Class 3/4 Steiner & 

Mainstream

What we’ve been up to:

Students have settled in so well to the start of Term 4. It has been so lovely to hear about each other's holidays and to reconnect after the break. 

It sounds like camp was a huge success at the end of last term! What a fantastic opportunity for students to create new connections, try new experiences, and push themselves out of their comfort zones. Thank you so much for your support in the lead up to camp and to those volunteers who came along with us. 

This term we are starting a new unit, focusing on design and technology, in which students will explore looking at models to identify how forces and materials are used and movement is started, for example in the design of a zipline or bridge. This week students built ziplines out of LEGO to transport a mini figure from one point to another. Students were able to make connections between this activity and the flying fox on camp!

This week Antoinette has been moving into our new Art room, with lots of support from our school community. Art classes will resume next week in the new space, which students are really looking forward to. 

Maths

This week In Maths, students have been exploring open-ended multiplication tasks that have required them to utilise their extensive knowledge and skills they developed throughout last term. Coming up this term we will be collecting and representing statistics. Following that we will explore the probability of everyday events as well as conducting chance experiments. We will then look at measurement of volume and capacity.

Literacy

In literacy, we launched our new spelling program, where students began exploring joined phonemes - sounds that blend together smoothly, like “ch” in “chip” or “sh” in “ship.” Over four days, students engaged with the phonemes through a variety of activities. We’ve also been exploring the different spelling representations of “ae”, like “a-e”, “ay”, “ai”, “ey” and “ea”. Students have been identifying these sounds in words and have been adding to a word wall during reading times. 

The week wrapped up with partner dictation, where students worked collaboratively to spell words in sentences aloud and offer each other feedback. We will continue working on our spelling program for the rest of the term, building on our skills with joined phonemes through engaging activities and collaborative practice.

Alongside spelling, we continued to develop our skills in Writer’s Workshop. This week, students learned about synonyms and antonyms - words with similar and opposite meanings - identifying them in their independent reading books. They then applied these new vocabulary skills to enrich their own writing, adding variety and depth to their stories.

What’s coming up:

• Student Free Day (Week 3) - Friday 24th October 
• In Maths, students will be learning about statistics and data collection in maths.
• In Literacy, students will be examining how authors use expression with dialogue to help readers understand what characters are thinking and feeling.

Things families can talk about at home:

• Wearing sun smart hats during play time
• Talk about how gravity and pulleys work together to make a zipline move from the top to the bottom. Ask your child if they can think of other examples where these forces are used. Discuss what safety features are important on a real zipline and how they designed their LEGO cage to keep their mini figure safe during the ride.
• Students can practise their spellings using some of the active spelling strategies, for example, creating words from magazine or newspaper cuttings, playing Scrabble, or making their own word search for someone at home.