Year 3 News
Reading
Week 1 of Term 2 has been a fantastic start as Year 3 students were warmly welcomed back to the classroom. This week, they explored the differences between fiction and non-fiction texts, identifying key text features, such as headings, captions, illustrations, contents pages, and story elements. It has been wonderful to see the Year 3 students engaging enthusiastically in their learning and building their understanding of different text types.
“It’s nice learning about non-fiction books and its features.” - Amira 3A
“Non-fiction is real and fiction is made up.” - Ava 3A
“I liked finding the differences between fiction and non-fiction books. It was very fun.” - Georgia 3A“A fiction book is like a story you read.” - Charlotte 3B“I found an index where I could look for specific parts of the non-fiction book.” - Ivaan 3B
Writing
This week, Year 3 students focused on understanding information reports in Writing, exploring how these texts are organised to present facts clearly and effectively. They identified key features, such as headings, subheadings, labelled diagrams, and factual language.
In Grammar, Year 3 students investigated the “y to i” rule, learning how words, such as happy change to happier when adding certain suffixes. It has been wonderful to see them applying these new skills with confidence in their classroom activities.
“I liked how we were looking at long and short words and using the y to an i rule.” - Nisa 3A
“Information reports give us information about a topic and is non-fiction” - Mya 3B
Maths
In Maths, the Year 3 cohort began the term by exploring subtraction. They started by unpacking what subtraction means and identifying related vocabulary, such as ‘take away,’ ‘difference’ and ‘minus.’ Year 3 students were introduced to new strategies, including partitioning and the jump strategy, which built on their prior knowledge of place value. These strategies helped students break numbers into their place value to subtract more efficiently. Year 3 students began working with two-digit numbers and have since progressed to developing their skills with three-digit numbers.
“In Math, we've been learning about subtraction and partitioning, I enjoyed learning the strategies.” - Jessica 3A“Subtraction is when we take something away from a number and it makes it smaller.” - Alex 3B
Inquiry
The Year 3 cohort has begun the term by exploring Australia’s neighbouring countries. They started by unpacking vocabulary, such as ‘neighbours,’ discussing what this means and what it looks like in real life. Year 3 students then applied their understanding by identifying Australia’s neighbouring countries and located them on maps. Using Google Earth, they explored these countries more closely and recorded their findings.
“We found Australia on Google Maps. It is an island.” - Zac 3B
“My neighbour is next to me.” - Hudson 3B
Social and Emotional Learning / SWPBS
In Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and School Wide Positive Behaviour (SWPBS), Year 3 students revisited our classroom expectations and refreshed routines after the term break.
They began their SEL focus on personal and cultural strengths, exploring how their individual qualities can support them in everyday life. Year 3 students also discussed how the morals and values from their cultures can become personal strengths. This led to rich and meaningful discussions, with them sharing their ideas and learning from one another.
AUSLAN
In Auslan this week, Year 3 students explored signs related to size and learnt how to modify signs to show that something is bigger or larger. They practised using movement, facial expressions, and space to add emphasis and meaning to their signing. It has been wonderful to see students building confidence in communicating with expression and creativity through Auslan.