Year 3/4 News
English
Reading
During our start up Reading program, the Grade 3/4 students will be discussing and practising the routines and expectations of our reading lessons. Our lessons will focus on establishing expectations for independent reading, selecting Just Right Texts for independent reading practise, setting up and taking care of our classroom libraries and understanding and appreciating our varied reading interests. We will also be establishing structures and routines for reading conferences, teacher focus groups and purposeful reading experiences.
For the remainder of the term, the students will be reading, processing and comprehending a wide range of high quality texts. The comprehension strategy we will be explicitly teaching this term is Inferencing, using clues from the text to draw conclusions about implied information.
Writing
To start the year in Writing, the Grade 3/4 students will be familiarising themselves with the writing lesson structure and routines. Students will be setting up and personalising their Writer’s Notebooks, which will be used throughout the year to support their development of ideas when writing. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in both teacher directed and personal choice writing experience using different materials from their classroom writing centres.
Students will then be revising narratives and persuasive texts, with a focus on revision of text structure and text specific vocabulary. Before learning to plan and sequence ideas, structure sentences and revise/edit and publish explanation texts.
Mathematics
The Grade 3/4 students will begin the year familiarising themselves with the tools and equipment that they will use to support their learning in Mathematics sessions. Students will complete some simple problem solving lessons during the Mathematics Start Up program, where they will familiarise and practise the routines and expectations of Mathematics lessons and allow them to showcase their knowledge to their new teachers.
Our first Number and Algebra unit will focus on patterns and place value exploring numbers to 10 000- 100 000. For our Measurement units, we will investigate temperature with a focus on language such as ‘hot’ and ‘cold’, and read and compare temperature represented on the thermometers.
We will then shift our focus to Time and practice telling time to the minute using both analogue and digital clocks and relate hours, minutes and seconds to common events using ‘am’ and ‘pm’, as well as solving problems involving duration. Lastly, we will be practising to collect, record and interpret data during our Statistic unit.
Inquiry
During this term, the Grade 3/4 students will be settling back into classroom environments, helping to establish expected classroom behaviours. They will begin the term by focusing on our school wide Learning to Learn program to ensure school wide positive behaviours are understood and displayed. These will be regularly revisited throughout the year.
Science
Grade 3/4 students have an exciting start to the year in 2024 with Term 1 focusing on Biology. Students will learn that living things can be grouped on the basis of features and can be distinguished from non-living things. They will be involved in learning tasks based upon: identifying the characteristics of living things; exploring the difference between living things and non-living things through hands-on activities; creating and labelling diagrams of body features of animals; dissecting plants and describing their features; investigating the taxonomy of living animals.
LOTE – AUSLAN
It is with much excitement to announce that this year students at Melton West Primary School from Prep to Grade six will be learning AUSLAN as our new LOTE subject! The program will commence in due course when it is available and set up for learning to take place in classrooms. Classroom teachers will facilitate the learning and will be provided with comprehensive resources and a teaching program from Auslan Education Services. We look forward to our students learning this wonderful skill which will provide many opportunities to communicate with the broader and inclusive community. Be sure to look out for notifications in our newsletter and social media platforms for when students have begun to engage in this fantastic learning experience!
Art
Welcome to Term 1, Art, 2024! In Art, Grade 3 and 4 will begin by settling into routines and following expectations in our art room environment. This will include taking pride and care when using art materials and tools and demonstrating positive behaviours while in the classroom.
The topic for this term is Colour Theory, the students will revise their knowledge of Primary and Secondary colours.
During the term the students will be exposed to various artworks by different artists where they will explore how different colours have been used to create these art pieces. The students will then use this knowledge to explore the difference between warm and cool colours and use these colours to create many different fun and creative art pieces of their own using different mediums.
Looking forward to seeing lots of creativity and wonderful artworks from Grade 3 and 4 in Term 1!
Music
We are excited to introduce our new music program for Grades 3 and 4. First, the students will learn how to follow routines and protocols for cooperative and creative learning in the music room and learn how to play a range of percussion instruments. They will move on to learn about rhythm, pitch, dynamics (soft and loud sounds) and tempo (fast and slow) through singing, playing and experimenting with their voices and instruments. The students will explore the structure and organisation of music and be introduced to some simple notation to record rhythm and melodies. Listening and responding to a variety of music will form part of each lesson. The students will be encouraged to share their musical interests and enjoy some individual expression in a fun and structured environment.
P.E.
During this term our grade 3/4 students will be using a games-based approach to Physical Education learning by participating in various sports and using the relevant skills and movements in conjunction with problem solving and strategy to achieve success. In term one, grade 3/4 students will participate in football and netball. While playing in these sports the students will continue to develop their fundamental movement skills which include throwing, catching, striking, kicking, running, jumping, and dodging. In this term we will take a deep dive into the core skills needed for each of these sports and give the students ample opportunity to demonstrate these skills in game play. Grade 3/4 students will learn to explain and follow rules for these sports and be able to apply a scoring system to make games competitive. We are always working on applying creative thinking when playing sports by using strategy and demonstrating social skills by working with others in teams. I am looking forward to working with the grade 3/4 students this year and am sure the year ahead will be wonderful.