What a jam-packed and exciting couple of weeks we are having in Grades 3 and 4!

After enjoying a fantastic incursion last week “Democracy and Me”, the excitement has continued this week with our amazing Scienceworks excursion where students had the opportunity to explore, investigate and make connections to our CBL focus on the power

of coding.

Adding to all of this was the wonderful buzz of Book Week, with our author visit from Nicky Johnston, the Book Week Parade, special activities and plenty of opportunities to celebrate our shared love of books, stories and imagination.

There has been a wonderful energy across our learning spaces, and we are looking forward to carrying this enthusiasm into another busy week of learning, creating and discovering together!

DEMOCRACY AND ME INCURSION

Our Democracy and Me incursion last week was a fabulous hands-on learning experience for our students! It provided a wonderful opportunity for children to apply their learning about local government to a range of engaging, real-life scenarios and activities. Students continued to develop their understanding of how representatives are elected, how decisions are made and the important role local government plays within our community. It was fantastic to see students confidently using their knowledge, asking thoughtful questions and recognising how democracy gives community members a voice in the decisions that affect them. The incursion was a terrific way to bring our classroom learning to life!

SCIENCEWORKS EXCURSION

What a fantastic time we had at Scienceworks, with so much to see, do and discover throughout the day!

The highlight was our hands-on robotics and coding session, where students programmed mBots and put their problem-solving skills into action. We also explored how technology has changed over time, tested our skills and abilities in the action-packed Sportworks exhibition, and challenged our senses and perceptions in Beyond Perception.

It was wonderful to see students so engaged, curious and willing to experiment, ask questions and try new things. The excursion provided the perfect springboard into our next CBL focus as we begin exploring the power of coding and how technology can be used to create, solve problems and shape our world.

BOOK WEEK

Our Book Week Parade was a highlight of this year’s celebrations! It was wonderful to see our students arrive dressed as an incredible collection of much-loved book characters, with so much creativity, colour and excitement on display. The parade provided a fantastic opportunity for our whole school community to come together and celebrate the joy of reading, storytelling and imagination.

A huge thank you to our families for the time, effort and creativity that went into helping students bring their favourite characters to life. There was such a wonderful buzz around the school, and it was a very special way to celebrate our shared love of books!

ANNUAL BOOK FAIR

Our Annual Book Fair is returning!

Families are invited to come along and browse the wonderful range of books available for purchase. A large percentage of all books purchased will go directly towards purchasing new books for our school library.

Students will also have the opportunity to visit the Book Fair with their classes.

Monday 31st August – Friday 4th September

Opening times:

Morning: 8:15am - 8:45am
Afternoon: 3:15pm - 3:45pm

The success of these events relies on the wonderful support of our school community. We are seeking expressions of interest from families who are able to assist our Grade 6 Library Captains with running the Book Fair during morning and afternoon sessions.

Literacy

Reading

This week, our mentor text is the entertaining and much-loved picture story book The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt. Through the crayons’ humorous letters to Duncan, students will explore how authors use character voice, perspective and persuasive language to communicate ideas and feelings.

We will use the text as a springboard for our explicit grammar learning, investigating subjects, verbs and clauses and exploring how these important elements work together to build complete and meaningful sentences. Students will have plenty of opportunities to manipulate, create and improve sentences while developing the grammatical knowledge they can transfer into their own reading and writing.

WHAT CAN YOU DO AT HOME:

Choose a sentence from a book and ask your child to identify who or what the sentence is about (the subject) and what they are doing, thinking, feeling or being (the verb).

You can also have some fun creating silly sentences together by choosing a subject and a verb, such as “The grumpy dog dances” or “My teacher snores!”

Spelling

Students will continue to practise identifying when the 111 rule applies, selecting appropriate suffixes and using their growing understanding of spelling patterns to accurately read, spell and build new words.

Writing

We will continue to connect with our mentor text, The Day the Crayons Quit, as we strengthen our understanding of how sentences are constructed.

Students will explicitly explore simple sentences, learning that a complete clause contains a subject and a verb. We will identify who or what a sentence is about and what they are doing, thinking, feeling or being, before having plenty of fun constructing and experimenting with our own sentences inspired by the crayons.

As students become confident building complete simple sentences, we will begin moving towards compound sentences, exploring how two complete ideas can be joined to create richer and more interesting writing

WHAT CAN YOU DO AT HOME:

Families can support our writing focus through simple conversations about sentences. When reading together, choose a sentence and ask your child, “Who or what is this sentence about?” and “What are they doing?”

Maths

Grade 3 – 3D Shapes

This week, Grade 3 students will continue developing their understanding of 3D objects, building on their ability to identify and describe features such as faces, surfaces, edges and vertices. Students will use these properties to compare, sort and classify objects, explaining the mathematical thinking behind their choices. Through hands-on investigations, students will also explore how 2D shapes can be found within 3D objects and consider how an object’s features affect the way it rolls, stacks or slides. Our focus will be on using accurate mathematical vocabulary and confidently explaining how we know which 3D object we are looking at.

WHAT CAN YOU DO AT HOME:

You could have some fun with a 3D building challenge using items already around the house. Encourage your child to build a tower or structure using boxes, containers, tins or other safe household objects. Talk about which objects stack easily, which roll, and which slide, and ask, “Why do you think that happened?” This is a simple, hands-on way for students to connect the features of 3D objects with how they behave in the real world.

Grade 4 – Fractions

Grade 4 students will continue to strengthen and extend their understanding of fractions as numbers. Students will investigate equivalent fractions, explore families of related fractions and make connections between fraction and decimal notation.

They will also count by familiar fractions such as halves, thirds and quarters, including beyond one whole into mixed numerals, and locate and represent fractions accurately on number lines.

WHAT CAN YOU DO AT HOME:

Fractions are everywhere in everyday life! Families can support this learning through practical experiences such as sharing food equally, following recipes, measuring ingredients or dividing collections into equal groups. Ask questions such as, “If we cut this into eight equal pieces and eat four, what fraction have we eaten?” and “Can you think of another fraction that represents the same amount?”

Encourage your child to explain or draw their thinking—for example, showing why 2/4 and 1/2 are equivalent.These everyday conversations help students see fractions as meaningful numbers.

Continue to encourage your child to practice their times tables regularly by saying them out loud, writing them down, or through quizzing.

Multiverse on Mathletics and Hit the Button (website) can be a fun interactive way to practice and strengthen number fact knowledge and work towards automaticity

CBL (Challenge Based Learning)

Our Challenge Based Learning (CBL) Big Idea is Power.

We were absolutely blown away by the creativity, teamwork and commitment our students demonstrated as they completed their CBL mini challenge, ‘Use Your Power to Make a Positive Impact.’ Students identified real issues within our school and wider Wonga Park community, including the need for more car parking spaces, reducing graffiti and rubbish, safer travel on public transport, and better ways to compost food scraps.

Working collaboratively, groups researched their chosen issue, developed possible solutions and then found wonderfully creative ways to share their ideas. We saw everything from stop-motion animations, raps, iMovies and Keynote presentations to green screens, LEGO models and persuasive letters! Most impressive was the way students organised themselves, shared responsibilities, listened to one another and remained committed to creating solutions that could genuinely improve their community. We are incredibly proud of the way they showed that you don’t have to be an adult to have a voice, take action and make a positive impact!

During Weeks 7–10, our CBL learning will shift to exploring power through coding. Students will investigate how coding can be used to create, problem-solve and bring ideas to life through a range of engaging challenges.

To support this learning, we kindly ask families to check that their child has the Swift Playground app installed on their device. If it is not currently installed, we would appreciate families downloading it in preparation for our CBL sessions across the final three weeks of term.

Wellbeing

SWBPS

Through our SWPBS program and token system, we continue to recognise and celebrate students who demonstrate positive work habits, respectful relationships and safe behaviours, helping to create a supportive learning environment where everyone can thrive.

This week in Respectful Relationships, we will continue exploring Help-Seeking Strategies through the lesson How Big Is the Problem? Students will learn to recognise that problems can vary in size and seriousness, and consider how their response should match the size of the problem. We will discuss different scenarios, identify appropriate ways to respond and explore when we can solve a problem ourselves and when it is important to seek help from a trusted adult.

Kitchen Garden 

We continue to rely on the support of our wonderful parent helpers to ensure this program is safe and successful. We also warmly welcome help from extended family such as grandparents, aunts, and uncles. If you or a family member can spare some time to support the program, the sign-up link is:

https://signup.com/go/kLsQDpy

We post our recipes on Showbie for students who would like to recreate the amazing dishes they make in our cooking classes.

Please use the Showbie code below if your child would like to access these recipes:

9JYVE

INFORMATION & REMINDERS

SQUISHY & FIDGET TOYS

We ask that students do not bring squishy toys, fidget toys or similar items to school unless their use has been specifically recommended by an Occupational Therapist or relevant professional and communicated with the school as a strategy to support the child’s focus and learning.

While these items can be valuable tools when used for a specific purpose, when brought to school as toys they can become distracting for both the student and those around them. Thank you for helping us keep our classrooms focused and ensuring that learning tools are used purposefully and appropriately.

HOLIDAYS

If your family is planning a holiday during the school term, we kindly ask that parents communicate this directly with their child’s teacher, rather than relying on students to pass the information on. A quick email letting us know the dates your child will be away is all that is needed and helps us plan for their absence and return to learning.

Thank you for helping us stay informed and ensuring clear communication between home and school.

Term Three Dates

September

Monday 31st August - Friday 4th September: Annual Book Fair

Thursday 3rd September – District Athletics, selected students

Friday 4th September - Father’s Day / Special Persons morning “Donuts with Dad”

Tuesday 8th September – Grade 3/4 Hooptime

VSSS Choir have several dates on the calendar

-please help support your child to make sure their iPad is charged and ready to use each day

-please download the app Swift Playgrounds onto your child's device to support our CBL coding (see CBL section)

Wellbeing Hub