Learning Community 3

Welcome to Term 4!

We hope our lovely families had a relaxing and fun-filled holiday break. It’s been wonderful to see so many smiling faces returning to school, ready to learn and make the most of our final term for 2025!

This Week in Our Learning:

Maths – Factors, Multiples, and Patterns

This week in Maths, students have been exploring the wonderful world of factors, multiples, and prime numbers. They’ve been practising counting by 3s, 4s, 6s, 7s, 8s, and 9s, and using these patterns to spot similarities and differences between numbers.Students are also learning how to use factor trees to break down numbers into their prime factors, test divisibility rules (like whether a number is divisible by 2, 3, 5, or 10), and identify prime and composite numbers.We’ve even been representing square numbers with blocks and solving tricky number riddles using what we know about factors, multiples, and patterns!

Reading & Writing – Persuasive Texts

In Reading and Writing, our focus has been on persuasive texts — learning how authors and speakers convince us to think, feel, or act a certain way. Students have explored different types of persuasive texts, including advertisements, opinion articles, letters, essays, and speeches. They’ve been identifying persuasive techniques such as emotive language, rhetorical questions, slogans, repetition, and exaggeration, and explaining how these techniques help to persuade an audience. In Writing, we’ve been planning and creating our own persuasive texts using the TEEL structure (Topic, Evidence, Explanation, Link). Students have been practising where to include persuasive devices for the biggest impact and learning how to link their ideas clearly. They’ve also been revising and editing their work to make their writing even stronger.

Auslan – Everyday Conversations

In Auslan, students have been revising the alphabet to finger spell their names and practising how to introduce themselves using signs like “Hello, my name is…” and “What’s your name?”. They’re also learning how to sign days of the week, school subjects, and simple questions and answers like “Where do you live?” and “At 9 o’clock, you have?”. It’s been fantastic to see students building confidence in communicating using sign language!

Humanities (History)

Grade 4: Students are learning about the meanings of the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Australian flags and when they are flown together. They’ve also explored national days and commemorations like NAIDOC Week and National Sorry Day, discussing how people can have different perspectives about events such as Australia Day.

Grade 5: Students have begun exploring the establishment of British colonies in Australia and the reasons for migration, looking at the “push” and “pull” factors that influenced settlement. They also examined the impacts of colonisation on the Wadawurrung people, writing persuasive letters from an Indigenous perspective to express the effects of these changes.

Design & Technology – Animal Enclosures

We have started a new project on safe, ethical, and sustainable animal enclosures. Students are thinking about what animals need to live happily and safely, what makes a good enclosure, and how to design environments that are both practical and kind to the planet. Collaboration and respectful sharing of ideas have been a big focus in this project.

We’re so proud of how quickly students have settled back into learning and how enthusiastically they’ve taken on new challenges. We look forward to an amazing Term 4 full of curiosity, creativity, and growth!