Year 3

Year 3

In the Autumn term of Year 3, the children will build upon their locational knowledge from Key Stage 1, by revisiting maps with a particular focus on the UK. They will build on the learning from Key Stage 1 by learning about counties, and how they make up the United Kingdom, before focusing on the county in which they live. They will continue to look at a range of maps to learn about the county they live in, the town they live in and the surrounding villages. They will build on their prior knowledge of physical and human geography by learning how the physical and human features of their locality affect and impact on the lives of the people who live there. They will finish the unit by comparing current maps of the locality to maps from the past, exploring how the area has changed over time and how the lives of the people who live there have changed. 

In the Spring term, children will build on previous locational knowledge and fieldwork by revisiting maps, with a particular focus on the world, identifying countries within it. They will be introduced to the vocabulary Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere, Equator, longitude and latitude and explore the meanings of these.  Children will learn about the natural disasters volcanoes and earthquakes, what causes them and where in the world they have happened. Children will use maps to plot the locations of some of these natural disasters and see if there are any physical geographical patterns, explaining their findings. Children will learn about the effects volcanoes and earthquakes have on the physical and human features in the places they have happened. 

In the Summer term, children will build upon their fieldwork studies from the Autumn term by revisiting maps of the UK. They will look at Ordinance Survey maps in more detail, learning how to use them. They will expand on their human geographical learning in Autumn term by focusing on cities (and their surrounding areas) away from their locality. They will use a range of maps to explore the physical and human features in a different part of the UK.