LITERACY

This term, during Core Literacy Skills, students in Grades 3 and 4 will engage in a variety of tasks designed to strengthen their literacy skills. They will work on Phonological Awareness, Morphology/Etymology (understanding word meanings), Phonics, Paired Fluency and handwriting practice. These activities will help build essential skills for reading, writing, and language comprehension.

In phonics, we will focus on the following sounds and spellings: 

• /u/ - ou, o, u 
• /s/ - s, ss, c, c, ce, se, sc and st
• /l/ - l, ll, le, al, el, il, ol 
• /or/ - or, aw, a, ar, au, al and oor 
• /air/ - air, are, ear, ere, eir
• /ue/ - ue, ew, u 
• /oi/ - oi and oy

This term, we’ve begun our class serial read of The One and Only Ivan, written by Katherine Applegate. The story is told from the perspective of Ivan, a silverback gorilla who lives in a cage at a mall. Throughout the story, students will be introduced to different characters with varied experiences. As we read, students will expand their vocabulary and engage in deeper conversations about the text. 

In Writing, students will learn how to structure and write information reports. They will learn about notetaking and how to organise information into subheadings. Students will also focus on sentence structure, paragraph writing and grammar to strengthen their writing skills.