Grade 3 and 4

Welcome to Grade 3 and 4 for 2025!

What a fantastic start to the year we’ve had! As our students transition into new classes, we’re excited to begin building vibrant, supportive class communities with our young learners. A special thank you to those who attended our 'Getting to Know You Conversations.' Your insights as parents and carers are invaluable to us.

This term, our Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) topic is ‘Connections’. We are dedicating time to exploring the diverse skills, abilities, and values that each student brings to our community. This allows us to ensure that our learning environment celebrates and respects every individual. To kick off, students have reflected on their own strengths and connections and have now embarked upon the next phase of learning, developing new connections with peers that are outside of their close friendship groups. In the coming weeks, they’ll engage in team-building activities designed to highlight various strengths and build social and emotional capabilities. These experiences will allow students to take on roles and responsibilities that challenge and strengthen both their individual and teamwork skills. We encourage you to discuss these activities at home—your child might even want to lead your family in completing a challenge or two!

As we continue to shape middle school expectations around organization, responsibility, and accountability, students are also collaborating to set School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS) goals in each classroom. This term’s focus is the expectation that ‘Everyone has a right to be Safe.’ We’re pleased to see our students practicing this goal by moving safely around the school and classroom and taking care of both class and personal resources.

In Mathematics, we’ve been focusing on place value with a current emphasis on accurately plotting numbers on number lines. As the Grade 3 cohort prepares for NAPLAN, we remind students to bring their fully charged iPads and headphones each day to ensure the most effective preparation. In Literacy, students have been engaging with both narrative and persuasive texts, with the help of a range of wonderful mentor texts. We encourage all students to borrow books from our school library and read them independently at home each night. Soon, we’ll be introducing library book reviews and recommendations, providing students an opportunity to practice speaking and listening while articulating their preferences and opinions in a formal way.

A highlight for everyone has been the return of our Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden sessions. The late summer garden continues to flourish, and students are enjoying the sunshine, watching bees and butterflies pollinate the plants, and, of course, relishing the shared meals they prepare together.

It’s shaping up to be an exciting term, and we look forward to all the learning and growth that’s ahead for our Grade 3 and 4 students!