Welcome to another great week of learning in Grades 3 and 4!

Our students will continue to explore new ideas, build their skills and embrace exciting learning opportunities. We look forward to another enjoyable and productive week together.

This Thursday, our students will take part in our House Athletics Day! We are looking forward to an exciting day filled with fun, teamwork and plenty of sport spirit.

Literacy

Spelling

Through reading, spelling and writing, students will continue to strengthen their understanding of the 111 Rule by applying it to increasingly complex vocabulary. They will learn to identify when a word has one syllable, one vowel and ends with one consonant, meaning the final consonant is usually doubled before adding a suffix.

Students will revisit the spelling patterns ce, ci, cy and ge, gi, gy, exploring how these letter combinations create the soft /s/ and /j/ sounds in words and apply these patterns as they encounter more challenging vocabulary.

Reading

Our mentor text this week is Sofia Valdez, Future Prez by Andrea Beaty. This picture book explores how one person can make a difference by speaking up, sharing ideas and taking action to improve their community. Sofia notices a problem in her neighbourhood and instead of giving up, she works with others to find a solution. The story highlights the importance of leadership, perseverance, teamwork and believing that young people have the power create positive change.

Students will continue strengthening their literacy skills while exploring our CBL Big Idea of Power. We will develop character descriptions by identifying personality traits and using carefully chosen vocabulary. Students will also investigate the author’s use of verbs and adverbs and consider how these words make the writing more engaging. To conclude the week, we will use a venn diagram to compare Sofia Valdez with Malala from our previous text, Malala’s Magic Pencil, identifying their similarities and differences.

WHAT CAN YOU DO AT HOME:

We continue to strongly recommend all students to read a minimum of 20 minutes a night. The Premier’s Reading Challenge is a wonderful opportunity to encourage a love of reading and celebrate students’ reading achievements. We encourage all students to participate by reading a variety of books and recording their progress throughout the challenge. If you have misplaced your login details, please contact your classroom teacher who will be able to help you!

Other ways you can support your child this week is by having family discussions about problems around your community and what actions they could do to improve their neighbourhood.

Writing

Students will continue to explore the features of autobiographical writing as they reflect on significant events, experiences and achievements from their own lives. They will organise their ideas in chronological order and use engaging, descriptive language to bring their personal stories to life. Students will then edit and publish their autobiographies on their iPads, creating a polished digital presentation of their work.

Students will also have the opportunity to express their creativity through free-choice narrative writing. This will allow them to draw on their developing understanding of narrative structure, descriptive language and a range of effective writing techniques.

WHAT CAN YOU DO AT HOME:

Continue to encourage your child to share stories about their life, such as a favourite holiday, a memorable celebration or a challenge they have overcome. You might also enjoy looking through family photos or sharing stories from their early years. Talking about these experiences together can help your child recall details, organise events in chronological order and build confidence as they write their autobiography. 

Maths

Grade 3 - Angles

This week, students will continue to build their understanding of angles by recognising and comparing right, acute and obtuse angles. They will explore examples of angles in everyday objects, shapes and the environment, developing an understanding of how angles are used in the world around them.

Through a range of hands-on investigations and problem-solving tasks, students will observe, identify and describe angles found both within the classroom and throughout the wider school environment.

Grade 4 - Multiplication and Division

This week, students will continue to strengthen their multiplication and division skills by applying a range of efficient strategies to increasingly complex number problems. They will use both mental and written methods to solve problems involving larger numbers and use estimation to check whether their answers are reasonable.

Through engaging real-world investigations and rich problem-solving activities, students will further develop their mathematical reasoning and practise clearly explaining the strategies they used to find solutions.

WHAT CAN YOU DO AT HOME:

Encourage your child to become an “angle detective” by searching for angles in different rooms of the house or during everyday outings. They could draw or take photos of objects that contain acute, right or obtuse angles and explain how they identified each type.

Support your child to apply the four mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) in everyday situations. For example, ask them to help plan equal groups for a family activity, calculate the cost of several items, work out how many items are left after some are used or divide a collection equally between family members. Encourage them to explain the strategy they used and estimate their answer before checking it.

Please encourage your child to practise 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 practise and strengthen number fact knowledge and work towards automaticity.

CBL (Challenge Based Learning)

This term, our Challenge Based Learning (CBL) Big Idea is Power.

Students will continue to build on their understanding of rules and laws by investigating real-life community scenarios. Through group discussions, students will explore whether laws alone can solve community problems and consider the importance of making responsible choices and contributing positively to the community.

Students will work collaboratively to create a school law awareness campaign. Each group will design an informative product, such as a poster, brochure, public service announcement, presentation or sign to educate the school community about an important rule, law or community responsibility. Their creations will explain why the chosen focus is important, how it affects others and how community members can contribute. The completed products will be shared and displayed around the school to help promote awareness and positive community participation.

WHAT CAN YOU DO AT HOME:

Talk with your child about the rules and laws they encounter each day. Discuss why these rules and laws exist, who creates them and how they help keep people safe, treated fairly and working together. You might also identify examples of school rules, how they help everyone stay safe and why they are important.

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.

Our focus this week -Line up quickly and quietly.

Respectful Relations - Stress Management Continued

We will continue to explore strategies for recognising and managing stress, helping students build resilience, regulate emotions and maintain positive wellbeing in everyday situations. This week we will explore strategies for self calming.

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

Term Three Dates

August

5th August - Coffee & Chat. Focus on attendance, holiday leave, absenteeism and wellbeing.

6th August – House Athletics

11th August- Grade 4 Visit to Warrandyte High (please log into Sentral to give permission)

18th August- Democracy Incursion

24th August- Grade 3 Scienceworks Excursion

25th August- Grade 4 Scienceworks Excursion

26th August- Book Week Parade

Please note – there are several dates on the Sentral calendar for the VSSS26 Mass Choir.

Reminders

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

-fidget tools; we would appreciate your support in making sure students are not bringing collections of squishes/fidget toys to school

Wellbeing Hub