Year 3 Spotlight

The Year 3 students have had an incredible start to the year! They are settling into the senior school seamlessly, consistently demonstrating our school’s PRIDE values both in and out of the classroom.

Term 1 is packed with exciting learning opportunities, beginning with our first inquiry unit, "We Are What We Eat." This unit explores how the five food groups fuel our bodies and contribute to a balanced diet.

Central Idea:

Food choices affect our health and wellbeing.

Lines of Inquiry:

• The characteristics of different food groups (form)
• The various factors that influence our food choices (e.g., taste, smell, presentation, culture, family, advertising, allergies) (causation)
• The impact of dietary habits on our bodies (causation)

To spark curiosity about this unit, students were asked, “What do you think makes a balanced meal?” They created meals on paper plates and presented their choices to the class, explaining their reasoning.

After exploring the central idea, here are some wonderings students had:

“How many sweets does it take to affect your body?” - Indigo, 3A

“What happens if you only eat one food?” - Ron, 3A

“What does your body look like when it digests?” - Maebel, 3A 

“What food has vitamins?” - Ethan, 3A

“Why do we need different food groups?” - Nochie 3B

“How does food get through your body? - Dion 3B

“Why is junk food bad?” - Ari 3B

“Why is some food called unhealthy if all food comes from plants?” - Sam 3C

“How come some processed food is not the best for you?” - Charlotte 3C

“Is protein good for you?” - Ella 3C

In Literacy, we have begun planning and drafting a narrative from the prompt “Vegetable Superheroes”. We have been focussing on generating ideas, correct punctuation and beginning our stories with a leading sentence to draw in the reader. This will be an ongoing piece that students will type up and illustrate. 

In Mathematics, students have been focusing on building their understanding of place value. They used Base 10 Blocks to construct four- and five-digit numbers in groups, then moved around the room to figure out the numbers created by their classmates. We have also been practicing using our “x-ray eyes” to rename numbers in different ways using place value. The Year 3’s have been loving the use of Mathletics and are keen to earn more points and awards. What a fun start to the year! 

Year 3 Teachers