Grade 3 Community News
Dear Year 3 Families,
In Weeks 7 and 8, our students had a fantastic hands-on experience incursion at school, exploring Ancient Rome as part of our Knowledge Building Unit! 🏛️ They truly embraced the theme, donning togas and immersing themselves in Roman life. Students got a taste of what it was like to live without modern technology, getting their hands messy with clay and speaking the rich language of Latin. They reflected on what life would be like without iPads, experiencing a world without power in a new and engaging way.
Knowledge Building Unit (Reading and Writing)
Students in the Knowledge Building Unit have been covering a wide range of topics of Ancient Rome life and society, including legendary tales, the gods and goddesses of Roman culture, the social structure of the Patricians and Plebeians. The students have also been learning about famous historical figures like Hannible, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Marc Antony and Octavian/Caesar Augustus. They have also explored areas of Geography, studying maps to understand the location of the Roman Empire and architecture, the design and construction of famous Roman buildings, statues, and other structures.
Reading
During reading students have been working on understanding the text deeper through pausing to discuss and jot down their answer to questions in the format for notetaking symbols. It's great to see students giving it a Red Hot Go as it's their first time being introduced to this notetaking skill this year and no doubt setting them up for their future education. As part of reading and writing students have been flourishing in their R.A.P Response Answer Prove short answer questions, students are beginning to really understand how to restate a question and find the answer most important cite evidence in the text, with a focus and push towards revising their work by listening to their peers and adding on interesting vocabulary or more detail and using public voice to speak in front of the class.
Writing
In sentence level writing, students have been learning about summary sentences, expanding sentences and conjunctions. In text level writing, students are becoming increasingly proficient at recalling the purpose, features, and structure of an information report. We have continued to build upon this by concentrating on the structure of body paragraphs in recent weeks. Students are gaining confidence in identifying a topic sentence, discussing supporting details, and developing an understanding of a concluding sentence within a single paragraph. As students acquire more knowledge about Ancient Rome through their reading, they are able to apply this understanding to their writing, thereby enhancing both their comprehension of the topic and their ability to create detailed information reports.
Numeracy
In maths, our students put on their engineering caps to finish our 3D Objects Unit. They constructed their own models using 3D objects, learning the importance of not only technical skills but also the reasoning behind their design choices. This activity was a powerful lesson in resilience and perseverance. When a tower fell or structure collapsed, students were encouraged to analyze their design, and try again, demonstrating that being determined is a crucial life skill.
The current maths unit is addition and subtraction, focusing on the recently learnt cube strategy. This strategy helps us understand the word problem by identifying key information and keywords to figure out what's being asked. We're also strengthening our understanding of the part-part-whole concept, especially when working with money. By the end of this unit, students will be able to choose the best representation or calculation strategy to solve practical problems, communicate their solutions clearly, and use digital tools when it's helpful. This will help them build strong foundational skills for tackling more complex financial situations in the future.
Vocabulary
Our target words this fortnight our target words are:
- Week 7 words are province, descendant, emperor, noble, and barge.
- Week 8 words are chamber, gladiator, colosseum, stake and valley.
Week 7
Week 8
Students enjoy sharing their learning of these words with you. We encourage you to support and surprise them by using these words when the opportunity presents itself.
Friendly Reminders
- We ask students to maintain their reading nights by reading for 20 minutes each school day and then record their reading time in their student reading journals to track their progress. Young readers who read frequently develop essential reading skills.
- We thank and remind families to continue supporting their children by charging their iPads and bringing their headphones ready for each school day.
- We ask if students can leave their textas and coloured pencils at home to free up space on their desks and parents can you please top up any stationary students are needing; pencil, red pen, ruler and or blue/black pen.
PLC 3