Highvale Happenings

See What's Happening in Year 3!

Our Year 3 students have had a fabulous term so far! They have settled into their classrooms beautifully, consistently following expectations and demonstrating great enthusiasm. 

 

We are very impressed by their dedication to their learning, particularly during their recent NAPLAN tests. Students put in their very best effort and remained committed throughout the entire process. We are so proud of you, Year 3s!

 

Here is what some of our students had to say about NAPLAN:

  • “I was really nervous at the start but, at the end, I felt relieved and proud of myself!” - Olivia 3J
  • “NAPLAN was quiet, yet fun!” - Calvin 3J
  • “I was surprised how long it took but I was proud that I could sit and complete them all.” - Meera 3CBB
  • “I felt good about the spelling test - that really surprised me!” - Luke 3CBB
  • “I thought we would get to do NAPLAN over the whole year, so I'm a bit sad that it’s finished.” - Swanik 3CBB

Writing

In Writing, we are focusing on using strong and powerful adjectives and adverbs in our writing to describe characters. Over the last two weeks, students have been writing a paragraph that describes a monster. These paragraphs will be used for their peers to draw their monster creation. We can’t wait to see our descriptive language come to life!

Maths

Over the last 2 weeks, students have been focusing on addition during Maths. We’ve developed mental and written skills to help us efficiently work through problems. Some of these strategies include:

  • Partitioning and Split Strategy - breaking numbers into their place values to assist with easier calculations.
  • Regrouping - using place value understanding to help us complete vertical addition in our grid books.
  • Number Lines - using a line to represent addition using ‘jumps’ based on place value.
  • Rounding- using our place value knowledge to find the nearest ten, hundred, thousand, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, and sometimes even tenths, hundredths and thousandths!

Here is what some of our students had to say about their learning on addition:

  • “I enjoyed solving the problems that my peers wrote for me.” - Lucas 3CBB
  • “I like using the number line strategy, it makes adding easier!” - Adya 3CBB
  • “We have been learning to regroup. You need it to do vertical addition.” - Tiya 3J

Concept Curriculum

Our focus in Concept Curriculum has been on cultural celebrations. We have been learning about Nowruz - Persian New Year - a celebration that, this year, falls on Thursday the 20th of March. During Nowruz, a goldfish is put on a special table called Haft-Seen. The goldfish represents life, happiness and new beginnings. It reminds people of the fresh start that comes with the spring season. The bright color of the goldfish also stands for good luck and having a happy year ahead. 

 

Check out the beautiful ‘Good Luck Fish’ that our Year 3 students made: 

Students have also been busily researching some information about a range of cultural celebrations. Some of these include: Anzac Day, Christmas, Easter, Chinese New Year, Lantern Festival, Mooncake Festival, Sri Lankan New Year, Diwali, Holi, Vaisakhi and Nowruz. 

 

Here are some of their learnings: 

  • Mooncake Festival - “I learnt that people wear red, patterned clothes at the Mooncake Festival.” - Austen 3J
  • St Patrick’s Day - “I learnt that St Patrick is actually a real person." - Remi 3J
  • Anzac Day - “We thought that Anzac biscuits were the main food eaten on Anzac Day but people also eat lamingtons, pavlova, meat pies and Tim Tams.” - Bonnie and Anekha 3J
  • Lohri - “People celebrate Lohri because they feel proud of themselves for growing and selling crops.” - Vimal and Dante 3J
  • Sri Lankan New Year - “We learnt that during Sri Lankan New Year, people eat rice, curry, cutlets (balls of meat/fish covered in crispy breadcrumbs) and sweets like coconut toffee, milk toffee and jalebi.” - Tiya and Akith 3J
  • Nowruz - “I learnt that some people in Iran put a goldfish on their table for Persian New Year.” - Caspian 3J
  • Chinese New Year - “We learnt that people who celebrate Chinese New Year wear red and gold clothes.” - Shawn and Hana 3J

We are so proud of all of your effort, Year 3. Keep up the amazing effort!