Year 3/4
Overview of Learning
Year 3
A big welcome back to our Grade 3 families as we commence our learning journey into Term 2. We are looking forward to continuing to support your child academically as well as foster their wellbeing. Please reach out to us via Compass email or phone if we can assist:
3A - Leah Telford
3B - Mel Farmer (Grade 3 Team Leader, Wed - Fri) and Liz Lamers (Mon-Tues)
3C - Gareth Harrison
3D - Anne Spencer and Dan Anderson (3D Teacher of the Deaf)
Important Notes:
Digitech is not taught as a stand alone subject in Term 2; it is integrated through different areas of the curriculum. Students will not always use their device each day but please bring it in as a part of a daily routine because we will require laptops for things such as publishing writing pieces and for doing Essential Assessment tasks. Please continue to ensure that your child brings their device to school fully charged each day.
Year 3 Curriculum Foci
Literacy
In Reading and Viewing, students will continue their daily reading routine with their fluency pair partner. This routine has become embedded in our classrooms where students work on different fluency foci such as rate, accuracy and expression and give and receive feedback to each other. Students will undertake reading activities at their level in Small Group Reading sessions and take turns to work with the teacher to receive feedback on their reading. Students will track text and take turns to practise fluent reading aloud as we read our class novel 'Yirra and her Deadly Dog, Demon,' by Anita Heiss. We will also be exploring vocab and developing our comprehension skills with regards to other rich texts on community cultures and using the picture story book 'Finding our Heart'. Our Knowledge Based Literacy lessons aim to build background knowledge to support our humanities topic 'Community, Remembrance and Celebration'. This is discussed in further detail below.
In Writing, students will be immersed in rich Knowledge Based Literacy content to build their knowledge around our unit of 'Community, Rememberance and Celebration'. Students will be exposed to this content by learning about days/events of significance in Australia such as Anzac Day, Sorry Day, Diwali and Ramadan. In our explicit instruction sessions, we will use the Hochman Method of writing development to teach sentence level writing skills. We will begin our term by revising sentence expansion and will then learn about the 4 sentence types (statement, command, question and exclamation). Students will learn note-taking skills and use the information gathered through note taking to learn to write a Single Paragraph Outline (SPO) on a day of cultural significance in Australia.
Our Speaking and Listening tasks and development of skills will be closely linked with our Humanties unit on Community. Early in the term, we will be preparing for and delivering individual oral presentations on events that we celebrate. Later in the term, students will work with in small groups to rehearse and deliver Readers Theatre presentations on Aboriginal stories of Dreaming. As part of this task, students will develop collaborative and turn taking skills as they work in their small group.
Maths
As part of Maths learning, students will be undertaking Daily review where we will review topics previously taught at the start of every Maths lesson and review our learning for week in our final Maths lesson for the week.
Students will also undertake daily Maths fluency activities (learning fact families such as friends of 20, 50, 100; learning doubles and near doubles facts) at the beginning of each Maths lesson in order to build automaticity and fast recall. Quick recall of number facts is vital to reduce student cognitive overload as Maths problems increase in complexity and the number of steps needed as students progress through their years of schooling.
In Term 2, Students will undertake expand their knowledge of Addition and Subtraction and learn concepts in Measurement, Location and Chance and Data.
Humanities
Our Term Two unit is titled 'Community, Rememberance and Celebration'. In this unit we will be looking at types of celebrations and days of significance and how they are linked to cultural identity. We will be identifying personal connections with various celebrations, organise our thinking using a Lotus Diagram graphic organiser and write sentences about what we celebrate for short oral presentations early in the term. After this, we will look at the different countries of origin for migrants in Australia and learn important aspects of their cultures, such as food, music and clothing.
We will also learning about Indigenous culture in Australia and the symbolism and Dreaming stories from our ancient cultures. As we work through our unit, we will develop knowledge and understanding of Australian culture is general and what makes it unique. Learning from this unit will be consolidated through an upcoming excursion in the middle of the term and through Wellbeing Day activities at the end of term.
Year 4
We hope everyone had a lovely break. We have a very exciting term ahead with Cross Country, rehearsals beginning for our school production and lots of learning happening across all classes. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Our Year 4 teaching team in 2026 is comprised of:
4A -Jackson Dunstan (Room 2)
4B - Kendall Wilson (Class Teacher Monday, Thursday and Friday) and Kerron Worsdell (Class Teacher Tuesday-Wednesday) (Room 1)
4C - Claire Waring-Dallwicz, Sharon Armstrong (Teacher of the Deaf Monday-Tuesday) and Dan Anderson (Teacher of the Deaf Wednesday-Friday and Team Leader) (Room 7)
Year 4 Curriculum Foci
English
In Reading and Viewing, students will differentiate between fact and opinion and the role of feelings. They will look at the language used in formal and informal situations. Students will describe how different types of texts across the curriculum have different language features. They will use comprehension strategies, such as connecting and questioning to expand topic knowledge and ideas, and begin to evaluate texts to build literal and inferred meanings. This term students will be reading "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown. We invite families to read along at home as this could help consolidate understanding of the text and promote some great discussions with your child.
In Writing, students will learn to recognise similar storylines, ideas and relationships in different contexts in literary texts. They will describe the effects of text structures and language features in a range of literary texts. Students will create narrative and persuasive texts using relevant, linked ideas for a range of audiences. They will re-read, revise and edit texts for meaning by adding, deleting or moving words to improve content and structure.
Through our spelling program (Spelling Mastery), students will continue to build on their knowledge of spelling patterns and generalisations, as well as strategies to make plausible attempts to spell words using syllables and morphemic knowledge.
In Speaking and Listening, students will deliver structured spoken texts to an audience of their peers using features of voice. They will discuss literary texts when responding to and sharing opinions. Students will understand how social interactions influence the way people engage with ideas and respond to others.
Maths
In Term Two, students will continue developing their understanding of fractions by counting, comparing and representing halves, thirds and quarters on number lines. They will explore mixed numerals and improper fractions, learning how to convert between these and recognise equivalent values. Students will also begin solving number problems involving multiplication and division by multiples of 10, building their understanding of place value patterns.
In algebra, students will focus on solving number sentences with missing values, using their knowledge of addition and subtraction to find unknown numbers. They will also strengthen their understanding of number relationships and develop efficient strategies to solve problems.
Students will explore measurement by estimating, measuring and comparing length, perimeter and mass using appropriate tools and units. They will also investigate time, learning to calculate the duration between events and interpret timetables.
In probability, students will describe possible outcomes of everyday events and order them based on likelihood. They will explore concepts such as independent and dependent events through hands-on activities. In statistics, students will collect, represent and interpret data, developing their ability to draw conclusions from graphs and displays.
Students will also build their understanding of space by exploring shapes, symmetry and location, including using grid references and by describing positions.
Humanities
In Term 2, students will explore Australian History, focusing on the period between 1750 and 1800. They will begin by learning how historians investigate the past, including how to identify and use primary and secondary sources and ask meaningful historical questions.
Students will develop their understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples by exploring the importance of Country and Place, as well as the diversity of communities across Australia. They will investigate how daily life was shaped by the environment and what life was like before 1788.
As the term progresses, students will examine the arrival of the First Fleet and the reasons for British colonisation. They will explore the experiences and perspectives of different groups, including convicts, British officials and Aboriginal Peoples, and consider the impacts of colonisation on people and the environment.
Students will also explore how history can be interpreted in different ways, including perspectives on invasion and settlement. Throughout the unit, they will build their skills in sequencing events, analysing sources and using evidence to explain their thinking.