Spring 2021

RE:

The two topics that we will be looking at this half term are Listening and Sharing and Giving All.

In the topic of Listening and sharing the children will explore the different parts of the mass. They will respond to questions and give reasons for their answers. They will explore why it is important to listen and share with one another and understand what it means to listen to the Word of God and share in Holy Communion.

In the topic of Givin All, the children will explore how people give of themselves and how Lent is a time to remember Jesus’ total self-giving.

English:

In Year 3 children will enjoy reading a wide variety of texts, and will learn to write in a wide range of genres, as directed by the National Curriculum. We aim to instil in our pupils a love for reading and writing, confidence, stamina and creative, independent thinking.

Key texts covered: Here We Are, The King Who Banned the Dark, Krindlekrax, Ottoline and the Yellow Cat, Tuesday.

Writing genres: Information text, Writing in role, Diary writing, Letter writing, Newspaper reports, Explanation texts, Narrative —short story/descriptive writing, Poetry exploration.

Reading:

In Year 3 we introduce the children to Destination Reader, a school wide reading programme, in which daily lessons are taught to explicitly study each of the necessary skills for reading and comprehension of texts. Pupils also learn about each of the learning behaviours required for reading and discussing texts with their partners and small groups.

Key skills: Prediction, Questioning, Clarifying, Summarising, Inferring, Evaluating and Making Connections.

Grammar:

Grammar is taught alongside the teaching of writing.

Key skills: time, place and cause conjunctions, paragraphs, headings, subheadings, present perfect verbs, inverted commas.

Spelling:

Spellings are taught via a weekly list of words which are introduced to pupils in class, then set as activities on the Spelling Shed website.

Handwriting: In Year 3 cursive handwriting is introduced. The children will practice their joined handwriting regularly and they will continue to use cursive do the rest of their time at St. Gildas’.

Maths:

This term pupils will work on the following topics: Multiplication and Division, Money, Statistics, Measurement: Length and Perimeter and Fractions. We will also revise previous learning that happened during the lockdowns as well as practising our times tables.

Alongside daily maths lessons practical equipment is routinely used to help pupils turn the abstract into concrete. We use the CPA approach (concrete, pictorial then abstract) in order to gain a deeper mathematical understanding of each topic. Pupils are also provided with enriching activities to practise their fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills.

Key skills include: Times tables work with a focus on x2, x4 and x8, multiplying 2 digits by 1 digit in a column, dividing 2 digits by 1 digit, counting and converting pounds and pence, graph reading and measuring length and perimeter.

Science

Our topic this half term is Plants. We will be identifying and describing the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers.We will also explore the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant.

Computing:

Children will regularly use PCs to develop their computing skills. E- safety is taught explicitly and is at the heart of all computing lessons. Alongside this, pupils are expected to use technology responsibly. Pupils are also taught how to use basic programmes on the computer such as Word and Google Classroom in order to aid them with home learning.

Computing this term will fall under two main topics- Programming and Control and Data Handling.

History

This half term we will be finishing our topic on Cradles of Civilisation and continue with The Indus Valley. We will be exploring what kind of settlement  this was.  We will look at long distance trade and how important rivers were for early civilisations.
The children will  explore  ancient writings & scriptures and the Sarasvati culture.They will developtheir enquiry skills by looking at archaeological finds and looking at evidence to support their thinking. They will be encouraged to answer questions such as : Why did settlements spread over such a large area?

Geography

The chidren will start with the topic of Mountains and look specifically at the relationship between mountains and weatherand between humans and mountains.The next topuc is Settlements & Cities where the children will explore settlement  types, land-use and settlements by rivers, We will look at two cities and how they are  linked to the rivers.

The two  cities that children will explore are Cardiff and London,

They will look at howvpeople move about in Cardiff and how people move about in London? (tube map). The children will use their geographical skills to make connections with growing locational knowledge. They will be encouraged to answer questions such as: How the two cities are connected to each other?

PE

Year 3s take part in an LFA coach-led PE lesson every Thursday morning as well as a teacher led PE session on Monday. In addition to this, classes receive extra tennis, cricket and athletics lessons during the Summer term.

Art & Design

Art and design focuses on the main elements of art such as line, texture, colour, shape and positive and negative space. Children will use a variety of different mediums to create their artwork including paint, chalk, oil pastels, collage, origami and printing. In addition to weekly lessons, we try to incorporate art and creativity into as many other curriculum subjects as possible.

Home Learning

Homework is set every Friday and is posted on google Classroom