Welcome to Year 3 

Summer Term 2024

Areas of study for Year 3*

Literacy

This term, the children will be writing narratives based on the Egyptian Cinderella story. We will also be creating our own non-fiction, information texts about Ancient Egypt. This is linked to our history and geography topic on Ancient Egypt. Further cross curricular links to our history topic will be made when the children write about the process of mummification in preparation for our Egyptian day visitor. We will learn about Howard Carter and write a diary entry from his point of view.  

Numeracy

The children will spend time learning to tell the time using both analogue and digital clocks and solve problems involving time durations.  While studying the properties of shape, the children will learn about turns and angles, comparing angle types and drawing them accurately.  The children will consolidate knowledge of fractions and apply their skills to identify half and quarter of shapes and numbers. They will recognise and describe 2-D and 3-D shapes and will make 3-D shapes. For the last few weeks of term, the children will work on money and will continue to revise multiplication and division throughout the term.  

Reading

This term’s Guided Reading sessions will link closely to our Ancient Egyptian theme.  The children will explore a range of fiction and non-fiction texts.  There will be opportunities to practise and improve their skills at responding to punctuation when reading aloud, as well as learning to use appropriate tone and expression in their voices, depending on the theme of the text they are reading aloud.  They will develop their skills in responding to VIPERS style questions, by analysing vocabulary choices, exploring the meaning of unfamiliar words, retrieving information from texts, making predictions about what might happen next and summarising information they have read into one or two shorter sentences.

MFL

In the first half term, children will learn the French for 10 familiar activities that they are able or are not able to do. Using the modal verb ‘pouvoir’ (to be able to) , they will be able to state some different things that they are able to do, such as dance, sing, cook etc.  They will also be introduced to the introducing the negative form, allowing the children to build more interesting and complex sentences by including information about activities they can’t do yet.  They will also have the option of using conjunctions to link their phrases.  

In the final half term of the year, we will be getting ready for the summer holidays by looking at the topic of ordering ice creams in French!  Children will learn 10 flavours of ice-cream and the transactional language required to purchase an ice-cream. By the end of the unit, children will have the knowledge and skills to take part in a role-play activity where they will order a cone or pot of ice-cream in the flavour(s) of their choice, specifying how many scoops of each they would like.

PSHE/RSHE

This term, Year 3 will be looking at how we ensure we take good care of our physical health and mental well-being, how we grow and change as time passes and aspects of ensuring we stay safe.

For Physical and Mental Health, we will look into how and why is it important to look after our bodies with good food choices, limiting sugary/fatty choices, the importance of exercise and the active effects it has on our bodies and making sure we get enough sleep.

For Growing and Changing, we will look into what makes us who we are (personal preferences, similarities and differences), appreciating the “little things” that make us special as well as identifying our strengths and how we can improve to achieve the goals we have laid out for ourselves.

For Keeping Safe, we will be looking at the importance of ensuring we are safe in any given situation and developing positive mindsets for areas of safety when it comes to everyday life including: road safety and fire safety.

RE

This term, the children will be learning about creation stories and be thinking about the question “What difference might it make to believe in God as a creator?” We will start by working out what creation means and then the children will discuss the idea of the creation of the world and a creator being responsible for this. They will then learn about the creation stories from the Abrahamic religions and compare them. Following this, they will learn about the creation stories of the Eastern faiths. The children will create a book about the different creation stories 
and a poster comparing them. We will finish the unit by discussing the role of God as a creator and whether this encourages us to care for our world.

PE

This term the children will be learning different cricket skills. They will continue to develop throwing and catching skills, perform short and long barriers to block rolling balls and bowl accurately towards the wicket. They will be identifying different roles within the game as well as defensive and attacking tactics. 
Children will be completing a variety of athletic events including running, jumping and throwing. There will be a competitive focus as well as improving on personal bests. 

History

Our history topic is Ancient Egypt. Throughout the term, the children will learn about different aspects of the lives of Ancient Egyptians. Through a variety of different activities, children will find out about the Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Pharaohs and the pyramids. Linked to literacy, children will learn about the process of mummification and the importance of Canopic jars and discuss their uses. They will get to experience the process first hand during our Ancient Egyptian workshop later in the term!  Children will also explore the rise and fall of the young Pharaoh Tutankhamun.  Making further links to literacy, we will be looking at the life of Howard Carter. Finally, children will learn about hieroglyphics and practise writing their names and messages!

Geography

During the summer term, we will be studying the geography of Egypt. Children will locate the places of importance on a map of Egypt, look at famous landmarks, and compare them to landmarks in the UK. Children will understand the importance of the River Nile and why it was vital to the survival of the Ancient Egyptians and why it is still important today. Throughout our Geography lessons, children will be revising key information such as the names of oceans and continents and practise finding these on a map. Children will also have the opportunity to use atlases to further their knowledge.

Science

This term, year 3 will be focusing on Forces and Magnets where we will discuss the differences in actions that forces can make and how they can be applied to across different systems. We will be investigating what factors can be affected when certain forces are applied and how they can alter how an object behaves. Then, we will advance onto magnets where we will look at: what a magnet is, its properties, what materials are magnetic and discuss areas such as where we use magnets in everyday life, how they can be helpful and testing the strength of their magnetic pull.

Music

Our first unit in music this term shows how to make simple yet effective music using just a handful of notes (notably C, D and E)to create a short piece of music which will sound a little like a 20th-century American musical movement called minimalism.  The children will be given the opportunity to invent simple patterns using rhythms and notes C-D-E and structure their short patterns into a longer piece.  They will also be shown how to notate their piece of music to record it in a written form.

The second music unit this term explores call-and-response through word rhythms, and body and vocal percussion. It also gives a snapshot into samba and carnival (carnival is a serious business in Brazil, celebrating freedom and bringing together, communities regardless of class or culture). Over the course of the half term,  the children will practise moving in time with the beat of the music, performing call-and-response rhythms vocally, by ear, using word rhythms, then transferring rhythms to body percussion/instruments and finally performing vocal percussion as part of a group.

Computing

This term, year 3 will be looking at creating their own interactive games using the program Scratch. Skills they will be looking at will include: adding, editing and removing sprites; creating interaction between sprites; debugging and problem solving any issues that arise; adding additional features to increase the challenge such as score, timer or an enemy that can trigger a “game over” state.
Our second project this term will be looking at computational thinking and understanding how specific programming language has input and understood by certain systems e.g. the Logo Turtle. We will be looking at this machine’s specific command lines, develop problem solving skills to fix errors and develop onto creating command strings so the output device carries out multiple commands at once.

Art, Design & Technology

We will focus on art during the first half term of summer.  The children will be working towards making their own mosaic art.  They will begin by looking at examples of ancient mosaics (linking to our Ancient Egyptian topic) and how they are similar and/or different to more modern mosaic designs.  They will then plan their own mosaic design, make coloured tiles from salt dough and use these tiles to create their own mosaic art piece! 

During the second half of term, we will be looking at the use of tie-dye over the years.  The children will learn about the history of tie-dye and be given the opportunity to research different tie-dye styles before planning their own tie-dye product.  They will get the chance to use the methods we have explored to then create their own tie-dye item!

*If you require additional information relating to our school curriculum, please ask at the school office or the class teacher.