Middle School News
Welcome to Middle School News for 2025! An extended welcome to our Year 3 families and those who have joined us this year. We look forward to sharing with you all the wonderful things that our Year 3s and 4s students are doing this year.
Literacy
The Year 3 students have hit the ground running, bulding upon their Literacy skills from Year 2. They have been reviewing the 'Turtle Rule', 'Corn in the Barn' and 'Her Bird is Hurt' in MSL daily review. The students have been looking at correct article usage of 'a' and 'an', as well as regular and irregular plural nouns.
So far, the students are focusing on their use of commas; self correction; and expression.
The students have also been explicitly learning the following vocabulary words, with the expectation that they begin to use it in their writing: formidable; nimble; mild; distinct; fond; tranquil; vast.
Writing
The Year 3 students have shown great enthusiasm in commencing their novel study of 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl. They have explored sentence expansion with the use of subordinating and coordinating conjuctions to help strengthen their writing skills. These skills help the students writing become more fluid and coherent whilst connecting realted ideas. Additionally, they have explored the use of onomatopoeia (Bang!, Pop!, Zing!) to engage their readers.
The students have been composing 'Orientation' paragraphs for Narrative writing and 'Build up' paragraphs which introduce the reader to the events prior to the 'Problem'. We have discussed the importance of 'imagery' in our writing, setting the scene clearly, allowing the reader to picture the setting of our story.
Link to 'Matilda' audiobook:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz8QBioE4uM
Maths
In Maths, the Year 3 students have been learning place value of 6 digit numbers. They have been working hard to write the in expanded form (eg. 657,937 = 600,000 + 50,000 + 7,000 + 900 +30 +7) as well as identifying 1 more/ess, 10 more/less and 100 more/less of 6 digit numbers.
Year 4
Literacy
The Year 4 students have done an amazing job adapting to the demands of the Year 4 English curriculum.
They have been reading 'Kensuke's Kingdom' as a whole cohort. T. As a continuation on Year 3, the students have been practicing their cursive handwriting. They are doing an amazing job!
Additionally, they have been learning about collective nouns (eg. flock, pack, group) and using fronted adverbials of time (eg. 'Suddenly,' 'Before long,'). These are both skills that the students have been transferring into their writing.
Writing
So far this term, the Year 4 students have been focusing on Persuasive Writing. Within this, they have had to write expanded sentences using conjunctions like 'because, but and so'. This helps to link ideas in their writing to make it cohenerent and easier for the reader.
hey have been practicing note taking including different symbols used in note taking to make it a fast and effective way of documenting information.
Link to Kensuke's Kingdom audiobook: https://soundcloud.com/harpercollinspublishers/kensukes-kingdom-written-by
Maths
In Maths, the Year 4s have been building upon their proir learning of Addition and Subtraction using the skill of regrouping. They have applied themselves and shown great resilience in solving more challenging problems.
Shared Learning Space
The Year 4 students deserve an immense amount of recognition for the way in which they have conducted themselves in their shared learning space. Not only are they extremely settled, they are focused and resilient. The countdown is on for the final move into the refurbished classrooms in the coming weeks!
A big shoutout to Ms Collins and Ms Porter for creating an amazing environment, routine and structure for the students, ensuring no learning is interrupted.
Topic
Our Years 3 and 4 students have been engaging in a biology unit called 'Staying Alive'. They have been exploring their surroundings of things that are in either the Animal or Plant Kingdom. Additionally, they have been using classification to distinguish features of particular plants and animals.
Respectful Relationships
Focusing on 'Emotional Literacy' the students have been identifying a range of emotions and how they might feel. They have also been reenacting scenarios which might make us feel different emotions. This has also helped the students to identify different body language which communicates how others feel.
For any queries, please feel free to reach out to your child's classroom teacher:
Sarah McGrath (3M)
smcgrath@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
Jo Collins (4C)
jcollins@shsandringham.catholic.edu.au
Zoe Porter (4P)
