Overall curriculum

Find out what your child will be learning this year:

• Year 3 termly-topic-planner-autumn

This term’s curriculum

RE:

Autumn 1: In the Beginning

This topic focuses on the Hebrew creation narratives recorded in Genesis. The children will learn Genesis 1 and the messages contained within. The children will also use Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical – Laudato Si’ – and make links to the Genesis passages.

Autumn 2: Advent to Christmas

This topic focuses on the season of Advent as the time of preparation for the celebration of Christmas. It includes teaching on the ‘O’ Antiphons and Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus.

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: Was Tutankhamen Killed? Krindlekrax, Into the Forest, Ottoline and the Yellow Cat, Tuesday, Poetry anthologies

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.

Maths:

In year 3, pupils extend their knowledge of number, shape and data through daily maths lessons. Practical equipment is routinely used to help turn the abstract into concrete. Pupils are provided with enriching activities to practise their fluency, reasoning and problem solving skills.

Key skills include: Number work to 1000, mental arithmetic using 3 digit numbers, column addition and subtraction, multiplication of 2 digits by 1 digit, reading the time on analogue clocks, roman numerals, tenths, perimeter and angles.

Science

This term’s Science is the Biology themed topic; Living Things and their Habitats.

Science lessons are taught weekly and always include a knowledge and scientific enquiry focus. Lessons are always practically based and often include opportunities for research and art.

Living things and their Habitats introduces pupils to: classification keys, life cycles, the process of reproduction in some plants and animals, the observation and comparison of plants and animals in our local and foreign environments.

Scientific Skills taught: Planning and setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests, asking relevant questions, recognising and controlling variables.

Computing:

Children will regularly use PCs and iPads 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 will be taught to use computing to communicate, problem solve, research and code through topics including; We are programmers, We are bug fixers, We are presenters, We are communicators.

History/Geography

In year 3, we focus on 2 points in history; Ancient Egypt and the Stone Age. We make curriculum links to other topics such as English and Art and provide enrichment by inviting specialist speakers into school, including an Egyptian Day, and by visiting The Museum Of London. Geography is taught alternately with history. This year’s topics are Extreme Weather and Rainforests. We relate topics to real life current events such as climate change and deforestation.

PE

Year 3s take part in an LFA coach-led PE lesson every Friday afternoon. In addition to this, classes receive extra tennis, cricket and athletics lessons during the Summer term.

Art & Design

Art and design focuses on; Egyptian Art, Using pastels/chalk, Painting techniques, Illustrations and Origami. In addition to weekly lessons, we try to incorporate art and creativity into as many other curriculum subjects as possible. For example, the computing topic ‘We are programmers’ includes computer design as pupils create a short computer game.

MFL

Spanish is taught weekly by specialist teacher Mrs. Barrett. Lessons incorporate lots of speaking and listening activities as well as practical and written activities.

Music

Music lessons are taught weekly by a specialist music teacher. In year 3 we focus on developing singing voices and vocal range, playing pitched percussion and developing awareness of meter and rhythm through singing games.

Homework information:

Homework in year 3 is given out on Friday and should be returned on the following Thursday.

Homework is linked to current study and consists of a weekly spelling list, a maths activity and a third activity that could have its focus on any subject.

In addition to this, children need to be reading and practising their times tables regularly. Pupils are expected to complete 20 minutes of reading per evening to be recorded in the reading record with the date, name of book, pages read and signed by a parent.