Mayfield Primary SchoolYEAR THREE: AUTUMN TERM
OUR YEAR THREE DURING AUTUMN TERM
OUR CORE INTENTION IN ACTION
AUTUMN TERM 'WHEN I GROW UP...' THEME: A ROMAN INVASION*
*Year 3 & 4 work on a two year thematic rolling programme. We are currently on the 1st cycle studying the Tudors. This page reflects the 2nd cycle to give you a flavour of that.
A 'When I Grow Up' Autumn Summary
When I Grow Up... saw our children visit Ribchester for a sensational Stunning Start event to our Roman Invasion theme building upon prior work from the Iron Age. The site visit and first hand work with the team of experts set us up perfectly for the term ahead. A fired up group of learners then set about gathering knowledge from a range of subject areas about just what the Romans did for us. In mid-December, a special banquet was held to celebrate each and every achievement and for the families of our children to see the new knowledge gathered during this term at our special Parent Celebration.
Historically, the children needed to start by looking at what Britain was like before the arrival of the Romans. This meant looking at aspects of Iron Age life in Britain - the settlements they made, their farming way of life and their ability to craft and create tools to meet their requirements. From there, our children moved forward to consider contrasting Roman settlements, including Ribchester, and what particular features and ideas they had. The idea of moving water from one place to another, the public baths and the early development of roads to aid simple transportation were all key areas. The children looked at which areas of Britain became significant Roman settlements - using an atlas to locate the relevant counties and cities - during their Geography work. Then they moved onto look at physical features that would make areas attractive to the Romans (or less attractive in some cases). Ribchester became a consistent region of study for us and, as mentioned, the children were able to study this in person with a site trip to the area itself.
During PSHE & Relationships work we focused upon personal boundaries, how we can respect these and the importance of courtesy and polite behaviour. As well as taking the chance to discuss the idea of slavery and how this was an important part of Roman civilisation and consider whether it still exists today.
In Science, the children focused upon skeletons and movement and brought their knowledge to questions related to being a Roman Legionary constantly on the move. They were required to improve the fitness and strength of the invading armies and therefore used their new found understanding to make recommendations around uniform, weapons and movement based upon a series of tests. This led to our Design & Technology time focusing upon the creation of armour and shoes for a legionary.
The children used their coding skills to programme/map a Roman invasion route in Computing - giving instructions and orders in order to navigate its way across Britain and using our mouse control skills to study Roman mosaics. Whilst our further work as communicators led to the children studying French for the first time by learning single digit numbers, colours, basic greetings and where France (and its prominent landmarks) featured on a map.
During Religious Education, we studied how celebrations can bring a sense of belonging to the Hindu faith and we also considered whether Christmas has lost some of its true meaning when we consider presents and our 'wants' rather than 'needs'. Our Physical Education work centred upon the revision and development of the fundamental jumping, catching and throwing skills from Year 2 and introduced netball to our repertoire of team games alongside floor balances and movements in gymnastics. All at the same time as preparing a dance to welcome Caesar's return during the Parent Celebration event. 'Just Like A Roman' became the singing and performing focus for Music this term. The children worked hard to appraise the quality of what they were listening to and then focused heavily upon the pitch in their rehearsed performances before assessing the quality of their outcome and suggesting ways to improve.
Finally, the children had a busy Art schedule. After spending time gathering knowledge and understanding about Roman 'artwork' and how they decorated and represented buildings and clothes, the children created 3-D Roman mosaics and were also busy printing onto different materials using their new knowledge along the way.
Place value has been a major focus for our Mathematics work this term and then we moved into extensive work with addition, multiplication, subtraction and division. Romans formed the focus for our English work this term. We read, and then created, our own adventure stories, reports and playscripts.
