Welcome to Year 3 

Autumn Term 2023

Areas of study for Year 3*

 

Literacy

The children will be reading a variety of shape poems and will have the opportunity to create their own poem based on a rainforest animal. They will explore descriptive words and phrases in a poem that capture the reader’s interest and imagination. The children will listen with understanding and empathy to stories from other cultures. They will learn what a folktale is, write a short synopsis for a folktale and retell and write one themselves.  Whilst teaching about rainforests in geography, the children with have an opportunity to plan and write an information text. They will use non-fiction books and the internet to research information about animals. They will use this information to plan and write a non-chronological report using headings, subheadings, and paragraphs. After half term, the children will listen and read the book ‘Traction Man’ written by Minnie Grey. They will have the opportunity to predict what happens next, answer questions about a range of books by the same author and explain the humour in the story.  Year 3 will also learn how to write a persuasive letter with a formal layout and information grouped into paragraphs. Towards the end of the term, the children with write an explanation text explaining how a fantasy machine works. They will use time connectives, casual connectives and use verbs in the present tense. We will end the term exploring humorous poetry. 

Numeracy

Children will recap how to represent numbers to 100 and adding tens and ones together from the Year 2 curriculum. They will then learn the place value of each digit in a 3-digit number and how to represent 3-digit numbers using concrete resources or pictures. Following that, children will be looking at how many tens make a hundred and how many ones make one hundred. The children will then move on to represent numbers up to 1000, using concrete resources, and will be able to order them in both ascending and descending order. Once their understanding of 3-digit numbers is secure they will then be exploring 1, 10 or 100 more and 1,10 or 100 less. They will compare two 3-digit numbers next when represented pictorially. Then they will compare two 3-digit numerals using phrases like ‘more than’, ‘less than’ and ‘equal to’. Children will learn to solve word problems involving comparing and ordering numbers. They will then look at the relationship between counting in 5’s and counting in 50’s. Later on in the term, they will learn how to add and subtract 2 and 3-digit numbers using formal written methods, such as column addition (learning to ‘carry over’) and column subtraction (learning to exchange). After, they will recap their knowledge of the 2 and 5 times tables and related prior learning. Then they will learn to multiply and divide by 3, 4 and 8.

Reading

The children will read a variety of texts, and genres. They will read poems by Paul Hess, and explore and understand why it is important to save the rainforest in ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ by Lynn Cherry.   The children will read fiction chapter books in whole class guided reading. The children will receive a reading comprehension on a half-termly basis as part of their homework grid. Throughout the term, children would have experienced a variety of poems, fiction and non-fiction books. 

MFL 

The children will learn key facts about France.  They will learn to speak in French to use greetings, ask and answer questions about other children’s names, how old they are and where they live.  They will start to learn about French grammar.  They will learn the numbers to 20, colours and the alphabet as well as learning a traditional French song.

    
 
PSHE/RSHE

The children will take part in creating a class charter to set up class rules and expectations for the year (in line with the UNCRC children’s rights). They will begin to develop a self-awareness to understand feelings and strategies to resolve conflicts in addition to how to make sensible decisions.   

 
RE

This term the children will explore the question “What is a ‘rite of passage’ and how do they help a believer connect to God?”
They will have the opportunity to understand what a rite of passage is, compare birth rites and understand wedding and death rites.  The children will explore pilgrimages that take place and develop an understanding of how it is different from a holiday.  

PE

The children will be participating in dance this term, and will be developing their co-ordination, balance and agility skills. Children will be moving around in a variety of ways including solo moves as well as partner shapes on the floor. They will also be learning at how to put these moves successfully to music.  In outdoor PE, they will be working on ball skills and working on their hand-eye coordination. 

Science

Plants:
The children will learn about the life processes of living things using the anagram MRS GREN. They will learn to identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants and set up an investigation to find out what plants need to grow well. They will have the opportunity to record observations and present results using scientific language and investigate how water is transported in plants. They will also have the opportunity to learn about the life cycle of a flowering plant including how a plant is pollinated and fertilised. 
Animals including humans:
The children will learn about nutrition, skeleton types and learn the name of bones. They will gain an understanding of the skeleton and the muscular system.   

Geography

The children will be learning about rainforests. They will use atlases and maps to locate different rainforests in the world and identify different climatic zones and describe the climate in the tropics. They will find out about the layers of the rainforest and they will recognise how mini beasts have adapted to living in the rainforest.  The children will learn how to read grid references on a map and learn about the unique features of the Australian rainforest.  
We will learn about the causes of deforestation and study conflicting views of deforestation. We will also find out about a rainforest tribe “The Yanomami” to compare and contrast the lives of people living in different parts of the world.   We will be visiting Kew Gardens this term and we will explore the Rainforest green house and hopefully walk the tree top walk, if it is open. 

Music

The children will be introduced to a traditional pentatonic song about travelling around the world, ‘I’ve Been To Harlem’.  They will invent cup rhythms, explore pentatonic melodies and create and perform a class arrangement. In the second half term, they will be listening to a Bengali folk song and a Scottish folk song. They will compare the two songs, looking for similarities and differences before they then go on to compose their own  folk songs.

Computing

Digital Artistry:
They will investigate and evaluate the work of different digital artists such as David Hockney, and express their own opinions about the pieces of art.  They will have the opportunity to explore the basic features of a digital artistry program and experiment with the tools available.  They will then create their own image in the style of a digital artist. 

Productivity:
In Year 3, the children learn how to create, save and find a word document. They will learn the functions of Word including how to add a table and manipulate text and pictures.

Art, Design & Technology

The children will recognise and mix primary colours to make secondary colours. They will create a monsoon tissue collage with monsoon and rainforest climates as a stimulus.  They will use pastels effectively to create an animal portrait and begin to use a running stitch to make an animal beanbag using felt.  During DT, the children will explore existing bug houses. They will investigate stable structures and materials used for making a mini bug house. The children will have the opportunity to design and make their own mini bug houses and evaluate the finished product.

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