Curriculum Letter – Year 3 Spring Term

Curriculum Letter Year 3

Year 3 Spring Term
WELCOME BACK
We hope you had an enjoyable and relaxing winter break. We are looking forward to another exciting term. This Spring term, we have lots of new and engaging topics from the Vikings in History to learning about varied/balanced diets in Design and Technology!
MUSIC — VIKING SINGING
This term, we will be develping our singing skills. We will move and sing as a team to create our own Viking battle song to sing on our longships!
Key Vocabulary: composition, melody, harmony.
HISTORY – VIKINGS
This term in history, we will be learning about the Vikings’ fascinating history. Children will learn about why the Vikings migrated to Britain, including exploring evidence and artefacts to deepen our understanding. We will also be taking part in a Viking workshop in March!
  • What was Viking accommodation and farming like?
  • How did societies live?
  • How did they make a living?
  • Would you rather have been a Viking child or a child today?
Key Vocabulary: axe, long boat, shield, spear, freeman, horn cup, thatched house.
D&T — HEALTHY AND VARIED DIET
This term in D&T, we will be developing our understanding of a varied diet. We will learn about the EatWell Plate and will have the opportunity to try new foods before making our own healthy and varied sandwich!
Key Vocabulary:
Texture, taste, savoury, sweet
ART — GESTURAL DRAWING
In Art this term, we will be using charcoal to explore expressive techniques. We will use our sketchbooks to practise different mark making and strokes, before creating a final gestural pieces!
Key Vocabulary:
Loose, expressive, sweeping
GEOGRAPHY – CLIMATE ZONES
This term in Geography, we will continue looking at climate zones around the world. Children will be exploring physical geography, as well as using a range of maps and globes to apply their knowledge.
  • Where would I find different climate zones?
  • What would I find in the different climate zones?
  • What is a vegetation belt?
Key Vocabulary: natural, latitude, Northern and Southern Hemisphere.
PE
This term in PE, we will be learning the following sports:
  • Functional Fitness – to focus on general fitness and stamina
  • Hockey – to develop our accuracy in passsing and shooting
  • Netball – to practice our invasion skills
  • Gymnastics – to improve our confidence with performance.
RE – HINDUISM
This term in RE, we will be deepening our knowledge on how Hindus view God. We will learn about the Trimurti and the Hindu festival Diwali. Later in our term, we will be inviting a visitor from the Hindu community into our school. This will be a fantastic opportunity to ask more questions and learn more about their faith!
Key Vocabulary:
puja tray, Brahman, worship, faith
SCIENCE – ANIMALS INCLUDING HUMANS
This term in Science, our topic will focus on healthy and varied diets, including looking at nutrients. We will be exploring food packaging to gain an understanding of the main food groups, such as carbohydrates and protein. We will even explore the nutrients in McDonalds’ food! After this, we will learn about the bones in our body and be able to identify an endo and exo skeleton. All of this learning will help to complement our D&T topic!
Key Vocabulary: nutrition, nutrients, carbohydrates, sugars, protein, vitamins, minerals, fibre, fat, water, skeleton, bones, muscles, joints, support, protect, move, skull, ribs and spine.
COMPUTING
We know how important it is for our children to be IT literate. This term in computing we will be:
  • researching using secondary sources
  • investigating different media types
  • understanding basic code so we can debug a program
Key Vocabulary: input, output, process, search engine, algorithm.
HOMEWORK
Each week, your child will have one sheet of handwriting of their focus spellings and a sheet of maths with an activity relevant to what they have been learning in class that week.

Each child will still have access to TTRS should they want to practise their times tables facts.

We would also love for your child to read or listen to someone reading to them each day.