Year Three/ Four

 Communicating with the Year Three/Four Team

We look forward to partnering with you in 2023, and welcome your input:

Melinda Rowe (Class 34A) Melinda.Rowe@education.vic.gov.au 

Lachlan Prasad (Class 34B) Lachlan.Prasad@education.vic.gov.au

Michelle Wright (Class 34C) Michelle.Wright@education.vic.gov.au 

We have flown through our spelling program this year with fantastic results! It has been fabulous to see the growth the students have shown, and seeing them apply the spelling rules they have learnt in all of their schoolwork.

This term, our Group A students have been learning about the meanings of prefixes, the possessive apostrophe, and consonent + 'le' words. They have become experts at reading a piece of writing, and identifying whether the suffix 's' is used as a plural or to show possession. 

The Group B students have been learning about time and position prefixes (in, im, pre, post, mid) and revised the consonant + 'le' rule. They will finish the year learning different schwa endings for words.

This term our focus text has been 'The One and Only Ivan' by Katherine Applegate. This is a story based on actual events about a gorilla who was taken from his home as a baby and then brought up like a human! However, when Ivan got too big to live in a regular home, he was then forced to live in a cage in the middle of a mall, creating paintings which the owner then sold. After reading the text, students then demonstrated their understanding of visualising by recreating Ivan’s domain (Ivan’s cage) based on the text from the book.

Reading a book from the perspective of a gorilla allowed the students to gain a better understanding of different points of view. They were able to see the story through the eyes of Ivan the gorilla and Mack, the owner of the Big Top Mall  where Ivan lived. 

The students have also been developing their literature skills, by creating Haiku’s and gaining a better understanding of Prepositional and Adverbial phrases.

We began the term  revisiting narrative writing. We recapped on the structure of a narrative story before planning our 'Spooky Stories'. It was great to see how far the students have come with their narrative writing. Please enjoy reading the beginning to some of their amazing stories.

After our narrative re-visit, we moved our focus to procedural writing. Students learnt about the specific structure of a procedural piece and the specific word choices required. They started the unit by putting the pictures of a task in a sequential order. Students then wrote out the necessary steps to match each picture. Once they had mastered the idea of a procedural piece, they moved onto writing and illustrating a procedural piece from scratch. These included 'How to play...' and 'How to make...' topics.

After writing their procedural pieces, students used a checklist to make sure they had all the correct components. 

Each student had a peer check their work and complete a two stars and a wish feedback sheet. A peer made two positive comments on their work and made one recommendation for improvement.

The students below are following the steps in the procedural writing pieces that their classmates wrote. The topic was: How to Make Fairy Bread.

What a wonderful few days we had at Arrabri Lodge in Warburton. We were very lucky to bring along some amazing parent helpers who helped make the camp even more memorable. Thank you to Sean, Amanda, Jess, Toosja, Ryan and Kate. A big thank you to Miss Tilley for also joining us.

The weather was perfect for the duration of camp allowing us to make the most of the outdoor activities on offer. Students particated in a wide range of challenge activities including giant swing, ropes course, initiatives, archery, orienteering, indoor games, mini-golf and flying fox.

In the evenings, we had a talent show, watched a movie, had a bush dance and enjoyed toasting marshmellows around the camp fire.

After packing up our cabins on the last day, having breakfast and loading the bus, we headed down the road to the Warburton Hall. It was here that we enjoyed learning about a vast range of animals during our wildlife show. Some brave people even had a snake draped around their neck!

After a play on the nearby playground, we drove to the local oval where we enjoyed a picnic lunch. Some students then had a play on the oval whilst others chose to enjoy a scenic walk along the river where we came across a family of ducks and took in the gorgeous scenery.  We had a most memorable camp and I am sure your child has many stories and highlights to share.

HOMEWORK

The homework in the Year 3/4 level generally consists of daily reading, learning times tables and learning specified spelling words. 

DIARIES

Please note that it is expected that your child has their diary at school every day. 

READING

We recommend that your child reads daily and records their reading into their diary. This should include the book title, author and pages read. Ideally, the child should be reading to a parent if possible as this helps with fluency, expression and comprehension.

SPELLING

When students complete progress monitioring or cumulative review spelling assessments, any words that students had trouble with, are then used as spelling words. These words will be written into your child's diary. We encourage students to practice spelling these words daily as homework.

TIMES TABLES

Students have now completed a times table assessment to check their understanding and knowledge. Students have been instructed to start learning a particular set of times tables. Your child should be learning these out of order and be able to have an automatic response when the question is asked of them. Once they are confident in knowing the set of times tables, your child will then let their teacher know they are ready to be tested. If they are able to show confidence in recalling the set of tables, they will then receive their next set of times tables to learn.

SPECIALIST TIMETABLE

Please find below the times that each class are scheduled to have their specialist classes. Please note that these times are subject to change for example during swimming weeks etc.

34A

Tuesday 2:40pm: Science

Wednesday 9:40am: PE

Thursday 1:20pm: Visual Art

Friday 11am: Performing Arts

Friday 11:50am: JAUSLAN

34B

Tuesday 2:40pm: Performing Arts

Wednesday 11am: PE

Thursday 9:40am: Visual Art

Friday 11am: AUSLAN

Friday 11:50am: Science

34C

Monday 2:40pm: PE

Tuesday 2:40pm: Visual Art

Thursday 2:40pm: AUSLAN

Friday 11am: Science

Friday 11:50am: Performing Arts