Year Three, Summer 2008 - Class Teacher Ms H Bishop


Our topic in Year 3 up until the Whitson break is a continuation of our work on Our Local Environment - a Geography topic. Having investigated what is around us, we are now thinking about how we could improve it. The class has been split into groups who are developing different projects to improve our school with an environmental focus.

Geography projects groups

  • Seating in the school grounds - How do we use what we have? Do we need more? How should we plan future developments?
  • Do we have a problem with litter at our school? Are there enough bins in the right places? Do we reduce our landfill waste by composting and recycling as much as possible?
  • What wildlife do we have in our school grounds? How can we attract more wildlife?
  • Are we efficient with energy use? Can we reduce any waste in this area?

This Geography work will involve research using surveys, photos and interviews. The children will present their reseach using graphs and images to share their findings. This work will form the core for other subjects like English, ICT, DT and Science.

English - We are writing reports using our visit to Carymoor and work on improving the local environment as starting points. We have been watching and comparing videos that present environmental information, before putting together our own 'news reports'. This work will lead to written reports later in the term.

Science - The topic for this term is Properties of Materials. This will link to our environmental topic and we will investigate biodegradability using a wormery to see which materials break down and which do not (as well as learning all about worms!)

DT - Again linking to our topic, we are considering the purpose of packaging, before designing our own environmentally friendly version. We are intending to make our own recycled materials to make the packaging. The children will also be learning about the design process and developing skills for making 3D products.

ICT - We are using information and images from our Carymoor visit to learn how to organise a report clearly. This involves using different font sizes and colours to make headings and subheadings stand out, and also adding images.

R.E. - What's it like to be a Christian is the focus of Year 3 R.E. and this will be taught by Mrs Mounter.

P.E. - Whenever the weather is good enough we will be out on the field doing Athletics - including hurdles, javelin, standing long jump, throwing and running skills. Our indoor P.E. is dance inspired by our local environment work.

Maths - We are working on addition and subtraction and ensuring children have clear strategies that they can explain. All Maths that we do this term will have a strong link to problem solving as this is our whole-school focus.

We are planning to do a presentation in an assembly to share our learning and will keep you posted about this.