Year Three News

Dear Year Three families, 

It’s been another busy few weeks in Year Three with lots of incredible learning going on. 

Writing

During writing students have completed a variety of different activities based around the mentor text, ‘Why I love Australia’ by, Browyn Bancroft. After reading the book students used their writer’s notebook to brainstorm all of the things they personally love about Australia. Students then placed these nouns into a table and described them using adjectives and verbs.   Students paid close attention to the descriptive language within the text and the accompanying artwork. They then had the opportunity to recreate their own landscape picture of Australia based on their own descriptive language using the art in the book for inspiration. Students finished the week by writing a letter to a friend describing their favourite landscape using descriptive language. They made sure to edit and revise their work using ARMS and CUPS.

Maths

During maths, students have continued with their unit on financial mathematics. They have been breaking down how many cents there are in a dollar and experimenting with all the ways that they can create the same value amounts using a variety of different Australian coins and notes. Students have worked on ordering money based on its value and evaluating the features of our currency, including why they are designed the way they are, this ties in nicely with our current unit of inquiry.  Students have unpacked the role of the decimal point that separates dollars and cents and have completed varied real-world financial maths problems adding and subtracting dollar and cent amounts.  Students have been practising rounding up and down to the nearest 5 cents. Next week, students will begin a financial maths project which will challenge them to plan a school camp on a budget! Students have also begun their new fluid groups. These fluid groups are centred around financial maths but targeted at students’ individual needs, ensuring students participate in engaging and challenging maths activities to deepen their understanding. 

Reading

During reading, students have completed a variety of different activities based around the mentor text ‘Sulwe’ After reading the book students questioned how they felt reading the story and made, 'Text-to-Text' and 'Text-to Self' connections. They discussed their feelings with a partner and worked to analyse the text.  Students also worked to break down the main idea of the text and the author’s purpose. They have been practiSing their questioning skills and this allowed them to unpack the question, ‘Why did the author write this text?’. Students unpacked the theme of the text through class discussions. They have continued with Guided Reading groups and individual reading conferences throughout the term. It has been wonderful to see students applying the comprehension strategies they have been practising in class within their individual and group reading sessions. This week in phonics students practiced adding ‘ies’ if a word ends in ‘y’ and they wish to make it plural. Students created a T-chart to clarify any misunderstandings and practise this new skill! 

Inquiry

During Inquiry, students have continued their new unit centred around the central idea ‘How we express ourselves’ Last week, students unpacked our central idea ‘Many cultures express themselves through different art mediums, encouraging interconnectedness in our global community’ This week students have focused on the word ‘express’ as our first line of inquiry. Students chose a culture to research as a case study and have conducted research into how that culture expresses itself through varying art forms. Students have ensured they are principled and have used their research skills when using technology to find relevant information. Some of the questions students used to help them with their research are …

What artwork belongs to the _____ culture?

What dances belong to the _____ culture?

What food is eaten in ______ culture? 

What celebrations do _____ people celebrate? 

What clothing is traditional to _____ people? 

What music do _____ people listen to? 

What are some _____ traditional stories?

At the end of the week, students presented their hard work to the class! It was amazing to see the incredible effort that the students put and to learn so much about different cultures. 

Kind regards,

The Year Three Team