Year 3
Term 1
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This term our topic has been ‘Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Mountains’.
In English, we used The Iron Man to help us write our own fictional stories. We focussed on the use of adjectives, and past tense to help make our stories come to life. We also used the book The Pebble in My Pocket to create our own non-fictional timelines. We used elements of punctuation such as possessive apostrophes and questions to also make our writing accurate.
In Science, we learnt about rocks. We learnt how to classify different types of rocks. We made chocolate rocks to help us understand how each of the rocks are made and begin to understand the rock cycle.
Our focus in PE this term has been dance. We have used different movements to help us show different natural disasters. We thought about how we could use different levels to make our dances more exciting for our audience.
In Art, we learnt about artist, Hokusai. We copied his ’34 Views of Mount Fuji’ and then created our own ’30 views of Mount Kilimanjaro’.
Term 2
Prehistoric Britain VS Ancient Egypt
This term we have been learning about the Stone Age through to the Iron Age. We have also learnt about Ancient Egypt which happened around the same time.
In English this term, we used the book Stone Age Boy to write our own stories. We based our stories on the Iron Age and created our own Iron Age characters. We also used the book How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth. We used this book to write our own instructions on how we thought it would be best to wash a woolly mammoth.
We have continued our focus on addition and subtraction in Maths this term. We started by recapping strategies to help us with adding and subtracting in our heads. We then moved on to adding and subtracting on empty number lines before learning how to use column addition.
In PE, we have been focussing on our cognitive (thinking) skills. We played a range of games and completed lots of challenges to help us develop our decision making skills.
We learnt about perspective in our art lessons this term. We experimented with how we can use this to give our art work space and depth. We used watercolour paints to paint some of the photos that were taken on our trip.
Our trip gave us the chance to develop our understanding of Iron Age settlements and how the Celts used to live. We also enjoyed developing our team work skills as we built dens together in the forest.
During December, in RE, we learnt about Advent. We learnt about the Annunciation and Visitation stories as well as the importance of the Hail Mary.
Term 3
This term, we began our India topic by learning about its location in the world. We used maps and atlases to learn about what sort of human and physical features there are in India and concluded that there are a wide range of landscapes and environments there. We then learnt about India’s capital city- Mumbai. We were able to identify some of the human and physical features of the city and learn a little bit about its past.
In English, we read the story of ‘The Heavenly Elephant’. We did some storytelling and retold the book using some of the exciting language that we found inside. We visualised the book and made our very own version of the Raja’s heavenly garden. We also focussed on writing non-chronological reports about Indian Elephants.
We began learning about light in science by asking questions about what we would like to find out. Our learning for this science topic will continue next term.
In PE, we developed our gymnastic skills with a particular focus on shape and balance. We used a range of different height apparatus in the hall to balance on.
Term 4
This term, Year 3 continued with their India topic. To start the term off, we had a visit from a story teller who retold the story of Rama and Sita using puppets. Some of us even got a chance to join in with the story telling!
In English this term, we created our own travel brochures for different places around India. We researched and planned them before using descriptive language to write them. After we had written them, we used our Maths skills to create bar graphs to show what the weather is like in India at different times of the year.
In Science, we continued learning about light. We learnt about the harmful effects that the sun can have on us. We did this by experimenting with card on the window to see just how discoloured it became after only a week of being exposed to the sun light.
We were lucky to have a cricket coach teach us for PE this term. We developed our batting, bowling and fielding skills through a series of games and skill challenges.
We created our own Rangoli patterns in Art this week. We used tracing paper to design and rotate the patterns before colouring and blending chalk.
To finish off our India topic, we celebrated with an Indian Afternoon. During the afternoon, we were treated to a variety of performances from our Indian community. We also enjoyed tasting some delicious Indian food and sharing some of our learning from the term with our parents.
Term 5
This term, in English, we read The Tin Forest. We started by retelling the story before we wrote our own stories based on the original. We considered how we could make our stories really exciting by using a range of language. We also used this book to develop our reading skills. We made inferences about the character in the story and we also made some predictions about what we thought would happen at the end.
In Maths, our topic was measure. We learnt to tell the time to the nearest minute and we also used this to solve real life problems. We had lots of practice this term measuring different lengths and capacity as it linked well with our topic.
In Science, we learnt about plants. We learnt about the lifecycle of plants and also about the different functions of the different parts of the plant. We also had the opportunity to plant our own plants.
In PE, we focused on athletics and considered how we could improve our times/scores in preparation for Sports Day
