Camp Information Session:

On Tuesday 2nd September at 5:00pm we will be hosting a virtual presentation on the upcoming 3/4 camp. Please feel free to join and bring along any questions you have. We will do our best to answer them in the meeting which will be held via Google Meets so you will need access to a Google account to join. A link to the meeting will be sent out prior to the event on Compass. If families are unable to attend, the presentation slides will be sent out via Compass after the meeting.

What we’ve been up to:

Over the past fortnight, 3/4 has been busy with Book Week, celebrating literature through dress-up day, interactive door decorations, a book-worm guessing competition, illustrating a book cover competition, and a short story competition. One of our own classes won the door decorating competition, where they chose Paddington. Congratulations 34A! Students began a research project for the history unit, ‘The Causes and Effects of Colonisation’, and are learning effective research skills.

In Gardening, students enjoyed investigating all things fungi with Emily using guides, magnifying glasses and microscopes! This week, students will also be commencing the ‘Talking the Talk’ program about human sexuality, after a couple of weeks of RRRR work on gender in literature. A big thank you to the families who took part in our recent school working bee, the new Gaga ball pit has been a huge hit this week! Leigh has been teaching the rules during PE sessions throughout the week and the allocated day for 3/4 students to play is Friday.

Maths

In Maths, students have been continuing their work in Multiplication and Division, with a focus on building confidence and flexibility with the 3, 6, 4, and 8 times tables. Students have explored patterns and connections, such as how doubling can help with solving 3x and 6x or 4x and 8x facts more efficiently.

To tackle more complex problems, students have used a range of strategies including partitioning, landmark numbers (like 10, 25, 50, and 100), and visual models such as arrays and the area model. Number lines and the grid method have supported students in breaking down multiplication and division tasks, helping them to explain their thinking with clarity. Cluster problems and fact families have also reinforced the inverse relationship between multiplication and division.

Throughout our lessons, several key questions have guided our thinking and encouraged mathematical thinking including:

"If I can multiply by 2, can I also multiply by 20 or 200?"
"What strategies can I use when I don't know the fact straight away?"
"How is 4x connected to 8x?"
"What makes a number easy to work with?"
"If I know 6 × 4 = 24, then what does that tell me about 24 ÷ 6?"

These questions have sparked rich discussions and helped students understand how multiplication facts can be scaled, broken apart or reversed to support division.

Each week, students have continued to take part in our ‘Fast Fact Friday’ challenge to practise and improve their speed and recall of multiplication facts. Students have been highly engaged in our weekly challenges, with many showing noticeable improvement in their speed and accuracy as they build confidence in recalling multiplication facts.

Literacy

In Reading, students have chosen a topic of interest to research based on our History Unit on “The Cause and Effects of Australian Colonisation”. Topics included among others have been Aboriginal resistance fighters, the effects of colonisation, prison hulks and the trading of trepang (sea cucumbers) with the Macassans. Students developed their own questions to guide their research and have used various resources including books, web articles and videos to gather information.

In Writing, students have been transferring their gathered research into their own words to create presentations they’ll be presenting to their classes in Week 8. Students have chosen how they will present their findings such as posters, slideshows and websites. Classes have explored different formatting decisions for their presentations including layout, colour, text style choice and image selection.

What’s coming up:

Camp Information Session: Tuesday 2nd September at 5:00pm
In Maths, students will continue to explore multiplication and division through mental and written strategies, with a focus on one by two digit - using estimation to predict solutions, halving when dividing by 4 or 8.
In Literacy, students will be completing their research presentations and presenting them to the class.

Things families can talk about at home:

Families can support times table and division learning by using everyday activities like sharing food or counting in groups to help children see how multiplication and division are used in real life.
Students can practice multiplication, division, halves and doubles via the Top Marks website, with the online game Hit the Button.

GaGa!