Year 3 Term 4 Overviews

Year 3 Term 4 Overview

Wominjeka!

Down to the final term of being in Year 3! The term has started on a very positive note with excitement building for the upcoming camp. 

We greatly appreciate the support you are giving your children with their nightly reading, diary entries, and goal practice and it is important that we keep up with this during term 4 so students are ready and prepared before entering year 4. 

We welcome Spencer to the team, as the new teacher of 3A.

Learning: 

Reading 

Students are exploring the structure and features of poetry and procedural texts, in a hybrid model- 3 sessions a week on poetry and 2 on procedural. This will include a focus on writing traits that make the text more engaging to readers. 

They will dive deep into weekly mentor texts, engage in guided reading, and participate in reciprocal teaching. They will also explore a variety of texts from our school and class libraries and our online reading resources, Wushka and Epic.

During reciprocal teaching, students will develop skills to make predictions, clarify words and phrases, ask text-related questions, and summarize key ideas and messages in the texts they read.

Writing 

Students are honing their skills as authors by creating poems and procedural texts and their purpose, features and using this information to build their skills and knowledge as authors.

Students are generating seed ideas, planning, writing, editing, revising, and publishing multiple poetry types including; Diamante, Haiku, Concrete, Lyric and Alliterations and others.

 Students use their writer's notebooks to gather and develop seed ideas, choose relevant vocabulary and ways of presenting instructions for a chosen topic or area of interest, write information texts using evidence of structure, use of command verbs and adverbs at the beginning of each sentence, use of action verbs in the present tense, use of precise descriptive vocabulary eg. lukewarm, plastic measuring jug, use of adverbs to express details of time, place, manner eg. stir briskly until blended, articles (a, an, the) generally omitted, text features - simple diagrams/graphics, safety tips, and research questions, guiding and enriching their writing process.

Students are beginning to develop their SMART spelling routine, investigating and practicing the weekly spelling pattern using different techniques each day. This aims to improve overall spelling and also increase each student's vocabulary. 

Maths  

Students are currently working towards calculating perimeter, area, mass and capacity in our measurement unit before moving back to fractions towards the end of term. Within the measurement unit, students will be using their prior knowledge, concepts of multiplication and strategies such as arrays to support their understanding. Students will be able to lead their own learning through open-ended real life scenarios which allow them to undertake tasks at their own pace but also allows ample opportunity to extend their thinking and learning. 

Multiplicative thinking will be a key focus throughout the year, as it is considered a 'big idea' for Years 3 and 4. Students are engaging in math games during regular Number Sense Workshops to practice strategies and deepen their recall of multiplication facts for 2, 3, 5, 10, and beyond, as well as their related division facts.

Additionally, students are continuing to build their math reasoning skills through weekly opportunities to solve real-life word problems. They use efficient and creative mental, written, and representational strategies, such as drawing diagrams and tables, making models, and writing number sentences (equations).

SEL

Throughout Term 4, our Social and Emotional Learning will focus on understanding and investigating forms of gender-based violence including physical, verbal, and psychological. We are following the Department of Education program of Rights, Resilience and Respectful Relationships. Students will also explore the similarities and differences between different kinds of gender-based violence and how it feels like, sounds like, and looks like in a range of age-appropriate scenarios from the relevant texts.  Students will understand how to respond to gender based violence and the different ways to respond to violence as a bystander. We aim to build a more inclusive and accepting classroom community. We will continue building our routines and rituals, and as always have an ongoing focus on school values and school-wide positive behavior. Your child may come home with questions about this topic, feel free to reach out to your child’s teacher with any questions or concerns.

Inquiry Learning

Students will be investigating the driving question, How has Australia changed over time to get to where is it today? as part of our Social Responsibility unit of inquiry. We began this unit with unpacking the guiding question and what this could mean. Students will be investigating: 

•how and why life changed in the past, and identify aspects of the past that remained the same.

•perspectives of people from the past and present and recognise different points of view.

•the extent to which historical events might be regarded by different people as good or bad, right or wrong, better or worse 

Home Learning

Ongoing learning goals are posted on Compass every 5 weeks for students to work towards achieving both at home and at school. This includes reading, writing, maths, and social/emotional goals. There are suggestions for how families can support their child to achieve their learning goals and we thank you for your support in assisting your children at home. Students can also access IXL for both maths and english.

General Reminders:

• Please ensure that your child is at school by 8:30 and ready to learn at 8:40am.

OSH Club is available for before and after school care.

                                            OSH Club Contact Number  0428 671 093

Email    dohertyscreek@oshclub.com.au

Website   OSHClub.com.au

• Please check Compass daily, as these will be the main portals that we (the teachers) and the school will communicate information to you. Compass is also the place where you will be able to access your child’s goals and achievements. 

These will be released every five weeks and will tell you what your child has achieved in Reading, Writing, Numeracy and Inquiry/Social, as well as their next steps (goals). 

•Learning apps, IXL for maths and english, Wushka, Epic and Google Classroom are being accessed by students. The safest place for login details is in Green Home Reading Diaries and we recommend that families take a picture of their child’s login details and store in their phones as a backup. 

•The last grade 3 assembly of the year will be held on Tuesday, week 7 at 2:10pm. Parents will be welcomed to join and a reminder will be sent out closer to the date. 

Kind Regards,

The 2024 Year 3 Team

3A Spencer, 3B Sydney, 3C Amber, 3D Palika, 3E Jake, 3F Amanda, 3G Alex, 3H Arline, 3I Zandile, 3J Gary