Autumn 1 – The Surprising Stone Age and Me

We will be starting the year with our exciting topic, ‘The Surprising Stone Age and Me’. Our History theme is based around journeying back through time to investigate the start of human civilisation, as we look at the lives of early humans in the Stone Age and Bronze Age. In English, we take a trip back in time with the help of some wonderful books… Stone Age Boy, Ug! The boy wonder, How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth and Cave Baby. As well as this, during our Science lessons, we will be looking at the human body, how to keep ourselves healthy with a balanced diet and how our skeletons and muscles work. The novel George’s Marvellous Medicine will complement our learning and is studied during Guided Reading lessons. In addition, we will also be completing lots of physical skills such as dance and ball-skills in P.E and understanding how physical exercise can affect the body. Finally, your child will be setting themselves some challenging targets for the year ahead!

Writing Genres Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
 

  • Character description
  • Story writing
  • Non-chronological report
  • Instructional writing
  • Poetry writing
  • Performance Poetry
 

  • Adjectives
  • Conjunctions
  • Time connectives
  • Noun verb phrases
  • Adverbs
  • Imperative verbs
  • Revision of Year 2 words
  • Suffixes

 

Mathematics Skills
– place value – read and write numbers up to 1000 – recognise the place value of each digit in a 3-digit number – find 10 or 100 more or less than a given number – use inequality symbols to compare numbers – to correctly order 3 and 4-digit numbers – to round 3 and 4-digit numbers to the nearest 10 and 100 – to problem solve using place value – to count from 0 in multiples of 4, 8, 50 and 100 – add and subtract multiples of 10 and 100 mentally – to add and subtract numbers using the column method

Autumn 2 – Don’t Blame it on the Weatherman

As we head into the cold winter, we will be learning about diverse weather phenomena, both locally and worldwide in our topic ‘Don’t blame it on the weather man!’. Your child will become a roving, intrepid weather reporter and write reports on the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina and the impact it had on the inhabitants of America. Their computing skills will be put to the test as they research weather facts. Furthermore, we will be writing letters that will hopefully travel through mighty storms. It’s not all rain and hurricanes though as the children enjoy the creative aspect of weather poetry using both instruments and onomatopoeia to bring weather to life! The children will also be making their own weather dances in P.E. As we creep further towards Christmas and the freezing weather, we will be heading on an exciting journey south to Antarctica and writing postcards home about the extreme weather conditions and the possibility of frostbite! In Science, we will begin our new topic ‘How does your garden grow?’ We will learn the roles of plant and flower parts and the children will be investigating what plants need to be healthy.

Writing Genres Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
 

  • Informal letter writing
  • Postcards
  • Poetry
  • Book summary
  • Setting description
  • Story writing
  • Newspaper reports

 

 

  • Ambitious adjectives
  • Sentence openers
  • Onomatopoeia
  • Exclamation and question marks
  • Conjunctions
  • Pronouns
  • Apostrophe for contraction
  • Prefixes

Mathematics Skills

– to solve worded problems using a formal written method of addition and subtraction  – to use the inverse operation to check calculations – to round numbers to support estimation – to use multiplication to represent equal groups – to use division within the 3 x tables – to solve worded problems using knowledge of the 3 x tables – to multiply by 4 using doubling and doubling again – to divide by 4 using halving – to use reasoning and problem solving within the 4 x tables – to solve worded problems using multiplication and division – to multiply by 8 using the grid method – to explore dividing by 8 using equal groups

Spring 1 – Lovable Rogues

Ahoy there, it’s only our ‘Lovable Rogues’ topic! You may know one yourself… but this half term we will be studying some famous lovable rogues. We will set sail on our pirate ship voyage by reading about the adventures of the mischievous Horrid Henry and The Twits. Throughout the topic, we will be comparing the stories of Henry and his friends and creating our own horrid characters, with alliterative names, that end up getting into lots of sticky situations. Henry isn’t our only lovable rogue though! We will investigate what terrible tricks The Twits play on each other and create a few of our own, so watch out at home! We look at life on the seven seas and investigate the history and legends of famous pirates. Your child will put their art and design skills to good use creating a treasure chest. Why stop at the seven seas though? In P.E., we start swimming at the local swimming baths and we test our fitness doing circuit classes using stop watches. In Science, we will be learning about the poles as well. This time we will be studying magnetic north and south in our topic based on magnets and forces.

Writing Genres Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
 

  • Story writing
  • Comparing stories
  • Newspaper Articles
  • Performing a scene from a story
  • Character description
 

  • Ambitious adjectives
  • Adverbs
  • Time connectives
  • Open and closed questions
  • Embedded clauses
  • Inverted commas for speech
  • Suffixes

Mathematics Skills

– to use inequality symbols with multiplication and division facts – to multiply and divide numbers by 10 – to use repeated addition to solve multiplication calculations – to multiply using the expanded column method – to multiply using the compact column method – to divide numbers using partitioning – to solve multiplication and division worded problems using a written method – to use known multiplication and division facts to scale up and down – to record all possible combinations –  to read and record length in centimetres and millimetres – to measure accurately using centimetres and millimetres – to convert length – to compare length – to add and subtract lengths – to calculate perimeter.

Spring 2 – All Creatures Great and Small

‘All Creatures Great and Small’ is our topic this half term and what better animals to study than the dangerous, deadly dinosaurs. In English, we will learn all about the famous, female paleontologist Mary Anning and through studying fantastic books like ‘Stone Girl, Bone Girl’ we will be producing autobiographical writing about her fascinating life. Also, we will be reading Jaqueline Wilson’s ‘The Dinosaurs Packed Lunch’ and imagining we are dinosaurs for a day in order to write our dinosaur diaries. Further to this, we will be exploring animal magazines and learning about animals which are endangered or critically endangered. In Guided Reading, we will study the text ‘The Last Bear’. In History, we will be learning about species of dinosaurs, their characteristics and their habitats. Imagine walking with dinosaurs! We will be doing this during our visit to Think-tank. Our Art and Design will be based on creating some colourful and stunning dinosaur collages and paintings too. To complement this, in Science will be looking at different types of rock, soils and fossils. We will test them and classify them based on their features. We have our second half term of swimming, where we continue to develop our stamina along with stroke techniques.

Writing Genres Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
 

  • First person recount
  • Story sequencing
  • Autobiographical writing
  • Non-chronological reports
  • Diary entry
  • Poetry
 

  • Past tense
  • First person
  • Conjunctions
  • Ambitious Adjectives
  • Adverbs
  • Suffixes
  • ei/ou sounds

Mathematics Skills

– to identify and name unit and non-unit fractions – to identify tenths –  to place fractions on a number line – to identify equivalent fractions – to record equivalent fractions – to order fractions – to compare fractions using inequality symbols  – to weigh using grams and kilograms – to use inequality symbols to compare mass – to add and subtract mass – to use litres and millimetres explore capacity – to use inequality symbols to compare capacity – to add and subtract capacity

Summer 1 – The Courageous Celts and Ruthless Romans

Would you rather battle with Boudicca or enlist in the Roman army? We will explore the fascinating way life has changed throughout history in our topic ‘The Courageous Celts and Ruthless Romans’. We will visit Lunt Fort and learn how to battle with shields and swords, hopefully the Emperor will give us the thumbs up for our efforts! We will create some beautiful Roman mosaics and learn about Roman numerals. Plus, we will learn about Roman gods and goddesses and how they influenced the lives of the Roman people. To celebrate the weather becoming warmer and the days being brighter, in Science we start our second part of ‘How does your garden grow?’ We explore pollination and seed dispersal. We also try to grow a few sunflowers of our own! In P.E., we prepare for sports day with a range of field events and athletics.

Writing Genres Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
 

  • Writing a speech
  • Recount
  • Setting description
  • Story writing
  • Writing a myth
  • Diary entry

 

 

  • Sentence openers
  • Dictionary skills
  • First person
  • Ambitious adjectives
  • Adverbs
  • Inverted commas for speech
  • Ch sounds like sh/k
  • Sc sounds like s

 

Mathematics Skills
– to add and subtract fractions – to solve addition and subtraction fraction worded problems – to calculate fractions of an amount – to use inequality symbols to compare money – to covert between pounds and pence – to add and subtract money –
to order the days and months of the year – to understand points of time in a day, for example noon, midnight – to tell the time to the nearest minute – to understand AM and PM – to tell the time using the 24hour digital clock – to calculate time duration – to compare time duration – to order and compare time in seconds

Summer 2 – The Super Saxons and Victorious Vikings

Finally, set sail on an astounding historical voyage into the Saxon invasion of Britain on our topic ‘The Super Saxons and Victorious Vikings’. The children will become amazing archaeologists who will investigate and make detailed reports on some of the evidence and historical objects that have been found in Britain. Plus, we will be writing descriptively about what daily life would have been like during this time period. In addition, we will write newspaper articles about the famous site of Sutton Hoo. In order to study the whole of Britain, we will also head north and research the Picts and Scots to observe who else was living in Britain at the time of the Anglo-Saxons. Following on from this, we will take a more mythological approach as we explore the life and culture of the Viking settlers. We will write character descriptions, poems and stories about the Norse gods including the mighty god Thor. The children will learn about Viking long boats and put their design skills to use as they create their very own version of one! Whilst looking at these periods in history, we will also investigate the spread of Christianity and how this caused problems for the Viking settlers. To end the Summer term, we will be using the sunny days to help us understand shadows and how they occur in our Science topic and in P.E., we enjoy team games of rounders and dodgeball.

Writing Genres Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar
 

  • Non-chronological report
  • Story sequencing
  • Newspaper article
  • Riddle
  • Letter writing
  • Persuasive writing
  • Performing a scene from a story
  • Character description
  • Myth writing
  • Poetry
 

  • Ambitious adjectives
  • Adverbs
  • Embedded clauses
  • Time connectives
  • Alliteration
  • Conjunctions
  • Homophones
  • Revision Year 3 words

 

Mathematics Skills
– to recognise angles as a property of shape – to identify a right angle – to recognise angles that are greater than and less than a right angle – to identify horizontal and vertical lines – to identify perpendicular and parallel lines – to draw 2D shapes – to recognise 3D shapes – to model 3D shapes – to interpret pictograms and bar charts – to present data collected in a pictogram and a bar chart – to tally and record data collected

Please note that Parent Information Leaflets are sent out each half term with further details.