Welcome to Year 3 

Summer Term 2023

Areas of study for Year 3*

Literacy

This term Year 3 will be studying the Romans in History and this theme will be carried across to our English work. We start the term learning the story of Romulus and Remus and the foundation of Rome.  The children will create newspaper reports detailing the exciting events of the time. They will learn about myths and legends and in particular Mercury and Apollo, writing a story from a character’s point of view. They will then create their own legend based on the adventures of the Eagle of the Ninth, a legionnaire from the Roman army.  Boudicca will be the feature of a non-chronological report using all the features we have learned about previously – headings, sub-headings and paragraphs.  The children will be reading and writing descriptive poetry based on Roman themes.

Maths

The children will then 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

The children will read a variety of genres of books through the term.  They will read the story of Romulus and Remus and a range of other myths and legends.   Swans will have guided reading work continue around the book ‘Stig of the Dump’ by Clive King and Pelicans will be reading ‘How to train your dragon.’  The children will receive a reading comprehension on a weekly basis for homework. Throughout the term children would have experienced a variety of poems, fiction and non-fiction books. 

MFL 

This term’s French will concentrate on naming family members and the definite articles used to name these people. They will learn how to count up to 100 in French and how to use the possessive pronoun (mon, ma, mes).  They will continue with the theme of the Romans by learning about Les Romains in French.  They will hear about famous Romans from history, Roman gods and Roman inventions.  They will compare the lives of rich Roman children with those of poor Roman children, incorporating the use of the negative in French.

PSHE/RSHE

This term the children will concentrate on the Habit of Mind number 6 - Striving for Accuracy.  With this in mind, they will think how this can be applied to their other learning, in particular their writing and editing during English lessons. They will be reminded about how important healthy eating is in taking care of ourselves and will investigate the traffic light systems of food labelling and consider these in light of the use of different food groups by our bodies. They will examine the Eatwell plate and look at how eating a balanced diet affects their wellbeing positively. They will consider the other factors that keep us healthy – sleep and exercise and the impact these can have, along with a healthy diet, on our mood. Children will consider their own strengths and weaknesses and how they can manage and reframe the setbacks they come across.

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

For the first half of the Summer term, the children will be learning about Roman dance, taking inspiration from their history lessons. They will draw on their knowledge of Roman soldiers and Roman festivals.  The dance techniques and styles used will represent the Roman time period.  The children will dance in unison and in cannon and will learn how to use expression in their dancing to reflect differences in mood and emotion.  The second half of the term will be outdoor athletics where the children will prepare for the activities they will do on Sports’ Day.  They will practice the various events and learn to improve their accuracy and control with the athletics equipment. They work on improving their speed and the techniques needed for the different events.

Science

The first half of the term will be spent studying Forces.  We will begin by identifying the forces on objects being pushed and pulled and will then conduct an investigation into how different surfaces affect the speed that an object can move at down a sloped surface.  The children will learn about friction and relate this to the results of their investigation. Magnetic forces will be investigated, and the children will find out which materials are attracted to magnets by experimenting. They will learn about the use of magnets in scrapyards to separate rubbish. The differing strengths of different magnets will be investigated and the children will draw graphs to represent the data they gather. The children will learn about the two poles of magnets and will work out that opposite poles attract and same poles repel.  The second half of the term will be spent studying Light. The children will learn about sources of light and how reflective surfaces are useful. They will design a poster about staying safe by wearing high visibility clothing.  They will start to understand how a mirror works and think about a simple conclusion about the angle that light is reflected at. The children will investigate the formation of shadows by the sun and how shadows move during the course of a day.  Using a torch and different materials, the children will recognise that objects are opaque, translucent or transparent and will explain why the transparency of a material is important in its use.  They will also investigate the formation and size of shadows using a torch in varying positions.

Geography

During History lessons this term, there will be some important Geography to learn.  The children will use atlases to identify the whereabouts of the Roman Empire and how its size changed over time.  They will look at how geographical features affected the invasion of Britain by the Romans. The location of Hadrian’s wall will be discussed. The impact of the invasion by the Romans on our road system will also be looked at, with the children locating the start and finish of the Roman roads of Britain. 

History

The Romans: the children will spend the term finding out about life in the Roman Empire.  They will discover what religious beliefs the Romans had and what life was like in the Roman army.  They will find out about the life of Julius Caesar and be reminded about the use of primary vs. secondary sources for historical research.  They will hear about the Roman invasions of Britain and what happened at each stage of this process. The Emperor Hadrian will be discussed along with why Hadrian’s wall was built.  After half term, the children will think about what life was like under the Roman Empire and how this led to the rebellion of the Celts led by Boudicca.  If school visits are permitted by this time, we hope the children will be able to visit Butser Ancient Farm where they will have a tour of a Roman Villa with a hypocaust (under floor heating!) and toilets, see a stone age round house and take part in a few activities. Following this, the children will find out more about Roman baths and the impact the presence of the Romans had on life in Britain.  They will examine the evidence for our knowledge of Roman life from the artefacts found at Silchester.

Music

In Music, the children will listen to a wide range of genres of music and appraise them.  They will learn about the history of these pieces of music and place them on a time line.  They will start to learn to identify the sounds made by different instruments.  Children will be introduced to musical notation and look at the different features needed to write music down.  They will play glockenspiels along with a song, striving for accuracy and control in their playing while reading the music.

Computing

In Computing, the children will be using Scratch to create their own programme.  They will learn how to create a sprite and a background for their own maze game and then how to make the sprite move in four different directions.  Children will then learn to add in obstacles to their games and will finally debug and evaluate their games.  In the second half of the term, the children will learn about computational thinking. They will create an algorithm for a cartoon of the formation of fossils in Scratch and will then learn to use logical reasoning to debug this programme.  Lastly, they will follow an algorithm to construct a picture, using logical reasoning to detect errors and their debugging skills to correct any errors.

Art, Design & Technology

In conjunction with the Romans topic, children will design and make a paper mosaic and then recreate this design in tiles finished with grout.  They will also use water colour effects to paint water effects that might have been seen in a Roman bath and to tie die a t-shirt.  They will design and make a healthy breakfast for a Roman soldier.
In DT, they will learn about pneumatic systems and design and create a working one of their own using syringes and tubing. 

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