Year 3/4 Term1 Overview

Year 3/4 Term One

Welcome to the 2021 school year! Our whole school focus for this year is “INSPIRE”. Our aim is to link this theme with our learning throughout the year and inspire our students and others to be the best they can possibly be and achieve their best. We are all very excited to be back for the year and are looking forward to watching your children grow and achieve their full potential in 2021. We are excited to be back in the classroom and look forward to giving our students the chance to participate in some of the things they missed in 2020, including sports days and excursions, plus so many other new experiences.

Tom Jackson and Kellie Cumming will be the teachers working together in the 3/4 learning area this year. Our team will be supported by Cheryl Apostolopoulos and Melinda Kerwin, the Learning Support Officers for our level.  We are very lucky to have Marisa Box who will be teaching STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) and Physical Education to our students this term.  

Religious Education/Inquiry 

This term our Inquiry unit is based on the Civics & Citizenship curriculum. Students will begin by exploring the concept of ‘Connect’ by investigating questions such as "How do we connect with other people?" and "Why is it important to connect to others?"

To begin the year all students contributed to the development and support of our Year 3/4 classroom protocols, agreements and whole school behaviour expectations. We have closely examined the Three R’s (Respect self, Respect others and Respect property) to form a collaborative learning environment. 

As part of our Inquiry learning students will explore the difference between rules and laws, why we have them, and what role they serve in our community.  Students will examine how people participate in their local and global community as active citizens. They will explore factors that shape a person’s identity and sense of belonging within these communities.

To link with our Religious Education we will also explore and reflect on the significance of prayer, liturgy and sacraments in our lives. All students will explore the sacrament of the Eucharist. Students will also examine scripture texts relating to Holy Week. 

English

In Reading, students will engage in a range of comprehension, spelling and handwriting activities. We will further utilise Reading Eggspress through weekly comprehension tasks which are individually set for students to complete during reading rotations. We will be rotating focus group activities where students will improve their comprehension skills by making predictions, improving vocabulary, developing meaning of words in context and making inferences. They will critically analyse the text, using prior knowledge to form opinions and discussing a particular point of view.  

In Writing students will engage with a range of mentor texts to be used as models, to enhance their own writing experience. Students will plan their own writing pieces, using guided templates to improve structure and construct texts to entertain, including narrative and texts that persuade the audience. They will enhance their written skills using the writing process of rereading, gaining feedback from peers and teachers, editing and checking their work for spelling, vocabulary and meaning. 

Mathematics

Through independent, small and large group learning, students will explore the following concepts:

Place Value 

• Recognise, model and order numbers to at least 10,000.
• Understand that the position of the digit determines the value of the number.
• Understand that numbers can be written in numeric, words and expanded notation.

Length and Perimeter

• Estimate, order, compare and measure lengths using scaled instruments. Convert between units of millimetres, centimetres and metres. Calculate the perimeter of regular and irregular two dimensional shapes.

Data

• Investigate and interpret data by posing a question, collecting information, representing the information in a graph or table and analysing the results.

Addition and Subtraction 

• Develop increasingly efficient mental strategies for addition and subtraction facts for single digit numbers including friends of ten, doubling and near doubling.
• Demonstrate the connection between addition and subtraction.
• Solve problems using efficient written strategies such as the use of number lines, breaking numbers into parts and compensation.
• Use estimation and rounding as a way of checking if you are close to the exact answer.

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

This term in SEL our Year 3/4 students will be exploring the links between their emotions and behaviours. Students will learn to recognise and name different emotions in themselves and others by identifying the body language and facial expressions often displayed when they are feeling a certain way. They will name positive and negative emotions and discuss how these can have different effects on us. Students will explore ways to interact positively with others in many different types of situations. 

Home Learning

The Year 3/4 students will receive a fortnightly home learning sheet containing tasks relating to the areas of learning covered at school. The home learning will also be shared through Google Classrooms to give students the choice in completing their tasks online if they would prefer. There will be some compulsory Reading and Mathletics tasks and some free choice activities. Students are also encouraged to read nightly at home, both independently and aloud, to a family member, recording this information in their diary. When reading together, we encourage parents to initiate discussions about the characters and the plot of the story, to build connections and deepen their understanding of the text. 

Timetable

Performing Arts, Visual Arts, PE and Italian are on Thursdays. 

Library and Sport will be on Monday. 

Students may wear sports uniforms on Mondays and Thursdays only. 

In order to keep our school uniform clean it would be appreciated if all students could bring an art smock to school please.

Communication

Effective communication between family and school is an important factor in students’ learning. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, comments or concerns.  

We will endeavour to respond to emails within 24 hours, during weekdays.

tjackson@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au                     

kcumming@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au

mbox@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au 

Please make sure that you have the Skoolbag App, as many school notices and reminders will be sent via the App. 

https://skoolbag.com.au/web/?schoolid=22726

Term 1 Yr 3/4 Dates 

(Please refer to newsletter for whole school dates. The calendar is also on the Skool Bag app)

4 March - 7:00pm - First Eucharist Parent Information Session 

15 March - Summer Sports Gala Day (all Yr 3/4 students)

19 March - Experience Whitefriars Day - (all Yr 3/4 students)

20 March & 21 March - First Eucharist Commitment Ceremony and Mass Booklets Presentation at 6:00 pm and 9:45 am Masses

Tom Jackson, Kellie Cumming and Marisa Box