topic, ‘Kenyan Safari’, which looks specifically at Kenya, comparing and contrasting features of life in Kenya to that of the children’s local environment, here in the UK.

The text allows children to explore the features of an adventure story, whilst enabling them to build on skills introduced earlier in the year.  The children will start the term by looking at persuasive writing, using the text as a stimulus, as well as researching the animals of Kenya and writing an additional chapter. Throughout the story, children are encouraged to map out key events, which helps them in understanding the structure of story writing (a concept introduced during myth writing last term). We are planning to look at Kenyan myths and stories towards the end of term.

Mathematics

In Maths this term Year 3 study the following topics:

• Graphs – Drawing and reading bar graphs
• Fractions – Counting in tenths, adding and subtracting fractions, finding equivalent fractions, comparing fractions
• Angles – Finding angles in shapes, comparing angles, making turns
• Lines and shapes – Identifying perpendicular, parallel, vertical and horizontal lines. Describing two dimensional and three dimensional shapes
• Perimeter – Measuring and calculating perimeter

Science

Summer Term:

• Light (Light sources, shadows, transparency of materials, mirrors and reflection).
• Plants (life cycle, names & functions of parts of a flowering plant, photosynthesis, needs for plant growth)