Grade 3 News
Dear Grade 3 families
Welcome to Term 2!
We're four week s in and the students have made an amazing start!
Firstly, we would like to thank each and every one of you for helping your children to return so calmly after the holidays. All of the teachers were very impressed at how settled everyone was. This meant that we were able to get straight back into learning.
Below is a snapshot of what has been happening in each curriculum area, as well as some information, reminders and important dates.
English
In our English block, the students have been practicing their reading fluency each day. We have focused on reading smoothly, pausing at punctuation, and finding ways to add expression to our voice. The students are using books that they have chosen from the school library. When reading with your children at home, this is the perfect thing to practise with them.
We have also learnt how to expand sentences while writing, to make them more interesting. The students have learnt different types of verbs, especially 'mental verbs'. These are words like 'thought', 'wondered' and 'pondered'. They also learnt about adverbs, which tell us 'when', 'where' and 'how' something happened.
Last term in Literature we focused on narratives, but this term we're learning how to write information reports. We're using the text 'Dragons of the World' to learn new vocabulary, as well as the structure. In the next few weeks, the students will be drafting their own information reports, with a focus on making comparisons to help the reader understand our topic.
Here you can see the front cover of 'Dragons of the World' and an example of what one of the pages looks like.
We've also added 'morphology' into our English block, which is where the students learn how words 'work'. Each week, we focus on a different prefix or suffix to help us understand the meaning of words.
So far, we have learnt the prefixes anti-, de-, re- and im-, and the suffix -en.
Here you can see an example of some work while learning about the prefix anti-.
Mathematics
For most of this term, the students have been learning about multiplication and division. We have explored what these terms mean and how we represent them as a number sentence. For example, 6 x 3 means that there are six groups, with three things in each group.
The students have learnt strategies for multiplying or dividing by specific amounts. For example, if solving 6 x 11, make it more simple by doing 6 x 10 and then 6 x 1. In the next few weeks, the students will be applying these strategies to solve worded problems.
Here you can see an example of a bar model. We use this to help us visualise the problem.
Along the way, we have also been learning how to apply different problem solving strategies. The students have been presented with open ended problems to solve, that have no clear answer. Some students have drawn pictures to better understand the problem, while others have broken the problem down into smaller parts. The focus of these sessions is not on getting the correct answer, but how you got there.
Humanities
At the start of the term, we spent some time finishing off our 'First Australians’ unit.
Then we moved into our new history unit that is focused on Vikings and their way of life. Across the year, the Grade 3 students will be learning about different historical cultures, and how their way of life was shaped by the environment they lived in. While learning about Vikings, the students are also building their research skills.
In these photos, the students were researching their own chosen topic, to help them to find key information.
Important Information / Important Dates
- Every student has been given a diary to record their home reading. These are checked each Friday.
- Each Tuesday and Friday are the days to change take home readers, so please make sure your children are bringing their satchels to school on these days.
- This term we have started going to the school library. 3A and 3B go on a Wednesday and 3C go on a Thursday. Each student can have 4 books borrowed at a time. Please help your children to return their books on the correct day.
Also this term, Grade 3 is taking part in 'Active Kids'. Each week, we set the students a challenge that is either about being active, or eating healthy food. At the end of each week, we will post the challenge to Compass for the following week. Those that complete the challenge will receive the next sticker to place in their passport.
- King's Birthday Public Holiday - June 8th
- Curriculum Day - June 9th
Thank you so much as always for the amazing support that you have been giving to your children.
Regards
Mr Francis, Miss Schaumann, Ms Cook and Ms Arya.