Year 3 Curriculum Content

During the Autumn term, the children in Year 3 explore the overarching question of ‘Who shaped the world we live in today?’. Their class novel is The Explorer written by Katherine Rundell, which allows the children to look at various themes including the rainforest, protecting the environment and survival. This class novel lends itself perfectly to the teaching of the curriculum as a whole, with Year 3 pupils studying Mayan Civilisation and learning all about North and South America in Geography. Plants and Animals including Humans are the focuses of their Science work. In Art, Year 3 pupils look at Mayan sculptures as a basis for developing their own sculpture making skills and in DT, they further their cooking skills. The children acquire knowledge surrounding Christianity, specifically focussing on God in RE and in PSHE explore the areas of ‘Being me in my world’ and ‘Celebrating Differences’ through the Jigsaw scheme of work. Computing lessons allow the children to develop their awareness of animation and connecting computers. In Music, Year 3 pupils learn how to use their voices expressively and creatively and focus on developing their netball skills and gymnastic ability in PE. In MFL, they will learn how to use greetings, classroom commands, colours and talk about Christmas in French. 

The overarching question during the Spring term is ‘Where could we go?’ and the children in Year 3 read the class novel of Yours Sincerely Giraffe by Megumi Iwasa. Key themes for exploration throughout this term include flight, map reading, continents, gender and disability. Year 3 pupils learn all about their geographical area of focus which is The Antarctic Circle and The Arctic, creating paintings of The Northern Lights in Art based on Frederic Edwin Church’s work. They study the Science topic areas of Light and Forces and Magnets looking at the work of Michael Faraday as their key scientist. The DT project for Year 3 pupils requires them to build a photo frame as an outcome to their structures work. In RE, the children explore the idea around ‘What does it mean to live a good life?’. Music lessons provide the Year 3 pupils with the opportunity to play tuned and untuned instruments as well as listen with understanding and concentration to a variety of music. The children are able to explore and develop skills based on desktop publishing and branching databases in Computing and Tennis and Handball skills in PE lessons. Through Jigsaw, Year 3 pupils think about their dreams and goals for now and the future as well as relationships in PSHE. They further develop their French skills in MFL lessons by learning how to give their name, use colours and numbers 0-6, describe pencil case items and use polite vocabulary.

The Summer term’s overarching question asks the children to think about ‘Has our world always looked this way?’. Through the study of their class novel When the Mountains Roared by Jess Butterworth, the Year 3 pupils explore the key themes of courage, journeys, habitats and jungles. They look at The Stone Age, specifically studying mountains including volcanoes in Geography. The Art project for this term looks at work created by Nicholas Roerich as a way of developing their own drawing skills of landscapes. The Science topic for Year 3 in this term is Rocks. In PSHE, the children are asked to explore the areas of ‘Healthy Me’ and ‘Changing Me’, and in PE lessons the children are able to acquire skills required for playing Rounders and furthering athletic skills. Computing lessons allow for the Year 3 children to develop their skills surrounding creating a sequence in music and generating events and actions whilst DT looks at furthering textile skills to create money containers. RE lessons look at the religions of Hinduism and Islam, specifically looking at God. MFL lessons allow Year 3 pupils to acquire the ability to use numbers 7-12, talk about animals and ask questions in French.