Newsletter

Year 3/4 - Newsletter

Dear Parents & Carers,

 

We’ve had a wonderful few weeks in Level 3/4 and are proud of the effort and enthusiasm the students have been bringing to their learning. Thank you for your ongoing support at home, it makes a real difference in helping the children to get the most out of school life.

 

As part of our upcoming Design and Technology unit, students will be creating nesting boxes. To get started, each child will need to bring in a medium-sized cardboard box from home. If you are able to send one along with your child by the end of next week, that would be greatly appreciated.

 

We’re looking forward to seeing the creativity and problem-solving skills students bring to this hands-on project!

 

What's happened in 3/4 this fortnight?

 

English

During our Structured Literacy sessions, we have been learning new spelling rules, including the wa/wha/war rule. We have also continued our work on suffixes, revising -er and -est, and learning -ful (meaning “full of,” not “full”) and -ness (meaning “state, condition, or quality”). 

 

In Writing, we have been working on our information reports about the Coorong, finishing our conclusions. Our current focus is on learning how to edit and refine our writing to improve the quality of our reports.

 

In Reading, we have completed Storm Boy by Colin Thiele and explored the different literary devices he used throughout the text.

 

Maths 

In Maths, we continued our unit on multiplication and division. We have been learning to apply a range of strategies and use problem-solving skills to tackle practical, worded problems. We also explored how our knowledge of multiplication can be applied to finding the area of shapes. To conclude our extensive unit on multiplication and division, we completed a whole-school Rich Assessment Task. This task gave students the opportunity to apply their skills to a real-world style problem, while also providing teachers with valuable insights into how students transfer their learning. The information gained from this assessment will help guide teaching and learning beyond this term.

 

Inquiry

This week in Inquiry we begin part two of our unit - where we will be investigating the suitability of materials, systems, components, tools and equipment for a range of purposes. In particular, our focus will be on designing and constructing nesting and resting homes for our local wildlife. We have learned about how loss of environments and nesting sites can affect Australian animals. You could encourage your child to share with you why changes in environments might affect an animal’s nesting site.

 

This week in Inquiry, students have been working on completing their nesting box design for their chosen animal and will soon begin building and decorating their design out of cardboard and recycled materials. They will carefully measure the size of the box and entrances to make sure their animal can fit, and add ledges, climbing ladders and natural materials to make it a welcoming habitat. Thank you to those who have brought in shoe size boxes and cardboard already.

 

REMINDER - Inquiry Resource request:

We are asking that students collect any shoe size cardboard boxes or large pieces of cardboard. We will be using this for our upcoming Design and Technology lessons where we will be designing and constructing models of nesting and resting homes for our local wildlife. These now need to be brought to school.

 

Edendale Farm Excursion:

On Thursday 11th and Friday 12th of September all Year 3 and 4 students will be walking across to Edendale Farm for an excursion. Please check COMPASS for all the event details, and to consent / pay for your child’s attendance. Please contact the office if you need any assistance with this. 

 

We would also like some parent helpers from each class for this excursion. If you can attend the excursion, please contact your child’s classroom teacher.

 

We are split across the two days as follows:

 

Thursday 11th September:

3/4D (Natasha Soundy and Alicia Moore)

3/4E (Claire Amsellem)

3/4F (Ari Levacic) 

 

Friday 12th September:

3/4A (Tamara Pennycook and Janine Tucker)

3/4B (Alicia Moore and Kristy Ayres)

3/4C (Matthew Georges)

 

Friendology/Wellbeing 

Within our Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships content, we are exploring positive coping strategies this term. Coping when we feel strong emotions and taming angry feelings have been recent topics discussed during our sessions.  

 

Reminders

Cold & Flu Season

With the cold and flu season upon us, please be mindful of other children and if your child is unwell please provide them with a rest period at home.

 

Homework - weekly homework continues to consist of:

  • Minimum 4 nights reading with at least 80 minutes per week recorded in school diary (Book title, pages read, minutes read).
  • Diary is to be brought to school each Friday signed by parents.
  • Although not compulsory, we encourage your child to complete assigned Mathletics tasks.

 

Things to Remember:

  • NOW - please bring in your shoe sized cardboard box or cardboard pieces for Inquiry
  • Thursday 11th September - R U OK?  Day
  • Thursday 11th September - Edendale Farm Excursion for 3/4D, E and F 
  • Friday 12th September - Edendale Farm Excursion 3/4A, B and C
  • Monday 15th September - Year 4 Hoop Time
  • Thursday 18th September - Footy Day
  • Friday 19th September - Last Day of Term 3

 

Student Awards

Look out for your class’ individual email Friday afternoon for the Student of the Week & Student Recognition Award shoutouts.

 

Have a great weekend,The Level Three/Four Team.