Core Subject Targets for Year 3

Literacy - Year 3

Numeracy - Year 3

Science - Year 3

Targets based on the current National Curriculum.

Geography Targets

Geography targets taken from the National Curriculum and converted into a spreadsheet table for individual tracking.

Download here.

Juz 27 / Qaala famaa khatbukum - Poster

MashaAllah, we've started the next juz of the Quran, working backwards from the end. 💕

As usual, we've made another target tracking poster for these 7 surahs (the juz actually ends partway through Adh-Dhaariyaat, but we've decided to just complete the whole surah for simplicity's sake). We talked about the meanings of the surah names, coloured in corresponding pictures and decorated with stickers. This poster is only A4 as opposed to the previous ones being A3 - partly because there are fewer surahs to cover this time and partly because we're running out of space on the door where we display them!

You can download the template here.

The pictures correspond to the surahs as follows:

Adh-Dhaariyaat = wind
At-Tur = Mt. Sinai
An-Najm = a star
Al-Qamar = the moon
Ar-Rahmaan = the two seas not mixing (one of the miracles mentioned)
Al-Waaqi'ah = an hourglass (the inevitable time)
Al-Hadeed = a meteorite (containing iron)

Art & Design Targets

http://art-techniques.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Progression-of-skills-KS1-KS2.pdf

I was looking for a set of discrete targets to follow when it came to Art, since it's not a specialist subject of mine, to ensure I introduced the girls to a variety of skills and not just the ones I was familiar with! I came across the above in Google and will be using it as a basis, inshaAllah.

I prefer to do Art as a cross-curricular subject along a theme (e.g. within Science or Islamic Studies, etc.) so this is a good checklist for me as inspiration for our work.

I've printed off a set of targets for each child and will highlight the relevant boxes as we cover each thing.

[EDIT:] https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20100607215842/http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes3/subjects/?view=get

An old link but still useful reference point for targets across (non-core) subjects.

Juz 29 / Tabaarak - Poster

A simple homemade poster to keep track of hifz progress. 💖

I printed out the list of surahs in the juz and some pictures to represent the basic meanings:

67. Al-Mulk: hands making du'aa to show blessings from Allah
68. Al-Qalam: quill pen
69. Al-Haaqqa: sun peeking out from behind clouds to represent truth
70. Al-Ma'aarij: stairs
71. Nooh: an ark
72. Al-Jinn: fire
73. Al-Muzzammil & 74. Al-Muddathir: cloth to represent a cloak
75. Al-Qiyaama: mountains to represent the plains of Arafat
76. Al-Insaan: outline of a person
77. Al-Mursalaat: wind

We read through the list together, looking at the Arabic spellings to help with pronunciation, then I laid all the pictures out and we went through the meanings one by one while the girls had to find which picture matched with which surah.

They coloured in the pictures then we stuck everything down onto an A3 coloured sheet and decorated it with stickers.

This poster will then go on display and as they memorise each surah we can colour it in on the list, insha'Allah. 😊

You can download our template here.

Juz 30 / 'Amma - Poster

A simple homemade poster to keep track of hifz progress. 💖

I printed out the list of surahs in the juz and some pictures (clipart from online) to represent some of the basic meanings:

86. At-Taariq: a star
90. Al-Balad: a city
91: Ash-Shams: the sun
92. Al-Layl: a night sky
95. At-Teen: figs
100. Al-'Aadiyat: a horse running
103. Al-'Asr: a clock
105. Al-Feel: an elephant
113. Al-Falaq: a sunrise

We read through the list together, looking at the Arabic spellings to help with pronunciation, and we talked about what the pictures were of and why I chose them - some of them they could match with surah names themselves since they knew the Arabic words, i.e. sun, night, fig, elephant. The rest, they told me what the picture showed and I told them which surah it went with.

I trimmed the list and stuck it onto a coloured A3 sheet of paper. Then we glued the pictures around the edge and decorated with some stickers.

As they were able to read each surah we coloured it in on the list, with them choosing which colour to use each time. Since the surahs at the end of the Quran are short, it was a nice visual for them to see the colours fill up quite quickly as we started; by the time we got to the longer surahs, they had a good portion of the chart coloured and looked forward to colouring the next one in. 😊

You can download our template here. (I didn't notice the Arabic text had gone funny until after I'd printed it - some of the letters at the ends of the words aren't joined properly in the picture above; goes to show how basic my Arabic was at that point! But it's all been fixed in the download link.)

Literacy/Numeracy/Science Targets - Years 1 & 2

Home educators are under no obligation to follow the National Curriculum; however, I like having that benchmark and to know what children of the same age are expected to know by the end of each academic year. So I've used the Primary National Curriculum (last updated 2015) and the Primary Framework for Literacy and Mathematics (last updated 2010) to put together a list of targets for Year 1 and Year 2, in preparation for our next academic year insha'Allah - the year my girls would be in and the year ahead in order to see next steps.

Year 1 - Literacy
Year 2 - Literacy

Year 1 - Numeracy
Year 2 - Numeracy

Year 1 - Science
Year 2 - Science

Feel free to edit the Excel files to suit your own needs! Obviously, I have two columns to show progress as I have two children to assess. 😊 I use the triangle method to record attainment, i.e. one side to show basic awareness, two sides for some understanding, three sides for solid understanding.

I hope someone else finds these target sheets beneficial. 👍

Target Sheets

Some laminated posters I made to put on display, which we change as often as we need to: just use a whiteboard marker and a cloth!

Having our current focus on the wall acts as a reminder both for me and my kids - sometimes inspiration for an activity strikes when I least expect it, just because that constant reminder is there...

I've noticed the girls look at the targets randomly throughout the day; sometimes they choose to copy the sentences on scrap paper for fun... and they both get excited when it gets changed to something new. 😀

I wanted to include Islam so they know from the beginning our religion is of no less importance to the standard core subjects. And that learning about it can be just as fun. 💗

Download a digital copy here. (Download icon in top right corner: fonts display differently in actual Word file as opposed to in Google)

Target Criterion sheets

[EDIT: FOR AN UPDATED VERSION OF THE YEAR 1 TARGETS, SEE THIS POST]

As mentioned in the blog info, I'm loosely following the National Curriculum - just for my own peace of mind that we're on the right track and we've covered similar (if not the same) content as their peers in school.

A quick Google search is all you need to find the latest version of the NC, but I find it more useful to have each target spaced out individually with room to comment on progress for each child... So I basically did just that by copying into an Excel spreadsheet. There are 2 columns as I have twins, but you can quite easily edit it as you please. I use the triangle system of assessing progress: one side of the triangle shows a basic awareness, two sides for some understanding and a complete triangle for solid understanding. I like having a record of dates so I can revisit topics in a sensible order; I'm not going down the lists in order but picking and choosing depending on what overall topic the girls are interested in at the time.

I've included Year 1 targets along with Reception so I could get an idea of future expectations in Literacy and Numeracy.

Targets for Science don't exist at Reception level, so I decided to jump in at Year 1 and cover what we can. The beauty of home education is in the flexibility - I imagine this is one subject we might stay a year "ahead" in for a while...

The Islamic Studies targets I made up as a minimum of what I want to cover this year - there's so much to choose from this will just help to keep us a little focused insha'Allah!

The Arabic targets were inspired by the NC Literacy targets (as I want to encourage their English/Arabic reading/writing to progress at a similar rate) and also by the Madinah Reader Book 1, since that's the textbook we're working from. In terms of vocabulary, they've already picked up other things from e.g. YouTube and an Arabic club we attend, so once again it's more a guideline than anything else.

As always, feel free to use and edit as you please. I hope the sheets are beneficial to someone aside from myself!

Download a copy of each subject here:
Literacy & Numeracy (Reception & Yr 1)
Science (Year 1)
Arabic (Reception)
Islamic Studies (Reception)