Year 3/4 - Newsletter

Dear Parents & Carers,

What a great start we have had to Term 4. It appears that there was lots of travel, celebrations and excitement over the holidays and we do hope you all had a great break. It is hard to believe we are already in Term 4!

What's happened in 3/4 this week?

Literacy

This week, we've dived straight back into our Structured Literacy learning! We've continued exploring morphology, focusing on the Latin roots vid/vis (meaning look) and the 1.1.1 or doubling rule for spelling words with suffixes starting with a vowel.

Our grammar focus over the last 2 weeks has been learning how to properly punctuate direct speech, building up our skills to help us later in the term when students will have the opportunity to write their own short narrative.

In Reading and Writing, we have begun our new unit on Narratives. Students have begun the first stages of planning and writing their narrative - coming up with their own characters and settings and beginning to write their orientation. We have also begun reading our new novel Leo and Ralph by Peter Carnavas. Throughout this unit, students will continue to build their reading fluency through regular choral reading, paired reading, and individual reading activities.

Maths 

We began the term by learning about measurement (perimeter and area in particular), practicing measuring items using formal and informal measurements and deciding which unit of measurement would be best for certain objects. This week we have jumped into our Fractional Thinking unit, beginning by revising what fractions are and some common terms such as numerator and denominator. Throughout the week we have explored different ways we can make and divide fractions, building understanding of fractions being part of a whole. 

Students will also continue Facts on Fire this term. This short, structured practice supports students in mastering their multiplication and division facts through regular rehearsal and achievable milestones. Helping build confidence and assist in problem solving skills. 

Inquiry

This term, our Inquiry unit is Festivals and Celebrations. Throughout the term, students will investigate and learn about a range of festivals and celebrations from around the world. 

Over the first two weeks, we have introduced the concept of celebrations and discussed why and what people may celebrate. Students also worked to differentiate between a personal celebration and a national celebration, thinking about what these may be and who may celebrate them. This week we explored different symbols and how they are used during celebrations, thinking about some symbols we might use to represent Australia. We also discussed commemoration and investigated some Australian days of commemoration such as Anzac Day, exploring why and how we celebrate and remember these important dates. 

Wellbeing 

In Term 4, our Year 3/4 students will be learning about Positive Gender Relations as part of the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) program in our Wellbeing lessons. The lessons will be age-appropriate, simple, and focused on keeping children safe and helping them build positive relationships.

Students will learn about: 

• Respect and equality – treating everyone fairly and kindly.
• Personal boundaries and consent – respecting personal space and understanding that everyone has the right to say “no”.
• Safe and respectful relationships – recognising behaviour that is unkind, unsafe, or unacceptable.
• Gender-based violence – understanding in simple terms that violence and threatening behaviour are never okay.
• Speaking up and seeking help – knowing when and how to talk to a trusted adult.

The focus will be on prevention, safety, respect, and kindness. Our goal is for every child to understand that everyone deserves to feel safe, respected, and valued. For some further information please refer to the email sent by Natasha Soundy last week. 

Specialist Classes

Refer to your individual class email for changes to Specialist Classes.

Reminders

Class Preferences 2027

Next week, the students will be completing their friendship preferences for their 2027 classes. We strongly encourage all parents to take the time over this weekend to discuss and agree upon friend names with their child, ensuring they are comfortable with the choices being submitted. Students will be asked to nominate five classmates, in no particular order of preference, and are guaranteed to be placed with at least one person from their list. TStudents may nominate any classmates from their current year level (e.g. Year 3 students nominate Year 3 classmates). Please have this conversation with your child before next week, as we want to ensure parents are aware of their child's selections and avoid any surprises once lists have been submitted.

Camp

With camp fast approaching please ensure that you have returned your child’s Camp Medical Form to their classroom teacher and have filled out their dietary information via the link email to you. 

Hats

Term 4 is a mandatory hat term, please ensure your child has an ENPS wide brimmed or bucket hat or similarly appropriate hat to wear during playtimes. 

Homework - Homework this week continues to consist of:

• Minimum 4 nights reading with at least 80 minutes per week recorded in school diary (Book title, pages read, minutes read).
• Diary is to be brought to school each Friday signed by parents.
• Although not compulsory, we encourage your child to complete assigned Mathletics tasks.

Student Awards

Refer to your individual class email for student shoutouts!

Kind regards,

The Level 3/4 Team