Year 3 - Middle Unit

Over the last fortnight, students have been busily researching and collating information about a chosen scientist. They have explored their scientist’s early years, major breakthroughs, and accomplishments, while also creating biographical features such as timelines and glossaries. Next week, students will publish their findings and create an eye-catching poster presentation.

Our next literacy unit will focus on the language of persuasion, specifically how advertising encourages us to think or act a certain way. Students will also investigate how advertisements aimed at children can influence decision-making.

In Mathematics, students have been working on written strategies for adding large numbers. They have explored a range of methods, including open number lines, splitting numbers into place values, and the vertical addition method. Students have then applied these skills through hands-on tasks, one of which involved creating paper aeroplanes, flying them, and using a trundle wheel to measure the distance travelled in centimetres. Students then calculated their team’s total distance by adding all four measurements together. This activity helped students understand how addition can be applied in real-world situations.

This week in Inquiry, students continued exploring our topic of ‘Forces’ by conducting experiments based on the work of Galileo Galilei. It is said that Galileo dropped objects of different masses from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to demonstrate that objects fall at the same rate regardless of weight, showing that gravity accelerates all bodies equally. Students were fascinated to discover that a tennis ball and a basketball, when dropped from the same height, hit the ground at the same time. Other experiments also investigated how air resistance can affect movement depending on an object’s surface area, such as comparing a scrunched-up piece of paper with a flat sheet. 

Year 3 Teachers

Mark Condon & Kylie Minchew (3MC), Nathan Spilsted (3NS), Louise Safstrom/Emma Beaumont (3SB)