Dear Parents,

Welcome back to Term 2! We’re excited to hit the ground running this term.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter and fantastic holiday break over the school holidays. It has been so wonderful hearing about all the terrific things the kids did over the break!

These past weeks in:

Literacy

We’ve begun our new, short genre unit on Recount Writing, exploring its conventions and important features that make it up. Our big focus over the coming weeks is to reinforce recounting in chronological order and including important and detailed information.

Our grammar focus has been on exploring the range of Homonyms in our English language, and understanding when to apply the right word. Here’s a quick rundown.

Homophones - same sound, different spelling, different meaning. E.g., to, too, two; their, they’re, their
Homophones/Homographs - same sound, same spelling, different meaning. E.g., bow of a ship and bow that shoots arrows.
Homographs/Homonyms - different sound, same spelling, different meaning. E.g., Row (line) and Row (argument); desert (abandon) desert (area of land)

In our Science of Reading lessons and Literacy Rotations, we have been looking at when to accurately use the graphemes /er/, /ir/, /ur/ & /ear/ in words - hint: there is no specific rule! Finally, we’ve been looking at open and closed syllables and had lots of practice ‘breaking apart’ our words. We’ve also continued with our daily word work that has students investigating syllables, graphemes, morphemes and affixes of our ‘word of the week’ and then tying this all together in our Friday morning dictation.

Mathematics

We have begun our term with a short and sharp topic - Measurement. We have explored three different areas of measurement (length, mass & capacity) and explored the different units of measurement within.

Length (mm, cm, m & km)
Mass (mg, g, kg & t)
Capacity (mL & L)

The students have explored the difference between informal (paper clips, blocks, etc) and formal (tape measure, scales, measuring jugs) units. They have practised using both, measuring the length, mass or capacity of items in the classroom, and identified which unit is best when measuring items. E.g., we would use grams (g) to measure mass of a book, not kg.

Inquiry

This term we begin our new Inquiry unit on ‘What Makes a Design Go Bang!?’ We began our unit by looking at some of the most famous inventions throughout history - the light bulb, first computer, toilet, etc. It was amazing to see how old some inventions truly are, and how new some are. Each student wrote up a ‘wondering’ - a question they wanted to know - and stuck it on our Inquiry wall. I.e., “Who invented the Rocket Ship?”.

Important Information

Homework

We are asking for a minimum of 80 minutes of reading a week at home. This does not include in class reading, and needs to be logged into their diaries each night, writing the Title, Pages read and time of reading

* I.e., “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, pg. 100 – 133 (15 minutes).

We ask that you please write the total time read throughout the week, and sign your child’s diary on a Thursday night to confirm they have kept up with their reading. If your child does not meet the required 80 minutes, they will be given the opportunity to catch up during the first part of Friday Fun.

We will also be setting 3 Tasks on Mathletics for the students to complete throughout the week. These will become available Friday afternoons and will be explicitly linked to our focus in class.

* We encourage your child to practise their basic maths through Live Mathletics once they’ve completed their tasks.

We kindly ask that you email your class teacher, or send a note, if your child is unable to complete their homework by Friday morning.

Explore & Explain

Explore and Explain is an opportunity for your child to practise both their research and oral presentation skills. This helps us to assess your child’s speaking and listening, and gives them an opportunity to research something of interest to them.

A presentation roster will be available as a digital copy on Google Classroom. If your child is unable to complete their presentation on their allocated date, please contact your classroom teacher to organise a new one.

Incursion

We have organised an incursion that links directly to our Inquiry unit on ‘What Makes a Design Go Bang!?’ We kindly ask that you log onto Compass and give the necessary permission/payment for your child to attend.

If your child does not have the required permission/payment, they will need to join a different class during this time.

Life Education

We kindly ask that you log onto Compass and give the necessary permission/payment for your child to attend.

If your child does not have the required permission/payment, they will need to join a different class during this time.

Reminders

Hats

Terms two and three are hat free! Your child's hat should have been sent home for safe keeping at the end of Term one. We ask that these remain at home until Term four to avoid them getting misplaced.

Drink Bottle

A friendly reminder to ensure that your child is bringing a drink bottle to school each day. We kindly ask that it is a bottle with a tight lid or sealed pop-top to avoid spills in class.

Warm clothing

The mornings are getting much colder as we head closer to Winter. Please ensure that your child is dressed appropriately with a school jacket or jumper on these cold mornings. We ask that your child's belongings are clearly labelled with the correct grade and name.

Cold & Flu Season

With the cold and flu season upon us, please be mindful of other children and if your child is unwell please provide them with a rest period at home.

What’s coming up:

Incursion - Thursday 16th May
Life Ed – Friday 17th May
King’s Birthday Public Holiday (Student Free) - Monday 10th June
PST Conferences - Wednesday 26th June

Have a lovely weekend,

The Level Three Team.

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