Year 3 Term 4 Newsletter

Welcome to Term 4

Welcome to Term 4! The students arrived back at school re-energised and ready to learn. We are looking forward to an exciting and productive last term. The highlight of this term is our Year 3 camp at Golden Valleys Adventure Camp. Students will be away from the classroom and will engage in hands-on learning adventures. There are so many benefits of going on camp, including developing skills such as teamwork, resilience and communication and providing the opportunities for the students to make positive connections with their peers and also the school.   

 Specialist Timetable

Important Dates

23/10-24/10 Golden Valleys Adventure Camp

31/10: Health Education

31/10: Whole School Assembly (outside)

03/11: Curriculum Day (No School)

04/11: Melbourne Cup Day

07/11: Health Education

07/11: Y3-6 Assembly

11/11: Remembrance Day Assembly

11/11: Parents committee meeting in the staff room (6.45-8.00 pm)

14/11: Health Education. 

20/11:  Special Food Day

21/11: Colour Run

28/11: Y3-6 Assembly

10/12: Y3-6 Assembly

15/12: Curriculum Day (No School)

16/12: Volunteers thank you morning tea. 

18/12: Meet the Teacher for 2026 & Class Parties

19/12: End of Term– 1.30 pm dismissal

Electronic Rolls

Our electronic rolls are legal documents therefore we must be accountable for any absences. Please assist with this by informing the school whenever your child is absent for every day they are away. If you have not recorded their absence in advance, please reply to the text message sent by Sentral in the event of your child being marked as absent on the roll and provide reasons for the absence. If a reason is not provided, their absence will be marked as unauthorised. 

Teaching and Learning

English

Reading

Students use their growing knowledge of phonics (sound:letter relationships), morphology (how words are structured from meaningful elements), vocabulary (the meaning of words and the relationship with other words, e.g. synonyms and antonyms, word types (e.g. nouns, pronouns)) and grammar to read accurately and for meaning.

In our morning sessions, students continue to revise phoneme (sound): grapheme(s) (letter(s)) correspondence to develop automaticity, particularly of less common letter patterns, e.g. knowing the [j] phoneme is made by <dge> after a short vowel. In addition, they continue to investigate how time is represented through tenses of verbs by adding a suffix to the base word, e.g. -ed. -ing, and using auxiliary verbs, e.g. I was hoping. When reading, students will become more proficient at recognising when changes have been made to the base word, e.g. identifying the base word in “hoping” as “hope” not “hop”. Students will also understand that for some words, changing the tense requires a change in the word, e.g. “I run” - “I ran”. Students practise applying the above knowledge to segment and blend unfamiliar multi-syllabic words and will become more disciplined at reading all the morphemes/ syllables/ phonemes in a word to improve their reading accuracy. Students continue to practise reading fluently with phrasing and expression, by reading short texts in a set time. 

In our reading comprehension sessions, students will revise and practise applying the strategies taught in the previous three Terms to analyse our class novel to build literal and inferred meaning. Students will work on comprehension activities independently, in small groups and as a whole class and have regular opportunities to share their knowledge, ideas and understandings. 

Writing

At the start of this term, students will complete their persuasive letter putting forward the case to end deforestation of Australian old growth native forests. Student will then apply writing skills and strategies taught in the previous Terms, such as the text and sentence structure, use of modal verbs and “show don’t tell”, to write a series of short stories (narratives) in response to picture prompts. In these stories, they will explore how verbs can be used to tell the reader not only what the character is doing but also what they are thinking, feeling and saying, using vocabulary that provides a more precise description of these processes, e.g. using “whispered”, “yelled” or “mumbled” in place of “said”. They will show how these processes are represented in written texts, e.g. the use of speech marks to represent dialogue. Good quality texts and explicit teaching will be used to mentor these skills. At the end of the term, we will explore poetry and how literacy devices are used to shape a reader’s reaction. Students will have a go at writing the own poems.  

As part of language conventions lessons, students will use text structures to begin to group ideas into simple paragraphs. They will take on more responsibility for rereading their own texts and revising and editing their work for meaning, grammar, spelling and punctuation. They will become more aware that their first draft is one step in the process of creating a final published text. 

Speaking & Listening 

Whole class, small group and paired discussions with their peers continues to be  important for your child’s learning and is used across the whole curriculum. In our reading comprehension sessions, students have been placed into groups and are explicitly taught the expected behaviours of group work and the skills required to work collaboratively and productively with each other to achieve a shared goal. This includes; being on topic, attentively listening to their peers, actively contributing their knowledge and ideas, providing reasons for their ideas and opinions, respectfully and constructively challenging other people’s ideas and then considering each suggestion before reaching an agreement to make a group decision. Throughout the term, students will have regular opportunities to present their work to the class, e.g. reading their short story to the class, and all students will present their digital or print presentation on a celebration of their choice to the class, as part of the final project for our Humanities Unit. 

Mathematics

In the final term of Year 3, students will build on their knowledge and skills of the four operations, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. As part of these units, we will solve practical problems that include financial contexts and become familiar with money. Students will also be taught how to read the time to the nearest minute on both analogue and digital clocks, and require plenty of opportunities to practise this at home. In our measurement units, students will use formal metric units to measure everyday items for length, mass and capacity. They will compare units of measurement such as millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres to identify equivalence, e.g. 100 cm = 1 m, and select the most appropriate unit to use for the required task. Student will investigate 2D shapes and 3D objects by identifying, classifying and comparing key features, and explaining why these features make them suited to their uses. 

Humanities  

In Humanities, our big question is; "What is the significance of celebrations and commemorations in Australia and around the world?” Students will understand what celebrations and commemorations are. They will identify those events that are celebrated or commemorated as a family, e.g. birthdays, funerals; as a community, e.g. end of Y3 party; and as an entire country, e.g. ANZAC Day, and their significance. Students will chose a celebration/ commemorations of personal interest and will investigate its purpose and history, how it is celebrated/ commemorated and any features including clothing, food and food items that are part of this celebration/ commemoration, e.g. giving present at Christmas. Students will present their project to the class. Over the Semester, students will build skills in inquiry, research and communication and make\ meaningful connections people, place and culture. 

Wellbeing

Students will continue to participate in wellbeing sessions where we will model and discuss respectful relationships. When possible, we will have Fun Friday where students have an opportunity for free play with their peers to practise and develop social skills.

We continue to support each and every student on their learning journey and help them understand that their abilities can grow through effort. 

CEPS VALUES

COURTESY    RESPECT    CO-OPERATION    RESPONSIBILITY 

Awards for displaying the CEPS values are given out at Y3-6 Friday afternoon assembly (see the above calendar for dates).

Your child may receive a CEPS raffle ticket for displaying the school values! CEPS Kids are Friendly Kids award winners will be drawn and announced at our assemblies.

Supporting learning from home

Reading

By now, students should have developed a habit of reading for ideally 15 minutes each day. This should be a time where there a no screens so both parents/ carers and children can focus fully on this activity. Your child should read books that are of interest to them, and as they become competent and confident readers, they should graduate to reading books with an increasing amount of text. There are many excellent children’s novels, and once again, we recommend that you become a member of Kingston Libraries (it is free!). The librarians at the Kingston Libraries can help you source the right book for your child from the 100’s of books they have access to. Whilst our library at CEPS has a good collection of books, it is not as extensive as Kingston Libraries. When reading with your child, structure these sessions so that they are able to achieve success. This includes choosing the right time and place for reading, and then an activity to support their reading and comprehension. You can;  ask your child to read a few paragraphs or a chapter of their book to you to help them practise reading fluently and with expression; read a book to your child that may interest them but they cannot yet access, or listen to an audio book together; participate in shared reading of a book or text where you both take turns reading text. Remember to discuss what they are reading to ensure they are reading for meaning and to clarify any unfamiliar vocabulary and concepts in the text. These reading sessions should be enjoyable, so aim to be enthusiastic, encouraging and patient. 

Writing

Reading provides a foundation to good writing. Students who read regularly become familiar with how texts and sentences are structured and how language is used to engage the reader. In turn, students use this knowledge to improve their own writing.  This includes using ideas and details from previously encountered texts, particularly from their favourite authors, in their own work. Reading is also strongly linked to vocabulary development, and it is always a delight to see students using new words they have discovered from the books they read in their own texts. This term, our focus is on narratives and poetry. An author who has very successful combined these two types of writing is Julia Donaldson. Students may find it fun to reread her books, focusing on how she uses rhythm, rhyme and word play in her writing. Authors who have written collections of children's poems include A.A Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh, who wrote When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six; Roald Dahl who wrote Revolting Rhymes, a funny and twisted version of classic fairy tales and Michael Rosen whohas curated a book of children's poems called Michael Rosen's A-Z: The best children's poetry from Agard to Zephaniah. Australian poets include Banjo Patterson, who wrote The Man from Snowy River and Waltzing Matilda. 

Maths

At home, students should continue to practice recalling single-digit addition and subtraction facts to 20 until fluent and extend this knowledge to larger numbers, e.g. 8 + 4 = 12, 28 + 4 =32, 80 + 40 = 120. Similarly, students should practise recalling multiplication and division facts for 2’s, 3’s, 5’s and 10’s. It is expected that they have mastered these facts by the end of Year 3 so that they are able to dedicate greater mental effort to problem-solving. To achieve this, play the card and dice games on Google Classroom, as well as online games, such as those found on www.mathplaygound.com and www.coolmathgames.com. In addition, we are focusing on reading the time to the minute on digital and analogue clocks. Wherever possible, ask your child to tell the time using the correct language, e.g. if the time is 3:15, they could say three fifteen, quarter past three or fifteen minutes past three. 

Activities continue to be assigned on Mathletics that complement the topics studied in class and can be completed as part of their homework. In addition, a maths problem/ investigation will be posted on Google Classroom every week that students can attempt at home to help them build their problem-solving skills. 

Homework: In Year 3, Homework is expected to be daily reading routines and completion of assigned Mathletics tasks. From time to time, there will also be tasks provided to consolidate classroom learning. e.g. Maths problems/ Writing /Handwriting / English Orthography. These will be posted on Google Classroom. 

Communication

If you have any queries along the way, please feel free to contact us using our emails listed below, or you can send a Class Dojo. If any more urgent concerns arise, please organise a time to meet with your child’s teacher.

Kate Burman (catherine.burman@education.vic.gov.au)

Bec Crawford (rebecca.crawford2@education.vic.gov.au) 

If you need an important message to be passed on to your child, we ask that you communicate this via the office.  

We use Sentral to communicate School and Year 3 Information, and Class Dojo to communicate the following: - 1:1 communication between teachers and families. 

On occasion, we will post photos to celebrate classroom learning.