Classroom News

Grade 3 & 4

It’s hard to believe that the end of the year has come, and what a Term 4 it’s been! Through all the assessments and finalising of work we’ve also managed to fit in some unique activities, such as a science incursion and a radio awareness incursion, in which we made our own radio shows. At the end of a twelve week term, after a long (but fun) year, we’re all ready for a holiday.

In Reading, we worked on numerous comprehension strategies. Students developed their abilities to unpack a seed through a range of thinking tools, such as Y charts, clouds of wonder, thinking hats and mind maps. We looked at how to identify  the main ideas of a text and how to summarise these succinctly using these main points. Students were also encouraged to question texts before reading, during reading and after finishing, then to come up with queries at each of these stages of reading. Near the end of Term 4, we investigated texts in ways that mirror how these are worked through during NAPLAN in order to improve comprehension skills and prepare 2024’s Grade 5s.

In Writing, students have continued to finalise and get their Writers Gift completed and ready to go to a special person. We have included many different types of writing genres. Towards the end of this term, we have focussed more on writing Persuasive and Narratives to prepare our Year 4s for next year's Year 5 NAPLAN. We have looked at how we can ensure our voices are heard on paper by including strong word choices, descriptive sentences and eye catching bits of information! For the remaining two weeks, we are going to  jump into some fun writing and have a go at writing scripts to be young news reporters!

In Mathematics we covered a variety of topics. One of those we looked at early on was decimals. Children looked into how these work on a number line, what the decimal place values mean and how these relate to fractions. Following this, we explored money, adding small collections of coins and notes and calculating change in various real world-esque situations. We investigated graphs too, reading and creating them, and broadening our understanding of the various forms that they can take, such as bar, pie and stem and leaf, amongst others. In area and perimeter, students investigated the relationship between the two measurements and how they relate. Finally, we practised our mapping and directions, and the way that shapes can link, be flipped and moved and how these transformations can manifest. 

In Integrated, we started the term learning about erosion and weathering. Students had a great time exploring the two concepts through some hands-on experiments and gained a good understanding of how various forces shape our world. From here we delved into concepts around human impacts on our environment through activities such as waste creation and pollution. The kids created some fantastic campaigns centering on saving our planet. As a final activity, students attempted to create a solution to an erosion problem around the school or one of the problems investigated over the term. Seems the future is in good hands!

We would like to say a big thank you to all the families for their constant support this year. We have truly appreciated parents helping us out when they can and being involved with things such as parent helpers in the classroom, camps and excursions. 

On behalf of the 3/4 team, we wish all families a Merry Christmas and a safe, prosperous and Happy New Year.