Year 3 News
Reading
Over the past two weeks, our Year 3 students have been exploring different types of texts, including fiction, realistic fiction, and non-fiction.
In fiction, students enjoyed using their imagination to read made-up stories with creative characters and settings. Realistic fiction led to some great class discussions about how stories can still be made-up but feel very real. These stories often show everyday situations and emotions that students can relate to.
We also spent time learning about non-fiction, which is all about facts and information. We looked closely at the special features that help us understand non-fiction texts better. These included headings and subheadings that organize the information, bold words that show important vocabulary, and the glossary, which helps explain new words. Students practised using these features to find information quickly and better understand what they were reading.
“I found a contents page in the non-fiction book I was reading.” - William 3A
“There were dinosaurs playing soccer in the text we read. It was fiction.” - Tyler 3A
Writing
In Writing this fortnight the Year 3 have been learning about information reports. This topic connects with their learning about nonfiction text features, in Reading.
In one of the students’ library sessions they had the task to find a nonfiction text that they would use to support their research on an animal of their choosing to write an Information Report on.
Students needed a lot of front loading on Information Report features, which links into nonfiction text features, and different technical language used in animal Information Reports.
Once the students understood the task they needed to do, they started on their plans, using the books they borrowed from the library to find information that matched subheadings given to them by their teacher.
“It was really fun and good having a book next to us to find information.” Holly 3C
“It was a really fun activity and I learnt lots of different things about cats.” Eleen 3C
“It was a little bit hard but it was good using the book to help me.” Manasseh 3C
Maths
In week 3, students learned and reviewed various subtraction strategies. We started by learning about the jumping strategy. Students created number lines, and would make backwards jumps from their number by 10s, and then by 1s, to arrive at the answer. We then learned the split strategy, in which we split a subtraction problem into groups of 10s and 1s, to make subtraction easier. Finally we learned about bridging, in which we bridged the problem’s subtrahend to the nearest 10, then subtract the remainder from the minuend. In week 4, students learned how addition and subtraction were similar with fact families. This is a concept our students learned quickly, especially because of the addition and subtraction strategies we mastered a few weeks ago.
“It was really easy once I started using the strategy jumping strategy” - Sia
“My favourite strategy was bridging” - Saihaj
Inquiry
This fortnight the Year 3 continued their investigation on our solar system, The Milky Way.
Students learnt a whole range of facts about the connection between The Sun, Moon and Earth. They learnt how The Earth is in a zone in our solar system called ‘The Goldilocks Zone’, which has the perfect conditions for life on Earth.
Students learnt about the difference between needs and wants. What humans need to survive and what humans want to be happy.
In week 4 students did a deep dive into our amazing moon and all the interesting facts it has to offer.
With their research students wrote an Information Report about The Moon, using their knowledge from our Writing lessons this fortnight.
“I like how we did our diagrams and the facts about the moon.” - Iris 3C
Social and Emotional Learning
In week 3, students made lovely cards for the important women in their lives: grandmas, aunts and mums. The cards used sheets of coloured paper to create a bouquet with a 3D effect in the flowers would hang off the card and bounce as they moved. In week 4, students learned about personal strengths. They created skits, posters and presentations that would express the importance of understanding one’s own personal strengths to the class.
“Making the Mother’s day card was fun, and my mum really liked it” - Ekam
“I am having fun making the poster. Our personal strength is being generous” - Zoeya
Special Event
Mother’s Day
During Week 3 we celebrated all the wonderful mums, grandmas, and special carers in our lives with our annual Mother’s Day Stall! The students really enjoyed choosing from a range of lovely gifts. It was heartwarming to see how thoughtful they were in picking just the right present. A huge thank you to all our amazing parent helpers who ran the stall and supported the students with their shopping.
As part of the celebration, students also spent some class time getting creative and making a special craft for their mum, grandma or special carer. We hope these brought big smiles and warm hearts on Mother’s Day.
“I bought my mum a hairbrush.” - Olivia 3A
“I don’t know how I am going to hide my card from my mum!” - Summer 3A
