Year 3 Curriculum Guide

Throughout the year, students will be guided through six Units of Inquiry of global significance, providing opportunities to broaden their learning by developing their conceptual understandings, strengthening their knowledge and skills across, between and beyond subject areas.

The following six Units of Inquiry will be explored throughout the year. Each unit is developed around a concept, a Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry.

An inquiry into:

• Myself: My health and wellbeing
• Interactions: My relationships with others and my sense of belonging
• Growth: The impact on my learning and development

Unit timing: weekly

An inquiry into:

• inspiration, imagination and creativity
• personal, social and cultural modes and practices of communication
• intentions, perceptions, interpretations and responses

Unit timing: Term Three

An inquiry into:

• Case study - reasons for exploration 案例學習-探索的原因
• Types of exploration 探索的類型
• The impact of exploration 探索的影響

Unit timing: Term One

Central Idea: Properties of light depend on their source and the objects with which they interact. 光的特性取決於其光源以及與其產生相互作用的物體。

An inquiry into:

• Sources of light 光源
• Properties of light 光的特性
• Uses of light 光的用途

Unit timing: Term Two

An inquiry into:

• The parts of an ecosystem 生態系統的組成部分
  
• How the parts of an ecosystem are related to each other 生態系統的各個部分如何相互關聯
• Case study - how living things compete for resources 案例研究 - 生物如何爭奪資源

Unit timing: Term Two

An inquiry into:

• Decision making processes (Case study) 決策過程（個案研究）
• Fairness, equity and equality 公平、公正與平等
• Trade offs and compromise 權衡取捨與妥協讓步

Unit timing: Term One

The development of language is fundamental to all areas of our learning programs. Language helps us communicate our thinking and understanding.

Language is socially constructed - it is dependent on social interactions and relationships. It permeates all subject areas. As such, we view all of our teachers and assistants to be language teachers.

English is our main language of instruction, with Chinese (Mandarin) taught as an additional language.

In Year 3, we consolidate our phonics and camera words program, providing the students with the essential building blocks for reading and writing. Our reading program focuses on developing decoding strategies, fluency and comprehension. These are developed through a mixture of guiding reading, shared reading, read aloud and independent reading sessions. Readers will be sent home on a regular basis so students can practise taught skills after school.

Students will explore a range of text types: to entertain, to inform and to persuade. Specific writing skills will be developed around how to entertain a reader through recounts, stories and poems.

Chinese Foundation focuses on speaking, listening and social Chinese. Students read texts and environmental print and learn to write the most commonly occurring characters.

Chinese Language focuses on Chinese speaking, listening and the reading of longer texts. Students write their own longer pieces of writing.

Chinese Language and Literature focuses on extended reading and writing tasks, using more complex language.

Mathematics is a global language of concepts and symbols through which we make sense of the world around us.

Mathematics is taught through three main stages:

1. Constructing meaning and ideas about a mathematical concept through interactions with objects, discussions, experimentation and play;
2. Transferring these ideas and understandings into symbols;
3. Applying these ideas and understanding in real-life and hands-on problem solving activities.

Mathematics is taught through the strands of number, data, shape and space, measure and problem solving.

In Year 3 students will learn multiplication facts involving 3s, 4s and 8s. They will learn different addition and subtraction strategies such as compensating, combining, partitioning and rounding. They will explore the concept of multiplication through arrays and division through grouping. They also learn to recognise and represent halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, eighths and tenths, as well as, the difference between a numerator & a denominator.

Students will explore the concept of space by using and creating simple maps. They will measure and compare length, mass and capacity using metric units. They will create 3D objects and discover symmetry and angles in their environment. They will tell time to the minute.

In Year 3, students will explore a range of land-based and freshwater environments. They will learn how to identify a range of native reptiles. Students will also create and maintain a garden of native plants.

Wellbeing is a central pillar of our school and is taught on a weekly basis. Students learn through Relationships and Sexuality Education, Social and Emotional Learning, PE & Health and Digital Wellbeing. There is a focus on self-management, relationship skills and fundamental movement skills.

In Music, Year 3 students will learn how to play the bamboo flute.

In Year 3, students will begin to use their own Chromebook with guidance from the teachers. They will investigate different materials, components, tools and equipment to discover their characteristics and properties.

• Use learnt strategies to regulate own emotions.
• Display an awareness of others’ emotions.
• Recognise that the reaction or expected response must match the size of the problem.

• Understand resilience and why it is important.
• Demonstrate increasing independence and self-reliance.
• Display responsibility for belongings.
• Begin to respond to goals set by teachers.

• Identify and follow shared classroom, playground and school norms.
• Understand what is meant by manners and identify what these look like in a variety of settings.
• Show respect and care for others.
• Learn cooperatively in a group.
• Know how and where to get support if needed.

• Comprehend information presented by teachers.
• Follow two-step instructions.
• Communicate effectively with classmates and teachers.
• Ask questions when needed.
• Use regular grammatical structures accurately when speaking and begin to use irregular grammatical structures accurately.

• Listen to stories daily.
• Decode text at a PM level 20 or higher, with a teacher.
• Independently read and comprehend texts with a reading age of 6.5 or higher.
• Read silently for more extended periods of time.
• Read a variety of text independently, including picture books, graphic novels, information texts and simple chapter books.

• Write simple, compound, and complex sentences, extending sentences with connecting words.
• Add more detail to descriptions of character and setting when writing narratives, using descriptive language.
• Add more subject-specific vocabulary to information writing.
• Develop a more fluent handwriting style, starting to join letters.
• Use full stops and capital letters mostly accurately.
• Start to use a wider variety of punctuation including apostrophes and speech marks.
• Spell most common words correctly and use knowledge of phonics to attempt to spell more complex words

• Recognise, write and compare numbers up to 10,000.
• Count on or back from a given number between 0 -10,000.
• Use multiplication and division facts for the 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 and 10 times tables and understand that multiplication is repeated addition.
• Apply knowledge and understanding of place value when carrying out calculations.
• Use an increasing number of formal written methods to record calculations, working with numbers up to three digits.
• Recognise, find and write fractions of shapes or quantities.
• Investigate, describe and represent patterns using numbers and other symbols.
• Find information from basic tables, charts and graphs.

• Connect 3-D objects with their nets and other 2-D representations.
• Describe position and direction.
• Start to identify angles as a measure of turn.
• Recognise line symmetry and rotational symmetry.
• Identify and describe relationships between units of measure.
• Measure the perimeter of simple 2D shapes.

• Use problem-solving skills, such as visualising and trial and improvement, when solving simple problems relating to real-life situations.

• Identify missing elements in patterns.

To see the Subject Guidance for all subjects from Nursery to Year 6 please click on this link

Email: info@ichkhly.edu.hk
Website: www.ichkhly.edu.hk
Location: 3 Hong Lok Yuen 20th Street, Hong Lok Yuen, Hong Kong
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