Year 3

Year Term 3 - August Newsletter 2024

Literacy

In Writing, students have been revising what we know about creating a recount. We have explored the features of a recount including past tense and time connectives. Students engaged in guided practice to plan and write a recount. We worked through the structure of a recount exploring what information belongs in each section and how to include the skills we have been learning such as noun phrases, appositives and time connectives. 

In Word Work, students have continued learning about homophones and understanding that homophones are words that sound the same but the words are spelt differently and have different meanings. Students have been exploring common homophones such as there, their, and they’re. Students have been focusing on learning the meaning and features of each word and engaging in using the words correctly in sentences. 

Knowledge

All students in Year 3 have been thoroughly engaged in our Olympics Unit over the past couple of weeks. We have been cheering on our athletes who have won medals and viewed a wide range of sports. We have learnt about the history of the Olympic games and the importance of the Olympic values. We looked at Australia’s most famous and decorated olympians and discussed the strengths that Australia has when it comes to competing in the Olympic Games. We also introduced the students to the Paralympic Games and are looking forward to watching Australia’s Paralympians compete. 

Mathematics 

In Numeracy, we have been learning about different strategies to solve multiplication and division problems. We have learnt about ‘Turn around facts’ with arrays and how to use them to help us solve multiplication equations. For example, 2 x 5 = 10 and 5 x 2 = 10, which means the turn around facts are 2 and 5. We have also learnt about using fact families to solve multiplication and division equations, using arrays to help us. For example, if the array has 2 rows and 4 columns, we know that the multiplication equations will be 2 x 4 = 8 and 4 x 2 = 8. We can then write the division equations, using the same numbers, 8 ÷ 2 = 4 and 8 ÷ 4 = 2. We have also learnt how to use the vertical strategy to solve multiplication equations. We will continue learning about multiplication and division. 

In Numeracy, we have also been continuing to expand our learning of fractions. We added fractions to make a whole using a shape and by completing the number sentence. To do this, we had to look at how many parts the fraction was split into and then add the parts that were missing to make the whole. We will also be looking at the bar model to identify parts of the whole. We are also learning about time, focusing on 5 minute intervals and reading time to the minute. We have been learning about the meaning of ‘past’ and ‘to’ and have been working on using this language when reading analogue clocks. 

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

In SEL we have been looking further into empathy. Students explored when and how they have experienced empathy, either in a game, at home, or at school. We discussed how empathy can influence our actions and help us to be more kind and thoughtful to those around us if we take the time to understand how they are feeling. Students then created their own empathy super hero. They needed to consider what would be the characteristics and strengths of their empathy superhero.