Year 3
Miss Worthington and Mr O'Callaghan
Year 3 2024 - 2025
In Year 3, children start a new Key Stage, they individually grow as a learner and become more independent. They build on their handwriting work from Year 2, becoming more confident joining their letters.
All lessons are planned carefully to ensure all children are supported in their learning. Year 3 love to take their learning outside whether it be Geography in our fieldwork lessons or measuring and comparing in our Maths lessons.
Maths
At St Alban's we follow a Mastery Approach to teaching Maths following the White Rose Maths scheme. This term, Year 3 will be learning about Place Value, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication and Division.
For multiplication and division practice at home, children can battle with online interactive games on Times Tables Rock Stars. They can compete against their peers or independently to earn coins that allow them to improve their rock star avatars.
English
For our English lessons we follow the Pathways to Write scheme. This half term the book we are studying Seal Surfer by Michael Foreman. The children will write a letter from the boy to his grandfather telling him about the events he has missed. To achieve this, the mastery keys we are following are:
• Group related ideas into paragraphs
• Build a varied and rich vocabulary
• Use prepositions to express time, place and cause
• Introduce inverted commas to punctuate direct speech (one session)
Reading
Year 3 have weekly class reading sessions following the Pathways to Read scheme. The book we are reading this half term is 'Sea Book.' Throughout the sessions children will learn to retrieve and record information from non-fiction, use dictionaries to check the meaning of words they have read and identify how language, structure and presentation contribute to meaning.
Spellings are taught throughout English and Reading lessons.
Children are also expected to read at least three times a week. Books and reading records should be brought into school everyday and are checked on a Monday.
The Reading Plus programme can also be used at home and go towards childrens weekly reads.
RE
As a Catholic School the teaching of the Church is at the heart of everything we do. As well as daily prayer and liturgy, we follow the 'To Know You More Clearly' programme. The topics are delivered in branches and the overarching theme of this year is celebrating the Eucharist.
Our first topic for this term is Branch 1 – 'Creation and Covenant'.
By the end of this unity of study, pupils will know:
- That the Creation stories in Genesis use symbolism to explain the relationship between God, human beings, and the world.
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That in the first account of the Creation one day is ‘made holy’ (Genesis 2:3)
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That in the Church teaches that ‘Creation is the common work of the Holy Trinity’.
Geography
Our Geography lessons will have the enquiry focus of Counties and Cities of the UK.
Year 3 will learn what and where are the different counties of the UK; human and physical features of these counties; making a comparison between counties and drawing a map with a key.
Science
In Science, we follow the Developing Experts Scheme our topic for this term is Plants. This unit covers: comparing the effect of different factors on plant growth. Identify and describe the functions of different parts of a flowering plant and how they are used in photosynthesis. Investigate the way in which water is transported within plants. Explore the life cycle of flowering plants. Understand the pollination process and the ways in which seeds are dispersed. Compare the effect of different factors on plant growth.
Our second topic will be about Rocks. This unit covers: learning how to compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties; how to describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock and finally learn how to recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.
Art
Our Art lessons this term will cover an Artist Study on Vincent Van Gogh. Year 3 will explore brush strokes and techniques and create texture with paint similar to the work of Van Gogh. They will also revisit colour mixing and create a colour wheel. For their finished piece they will decide on an object, scene or season and paint it using the different brush strokes to create texture with paint in the style of Van Gogh.
PE
Year 3's PE day is Thursday, children come to school wearing their PE kit.
Throughout the year, Year 3 will experience a range of sporting activites where they will develop their skills and improve their fitness levels. These activities include Gymnastics, Athletics, Rugby, Tennis and Dance.
St Alban's also offer a range of sport activities in their after school clubs such as, cricket, football, tag rugby and many more.
Music/French/Computing
Computing is taught using the Kapow scheme. This term, Year 3 will learn about Online Safety and Internet Research & Communication
French is taught through using the Language Angels programme. The children enjoy this, as it is interactive with quizzes, songs and games to help them learn the language.
Music is taught using the Charanga scheme, children particulary enjoy using the instruments throughout, which then leads to them performing a piece of music at the end of each unit.