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Draft curriculum content
This page is based on the draft Year 3 content for Science, which is currently open for feedback. Schools are not required to implement changes until the consultation process is confirmed.
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In Year 3, your child will begin making careful observations and asking questions they can investigate. They start using simple tools and begin to explain ideas using what they see and experience.
They’re learning to connect everyday knowledge with scientific thinking to describe patterns in nature.
Your child begins to understand simple ideas about the sun, moon and planets.
Physical Science#
Matter interactions and energy#
With your child, you could:
- create shadows on the wall using a light or torch, move the light source around and notice how shadows change in size and direction depending on where the light is
- test materials like cardboard, plastic wrap, baking paper and aluminium foil by holding them up to the window and comparing how some block light (are opaque), others let some light through (are translucent) and others let light through (are transparent)
- go for a walk in the moonlight and talk about how the Sun gives off its own light while the Moon only reflects the Sun’s light
- draw your child’s shadow with chalk at regular times during the day, then compare how its shape and position changes, explain that people once used shadows like this to measure time
- take a drive and notice how things and people look smaller in your car’s wing mirror, compare this with how objects look close up and talk about why this might happen
- make simple musical instruments using household items (like pots, spoons or rubber bands) and explore how hitting, plucking or blowing creates different sounds and what is making the sound happen
- fill glasses with different amounts of water and gently tap each one to compare the sounds and notice how the pitch changes as the water level changes.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will help your child understand how light travels and allows us to see, how shadows form when light is blocked, the difference between opaque, translucent, and transparent materials, and how light sources and position affect what we see.
They will also explore how sound travels in waves, how vibrating materials create sound, how sound can make materials vibrate, how volume and pitch change, and how different materials affect the way sound moves and is heard.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- explain that light travels from a source and humans need it to see objects
- classify materials as opaque (blocks light), translucent (lets some light through) and transparent (lets most light through) based on testing and predicting
- describe how shadows form when an object blocks light and how they change shape and size based on the light source and its position
- understand that the Sun is a light source, but the Moon only reflects the Sun’s light
- observe how objects appear smaller when farther away due to visual perspective
- explain that light can be reflected, scattered or absorbed depending on the material
- explain that sound is made when materials vibrate and that it travels in waves
- describe how sound can make other materials vibrate
- understand that volume is how loud or quiet a sound is, and that a sound gets quieter as you move further away from the source
- explain that pitch is how high or low a sound is and that it depends on the frequency of vibrations
- compare how different materials affect the volume and clarity of sound.
Earth and Space#
With your child, you could:
- use a torch and a ball to show Earth’s rotation by shining the torch on the ball and rotating it, talk about how if you were an ant on the ball, you’d think the torch is moving not the ball
- use Google Earth to show your child how other places in the world experience nighttime while we experience daytime
- use the time-lapse function on a camera or recording device to record how shadows change as the day passes
- make a simple sundial together using sticks and rocks in the sand to measure how the Sun helps us track time in a day.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on developing your child's understanding of how Earth's rotation causes day and night, how Earth's position relative to the Sun changes shadows and how Earth orbits the Sun once every year.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- explain that Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours, causing day and night
- describe that the side of Earth facing the Sun experiences daytime with light and warmth, while the opposite side experiences nighttime
- observe that shadows change length and direction as the Sun moves across the sky during the day
- explain that Earth orbits around the Sun once every 365 and a quarter day, which defines 1 year
- describe the difference between a planet, it orbits a star and does not give off light, and a star, it gives off its own light.
With your child, you could:
- grow some sunflowers
- put wilted celery stems in water and watch how the stems firm up as they fill with water
- notice the plant-based foods in the kitchen and talk about how we eat the roots (carrots, beetroot), stems (celery), leaves (lettuce, silver beet), fruit (tomatoes, apples) and seeds of plants (beans, rice)
- choose 5 favourite animals and identify whether they are an herbivore, carnivore or omnivore and how teeth or beaks are connected to what they eat.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on comparing the functions of plant structures to explain how each contributes to growth, survival, or reproduction, carrying out basic tests to investigate how environmental factors (such as light and water) affect plant growth.
Students will compare the diets of different types of animals (herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores) and explain how their body structures (such as teeth, jaw size, snout/beak length, and tongue shape) relate to the types of food they eat.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- label different plants to show that most plants have the same parts, roots, stems, leaves, which can look different based on the type of plant, for example, roots like a carrot or spiky leaves like a tōtara
- explain that photosynthesis is how plants make sugar by absorbing sunlight and carbon dioxide through their leaves and by taking in water and nutrients through their roots
- describe how some animals eat plants (herbivores), some animals eat meat (carnivores), and some eat both (omnivores) to gain nutrients
- identify how the feeding habits of animals are linked to differences in their teeth and beak structures
- identify the similarities and differences in the teeth of herbivores and carnivores
- describe and draw diagrams showing simple food chains.
Body systems#
With your child, you could:
- go to a museum or look online to look at the skeletons of animals and question how their features help them survive
- visit the local library and find books about animals of interest, such as pets like dogs, cats, horses, or fish, and discuss the way the bones and muscles work together to create movement
- feel the bones in our arms, legs, fingers, and faces, and talk about how bones give us shape and structure, and help us move and carry things
- search for slugs in a garden and notice how they are different from other insects and don’t have a skeleton at all.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on investigating how muscles and bones interact during specific physical activities and identify ways our body structures provide protection and support in real-life scenarios.
Students will apply simple movement analysis techniques, such as observing and recording their own or others’ movements, to understand how muscles create motion. Additionally, the teacher will focus on classifying animals as either invertebrates or vertebrates, and plants as either woody or non-woody, through observations.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- explain how humans and other animals have internal skeletons (including spine, ribcage, and skull) and muscles for support, protection, and movement
- describe the skeletal system and explain how these systems work together
- identify and compare animals with external skeletons (such as exoskeletons in insects like the wētā and spiders) from animals with internal skeletons, and those insects that do not have a skeleton (like slugs) or do not have muscles (like jellyfish)
- label animals with internal skeletons as vertebrates and animals without internal skeletons as invertebrates.
Ecosystems#
With your child, you could:
- cut out pictures of plants, herbivores and carnivores, and make simple food chains
- on a car trip, play a game of eye spy a carnivore or herbivore
- take a walk to a park or garden and question why plants have leaves and explain their need to take in sunlight and that they turn that into food.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on identifying simple nutritional relationships between animals and plants using basic food chains.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- explain that plants produce their own food and form the beginning of all food chains, followed by herbivores, omnivores and carnivores
- investigate what animals eat to grow and reproduce, for example, insects eat parts of plants like leaves, pollen and nectar, and birds eat insects
- draw simple food chains showing who eats what. For example: grass → grasshopper → bird, organisms.
