Year 3
Welcome to Year 3
Welcome to the Spring Term 2025.
Here you will find all the information you need to know about what is going on in Year 3.
Our topic this term is rooted in both our local history and a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean for a geographical comparison between our local area and the Americas.
During the first half-term we will concentrate on finding out what living in Sandhurst was like for children when Queen Victoria was still on the throne and comparing school life at that time for pupils of Scotland Hill to our experiences in 2025. We will focus on charting the development of our school from its original site to present location. This will be done through:
- Exploring primary sources of evidence such as the school logbooks, Admission register, newspaper articles, memories of past pupils.
- Interpreting maps of the local area to show how Sandhurst has developed over the years and the reasons behind development.
- Using census records and old photographs to compare changes in building styles and usage over the last 100 years.
After February half-term, we will focus on finding out about the features and climate of North and South America, compare it to our own local area and seek to find out why they are so different and if there are indeed similarities. This will be done through:
- Using maps, atlases, globes and digital/computer mapping to locate countries and describe features studied in the context of North and South America.
- Developing an understanding of what geographical terms such as latitude and longitude, Equator, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, Arctic and Antarctic Circle mean and how they can be used to explain differences in features between locations
- Look at photographs and maps of our local area and compare to a specific area in either North or South America
- Some of our cross – curricular activities will involve finding out about key artists from North and South America and experimenting with creating art and DT work based on their influences. These include North American artists: John Singer Sargent (Half/portraits) Ansel Adams (Landscapes) and Helen Frankenthaler (Body abstracts). South American artists: Leonara Carrington (Dream catchers) Frido Khalo (Clay monkeys) and Carlos Paez Vdaro (Pattern drum making)
Throughout our learning, we will be considering key enquiry questions (listed below) and using our research and newly acquired knowledge to answer them.
- Why has our school moved site once and building three times?
- Why did Sandhurst multiply in size during the twentieth century?
- Why are the physical features and the climate so different in North America compared to South America and to our local area?
Our Science unit this half-term is Rocks.
This unit on 'Rocks' takes children through six lessons where they learn how to compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties. They learn how to describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock and finally they learn how to recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.
The lessons have been written in sequence and are designed to challenge children to recall the knowledge and skills they have covered in the previous lesson(s). Although the topic of rocks has been raised when exploring materials during years 1 and 2, this is the first time children explore the properties of rocks and how they have been formed and how they can be used.
We continue to follow White Rose curriculum in Maths and the Year 3 topic overview can be found on the Maths Curriculum page by clicking here.
For a more detailed breakdown of curriculum coverage please scroll down to the Maths section below.
Our English units of work for this half-term will be based around these fantastic books:
- The White Fox by Jackie Morris
- The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Michael Morpurgo
For details about curriculum coverage of our English units please scroll down to the Year 3 Writing section below.
Our PE days will be Wednesday and Friday.
On these days, the children need to come to school in their school PE kit with their school uniform packed to change into if they get very wet during a PE lesson.
Please remember jogging bottoms when the weather turns colder.
Please ensure you bring reading books & reading record, water bottle and healthy snack to school every day.
The Year 3 team is Mr Leivers and Mrs Boese.
Communicating with school:
For general things e.g. lost jumper, wearing trainers because shoes too small etc, please contact the class teacher using the updated messaging function on Seesaw
For more significant concerns or worries, please email secretary@nshprimary.co.uk with FAO Mr Leivers Class Teacher in the subject.
Any changes to school pick up should go through the school office.
Year 3 Topics
- The Anglo Saxons and Vikings - Years 3 and 4 Investigate
- The Space Race - Years 3 and 4 Explore
- Local Area and the Americas - Year 3 and 4 Discover
- From Stone to Rome - Year 3 and Year 4 Investigate
- Mountains and Volcanoes - Year 3 and Year 4 Discover
Year 3 Maths
Telling the Time
- tp2-m-2320-planit-y3-measurement-lesson-pack-telling-the-time-1-presentation.pptx
- Presentation - Minutes Past the Hour.pptx
- Presentation - Minutes to the Hour.ppt
Year 3 Writing
Year 3 and 4 Spelling list
Reading
100 SQUARE
Websites