Year 3 Curriclum Bulletin: Healthy Humans

Topic

Our topic this term is 'Healthy Humans' which combines our understanding of the parts of the body with helpful routines and behaviour.  It is an important and fun science-based topic which fuels our English, PE, Maths and DT lessons. It is taught in Year 3 because we hope children can get into good habits early on, and in order to give families the opportunity to share their own advice for good health.

The main outcome for this topic will be a pop-up information book about the body and how to look after it.






Reading

This half-term, children will be continuing their journey towards becoming more fluent and enthusiastic readers. We will be guiding them through higher-level texts, building their enjoyment and giving them confidence to access novels.

We will be building on our Retrieval Skills (locating answers), Inference Skills (working out answers) and Choice Skills (explaining the authors decision making process) by using quick R.I.C. activity starters at the beginning of lessons.

Reading lessons have been restructured into two taught lessons a week, focusing on developing specific reading skills. These will alternate between fiction and non-fiction texts and involve the whole class.  We will still have 'fun reading' sessions once a week, and the opportunity to select books in the class library.

Reading logs are still at the forefront of sharing successes and challenges between school and home. Children benefit from encouragement, questioning and sharing the pleasure of reading together at home, so we welcome notes from parents. We also encourage children to reflect on their reading by using the question prompts on the back of their log to write a comment each time. Time is given in school for the children to record their class reading. Reading logs are checked once a week by the class teacher and we ask that they make 4 entries a week.

Our Class Novels this half term are: 'Waiting for Anya' by Michael Morpurgo and Usborne's 'Understanding Your Body' by Rebecca Treays.



We base our English work around our 'Healthy Humans' theme. We will continue to embed grammar, handwriting and spelling (including spelling conventions and topic vocabulary) skills. We will use the storytelling technique of memorising a similar text, to write a discussion text exploring whether or not packed lunches should be banned from school. We will also combine our Design skills to make an information pop-up book about how to look after the body.


Maths

This term we will extend our knowledge of key number facts, and consolidate our written calculation methods - applying them to various contexts including measures and money. We have already introduced the properties of 2D and 3D shape, and we will be investigating real life statistics from our own exercise achievements.

We try to make sure that, as well as making brains ache, maths is fun and engaging. Central to this is the use of maths games, songs and ICT. Children will often access specific online resources via our Google Classroom which they can access from home.

Logs

Logs are an integral part of Year 3 homework and we ask that children work on a different log for no less than 10 to 15 mins at least x3 a week. We also ensure that children have opportunity within school time to work on their logs. The logs system not only supports key English and Maths skills but allows children to achieve them through a series of small steps which installs confidence and a sense of pride when they achieve the different badges. The Year 3 teaching team do our very best to test children's logs daily, in dedicated curriculum time but often in breaks and lunchtimes. We are always impressed with our children's enthusiasm for their logs and but this can mean that we have children waiting to be tested. We have reminded children that it is not only their Year 3 teachers that can test them, but that any adult in the school.

Home Learning

This year your Year 3 child will bring home a range of home learning tasks from reading comprehension and maths tasks to mini projects. We greatly encourage parental involvement in your child's homework: often a home learning task might be a speaking and listening activity centered around talking to an adult about their learning and researching topics a little deeper. Homework tasks are usually given out on a Wednesday and collected in/discussed/shared on a Monday. There are times - like when children have been on a trip - this might change but we endeavor to ensure that ample notice for any task is given.



PE
Tuesday - Keep-fit (outside)
Thursday-  Gymnastics 'Inside the Body' (inside)

Dates for your Diaries

Friday 11th November - Year 3 trip to Cemetery