BOROONDARA PARK PRESS

From the 3/4 Classrooms 

English

We have continued to read, explore and analyse our mentor text, 'Pearl Versus the World' By Sally Murphy. This text has provided rich opportunities for analysis and discussion, particularly around themes such as resilience, personal growth, and identity. We have focused on identifying and examining a range of literary devices including onomatopoeia and alliteration as well as looking at the structure of different poems such as a limerick. 

 

In Writing, the class continued explored limericks. Students enjoyed the challenge of composing their own limericks based on the theme of  everyday heros, blending humour, creativity, and poetic structure. This writing task supported their understanding of rhyme, rhythm, and the playful use of language.

 

Here are some examples of their work:

 

Mathematics

In Maths we have begun exploring the world of fractions through some fun, hands-on activities and we started with a guessing game using mandarins and oranges.

We began by asking the big question:“What fraction is each wedge of a mandarin?”

Some mandarins had 8 wedges, others had 11 which led to rich discussion about how fractions depend on how the whole is divided. There were great guesses and lots of curiosity! We used the mandarin wedges to assist us with counting by fractions and adding and subtracting fractions.

 

We then turned our attention to a bag of oranges and explored fractions in another way:

  • What fraction is one orange of the total?
  • What fraction are two oranges?

  • How can we represent these as both proper and improper fractions?

     

Students engaged in skip counting using halves, progressing through both proper (½, 1, 1½, 2...) and improper fractions (½, 2/2, 3/2, 4/2...). The activity was extended further with oranges being cut into quarters and eighths. 

 

To consolidate this learning, students completed a paper-folding activity where they divided strips of paper into equal parts to represent:

  • Halves
  • Thirds
  • Quarters
  • Sixths
  • Eighths

These strips were then used to construct individualfraction walls, providing a strong visual reference for comparing fractional parts and understanding equivalence. Students recorded counting sequences and clearly labelled examples of both proper and improper fractions in their maths books.

 

Students also engaged in a fun and colourful activity to deepen their understanding of fractions using a box of Smarties! Each student received their own box of Smarties and began by sorting the lollies by colour. From there, we explored the idea of a fraction of a collection. Students counted how many Smarties they had in total and then worked out what fraction of the collection each colour represented. For example, if a student had 20 Smarties and 5 were red, they recorded that5/20 of their Smarties were red.

Once students had created a fraction for each colour, they took it a step further by investigating equivalent fractions. Using their original fractions, they simplified where possible and made connections between different fractional values (e.g., recognising that 5/20 is equivalent to 1/4). This led to some rich mathematical discussions about how and why fractions can look different but represent the same value.

This hands-on approach helped bring fractions to life in a meaningful and memorable way. Not only did students practise key skills like sorting, counting, and simplifying, but they also engaged in real problem-solving and reasoning, all while having a little bit of sweet fun!

We encourage you to continue these conversations at home — maybe with a bag of lollies or some coloured blocks — to see what other fractions your child can find in everyday collections.

 

 

STEM - The Effect of Forces:

During our STEM session students have learnt about how magnetic forces effects the motion of objects.  Students began by finding examples of magnets you have seen in your daily life. We learnt that Magnetic force is an action-at-a-distnace force and that magnets have a North Pole and South Pole. The different poles attract each other and the same poles repel each other.  Students were able to experiment with magnets and were able to complete a maze using a paper clip and a magnet.

In our next STEM session we will be looking at Friction.