Year 3

English

Reading

Throughout term two the grade three students focused on summarising texts. In this unit students learnt to understand and summarise fiction and non-fiction texts. They practised how to paraphrase so they were able to create a summary in their own words, whilst also including the important events or ideas from the text.  During the summarising unit students also built their skills in determining important information, inferring, and identifying and understanding text structures and features of both fiction and non-fiction genres.

Writing

Students began this term learning about persuasive writing. During this unit the students learnt about the features and structure of a persuasive text. Students developed their understanding of how to craft a persuasive text that includes their opinion or thoughts on a chosen topic with reasons and evidence for this opinion, as well as, using language features such as high modality words and emotive language to persuade their reader. We then moved onto a unit on poetry which was our main focus for this term. During this unit students learnt about free verse, Haiku and Cinquain poems, as well as, poetic devices such as onomatopoeia, metaphors, similes and alliteration.

Mathematics

We began the term by focusing on angles where students learnt to identify a right angle and angles smaller and larger than a right angle. Along with continuing to revise our knowledge of place value throughout the first few weeks of term.  We then moved into our focus of addition and subtraction. During this unit students learnt to use multiple strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems. They understood how to describe these strategies while developing a preferred method to solve addition and subtraction using a place value method e.g., jump strategy, fact families, mental recall.  Students then moved onto a short unit of mass using metrics units grams and kilograms. We then finished the term with a focus on financial math looking at the equivalent value of coins and notes and providing change.

Inquiry

In year 3 and 4 students  began the ‘everybody wants to rule the world’ unit. Throughout this unit we learned that decisions can be made democratically along with the role of local government. Students recognised the importance of rules and distinguished the differences between rules and laws. We also reviewed how people can be active citizens in their community and how the different kinds of authorities we may encounter. During this unit we also looked at different cultural norms and the impacts that they can have on rules that are accepted within that culture.

Science

This term in Science, Grade 3 students have focused on the Earth and Space Sciences. Students in Grade 3 have looked at different human activities that cause changes to the Earth’s surface (e.g. farming, mining, damming of river and the development of cities). They have investigated the impact of these activities on Earth’s natural environment. Grade 3 students have also identified some of the effects, both positive and negative, that weather events have on the natural landscape (e.g. storms causing flooding and erosion, heatwaves contributing to drought and bushfires, earthquakes causing damage to Earth’s surface). The overarching key idea students have explored is that Earth’s surface changes over time, as a result of natural processes and human activity.

                 LOTE - Chinese

During Term 2 in Chinese, Grade3 students learnt basic colours in Chinese, such as 黑色hei se (black), 白色bai se（white), 红色hong se (red),绿色(green), 蓝色lan se (Blue) and 黄色 huang se (yellow).  They started using iPad game (Blooket) to review their learning. Also Grade3 students continued to learn numbers 1-20 in Chinese characters and pronunciation, together with pinyin song and Gongxi Gongxi song.

Art

In term 2, the Grade 3 to 6’s have been getting very messy with paint. They have been experimenting with painting on a variety of surfaces including on rocks, walls and on vinyl records. They have been learning about Australian Indigenous Art and have had the opportunity to create and replicate their own inspired versions. The students have been learning about Aboriginal Symbols, the meaning of each symbol, why they are important and how they were used by Indigenous Australians. The students experimented with dot painting using cotton buds on vinyl records and paper. They painted their favorite symbol and carefully placed dots around it. The students really enjoyed learning about Indigenous Art. I look forward to more messiness in the Art room in Term 3.

P.E.

During this term the grade 3 students have focussed on different sports to help with their understanding of the fundamental movement skills. They have been taking these skills and applying them to game-based sporting situations and activities. Basketball and athletics track & field were what we worked on for this term and were used to showcase various fundamental movement skills. While learning about basketball, the students in grade 3 were able to learn about the required skills to play the sport. These have included dribbling, passing, and shooting. Our students can now apply the skills required in basketball to participate in mini and small-sided games of 2 v 2 and 3 v 3 basketball. Students have had ample opportunity to play in these games and learn as they play. In the second half of the term, students have participated in track & field events that have focussed on their running, catching, and throwing. Our class athletic competition has been postponed to the start of term 3. The events that the students will participate in are short distance running, relay running, discuss, shot put, and hurdles. Teamwork and working collaboratively was a top priority for the grade 3 students during this term and it was wonderful to see so many embrace these qualities. This term was so much fun, and all the students showed high levels of participation throughout each lesson. I look forward to the second half of the year and all the learning and sporting opportunities that will take place.