Year 3 - Lighthouse Keeper & The Borrowers
As readers:
We will be reading ‘The Tin Forest’. As part of this we will be exploring vocabulary, discussing the meaning of characters’ actions and inferring meaning from events implied in the text. We will be making predictions based on what has already happened and what we know of characters’ motivations as well as summarising what we have read.
Our whole class reading sessions will be linked to our geography topic of the rainforest. We will be focussing on developing fluency, retrieving information and making links to our geography learning about the rainforest alongside developing our inference and vocabulary skills.
Key vocabulary: retrieval, vocabulary, inference, summarise, rainforest, emergent, canopy, understory, forest floor, climate, deforestation
As writers:
We will be exploring how to write an effective fable inspired scene description using expanded noun phrases and fronted adverbials in order to answer the Big Question: “How can a junk-land become a wonderland?” We will also be writing a persuasive letter linked to our geography topic of the rainforest to answer the Big Question “What are the effects of deforestation?” and developing our use and understanding of persuasive devices such as emotive language, balanced arguments and rhetorical questions
Key vocabulary: expanded noun phrase, fronted adverbial, rhetorical question, emotive language, deforestation, climate change, persuasion
As mathematicians:
We will be developing our understanding of fractions including adding and subtracting fractions. We will also be looking at the value of different denominations of money, how to add amounts to £1, converting between pounds and pence as well as adding and subtracting money. We will then study how many minutes there are between each number on an analogue clock and methods we can use to find the number of minutes past or to the hour.
Key vocabulary: fraction, numerator, denominator, part, whole, pounds, pence, change, exchange, Roman Numerals, minutes, intervals, hours
As scientists:
We will be learning about plants and their life cycles. We will be looking at the importance of the roots and their job. We will explore how water is transported within plants, the purpose of leaves and flowers in flowering plants’ life cycles, seed dispersal and the structure of seeds.
Key vocabulary: roots, nutrients, minerals, soil, absorb, stem, transport, photosynthesis, sunlight, energy, pollination, seed, pollen
As geographers:
We will be studying the rainforests. We will be looking at where rainforests are located, what the layers of the rainforest are and the features of each, the effects of deforestation, what causes the climate in a rainforest and how life in the rainforest differs to our own.
Key vocabulary: rainforest, dense, equator, climate, vegetation, species, emergent, canopy, understory, forest floor, deforestation, logging, mining, endangered, humid, rainfall
As artists:
We will be looking at the work of Wassily Kandinksy and creating our own mixed media collages inspired by his work and our story ‘The Tin Forest’.
Key vocabulary: abstract art, composition, improvisation, geometry, layering, linework, colour theory, synaesthesia, emotion
