News from Grade Three

WEEK 8 | TERM 3

STUDENTS OF THE WEEK

Dear Grade Three Families, 

What a busy and exciting couple of weeks we have had! Our Year 3 students have been involved in a range of fun whole-school activities and special events. It has been wonderful to see their enthusiasm and excitement as they have participated in these celebrations.

Last week, students had a wonderful time celebrating Book Week. We kicked off the week by showcasing our favourite book character costumes during the 3–6 Book Week Parade. The Year 3 teachers also joined in the fun, dressing up as the gang from Where’s Wally? Throughout the week, students participated in a range of engaging reading activities. They wrote book reviews about their favourite texts, recreated the front covers of books they love and created detailed character descriptions for their very own fictional characters. It was fantastic to see their creativity and enthusiasm for reading shine throughout the week! 

This week is Science Week. To celebrate, the Year 3 students planted seeds as part of an exciting experiment. Over the coming weeks, they will observe and record how plants respond to directional light and investigate how light influences the way plants grow. We can’t wait to see what they discover and observe the results of their experiment

📚 Reading

Over the past couple of weeks, students have continued developing their skills in identifying the main idea of a text or passage and creating an effective summary. They have practised finding the main idea across a range of non-fiction texts and are now applying these skills to fiction. Students are using their inferring skills to identify important information, make connections and determine the main message or idea within a text. 

✍️ Writing

In Writing, students have been researching their chosen animals from Inquiry and are now using their findings to plan and develop informative paragraphs about their diet, habitat, appearance and life cycle. They have been learning how to select important information from their research and organise their ideas into clear, well-structured paragraphs. Students are also focusing on using topic sentences, supporting details and subject-specific vocabulary to communicate their knowledge effectively. This work will contribute to the development of their final animal report.

🔢 Numeracy 

In Numeracy, students have continued to develop their multiplicative thinking skills. They have explored the relationships between addition and subtraction, as well as multiplication and division, developing their understanding of how these inverse operations can be used to solve problems and check their thinking. Students are now beginning to explore partitioning and how numbers can be broken into smaller parts that combine to make a whole, developing their understanding of how numbers can be represented in different ways. 

🔍 Inquiry

Exciting things are happening in Inquiry! Our students have begun planning their animal habitat dioramas using the research they have gathered about their chosen animals. Over the next few weeks, students will use their knowledge and creativity to bring their animal habitats to life through their own dioramas.

A few reminders:

Father’s Day stall is from Tuesday-Friday of week 8. All gifts are $5. This can be paid either through Compass, where students will be given a token on the day, or alternatively, students can bring cash in a labelled envelope on the day.

Homework is due September 10th - The highlighted activities (Reading, Writing & Numeracy) are compulsory and should be completed by the due date. At least 3 activities must be completed. All other activities are optional but encouraged.

Students are encouraged to read for at least 30 minutes each evening - Students have access to Reading Eggs, with their log-in details pasted in the front page of their Homework books. Please record this in their Reading Log and return it to school each Friday so books can be changed and reading logs checked.

The Grade Three Team,

Danielle, Christine, Natasha & Claudia