Year 3
Year 3 …..and so the adventure into Key Stage 2 begins!
Now that we are in the Juniors there are lots of new experiences for us, fantastic topics and some BRILLIANT trips to look forward to.
We have swimming lessons at the local leisure centre and we get to have ‘Fab Fridays’ where we develop our creative skills in music and art lessons, learn French and develop our sporting skills in lots of different sports in our PE sessions with NS Sport.
Follow us as we explore Tropical Rainforests in Geography in the Autumn term, become archaeologists discovering Prehistoric Britain in the Spring and travel back to Ancient Greece in Summer.
The year kicks off with a celebration of ‘Roald Dahl Day’ and we use his fantastic, splendiferous books throughout the first half-term to inspire us in our English work. Then in the second half of the Autumn term we move onto exploring the Tropical Rainforests of the world, learning about their importance to life on Earth and the challenges ahead in conserving them. To bring our learning to life we even get to go to a real ‘Living Rainforest’ where we explore some of the plants and animals you would encounter there. We learn lots of interesting facts which we then use in producing our own amazing non-fiction texts.
In Spring we travel back in time to the period before written records even existed –
PREHISTORY! We learn about life of early man from hunter- gatherers to skilled farmers from the Stone Age, through the Bronze and Iron Ages. We pay a visit to ‘Butser Ancient Farm’ where we explore the different types of dwellings used during the prehistoric era, become archaeologists and even get to try our hands at some ancient crafts.
The summer term transports us to the world of monsters and heroes, myths and legends. We have fun exploring Greek mythology , learning how people lived and worked in Ancient Greek civilization and developing our understanding of the impact this period of history had on future civilizations, including our modern lives! Highlights of the term are our themed Greek Day and fabulous Ancient Greek workshop. We dress up as Ancients Greeks for both events, become
Greek warriors, athletes and actors, sample Greek foods and showcase our learning in presenting an assembly to our families.
We elect members of our classes to represent us on the Pupil Leadership Team (PLT) and to assist the PE staff as Sports buddies and we continue to play our part as members of the Green Team. There are a variety of extra-curricular clubs open to us too. We have A SUPER BUSY year with lots of learning and lots of FUN!
In Year 3 we love to take our learning outside the school and classroom and have a number of trips, workshops and visits throughout the year,
In the Autumn Term we visit ‘The Living Rainforest’ in Berkshire. It’s quite a long coach trip but DEFINITELY worth it! During the visit we get to experience what it would be like to enter a real Rainforest. We learn about many of the plants and animals that live in rainforests throughout the world and we get to choose a workshop that will teach us more about food or medicines that come from the rainforest or how plants and animals have adapted to survive in rainforest environments. We love this trip!
In the Spring Term, to link with our topic on Prehistory we visit Butser Ancient Farm, an archaeological open-air museum located near Petersfield in Hampshire. There we visit reconstructions of prehistoric dwellings and learn more about life in the different periods of Pre-History. We become archaeologists and dig for artefacts that will tell us more about how people lived and we try our hand at other ancient crafts such as wattling fences, spinning wool and making jewellery. After a busy day in the open air we can have a snooze on the way back to school before bombarding our parents with all we have learnt!
In the Summer Term we pay a visit to a local Sikh Gurdwara to consolidate what we are learning about the Sikh faith in our RE lessons, hold a themed Greek Day in school and we have an amazing Ancient Greek Workshop visit us too. We dress up as Ancient Greeks, try out games and logic puzzles from the past, learn lots of information about the lives, politics and Gods of Ancient Greece, become Olympic athletes and even act out Greek myths and battles . A truly packed and fabulous day!
At the end of the year, weather permitting, we have an end of year picnic at a local park to celebrate the end of our brilliant year in Year 3.