Year 3
Central idea - Natural disasters play a role in shaping the Earth and their communities
Year 3 have had an incredibly busy term not only with all their learning but also with World Book Day, Careers week and learning and rehearsing their spring musical. This term the children have learnt about how forces cause change and how these natural disasters affect our lives. They have really enjoyed this unit of inquiry and we have been really impressed with their specifc use of vocabulary.
An Inquiry into how forces cause an effect
During this inquiry we were fantastic Scientists and Geographers. Children learnt about the different layers of the Earth and how earthquakes and volcanoes are caused by the movement of tectonic plates pushing, pulling or rubbing together. This built on their knowledge from their science investigations. We deepened their knowledge about volcanoes and they conducted their own research about how volcanoes erupt, parts of a volcano, use of a volcano and where they can be found using maps to identify significant volcanoes from around the world. They used all of this information to produce an explanation/information text as well as work collaboratively to build their own model Volcanoes.
An Inquiry into how natural disasters affect our lives
During this line of inquiry we started by identifying where most of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur and children were surprised to know that people lived in these so-called danger zones. We then looked at how earthquakes affect humans and the effect it has. Children spent time learning about the city of Pompeii and its destruction. They learnt about life before Pompeii and how what happened there told archeologists a great deal about natural disasters.
Children conducted their own research about the advantages and disadvantages of living near a volcano with many deciding they would not want to live near one unless they were a farmer or miner.
An Inquiry into the impact of fossilisation on peoples understanding of natural forces
During our final line of inquiry we were scientists once again, where we learned about how fossils are formed. This built on knowledge from our science unit on rocks in Module 3. We looked at fossils created as a result of change of the tectonic plates and how igneous and metamorphic rocks are created. We then thought about how this knowledge helps us understand natural disasters focusing on earthquakes and volcanoes.
Reading and Writing Through Inquiry
This term, Year 3 have been further developing their reading skills using a range of texts. We have looked at how we can develop our inference knowledge. We have continued to develop our understanding and knowledge of retrieval, prediction and are starting to learn how we can work out the meanings of unfamiliar words. This is something we will continue with next term alongside effectively summarising what we have read.
Year 3 have also been using their transdisciplinary learning to write an explanation, diary and an information text. The children have worked hard to develop a more consistent use of using compound sentences and expanded noun phrases to add detail and clarity to their writing. We have also started to look at the use of fronted adverbials as well to enhance our writing.
