Year 3 is a wonderful year as our infants begin their journey into Key Stage 2, building on their independence and attentiveness to become confident learners.  As they move into the juniors, we expect children to begin to take responsibility for their own belongings and homework, preparing them for life in the upper junior years.

Homework

Homework will go home on a Thursday, to be returned on the following Monday. In Year 3 we will set one page of the Mental Arithmetic books per week, and one Punctuation or Grammar task will be set online.

PE

Children will need to wear their PE kits to school on a Tuesday and a Thursday.

Year 3 will also begin swimming in the summer term.
 

Term 1 - Autumn

In term 1 our learning is based around two key texts, ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in the first half term, and ‘The Iron Man’ in the second.

In Literacy we study Roald Dahl’s brilliant book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,  writing character descriptions and thinking about personalities as well as appearance. We also write our own warning tales which are inspired by the sticky end met by the majority of the children.

In Maths, we work hard to further develop our understanding of place value in hundreds numbers, followed by addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. We then apply these skills to solving puzzles as well as tackling real life situations.

In Science, we begin to think scientifically by planning our own experiments based on our knowledge of nutrition. We also learn about the skeleton and muscles, and how to keep them healthy.

In our Design and Technology unit this term, we research, design and create our own chocolate bar and packaging. We then test our bars and gather feedback from our peers.

As we move towards Christmas we learn to sing and play simple melodies that we will apply to our festive song for the carol concert.

Term 2 - Spring

In term 2, we begin to explore the origins of British history with The Stone Age! We also learn all about the weather and natural disasters, reading ‘Escape from Pompeii’ by Christina Balit.

In Literacy, we write our own Stone Age stories based on the brilliant book ‘Stone Age Boy’ and write instructions for the Stone Age people as a guide to modern life. We also write our own Haiku’s on ‘cave walls’ which ties in with our knowledge on cave paintings.

In Maths, we continue to develop our understanding of the four operations, as well as learning measures (money, length and perimeter) and statistics. We also begin to look at fractions in this term.

In Science, we develop our knowledge of rocks with several practical experiments to create our own igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks and our own fossils. We also build on our skills to work scientifically by designing several experiments around forces and friction.

In our curriculum subjects we take part in an exciting Stone Age enrichment day. We create our own tools and weapons and spend a day living like a stone age person. We get to build shelters out of branches and leaves and have a fire to cook food.

Term 3 - Summer

In term 3 we look at the text 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', and continue to build up our historical knowledge by learning all about the Egyptians and their ancient civilisation.

In Literacy, we design our own ‘Fantastic Beasts’ and then write a documentary about them. We then record them using the app Telligami. When finished, we invite parents and carers to come and take part in a Fantastic Beast hunt around our school grounds where they can watch our videos. We also plan, write and film a news report to warn the people of Heald Green about the beasts on the loose.
 
In Maths, we continue to develop our understanding of fractions, focusing on fractions of shapes and numbers. We then learn to read analogue and digital times and begin to understand the 24-hour clock.

In Science, we investigate light and shadows as well as studying plants and their life cycle. We create our own fantastic beast shadow puppets and recreate the moment when they escape from the suitcase.  

In our curriculum subjects, we build and code our own robots using Lego, as well as creating monoprints based on Egyptian designs. As we come to the end of Year 3 we like to reflect on ourselves and our achievements over the academic year, focussing on our own skills, abilities and talents.

• Year 3 Termly Newsletters