Year 3

PE days

For the first Autumn term, our PE days are Monday – indoor PE and Wednesday– outdoor PE.

PE kit is as stated on School Uniform page of the website. Please ensure that coats are brought to school as we will still use our PE time even if it is raining, as long it is safe to do so.

Home learning

In Year 3, the home learning expectations are as follows:

Reading: Children to read for at least 5-10 minutes per day, with at least 3 days reading aloud to an adult who will record this in the orange reading records. The reading record should stay in the child’s bag each day, as it contains their username and password for the various apps and websites they will use in the day. It will be collected in on a Friday to monitor which children are reading at home, and which children are not reading.

Spellings: Children will be given their spellings on a Friday and tested on those words on the following Friday. Most children will have a set of 12 words, with the final two being words repeated from the previous week. Some children will be given a different number, based upon their need. All children will be able to find their spellings on EdShed if they have misplaced their spellings, or are absent when they were given out.

NumBots and TTRockstars: Both of these are apps or webpages that can be played to support their learning and understanding of the key maths skills needed in primary school, and beyond. NumBots supports key addition and subtractions kills, and TTRockstars supports learning the times tables. We would recommend around 5-10 minutes on either app per day, gradually moving to just TTRockstars as the child’s confidence with addition and subtraction grows.

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Curriculum- Yearly overview of topics

Our key topics for each term are:

Autumn Terms 1&2:

What were the changes in Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age?

Spring Term 1:

So, you think you know about Ancient Egypt?

SpringTerm 2:

Can anything good come from a disaster?

Summer Term 1:

Where does chocolate come from?

Summer Term 2:

What would I see on a walk to Bladder Meadow Park? A local study.

English

One of our key focuses in English is developing the reading fluency and comprehension skills linked to the VIPERS skills of Vocabulary, Inference, Prediction, Explanation and Summary/Sequencing.

This is achieved through regular guided reading, individual reading to an adult, and reading at home. We use the Accelerated Reader software to check the reading comprehension of the books being read by the pupils, both in class and at home. Each child completes an initial quiz that generates a reading band for them to pick books from the school library that should be within their reading range. They then read the books and complete the end of book quiz in class on an iPad or laptop, which checks their understanding of what they have read.

In writing, we make use of a range of text types to develop their confidence with fiction and non-fiction writing, linked to a supporting text or video. Initially, we focus on traditional bedtime stories in a book called ‘The Beasties’, followed by a film clip ‘Tadeo Jones’ where we will create a diary/recount. After half term, we will use the book ‘Jack and the Dreamsack’ for a fantasy story, and look at explanation texts when using ‘How Santa Really Works’.

Handwriting

Throughout the week we will ask the children to practise their spellings through handwriting. Part of the curriculum expects all children to be joining their handwriting.  

Maths

In most maths lessons, we make use of supporting materials that allow children to work practically or have additional help in processing the learning. This ranges from printed number lines and 100-squares through to physical representations of the place values for ones, tens, hundreds and thousands, known as base ten blocks.

Our initial focus is on developing the understanding of place value in numbers to1000, and some limited exposure to numbers to 10,000.

We will then move onto a push with addition and subtraction skills, including mental and formal written methods, and the processes that allow children to progress between them.

A key indicator of maths performance is the confidence and fluency with number bonds to 100, and the knowledge and accuracy with the times tables facts to 12x1. By the end of Year 3, pupils are expected to know their number bonds to 100 and their 2,3,4,5,8 and 10-times tables within 6 seconds.

Times tables facts

It would be helpful if children could practise their times tables at home as well as in school so that class maths challenges that encompass times table facts (fractions, multiplications, problem solving etc) will be much easier and exciting to solve. 

Telling the time is also something that we would appreciate your help with, particularly as we have to ensure by the end of Year 3 children can tell the time in 3 different ways and using 3 different types of clocks- analogue, digital and 24 hour. 

By the end of year 4, ALL children are expected to know their times tables, up to 12x12, by heart and with instant recall, so we endeavour to make this easier for them by encouraging these recall skills in Year 3. The new curriculum focuses heavily on calculation strategies, particularly for multiplication and division, so it is essential that the children work at learning these at home. They are a key skill which they will use throughout their lives.

We are having a huge push on our times tables at the moment as it forms a key part of what we must know to move forwards in our learning. We would really appreciate any help with the learning of this key skill please. 

RE

At Manadon Vale, RE is taught to give every child the opportunity to explore the big questions about life, to find out what people believe and what difference this makes to their lives. Pupils gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief and to reflect on their own ideas and ways of living.

In Key Stage 1 and 2, we follow the Plymouth Agreed Syllabus for RE. The principal religions and non-religious worldviews represented in the UK are covered taught through 'Key Questions'. These key questions are explored through the study of sacred texts, through creative arts, with visiting speakers and visits to places of worship and with lively discussion and debate.

In Year 3 the key questions for the Autumn term are:

• Autumn 1: What is it like for someone to follow God?  
• Autumn 2: What is the Trinity and why is it important for Christians?

Termly overview

Autumn Term

During English this term we will exploring the book ‘Cave Baby’.  Will be discussing the characters and predicting what we think will happen next. There is a recap of sentence punctuation, as well as the use of expanded noun phrases and the use of the correct tense.  We will be retelling the story in our own words before moving onto writing anon-chronological report about the Stone Age.

In Maths, we will start the term revising place value, before moving onto addition and subtraction, as well as multiplication and division. We believe that all children, when introduced to a new concept, should have the opportunity to build competency by taking this approach.  This is why we use the following resources to help us; Concrete – children should have the opportunity to use concrete objects and manipulatives to help them understand what they are doing. Pictorial – alongside this, children should use pictorial representations. These representations can then be used to help reason and solve problems and finally, Abstract – both concrete and pictorial representations should support children’s understanding of abstract methods.  

In Science we start Year 3 by looking at Rocks.  We discover the different types of rocks, the rock cycle and the process of fossilisation.  We then move onto Forces, exploring what a force is, the different types of forces and how magnets work.  We use a range of enquiry approaches and skills to encourage the children to explore and ask questions.

In PSHE, we celebrate ‘Being Me in my World’ and after half term, move onto ‘Celebrating Difference’. These units from the ‘Jigsaw’ scheme of work, encourage opinions and discussions around a wide range of issues- rules, acceptance, pride, empathy, reflection and are usually started each week with an introductory assembly, generating a whole school focus for adults and children alike. Within the classroom, we use kind and positive words and listen to each other. More over, the units involve giving and receiving compliments and sharing ideas in a cooperative and mutually respectful way. Indeed, they underpin and reinforce all of our school values.

In History, we begin by learning about the Stone-Age and making comparisons to our lives today. We are using the wonderful book ‘Cave Baby’ as a stimulus to enable children to picture the lifestyles & survival issues encountered during that period. We will explore timelines within a specific time in history to set out the order things may have happened and introduce new vocabulary to enable children to describe events and periods in History. New facts will involve guided and independent research skills and delivered in a fun and interesting way!

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