Year 3
Meet the Team
Mrs L Bevan-Jackson, Mrs R Thackray, Mr Greenwood, Mrs L Ullyart, Miss S Hemsley
Our Curriculum
The Stone Age
Travelling back to the start of humanity, children in Year 3 will compare life in hunter gatherer societies to modern living. The homes, diets, clothes, weapons and tools of our ancestors will be examined, with the children creating a fact file to show off all their knowledge. Pupils also produce cave paintings to decorate the classroom. The book for this topic is ‘The Stone Age Boy’.
The Romans
We will learn about the Roman invasion of European countries and how this added to the size and power of the Roman Empire. We will learn about the social structure of Roman society from slaves to emperors. As geographers we will focus on the expansion of the Roman Empire and as Historians find out about the homes the Romans lives in and how their lives were based on their place in Roman society.
Ancient Benin
Moving to Africa, our topic for this term looks at Ancient Benin - modern day Nigeria. This unit uncovers the rise and fall of a mighty empire, who were renowned for their craftsmanship, showing how their relationship with European countries was both a blessing and curse.
Children will get to grips with the rich mythology of Ancient Benin and decide whether accounts of the Oba’s (the king’s) rise to power are fact or fiction.
Carnival
We will learn about how carnival is a celebration of West Indian culture through art, music and dance. We will find out about the Leeds West Indian carnival and the person who started it Arthur Frances. As part of this learning, we will discover the key events in the beginning and abolition of slavery. We will enjoy some West Indian Carnival street food cooked by a visiting chef who will help us further to understand the celebrations carnival brings.
Maths
We will be using a range of resources to teach maths this year. We want to improve children’s fluency in the recall of facts and also the methods that we use to calculate. We will focus on using all four operations: addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. We will use resources that guide children through their learning with challenge and fun activities. The use of practical equipment will run through all of our maths teaching. Throughout the year we will also have a huge push on learning all of our times tables.
English
Year 3 children will gain experience in writing across a broad variety of genres for different audiences. Obtaining a firm grasp of sentence structure and basic punctuation will be a focus throughout the year. We will become authors of our own books and write texts of our own choice. In reading, the length of texts will increase from Year 2. We will work on how to retrieve information from a text and how to recall stories and facts we have read. We will also think about how to give our own opinions about what we have read.
Science
As scientists we will think about how and why things happen. We will make predictions and carry out fair tests. We will find out how different rocks and fossils are formed. In our Magnets and Forces topic we will learn about what magnets are attracted to and what they repel. We will find out about how different light sources and how shadows are formed. In our Humans topic, we will learn about the importance of a healthy lifestyle and the role of the skeleton. We will learn all about the importance of plants to life on earth and how plants reproduce.