Term 3 Curriculum Newsletters
Prep
The Prep area is sure to be abuzz with excitement in preparation for our 100th Day of School celebration in Week 2! We are absolutely amazed by their progress and enthusiasm as learners as they proceed past the halfway point of their first year of school, and we can’t wait to continue this journey.
Literacy (Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening)
In Literacy this term, students will continue to develop their sound knowledge, letter formation and further expand their understanding of sentence structure. Students will continue to write complete sentences that begin with a capital letter, use appropriate finger spaces and punctuation such as full stops and question marks. We will continue our learning about how we can extend a simple sentence by adding adjectives, ‘when’ and ‘where’. We will also learn how to write compound and complex sentences using the conjunctions “because” and “but”. Handwriting of lowercase letters will be practised daily to help with correct sizing and direction.
Students will learn to read decodable texts with growing fluency and automaticity by practising reading with their reading partners regularly. They will also continue to expand their sound knowledge by building, writing and reading words with four and five sounds. They will learn how to read and write words with digraphs (two letters that represent one sound) such as ff, ch, sh, th and ng. We will also read a range of rich picture books together, particularly focusing on wonderful Australian stories about our native animals, and build our comprehension skills through class discussions.
Mathematics - Skills (Counting, Addition, Subtraction & Measurement)
Students will continue to develop their number knowledge and skill in being able to count and compare collections of 20 or more objects. Through daily practise, we will revise handwriting of numerals and accurate pronunciation of two-digit numbers, particularly teen numbers, when counting forwards and backwards. We will build on our skills in interpreting and solving number stories, addition and subtraction equations and representing the solutions using concrete materials. Students will expand on their knowledge of different measurement areas such as length, mass and time and learn how to use the correct vocabulary to measure and compare these units.
Inquiry: It’s Alive!
For our Biology unit ‘It’s Alive!’, we will look at Australian animals and investigate some of the following questions: ‘How do we know if something is living or non-living?’, ‘What do living things need to survive?’ and ‘What are the common features of animals and plants?’. We will conduct a number of experiments in class to investigate the needs of plants, animals and humans. Students will visit the Werribee Open Range Zoo in the last week of the term as our chosen excursion to complement all our learning about Australian animals.
We ask that you please continue to read with your child every night, practise their handwriting, learn to name all of the uppercase and lowercase letters and counting forwards and backwards to 20 and beyond. Please also make sure that your child brings their charged iPad to school every day.
As always, please keep checking Compass and Seesaw for important information throughout the term.
Thank you for your support,
The Prep Team
Grade 1
Welcome to Term 3! We have an exciting term ahead, packed with hands-on learning, fascinating discoveries and new skills to explore across all learning areas.
In Inquiry, students will become curious young scientists as they explore the world of living things, with a particular focus on minibeasts. They’ll learn how to identify living and non-living things, understand what makes something a living organism, and explore the unique features, life cycles, habitats and needs of creatures like worms, spiders, butterflies and snails. We’ll go on a real-life bug hunt, observe creatures in our school environment, and finish the term by creating a detailed diorama and writing our own minibeast information books.
In Reading, students will read a mix of nonfiction and fiction texts, including the class novel Fantastic Mr. Fox, to support their growing comprehension skills. They’ll practise identifying key ideas, building vocabulary (particularly adjectives and adverbs), and retelling information in their own words. Throughout the term, we will also be reading a range of fiction and non-fiction texts related to our topic “Schoolyard Safari”. We will continue our morphology study, learning about how different prefixes and suffixes change a base word e.g. adding ‘re’ as a prefix at the beginning of a word means to ‘do again’ or ‘go back’ like in the words replay or recycle. We’ll also be building on fluency and decoding strategies as per our Sounds Write Scope and Sequence sent home earlier this term.
In Writing, our focus is on sentence structure and informative writing. Students will learn to expand simple sentences by including who, what, where and how details, as well as using conjunctions like because, but and so to join ideas. They will edit sentences to ensure that they are complete sentences and contain correct punctuation including capital letters, full stops or question marks. We’ll explore the use of suffixes and adverbs, and students will plan, draft and publish their own information reports about a minibeast of their choice.
In Mathematics, students will continue developing strategies for addition and subtraction within 100, including using number lines, base ten materials and vertical written algorithms. We’ll also explore early multiplication through skip counting and grouping, compare volumes using informal measurement, and describe the properties of 3D shapes.
In Wellbeing, we’ll continue our Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships (RRRR) and The Resilience Project (TRP) programs. This term includes learning about empathy, managing emotions, and mindfulness strategies such as belly breathing and yoga.
We’re looking forward to a fantastic term of learning, creating, problem solving and sharing. Thank you for your continued support – we can’t wait to see all the growth and excitement ahead!
Warmly, The Grade 1 Team
Grade 2/3
The 2/3s are diving deeply into their Term 3 Inquiry topic, Waterworks, by investigating the use of water at home, at school, in the community and around the world. We will learn about the water cycle, and the impact that humans have on the environment through waste and pollution. How can we conserve this precious resource, water? That’s the big question the 2/3s will try to answer this term, and into the future.
During Literacy sessions this term we are reading the narrative The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. We will focus on writing persuasive texts, related to our narrative, by writing about animal rights. Students will develop their understanding of the text by learning new vocabulary, answering comprehension questions, summarising the main idea and recalling important information. We will continue using the Sounds Write program to learn and review letter sounds and spellings, to assist with decoding and writing. Students will focus on adding variety and interest to their writing by including a range of sentence types, including compound and complex sentences.
Book Week will be held in Week 6; look out for information about this special event on Compass, closer to the date. (You may like to start thinking about costume ideas for our much-anticipated dress up day!)
In Numeracy, the 2/3s will consolidate their ability to solve addition, subtraction, multiplication and division equations using a range of strategies and apply these during problem solving lessons. We will investigate how to make different dollar amounts e.g. what combination of coins can we use to make $1 including multiples of the same coin type. We will also learn to measure capacity, perimeter and area using formal units.
During Wellbeing and The Resilience Project sessions our major focus will be on empathy. Some of the understandings, skills and knowledge we will be covering include how all brains are unique, cooperation on the playground and helpful heroes.
Homework this term will consist of nightly reading and Timestable Rockstars. As per our homework policy, students are expected to complete 15-20 minutes of reading and 5 minutes of maths per night. Having your child read aloud greatly benefits their oral reading fluency (the speed at which they read) and allows you to monitor and ask questions to check their understanding. Students are reading a wide variety of reading materials according to their current needs, some students are reading take home fluency passages, some are using Decodable Readers Australia and some students are being encouraged to choose rich, authentic texts such as novels and non-fiction texts. Please speak to your child’s classroom teacher if you are unsure of what texts that they should be reading. For maths homework, we are encouraging students to use Timestable Rockstars as we are seeing great benefit from short but frequent use of this learning resource including an increase in the students’ accuracy and automatic recall of their multiplication facts. We are also going to have some fun school-based competitions such as class ‘battles’ where the students will compete against students from other classes. We have found that the students are enthusiastic and engaged about using Timestable Rockstars when learning their times tables!
Finally, an exciting event for the Grade 2s to look forward to is our upcoming school camp, to be held at the end of this term on Monday 15th and Tuesday 16th of September (two days/one night). Stay tuned for more information about our visit to the Angahook Holiday Camp and please ensure that the initial deposit is paid by August 12th.
Grade 4/5
A warm welcome back to all our parents and carers as we begin Term 3 in Grade 4/5! We have an exciting term ahead, filled with learning opportunities, special events, and upcoming assemblies. We’re looking forward to a fantastic few months of learning.
InLiteracythis term, we are diving into our new shared text The Last Bear, a powerful story that explores themes of friendship, courage, and standing up for what is right—even when it’s hard. Through this narrative, students are engaging deeply with complex ideas such as environmentalism and grief. As we read, we’re also sharpening our writing skills, focusing on using complex sentences, modal verbs, and persuasive techniques. We will use these techniques to write persuasive letters to the Arctic Council urging them to protect our precious planet.
In Mathematics, our focus this term covers a broad range of concepts, including fractions, time conversions, comparing and rounding decimals, graphing coordinates, and exploring probability through chance experiments. We’re also building confidence with worded problems through applying the ‘Understand, Plan, Solve, Check’ strategy to strengthen our problem-solving skills.
In Inquiry we begin our fascinating Earth Sciences unit in which we take a deep dive into soils, rocks, natural disasters such as earthquakes, and how weather changes the Earth’s landscape over time. We’re excited to take on the role of scientists as we investigate more about the world around us.
Grade 4 Camp: One of the most anticipated events this term is the Grade 4 Camp at Camp Allambee! We're looking forward to a memorable experience full of adventure, teamwork, and fun activities in West Gippsland. It promises to be a highlight of the term for all involved.
Grade 6
This term is a very special time for the students in Grade 6, as later in the term, we venture down the highway, all the way to Canberra. In Week 8 we go on camp and will experience all Canberra has to offer. So much of this term's curriculum centres around the theme of ‘Canberra and Democracy.’
In Literacy, our term will be broken into two sections, one looking at biographies and the later part of the term centring around reading and writing persuasive pieces.
In Reading, students will be exposed to a number of biographies and the way they are structured. Looking at some of the famous and political figures that we will be looking at include politicians, Anne Frank and Malala Yousafzai, an activist in Pakistan. Here we will be doing research and note taking, using search engines accurately, using reliable resources and looking at our organisation of notes. Our persuasive reading section will include lessons on emotive and modal language, as well as researching and preparing for a formal debate.
In Writing, the students will compose a biography on a person who has made a positive impact on our environment. Later in the term we will be writing ‘Persuasive pieces’ on a subject such as ‘Nuclear Power,’ taking the point of view of one side or the other. While in the second half of the term, the students will be working on debate presentations that will be put into action within debate teams.
In Mathematics this term, the students will continue to work on the ‘Ochre Education & the Shaping Minds,’ programs. Here we start sessions by undertaking daily reviews of the concepts introduced and also touching on future concepts. The main lesson areas that we will cover this term include working on calculating the area of irregular rectangles, creating side by side column graphs, calculating the cost of discounted items, subtracting fractions, multiplying fractions by whole numbers and plotting points on a coordinate plane.
This term's Inquiry unit is titled, ‘Our Democracy.’ Some of the topics that we will be looking at in this unit include what is democracy, the Australian parliamentary system, the three level of government, the voting process, laws and how they are made as well as looking at the ‘Old and New Parliament Houses.’ Oh. and did I mention that we are off to Canberra later in the term, lol.