Year 3 - Autumn 1 Curriculum Information

Are you ready for a new year with lots of learning? We will be exploring many new and exciting things! We will be reading several new books including ‘The Wild Robot,’ by Peter Brown and ‘The Street Beneath my Feet’ by Charlotte Gillion. In ‘The Wild Robot’, robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time and discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is - but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a fierce storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realises that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island's unwelcoming animal inhabitants. As Roz befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home - until, one day, her mysterious past comes back to haunt her. The children will love this heartwarming and action-packed illustrated novel exploring what happens when nature and technology collide.

  In the classroom we will be using these books to encourage the children with their story writing. In English, we shall be reading ‘Stone Age boy’ by Satoshi Kitamura. One day, a little boy is walking along when he trips, stumbles and falls ... into the Stone Age! He meets a girl his own age and her tribe and learns all about their way of life. He watches them make tools, clothes, and weapons. He sees how they hunt, fish, cook, celebrate – and even how they paint on the walls of caves. This links with our History topic ‘The Stone Age to the Iron Age’, where we shall be looking at ‘How have British settlements developed to improve civilisation in the modern world?’

We will also be talking about where we live in Geography, thinking about our Big Question: ‘How can we find our location?’. Throughout this unit, children will be building on their understanding that maps, made by cartographers, give us information about different locations. They will look at Ordnance Survey symbols and understand what they represent. Children will encounter new and ambitious vocabulary that features throughout the unit, offering children many opportunities to rehearse and apply it in their talk tasks and written work.  

 In Science we shall be exploring different kind of rocks, whilst thinking about our Big Questions: ‘How are rocks formed?’. We shall be exploring key knowledge of rocks, including their appearance and simple physical properties We will also be learning about different scientists and particularly what geologists do.

In Maths we will continue learning about place value, and be reinforcing our knowledge of addition and subtraction. Please use TT Rockstars to encourage your child with their timestables as this will really help them in their maths lessons!

In Art the children will have opportunities to practise their skills about different artists on themed days. For Art this half term, the children will be focusing on lines as a basic tool. This includes lines with different materials, line weight, different types of line, different ways to use line, printing to create lines. As a result, the children will be developing their continuous line drawing, line weight and drawing contour line.

In RE this term, we will be exploring Hinduism and focusing on the questions, ‘Would celebrating Diwali at home and in the community bring a feeling of belonging to a Hindu child??’. In PHSE our focus is looking at ‘Being me in my world’ and considering self identity and worth, which compliments our everyone’s welcome book, ‘Dogs don’t do Ballet’ by Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilive. This is a fabulous feel-good book about a small dog with a big personality and even bigger dreams. Can she be a ballerina and a dog in her world?

In computing, we will explore computing systems and networks. The children will also start learning French with a specialist teacher, practising oracy and greeting skills. Moving swiftly onto PE! The children will be developing their balls skills, practising control, as well as practising Fundamentals, where we will develop the skills of balancing, running, jumping, hopping, and skipping.

At the Grove, we are always trying to include our school values in everything we do. This term, we will be working in the classroom on self-belief, honesty, confidence, teamwork and more! We will also be going on numerous trips throughout the year. Our first trip will be to a working farm, which will be very memorable experience for the children.

We have so much more planned for this half term, including our memorable learning boxes, which give us artefacts and books for children to get hands on with their learning. Finally, we look forward to sharing this with you all on Class Dojo. Please keep looking on our Class Dojo page for regular updates and information.