Year 3 Curriculum Overview

Autumn 1 

WOW! Factor: Shocking Discovery of the Iron Man

Fantastic Finish: Iron Man Presentation

Book: The Iron Man  Author: Ted Hughes

We will be reading the Iron Man and linking to Geography by locating countries and their capital cities as well as exploring and researching their human and physical characteristics. Our main focus will be Australia where the Iron Man and the Space-bat-angel dragon take on a challenge and test their strength. The children will be designing an Iron Man and making a junk model prototype by carefully selecting the correct tools to cut and join the different parts similar to the engineers who had to put Iron Man back together after flying him to Australia. In science the children will be investigating friction and magnetic forces, exploring how the north and south poles attract and repel.

Unit 1 Topic Plan

Autumn 2 

 WOW! Factor: Circus performance workshop

Fantastic Finish: Research and explore all about lions

Book: The Butterfly Lion  Author: Michael Morpurgo

We will be reading The Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo. Bertie lives in Africa and takes in a white lion. However, when the lion grows too big and Bertie goes to England to a private school the lion is sent to live in a circus. This links nicely into our history where we will be exploring when the circus began and how it has changed over the decades.

Unit 2 Topic Plan

Spring 1 - Beware of the King

WOW! Factor: A trip to the Tower of London

Fantastic Finish: A study of Tudor artefacts

Book: Beware of the King Author: Stewart Ross

This is a history led unit all about the Tudors. The children learn about Henry VIII's cruel reign and his influence on society and the country.  The children learn Tudor dancing in PE. In Art, they create self-portraits and in History chose to study a topic of their choice relating to the Tudors.

Unit 3 Topic Plan

Spring 2 - Hodgeheg

WOW! Factor: A visit from Teaching Talons

Fantastic Finish: Make hedgehog homes for the wildlife area

Book: Hodgeheg Author: Dick King-Smith

Children made comparisons during PSHE about well-being and feelings and how they related to them.  In Art, children made hedgehogs using different materials and tools. In Literacy, children learnt the Green Cross Code and wrote descriptions of their local area. In Maths, the children learnt about shapes and shadows and how they related to time.

Summer 1 - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

WOW! Factor: Making honeycomb and chocolate tasting

Fantastic Finish: Publishing our amazing portal stories

Book: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Author: Roald Dahl

This story teaches children about good choices and through PSHE we investigated different families and different homes and the impact it has on individuals.  We also began our enabling enterprise project called Number Crunching.  This project encourages the children to work as teams to develop a chocolate bar, from this they have to work out the expenditure, income and profit along with designing packaging and marketing.  This topic led us to investigate where chocolate comes from, Rainforests, deforestation and Fairtrade.

Summer 2 - Romans of the Rampage

WOW! Factor: Children will make Roman shields

Fantastic Finish: Trip to the Verulamium, St Albans

Book: Romans of the Rampage Author: Jeremy Strong

This hilarious story introduces the children to the life of a Roman family told by a friendly crow.  In History, the children learn how the Romans conquered Britain in AD43 but faced strong opposition from Boudicca and her tribe of Britains.  In Art, we have been studying mosaics and in Computing, we have been building Roman settlements using the Minecraft program.