Grade 3 News

📅 Important Dates & Reminders

Upcoming dates/Important Info

Monday, June 8th: King's Birthday Public Holiday

Friday, June 26th: Last Day Term 2

Hats are no longer required to be worn at recess of lunch times.

Icy Poles will be sold outside the senior school Monday & Tuesday lunchtimes.

📖 Literacy

Our first literature unit of the year is an engaging and hilarious picture storybook titled 'Off We Go Around Australia,' which features several different stories within the one book, supported by highly engaging illustrations. The first story tells its narrative through a series of postcards sent to Grandma by three siblings, Henry, Frankie and Penny, while holidaying at Crabby Spit. The children document their Dad and Uncle Kevin’s often unsuccessful attempts at beach activities, such as building massive sandcastles and trying to master surfing.

The next story in the collection, 'To the Top End,' follows the family as they travel from Tasmania all the way to the northernmost tip of Australia. Along the way, they cross the Bass Strait by ferry, pass through “Kelly Country,” and journey along the Murray River.

Sentence Level Writing:The first focus was on understanding what an appositive is and identifying these in sentences. Students then matched appositives to different noun groups before creating their own and adding them to sentences they had written, ensuring they were punctuated correctly. For example, if “Miss Manning” is the noun, an appositive could be “my teacher,” as in the sentence, “Miss Manning, my teacher, talks too much.” Students also expanded sentences to add detail by including who, what, when, where, why and how, and experimented with beginning sentences using different fronted adverbials.

Text Level Writing:This term, students are writing an explanation text about the formation of waterfalls. Students have been reading about the different elements of waterfalls and key vocabulary such as erosion, plunge pool and soft and hard rock. They planned and wrote their introduction using the GST method, beginning with a general statement about waterfalls, followed by a more specific statement outlining what the rest of the text will be about, and ending with a thesis statement that outlines what the reader will learn.

Preview: Students will plan and write the body paragraph of their explanatory text.

➗ Maths

Over the last fortnight, we have been learning about fractions of shapes and collections, and how to record fractions by identifying the numerator and denominator. We have specifically focused on identifying halves, quarters, thirds, fifths and tenths. Students practised combining fractions to make one whole and used a think board to represent fractions.

This week, we began our length unit, where students are learning to identify and record the measurement of different objects based on their size. Students measured in millimetres, centimetres and metres. When an object measured between whole numbers, students recorded their measurement in both centimetres and millimetres.

There were many opportunities in these lessons for students to move around the room and school and take their learning outside, and many students experienced success through these hands-on activities.

Preview: We will continue to learn about different metric units, learning to estimate and order them. Our next unit on patterning will begin, where students will learn what an algorithm is and how to follow and create them using number patterns.

Knowledge Rich 

Students have been learning about First Nations peoples in our Knowledge Rich unit. We explored who First Nations peoples are, why Country is important to them, and the deep connections they have to the land through stories, song, art and ceremony. We also learned how First Nations peoples care for the land, including practices such as cultural burning.

Students compared a political map, (showing the states and territories of Australia,) to a First Nations map that represents language groups and cultural regions. We also learned about what life was like before colonisation, including how some groups had unique ways of hunting, gathering and moving with the seasons, as well as how they built seasonal shelters.

Preview: Students will explore how First Nations peoples were connected across Australia and how colonisation changed the lives of First Nations Australians.

Wellbeing

As a collective, the whole school participates in wellbeing lessons before assembly on Fridays. Last week, the Grade 3 students had their first 4R's (Resilience, Rights, Respectful Relationships,) lesson of the year. Our first topic is Emotional Literacy, where students identified different emotions and explored how we can tell what someone might be feeling by recognising positive and negative body language cues.

Preview: In Week 4, students will have Circles on Friday afternoon. The following week, students will continue to explore Emotional Literacy and identify different emotions people might feel in different situations.

Homework Options

Grade 3 Team,

Miss Manning, Miss Egorov and Miss du Vallon