Foundation
This year has been moving along so quickly, and it’s amazing to see how much our students have grown academically, socially, and emotionally. Each child has made wonderful progress and we couldn’t be prouder.
Term 3 Highlights
This term was full of exciting learning opportunities. We began using MSL (Multisensory Structured Learning) everyday to explicitly teach phonics for reading and writing. Students worked on reading fluently, recognising punctuation, and improving letter formation using dotted thirds.
Our mentor texts, No Way Yirrikipayi and The Gruffalo, inspired discussions during Reader’s Workshop and tied beautifully into our STEAM focus on Imaginary Animals. Students:
- Made predictions from book covers
- Discovered new vocabulary
- Identified nouns, verbs, and adjectives
- Made personal text-to-self connections
- Retold stories using story maps
Created their own sentences inspired by the language of the texts
In Mathematics, students explored addition, subtraction, place value, ordinal numbers, and 3D shapes. They applied this knowledge in our STEAM project, where they designed a habitat for an imaginary animal. Each habitat had to include 20 objects, with students creating a matching sum to prove it. The use of different 3D shapes made their creations both realistic and imaginative.
STEAM Project: Imaginary Animals
Our STEAM project combined all areas of learning:
- Science – Learning about living vs. non-living things and what animals need to survive
- Technology, Engineering & Art – Designing and building habitats with a focus on 3D shapes
- Mathematics – Proving habitats contained exactly 20 items with addition
- Writing – Creating detailed animal reports to introduce their new species
Students also had the chance to reflect on their teamwork. Many realised that collaboration is an area they’d like to improve by sharing materials, compromising on ideas, and celebrating one another’s successes. We’ll continue to strengthen these skills in Term 4.
What’s Ahead in Term 4?
Literacy
Students will continue building strong foundations with phonics and writing by:
- Exploring new digraphs (ay, ai, oy, oi) and trigraphs (igh)
- Learning spelling rules (e.g., when to use ay or ai)
- Segmenting and spelling four- and five-letter words
- Practising neat handwriting on dotted thirds
- Writing short recounts with clear detail (who, when, where)
- Uplevelling sentences by adding verbs and adjectives
- Deepening comprehension skills through predicting, retelling, connecting, and inferring
Mathematics
Key topics for the term include:
- Chance (will happen, might happen, won’t happen)
- Early division concepts (sharing into equal groups)
- Money
- Capacity (how much containers can hold)
STEAM – Being Inclusive
This term’s STEAM focus is all about inclusion and understanding others. Students will explore:
- What makes us unique and what we share in common
- ‘All abilities’, including hearing impairments and learning basic Auslan through mentor texts
- Celebrations and traditions from around the world
- Cultural dancing, supported by an exciting incursion
Important Dates – Term 4
- Wednesday 8th October - World Dance Incursion
- Friday 10th October - Foundation STEAM Expo - 8:40am - 9
- Tuesday 28th October – Whole School Production (Dress Rehearsal & Performance)
- Monday 3rd November – Curriculum Day (No students at school)
- Tuesday 4th November – Melbourne Cup Day (Public Holiday)
- Monday 24th November – Professional Practice Day (Student Free)
Friday 19th December – Last Day of Term 4 (Early dismissal at 1:30pm)
We are so proud of everything our students achieved in Term 3, and we can’t wait to see how they shine in Term 4!