Year 3/4 News
English
Reading
This term we shall be focusing on the skills of summarising text. We are learning about summarising which means we are looking at shortened versions of original texts. It includes all key concepts, main ideas and important details that are structurally similar to the original text. Effective teaching of summarising requires multiple modelling situations and many opportunities for students to practice. With repeated opportunity we want our learners to develop the following skills:
- Identify the main ideas
- Use Key Information-words, facts and phrases
- take notes
- retell a shortened version of the text in their own words
How does summarising support our reading comprehension?
For students to summarise, our students will develop skills to closely relate to the text and include information that’s critical to the text. It will enable our students to synthesise information giving them a deeper understanding of the text.
Please ensure that you read with your children as often as you can for a minimum of 10 minutes per night at least four times a week. Practice at home reinforces our word reading and comprehension skills at school.
Writing
Students will be focusing on use of language features to create a better understanding of text features. We will be exploring language features through the lens of poetry this term. It will be a wonderful opportunity to develop skills to edit, publish creative and imaginative texts using rich vocabulary through a variety of adjectives and adverbs. We will explore stanzas and how they work with poetry.
Grammatically we have a strong focus on simple sentence structures, punctuation and paragraphing. Our cohort needs a particularly strong focus on handwriting and writing conventions as we found with our moderation of student learning.
Mathematics
This term we will continue to embed our deep focus on place value and endeavour to develop greater depth of understanding about place value. We will delve into additive thinking with an extensive focus on addition and subtraction skills, coupled with in-depth investigative thinking. We will also be concentrating on a unit looking for a measurement with length exploring millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres. We will be using investigative learning to engage our learners with realistic application of measurement.
In the later part of this term we will also explore angles and the properties of 2D shapes. In conclusion towards the end of the term we will explore mapping skills and location.
Inquiry
For Inquiry this term we will be learning about civics and citizenship. For our theme this term we will be looking at “having your say”. We will be looking at how decisions are made within our local communities. We will be exploring the concept of democracy and how leaders are elected within our local communities. After we will expand to look at decision making at also a state and commonwealth level in Australia. We will be learning about how representative democracy functions in Australia.
Science
During Science in Term 2, students will be learning about the Earth and Space Sciences. The prioritised standard that students will be working towards is: Earth’s rotation on its axis causes regular changes, including night and day. They will be learning about the links between commonly used timescales to the rotation and movement of the Earth; modelling the movements of the Earth, Moon and Sun using physical objects and illustrations; drawing detailed scientific diagrams showing the movements and sizes of planetary objects; and constructing a sundial and investigating how they work.
LOTE – AUSLAN
Welcome to Auslan, Term 2! It is an exciting time as teaching and learning will begin this term. Grade 34’s will learn about Auslan being a signed language using the hands, with no voice, which is used by the Deaf Community. They will learn the Auslan Alphabet, and frequently use signs associated with Colours, Family, School, Farm Animals, and Describing Animals. Grade 34’s will also learn to sign Numbers in Auslan using their dominant (writing) hand. This learning will be introduced through explicit sign teaching videos, games, stories, and group practice. Learning Auslan will involve both expressive (signing) and receptive understanding skills (reading back what others’ sign), hence activities are designed to develop these skills. Students will be encouraged to participate in lesson related activities and to share their learning and understanding with their peers and teacher. At this level, students will have an increased expectation regarding non-voicing, additional revision,
use of simple sentences and responding to questions.
Art
Welcome to term 2 Art, this term the students will be learning about Monochromatic art, and its use of variations of just one colour. Through the use of only using one colour the students will be able to learn more about the tonal, textural and compositional elements of painting by stripping away the distraction of numerous colours. Students will then use their knowledge from Monochromatic art to explore art pieces by Vincent Van Gogh such as The Starry Night, from there students will use their knowledge of how to create different tones and textures using one base colour to create their own Starry Night paintings. Looking forward to a fun and creative term in art with the grade 3’s and 4’s.
Music
Building on work from term 1, the students will be consolidating their understanding and application of the beat and distinguishing it from rhythm patterns. They will do this through tapping the beat as they listen to music and sing songs. They will play clapping games that support this concept and explore the beat through body percussion, movement and playing percussion instruments. They will practise copying and creating rhythmic patterns using body percussion. The students will explore pitch (high and low) using a range of pitched percussion instruments and apply their understanding to copy and create simple melodies. They will learn about the C Major scale and will learn to name the notes they are playing. The students will combine their understanding of rhythm and pitch to create and perform melodic ostinatos and they will learn how to write and name the notes. The students will extend their experience of dynamics (soft and loud sounds) by expressively adjusting the volume of their voices when singing. The students will develop their understanding of tempo (speed) through learning new songs and listening and responding to a variety of music.
P.E.
For term 2 the grade 3/4 students will focus on the sports of soccer and athletics. Our students once again will engage in each of these sports and will learn the relevant skills needed to play and participate in games. Once the students have learnt the relevant skills, they will be given the opportunity to participate in a games-based approach to Physical Education. This means they can apply these learnt skills to games-based activities and are given the chance to learn through play. Students will be engaged in small-sided games of soccer and will be given the opportunity to show and apply their skill development. Students will use their prior learning and will continue to build their skills through game play. At the conclusion of this unit, we will move to athletics and focus on the throwing events such as shot put and discus. Students will be given the chance to learn the correct techniques and then attempt to throw using actual equipment. Towards the end of this term the whole school will be participating in athletics week. The Grade 3/4 students will be active and involved in this week which should be very engaging and fun for everyone. In everything we do our students are given every chance to show their problem-solving ability, teamwork capabilities and rule knowledge. This term should be a great one with heaps of learning taking place. I can’t wait to work with the grade 3/4 students! We have plenty of exciting learning ahead and I am looking forward to all of it.