Year 3

Year 3

Year 3 marks the beginning of Key Stage 2, an exciting time in their school journey. In this year, the children will embark on an exciting journey of learning and exploration. If you would like to contact your child's class teacher, you are welcome to talk to them at drop off and pick up times or contact them at the school email address. 

General Information

What do I need to bring to school? 

Book Bag:

All children require a book bag which they will need to bring every day. 

Water bottle:

All children to bring a clear plastic, medium sized, bottle of water. Please can we ask for no metal bottles. 

Fruit & Snack:

Fruit is not provided in Year 3. The children should only be bringing pieces of fruit (grapes, strawberry, mango etc in a plastic pot are fine) in to have as their snack at break time. On Fridays, we are happy for this to be a fruit based snack (yoghurt covered raisins etc) as an end of week treat.

Milk

If you would like your child to have a carton of milk at snack time, please order this through www.coolmilk.com. 

Important information

PE Days: 

Monday and Wednesday afternoon. 

Reading:

In school, we complete a range of reading activities throughout the week, including having a class book/s ongoing and a weekly book club session. The focus for these are continually extending the children’s sight vocabulary, developing reading fluency and comprehension of texts read. We are passionate about children developing a love of reading; we ask that families read with, hear their children read or encourage their child to read independently for the equivalent of approx. 1 and ½ hours weekly. We also value parent/ carer comments and parents signing their child’s reading diary. In KS2 the children should be regularly reflecting on the books they read in their reading diary.

In Year 3, the children can independently to change their reading book regularly, filling in their reading diary and having a member of staff check it.

Phonics is still provided to those children who require it. Phonics is taught weekly in 30 minutes slots 3 x a week.

Timetables:

In Year 3, the children are expected to develop and strengthen their knowledge of their times tables. The children will have a weekly times table test on a Friday. They are to achieve 30/30 twice (under teachers discretion) and then they will move up to the next timetable.

The order of the times tables is as follows:

2,10,5,3,4,6,7,8,9,11,12, mixes

The children are given regular opportunities to access Times Table Rockstars, which allows them to practise and explore a range of times tables. The children are provided a log in and password, which is stuck in the front of their reading diaries. The class teacher is responsible for assigning children the correct times table they are learning. 

Home learning: 

Homework will be sent home every Thursday and will need to be returned the following Tuesday. Homework will be a mixture of Maths, Literacy or Project tasks.

Spellings:

Spellings will be given on a Thursday and be tested the following Thursday. The children will be given a spelling diary at the beginning of the school year. Spellings are broken into blocks. Each block contains 5 spellings words which the children are to practise in their homework books. Each spelling word should be written in a sentence as part of their home learning task.

If a child is continuing with weekly phonics sessions, the child will be provided alternative spellings, linking to the sounds they have covered in these sessions. 

Beat Your Score: 

If you wish to practise at home, your ‘Beat Your Score’ sheets can be found on the right side of this page. 

Online Resources: 

You will find your login details for the following site at the front of your reading diary. 

My Maths: www.mymaths.co.uk

Times Tables Rockstars: www.ttrockstars.com

NumBots: www.numbots.com

EdShed: www.edshed.com

Language Angels: www.languageangels.com

Curriculum- Yearly overview of topics

Topics Covered Throughout the Year:

• Autumn Term: Just Like Me, Just Like You (mental health) and Power and Conflict 
• Spring Term: Our Mighty Earth
• Summer Term: Power and Conflict

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Autumn Term:

Maths – Place Value, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division.  

Alongside this additional arithmetic sessions where the 4 number operations will be practised in both formal and informal ways. Times tables will be taught explicitly and practised in a range of ways throughout the term.  

In English, we will be starting the year by revisiting basic sentence and word skills, using a story called ‘Krindlekrax’ by Philip Ridley for the basis of reading and writing activities, we will also undertake a poetry unit with a focus on animals.

Our Science focus this term is Sound and Forces and Magnets. Within these units the children will:

• Compare how things move on different surfaces 
• Notice that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance
• Observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others
• Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials
• Describe magnets as having two poles
• Predict whether two magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing.

And 

• Identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating
• Recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear
• Find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of the object that produced it
• Find patterns between the volume of a sound and the strength of the vibrations that produced it
• Recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases.

Our first Topic for the Autumn term will be ‘Just Like Me, Just Like You’. This is a whole school project where we will discover the importance of looking after our mental health. This work will continue in our PSHE sessions where we will be learning about ‘My Wonderful Me’, Health and Well-being and Families and Relationships.

In Art we will begin the year by exploring the artist Pablo Picasso and using line to create our own self portrait. As well as this, the children will have fortnightly Keepy Uppy sessions, alternating between Art and Music. The children will explore using different mediums, techniques and resources. Examples of the work they children will do include colour wheels and tracing.

In Geography, the children will locate and revise the names of the world’s continents. They will also learn what the equator is and what a hemisphere is. They will find out about the climate of countries that are close to the equator.  

In Design Technology we will be using mechanisms to plan, create and evaluate our own Roman Colosseum. We are going to research the history and the structure of Roman Colosseum, to influence our design. We will be using only recycled materials that we bring in from home. After we have worked in small groups to plan and create our designs, we will evaluate our creations, thinking about how the process went and what we can do next time to improve our work.

In Music, Year 3 will have fortnightly sessions from Plymouth Music Service. The children will explore using different percussion instruments and learn how to read and understand the structure of music. As well as this, the children will have fortnightly Keepy Uppy sessions, alternating between Art and Music. The children will listen to music from around the world, develop a stronger understanding of the different terminology we use in Music. As part

of their Christmas performance the children will learn and sing songs linked to the theme of the performance including traditional Christmas carols.

In RE we will be learning about the Creation Story. We will also be looking at the topic- What do Christians believe God is like? We will follow the story of Noah and discuss the issues and events within the story.

In Computing,

The children will be using the computer program Scratch as a way of building coding programs. They will be developing sequences of instructions and changing their character in different ways. The children will also use computers within their wider curriculum in ways such as research and publishing.  

In PE we will be taking part in dance with a focus on ‘Machines.’ The children will create dances in relation to an idea, working individually, with a partner and in small groups, sharing their ideas. They will be given the opportunity to perform to others and provide feedback using key terminology.

We will also be doing some gymnastics. Within this unit children develop balancing, rolling and jumping. They use these skills individually and in combination. Children will develop their confidence to perform, considering the quality and control of their actions. Our final two unit in PE this term, are basic skills and fitness.

In MFL, the children will be covering a range of topics to strengthen their language skills. Following on from their enrichment sessions from Key Stage 1, the children will take part in weekly 45-minute sessions. Thornbury Primary School uses the scheme ‘Language Angels’ to allow the children to access a wide and engaging curriculum. 

The children are given their own Language Angels log in and passwords, to allow them to practise topics they are covered in school. These will be stuck in the front of their reading diaries.

The sessions that will be covered over the course of the school year:

Autumn Term :

• Phonics, Classroom Commands, Days of the Week, Months of the Year
• I am Learning French

Spring term:

Maths – Multiplication and Division, Length and Perimeter, Fractions, Mass and Capacity.

In English, the children will be undertaking a non-fiction unit where the genre will be texts to inform. This will be linked to their upcoming Creative Curriculum topic Our mighty earth: land with a focus on volcanoes. We will also be using the picture book ‘Journey’ by Aaron Becker, undertaking a range of reading and writing activities particularly focussing on writing description.

In Science, our unit this term is Animal Including Humans. The children will be taught how to:

• Identify that animals including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition and that they cannot make their own food, they get nutrition from what they eat.
• Identify that humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement.

We will also be taking part in our Ocean Curriculum Deep Dive Days. 

Our Art will be linked to Our Mighty Earth topic: water. The children will explore the work of 4 artists where water is shown in different ways. The children will explore the varying techniques and mediums these artists use to represent both colour and movement in water and then apply these into their own piece of art. 

In Computing, the focus in Spring 1 will be safety. In this the children will learn what makes a safe password, how to be respectful and stay safe online. In Spring 2 the children will undertake a unit called Branching Data bases where they will explore effective questions as a way of identifying, grouping, classifying and creating databases.

In Design and Technology, we will be building on our nutritional skills by making banana bread. We will be learning about safety and hygiene when working with food along with developing skills to design, create and evaluate our bake.

In Music, the children will use percussion sounds to create and play their own rhythms. In addition, they will compose their own pieces by applying their learning about how to link notes of different length together. The children will continue to listen and appraise a range of pieces of music. 

Geography will be split into 2 parts in the Spring term both linked to the overall heading of Our Mighty earth which is subdivided into water and land. In the block linked to water the children will revise the water cycle, locate UK rivers and find out more about the impact water through climate in 2 parts of the world, China and Bangladesh. Alongside this they will further develop their geography skills of interpreting map symbols and reading and giving compass directions.

In the block of geography linked to Our Mighty Earth: The children will learn all about hills and valleys in their local area, including Dartmoor. This will then move to worldwide mountain ranges. Linking to their non-fiction Literacy unit, the children will further explore volcanoes.

In RE, the children will explore two religions in relation to ways of life, festivals, celebrations  and worship. The two religions will be Judaism and Islam.

In PSHE, during the Spring Term, the children will cover the following units:

• Friendship issues and bullying  
• Bullying and the bystander   
• Stereotyping: gender   
• Stereotyping age-disability   
• Healthy friendships
• Learning who to trust
• Respecting differences
• Change & loss/bereavement
• Year 3: emergencies and road safety 

In PE, In spring term 1, the children will work with Plymouth Argyle Community Trust to develop their football skills. They will also complete 3 of units, including OAA, tennis and handball.

In MFL, the children will continue to expand their vocabulary and explore new topics in French. The topics which will be covered are:

1. Animals
2. My Family

Summer term:

Maths – Fractions, Money, Time, Shape and Statistics

English – In summer term 1 the focus will be writing and reading texts that recount events both formally and informally. These will be presented in different forms including letters and diaries. In summer term 2 the children’s writing and reading will be based around a narrative text.   

In Science, the children will cover two units; animals, living things and their habitats and electricity. 

In the habitat's unit, children will learn to recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways. They will explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment. They will also learn to recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

In the electricity unit of work, children will cover the following learning outcomes:

• identify common appliances that run on electricity.
• Construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches, and buzzers.
• Identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete loop with a battery.
• Recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit.
• Recognise some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors.

Computing – In Summer 1 linked to the overall term heading of Power and conflict, the computing unit will be Events and actions in programs, then in summer term 2 the unit is titled Creating media-stop-frame animation.  

In Art, Year 3 will be looking at the artist John Piper. We will explore how he uses screen printing and painting to create layers in his artwork. We will be exploring our school grounds, to explore texture in printing. We will create a piece of work linked to our topic ‘Power and Conflict’ by looking at settlements as inspiration.

In Design and Technology, we will be looking at mechanisms and developing knowledge and skills to design, create and evaluate a card or picture that includes a simple electrical system.  

In Music, the children will continue working with a specialist teacher from the Plymouth music service using percussion instruments. The children will also continue to listen and appraise a range of pieces of music. For their class assembly the children will learn a song to perform. 

In History we will be focussing on Anglo Saxons – Invasions, settlements and Kingdoms and we will also be looking at the Vikings- raids, invasion and the struggle between the Anglo Saxon’s and the Vikings.

In Geography, to link in with our History focus, we will be exploring how the Anglo Saxons have changed our landscapes. We will have a focus on land use and distribution of natural resources, types of settlements and land use (Human Geography) and discussing the question- How has it changed over time?

In RE, we will be looking at different religions through different topics. We will be Christianity, which will be explored through the topic ‘What kind of world did Jesus want?’. We will also be exploring the topic ‘How and why do people try to make the world a better place?’. In this unit, we will look at the views of different religions about the world.  

In PSHE, during the Summer term, we will be covering the following units:

1. Recycling/Reusing 
2. Local Community building and groups 
3. Local council and democracy 
4. Rules 
5. Rights of the child 
6. Human rights 
7. Spending choices 
8. Budgeting 
9. Money and emotions 
10. Jobs and careers
11. Gender and careers 
12. Transition: coping strategies 

In PE, the children will cover 4 units including; tag rugby, cricket, athletics and sports day prep. The children will have opportunities to compete for their house teams in a range of sports day events.  

In MFL, the children will continue to expand their vocabulary and explore new topics in French. The topics which will be covered are:

1. Musical Instruments
2. Little Red Riding Hood