3/4 Area
Sil Khammy, Torie Killender, Zoe Pkye, Paul Phypers, Amanda Johnson and Sue Ritson.
During the past few weeks, students in 3/4 have been settling into their new routines and are developing great work habits.
Upcoming Events
We have a few exciting events coming up in the 3/4 Area and notifications have been sent out directly through Compass. If you need assistance accessing Compass, please see the office staff and they can assist you. This is the schools main form of information distribution and communication.
In week 8, students will be learning a dance with Footsteps Dance Company that they will perform at the Cultural Diversity Celebration on Tuesday afternoon in week 10. Students will be showcasing their dances, which will run from 2:15pm. This is an incursion and costs $5.00.
Information for the Grade 3/4 Camp to Sovereign Hill ( in Term 4, Week 1) was sent out this week. We will be leaving on Monday 5th October, and returning on Wednesday 7th October. We would like initial deposits for numbers to be received by the school by Friday 20th March.
Curriculum Updates
During Discovery, we have been learning about the roles and responsibilities of local council. This week, students were lucky enough to participate in the incursion 'Democracy, Community and Me'. Students got to experience how members are elected to council and roleplay a local council meeting. It was quite an eye opening experience for the students and they all seemed to enjoy learning through participation.
On Thursday, the 3/4 students were lucky enough to be part of the SEDA football clinic, which is organised by the Essendon Football Club and coordinated Strathmore Football Club Players. Students had a wonderful time participating in kicking and marking drills throughout a rotation of activities. Thank you to Mr Rees for organizing the clinic.
In Reading, we have finished reading the novel Brindabella, which students enjoyed learning about the themes of friendship and anthropomorphism. (Giving human characteristics to an animal or object)
Through our Remarkable Writing program and other writing sessions, students have been learning persuasive devices such as rhetorical questions, using emotive language, personal pronouns, repetition and using similes to try and persuade their readers. We have also been planning, writing and editing adventure narratives. Stay tuned for the published copy in your child's portfolio that will come home in week 8 this term.
Mathematics lessons have been a mixture of focused teaching and open-ended lessons focusing on addition and subtraction strategies using partitioning. We are also trialing a new
homework task that reinforces the topics we have been teaching in the first part of Term One. The place value tasks include writing numbers in words, expanding numbers, renaming numbers and representing numbers using MAB symbols. We recommend that your child completes one row per week. This will help to consolidate their understanding of place value as we move on to other topics. Place Value underpins a lot of mathematical learning, so it's vital that students have a solid understanding of it.
Here is an example of what we might see in your child' s homework book once they have completed their Numeracy tasks. Please ask students to write these out in their books.
Practising focus list words is also encouraged. It is wonderful to see students writing sentences using their new words as well as looking up the meaning of unknown words. Homework is due on Fridays. We will not be sending out Homework in Week 7 due to Monday being a public Holiday and the week of Naplan testing.
Naplan Testing
Naplan Commences in Week 7 for students in Years 3 and 5. Here is the timetable below.
Wednesday 11th March: Writing
Thursday 12th March: Reading
Friday 13th March: Conventions of Language
Monday 16th March: Numeracy
Tuesday 17th – Thursday 19th March: Catch-up sessions for absent students
Although it is important for students to be well rested during the Naplan testing period, we do not want them to feel stressed or anxious about taking the tests. Naplan is a snapshot of their learning on the day. It's important to encourage your child to simply do their best and ensure they read the questions carefully. I have attached the link to the Public demonstration site below if you feel your child may benefit from extra practise. We will be covering test strategies in class and will be preparing students for test conditions by undertaking practise tests.