Autumn Term 2023 

Year 3 Literacy

During the Autumn term much of our Literacy work will be closely linked with our Topic work. We will be using the books Stone Age Boy and How to Wash A Woolly Mammoth to bring this period of prehistory to life. The children will imagine what it would be like to time travel to the Stone Age and write diary entries and informal letters home, based on their imagined experiences. We will also use video clips and Literacy Shed animations to encourage the children to complete some imaginative and independent writing. We will practice reading comprehension skills during regular guided reading sessions, using "Text Detectives" to discuss and explore different texts. In our grammar lessons, we will start by looking at basic punctuation and grammar and revise the use of capital letters, finger spaces and full stops, then develop skills using more sophisticated punctuation. Children will identify and use nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in sentences. They will discuss the use and purpose of punctuation when writing texts and reading them. Spelling lists and grammar lessons will be linked, for example when finding out about suffixes and prefixes. Children will have weekly spelling tests with words linked to the National curriculum lists for Year 3 and if necessary revision from other year groups.

Year 3 Maths

During the Autumn term children will start by revising and consolidating some of the main topics covered in Year 2, such as place value and ordering 2- and 3-digit numbers. All activities and challenges will be differentiated appropriately for your child. Children will develop their sense of number and also revise written and mental methods for addition and subtraction where appropriate. Children will find fractions of shape and number and engage in various problem-solving activities. They will have access to Times Tables Rock Stars, on their Chrome Books, as well as other maths games and websites to encourage them to learn mental maths facts and their times tables and related division facts. This will support them when working towards the times tables awards, in readiness for the Year 4 times tables test next year.

Year 3 Science

Our first topic in Science will be ‘Animals Including Humans’. We will be recapping and building on the children’s knowledge about how animals survive and stay healthy, and help them learn more about what makes a healthy, balanced diet. Children will learn about the nutrients that different foods provide and how these nutrients help our bodies. They will also explore the diets of herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. The children will also explore how humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles to help their bodies move. They will learn some names of bones in the human body and carry out an investigation to explore if people with longer femurs jump further. We will then move on to the topic ‘Rocks and Soils as it links brilliantly to our Pre-History topic. During the term we will learn about different types of rocks and their properties, understand how fossils are formed and research the famous fossil collector Mary Anning. We will learn about how soil is formed and explore our school grounds to ‘dig up’ some soil and compare it to a variety of other soils. Throughout our learning we will be developing and improving our working scientifically skills as well as having a lot of fun!

Year 3 History

We are going to be transporting the children back to a Pre-Historic time (one without dinosaurs!) to investigate the lives of Stone Age, Iron Age and Bronze Age Britain. We shall be exploring the world of the archaeologist and how they can tell what life was like before records were kept. We shall be finding out how the people of these ages lived and compare our modern lives with the lives of our ancestors.

Year 3 Geography

Year 3 will be taking a Road Trip Across the UK and finding out what countries make up the UK. They will use maps to find out more about these 4 countries and their capital cities. They will be looking at physical features that differ across the UK. The children will also be spending some time finding out where Peterborough can be found in the world from the local county, region, country and continent.

Year 3 Computing

In Year 3, each child is provided with their own Chromebook at school. At the beginning of each term children discuss how to staying safe online. They explore and are given strategies to ensure that they understand how to use the internet and digital devices safely and what to do if they are worried about anything online. We will be familiarising the children with features on their Chrome books and teach them how to use Google Classroom.

They explore what digital devices are, the way they connect to each other and what we mean by networks. Later they will explore media animation, including different ways to make a picture move, how to animate frame by frame, storyboarding an animation and evaluating their work.

Year 3 RE

In the first half term, the children will learn what a leader is and how different people inspire us in different ways, learn about symbols and symbolic language, why people have had different ideas of what Jesus was like and explore their own values as well as who and what is important to them.

In the second half term the children will find out about Hinduism, exploring central beliefs and traditions. They will be introduced to the Story of Rama and Sita to explore the origins of Diwali, the Hindu festival of light. They will explore how Hindus worship all over the world and look at customs followed.

Year 3 PE

During this first term, the children will be working with our Sports Coach who will be teaching fitness and fundamental skills and pupils will take part in many fitness challenges and they will be learning about the different components of fitness. Pupils will also be developing the fundamental skills of balancing, running, jumping, hopping and skipping.

For outdoor PE sessions children will be taking part in football and hockey. During football sessions pupils will be encouraged to persevere when developing in key skills and principles such as defending, attacking, sending, receiving and dribbling a ball, building on their knowledge of tactics and how to work effectively as a team. In hockey sessions, pupils will learn to contribute to the game by helping to gain and keep possession of the ball, use simple attacking tactics using sending, receiving and dribbling a ball.

Year 3 PSHE

This term in PSHE, we will be learning about keeping ourselves safe. We will help children identify potential dangers in different environments and learn the rules and ways of keeping safe and finding help. We will also look at the dangers of venturing off with people we don't know well and the dangers of leaning out of windows. In our Keeping/Staying Healthy unit, we will look at medicines. We will learn about when it is safe to take medicine and who we can accept medicine from. In the Relationship unit, we will learn about different body parts, personal boundaries, and why it is important to care about others' feelings. The children will also learn about whom they can go to for advice and how they can ask for help.

Year 3 Music

Year 3 will use a variety of instruments to start learning how to read music. They will use percussion to create rhythms and glockenspiels to compose melodies, as well as performing pieces by reading the treble clef stave. The students will listen to a range of different ensembles and try to identify the different types, as well as using some new musical terminology.   

Year 3 DT

In the Autumn term, we will be creating Iron Age roundhouses. The children will research, design and create a plan for their construction. After that, the children will follow their instructions to create their own roundhouse. The children will be using a variety of materials including clay and straw to get an authentic look. Finally, children will evaluate their product.

Year 3 Art

Year 3 will be linking their art work this term to our Stone Age topic. They will be developing their colour mixing skills and using a variety of different medium to create colour and texture. They will be looking at the very first artists who created cave paintings and finding out more about what these might have meant and working with a partner to create their own cave pictures. They will also develop their skills by painting their own woolly mammoths. We will use stories to help us find out more about art from the past. They will develop their art vocabulary and build up more detailed sketchbooks as a way of recording their art journey.