Around Grade 3/4
Welcome to Term 1 for 2021. We hope everyone had a wonderful holiday break! This year the Grade 3 /4 team consists of Brooke Eastwood(3/4E) - Coordinator, Linda Zanatta (3/4Z) and Sian McQualter (3/4M). We are excited to be working together as a team and have spent the initial few weeks getting to know our new learning spaces and our classes. This newsletter is designed to provide a snapshot of our learning spaces, our current and future learning. We recognise that not everyone is able to drop by for a chat or the occasional visit, so we are available by appointment. Please email us if you need to make a time to see us. However, for those who can, a reminder that we are available anytime from 8:45am-9:00am in the morning and 3:30pm-3:45pm in the afternoon, outside our rooms.
Literacy in 3/4
Reading: Reader’s Workshop includes a teacher explicit focus lesson and sets of mini-lessons that focus on skills and strategies students are expected to use when reading independently. This model develops comprehension skills and fosters a love of reading. It also involves guiding students to choose their own books as well as providing significant amounts of time for them to read independently.
Writing : Writer’s Workshop builds students' fluency in daily writing through repeated exposure to the process of writing. Focussed and explicit teaching of mentor texts provides context for explicit teachings, about the ‘craft and structure’ of genres which can be used by students in their writing. The teacher acts as a mentor author, modelling genre structures and features, grammar and spelling techniques. Teachers will conference with students as they move through the writing process. Students learn to write best when they write frequently, for extended periods of time, on topics of their own choosing.
Spelling: This year all students from Prep-6 will develop their spelling skills through an explicit, systematic and differentiated Program called SMART SPELLING. It is designed to teach spelling through patterns and regularity.
Mathematics
In Mathematics this term, students will develop and consolidate their understanding when working with whole numbers. This includes reading, writing, expanding, renaming and ordering numbers. Having a solid understanding of whole numbers will provide the foundation for when they begin solving and investigating problems that involve larger numbers later on in the year. Also in Number, students will develop and refine their addition and subtraction skills. Students will be introduced to a range of mental strategies to help them add and subtract single and two-digit numbers accurately and effectively. In Measurement and Geometry, students will be focusing on time, measuring length, volume, capacity and mass of objects and containers using concrete materials. In Statistics and Probability, students will select and trial methods for collecting data through undertaking surveys. They will also construct ways to represent their data through the use of tables and graphs.
Homework
The school's homework policy states that children in years 3 and 4 are encouraged to do five 30 minute sessions of homework over a seven day period
*20 minutes is to be spent reading and recording what they have read in a reading log
*10 minutes is for maths, spelling or information collecting.
Keep an eye out for the homework and we encourage you to chat to your child about how they will get the tasks done in the required amount of time. We are looking at completing some of our homework in the Google Classroom this year.
NAPLAN - Term 2
The dates for this years NAPLAN are 11 May - 14 May. All students in grade 3/4 will have the opportunity to practise NAPLAN questions and will be made familiar with how the process will work. If you have any concerns or questions about NAPLAN please chat with your class teacher or with Brooke Eastwood the school's NAPLAN coordinator.
MultiLit
Would you like to learn more about teaching children to read? ACPS runs MultiLit for students from Grade 2 - 6 who are needing a significant boost in reading progress. You can be a reading tutor with just a spare 40 minutes a week. If you are interested please speak to your classroom teacher or to Linda Zanatta.
Important Dates for Grade 3/4
8 March Labour Day Holiday
1 April End Term 1 (Thursday)
19 April Start Term 2
8 June (Tuesday) - 11 June (Friday) Grade 3/4 Camp to Phillip Island
14 June Queen's Birthday Holiday
Please feel free to make contact with the classroom teachers if you have any concerns or questions.
Teacher Emails
brooke.eastwood@education.vic.gov.au