Year 3 News
Our Learning and Celebrations
Literacy
In our literacy sessions, we have continued our class text study of Brindabella. Students are enjoying exploring the characters, setting and themes, and thinking more deeply about the author’s message. Through rich discussion and reflection, we are building our comprehension skills and learning how to support our ideas using evidence from the text.
We have also continued with our daily Phonics Plus lessons. These sessions strengthen students’ decoding, spelling and word knowledge skills, and it has been wonderful to see them applying these strategies more confidently in their independent reading and writing.
Unit of Inquiry
Year 3 have been busy brainstorming ideas about how we can make 2026 a safe, fun and happy year for everyone. Together, we created our Year 3 Essential Agreements.
Each class explored the following questions and worked in small groups to share and record their thinking:
What does positive behaviour look and sound like?
How can we be tolerant of others so that everyone feels safe and happy at school?
How should we interact with each other to create a harmonious learning community?
After sharing our ideas, we combined them to form our Essential Agreements for 2026. These are proudly displayed in our classrooms and will continue to guide us throughout the year.
As part of our focus on communication, students have loved becoming “communication detectives” through a range of engaging games. After each activity, we reflected on the communication skills required. Some of the games we played included charades, Two Truths and a Lie, picture storytelling and Guess the Emotion.
We discussed skills such as active listening, body language, empathy, oral communication and non-verbal cues, and how these skills help us connect with others in positive ways.
Numeracy
Over the past few weeks, our numeracy focus has been addition and subtraction. Students have been learning to solve two- and three-digit problems using a range of strategies including partitioning, the split strategy and the jump strategy.
The jump strategy using number lines has been a particular favourite, with students clearly showing their thinking and explaining their reasoning. We are very proud of the persistence and confidence they are showing as they tackle increasingly complex problems.
Times Tables Rock Stars
Students have recently begun using Times Tables Rock Stars to build fluency with their multiplication facts. This program provides valuable repetition in an engaging and motivating format, helping students strengthen both accuracy and recall speed. Even a few minutes of regular practice can make a big difference.
Wet Day Timetable
We recently had a rainy day that meant learning moved indoors. The students adapted beautifully and enjoyed spending time playing a variety of engaging indoor games and activities. It was lovely to see their teamwork, creativity and problem-solving skills on display.
NAPLAN
NAPLAN begins next week for our Year 3 students. We have been encouraging them to approach the assessments calmly and confidently, focusing on doing their personal best. We have spoken about taking their time, reading questions carefully and simply showing what they know.
We are proud of the positive attitude and effort they bring to their learning each day, and we know they will approach the week with maturity and determination.
Unit of Inquiry
Transdisciplinary theme:
How we express ourselves
Centra Idea:
People express themselves differently according to environment and audience.
Lines of Inquiry:
Communication skills
Understanding audience and environment
Reflecting on the impact my communication has on others
What Are We Learning Next?
Literacy
Daily Phonics Plus lessons
Level 3 VLP spelling, grammar and punctuation
Continuing our text study of Brindabella
Revising how to construct quality sentences using correct structure and punctuation
Developing paragraphing skills
Planning and structuring a persuasive piece of writing
Numeracy
Continuing our focus on additive strategies
Addition and subtraction of 2- and 3-digit numbers
Exploring multiplicative thinking and algebraic patterns