Level 3

Wow, the first week of Term 3 certainly started with a bang! It was lovely to have the students back and hear all about their holiday adventures. Then it was straight into production rehearsal and two nights of performing "What A Knight!"

Production

We headed off to the Besen Centre for a final dress rehearsal and sound check, with the Level 3 students looking spectacular in their glittery crown costume. Well done to everyone who sang and danced on the stage. Here are a few backstage sneak peaks and onstage snaps. Congratulations HEPS on another fantastic production!

Literacy

Our focus for the week is for students to continue to improve their reading fluency. Reading fluently is like the water in a river, it flows along nicely and smoothly with occasional rocks to get over (tricky words that need decoding) and then continue on flowing. We have used a range of descriptive passages to read aloud, identifying strong vocabulary and our current spelling words as well.

All Level 3 students are currently writing adventure

narratives for the HEPS 'Book an Adventure' writing

competition. To warm up our imaginations, students

were given a writing stimulus prompt about 'The Key',

and they certainly came up with some interesting ways

to include a key in their story!

Numeracy

This term we begin to deepen our understanding of what multiplication is and develop more efficient mental and written strategies to solve problems. Students were asked to make anchor charts to explain multiplication and show what they already know.

During the next few weeks, students will explore different models of multiplication (like repeated addition, equal groups, and arrays), learn to identify multiplication as a concept, and develop fluency with multiplication (times tables) facts.

Inquiry

During our Science focus on "Change" students will explore the different life cycles of plants and animals. We will be describing differences between metamorphic life cycles of animals (butterflies, beetles, frogs) and non-metamorphic life cycles where offspring are similar, but not identical to their parents, like humans. We began by looking at time lapses of a range of plants growing and completed a 'see, think, wonder' thinking routine.

What do you SEE? “I see the stem pushing through the soil...” “The leaves keep turning...”

What do you THINK is happening? “I think the roots are spreading underground.” “Maybe it's looking for sunlight.

What do you WONDER? “I wonder how it knows when to grow.” “Do all seeds grow the same way?” “Do baby plants look like parent plants?”

Wellbeing

It was timely that in Friendology we learned how to calm worries, nerves, and anxiety (which we call “butterflies”) so they don’t get in our way and stop us from trying new things, like performing on stage, or enjoying life.

Students wrote down their ‘butterflies’ (worrying thoughts) and then sorted them into the two columns:

TAME is for butterflies that you have control over. These are butterflies we can calm down by doing different things.

RELEASE is for the butterflies that you cannot control and need to let go of! These are butterflies that are influenced by other people and out of our control.

Did you know Wednesday 30th July was the National Day of Friendship? Students shared their ideas of what friendship is and what it means to them. We have some wonderful and caring friends in 3MW!