Welcome to Year 3

In the first half term our Skull and Crossbones topic focuses on Pirates. We bring this to a close in English through learning about the famous pirate Blackbeard. Using what we have found out about him we create Wanted posters.

As we move forward in our topic we begin to learn about the Vikings, pirates of the past. We use our learning to inform us to create an advert of a Viking house for sale, as well as write a newspaper article to describe Viking Raid. We also write a letter describing a Viking feast.

In History we research and answer the question ‘Were the Vikings raiders or traders?’ We also use a range of sources to find out about other aspects of Viking life, which enables us to make comparisons with life in Anglo-Saxon times. We also think about ‘Why was King Alfred a great leader?’

We lead into map skills work in Geography with creating maps and using co-ordinates to locate places. We build on this further as we learn to draw a sketch map from an OS map extract and introduce grid references and a key. We also build on our knowledge and understanding of the local area as we begin to investigate why people choose to live in our local town. In turn, we answer the enquiry question ‘Would a Viking prefer to raid a town or a village?’ 

In Science, we consider the enquiry question ‘What would happen if humans did not have skeletons?’ using texts such as ‘Book of Bones’ by Gabrielle Balkan. We link this to developing an understanding of how muscles work in the body.

RE gives us the opportunity to learn about Diwali and explore the question ‘Would celebrating Diwali at home and in the community bring a feeling of belonging to the Hindu child?’ Nearer Christmas we consider the question ‘Has Christmas lost its true meaning?’

Whilst in PSHE we work on the Jigsaw unit ‘Celebrating Difference’. We also take part in Anti-Bullying week.

In Music we focus on the history of Music, as well as learn about the music of a contemporary composer.

We work on developing our observation skills in Art and creating self-portraits linked to Viking portraits. We also paint Viking longships.

DT gives us the chance to design and make pirate treasure bags. We sew and learn how to use fastenings, before evaluating our work.

In Computing we learn about coding simple programs through the use of Purple Mash

In French we work on greetings, colours, the days of the week and the months of the year.

In PE we have the opportunity to develop Invasion skills as well as work on Unit 2 of Real PE - Social Skills, which focuses on ‘balance and agility.’