📅 Important Dates & Reminders

Upcoming dates/Important Info

Monday 23rd February: School Photos

Friday 27th February: Cross Country

Monday 9th March: Labour Day Public Holiday

Friday 27th March: House Athletics

Thursday 2nd April: Happy Hat Parade

Last Day Term 1 - 2.30pm dismissal

Hats - As per our school's SunSmart policy, all students are required to wear hats till the end of April 2025.

Icy Poles will be sold outside the senior school Monday & Tuesday lunchtimes

Homework

At Lysterfield Primary School our students work incredibly hard during the day. At 3.30pm when they leave, they need time to unwind and have fun. We believe that in order to live a happy and healthy life, it is important to participate in extracurricular activities outside school. We want students to join sports clubs, Scouts, do music lessons and art classes as these are important for a child’s overall growth and social connections. We also understand that homework puts a lot of stress on families.

In addition to our beliefs, there is no evidence that homework in a primary school setting has a marked impact on students' learning or success. What is proven is that reading daily has a significant impact on a child’s ability to decode and comprehend. As such mandated homework at Lysterfield Primary School is limited to reading daily, including the practising of phonics (letter/sound relationships). Level newsletters will outline the expectations around reading and how teachers will support students with having appropriate texts to read. For some students that may not be making the expected progress for their year level, it may be beneficial for the teacher and parents to work together to reinforce the learning from the classroom with follow-up work.

We also understand that some students and families would like to practise other skills at home. To support this, at the beginning of each school year, parents will be provided with a set of additional resources that can be used for students to practise other curriculum areas. This work is not mandated and it is up to parents to implement and monitor, staff will not correct this work.

Adam Wight- Principal

Numeracy

Literacy

Math Masters-

All master belts - Google Drive

Students will be able to practice their Maths Masters Goals at home.

Independent Reading

Maintaining good reading habits is great for students. Books can be borrowed from the school library, otherwise websites like EPIC online are also a great resource.

Fact Freaks -

Website to practise maths facts

Free Writing

Students are encouraged to practise and extend what they learn at school by completing writing at home in a variety of formats such as comic strips, stories, or presentations.

1 minute maths -

Students can access 1 minute maths which is a free app from White Rose Maths.

Handwriting

Practise their handwriting. If you would like some dotted thirds paper please contact your childs teacher we can provide you with some.

Times Tables Rock Stars -

a paid app for students to practise their times table knowledge.

Comprehension

If your child is reading at home, why not ask them about their book?

• Plot

• Characters

• Predictions

• Summaries

Word Search

From a book/novel at home find and identify 8 unfamiliar words from the text and find their meanings in a dictionary or https://www.wordhippo.com/

Then see if you can put the word into a sentence.

Learning Reflection

📖 Literacy

Over the past fortnight, our Grade 3 students have thoroughly enjoyed continuing to read Matilda. As they explore the text, students have been building their vocabulary by learning new words such as appalling, fond, mild and witty.

In grammar and sentence-level writing, students have been focusing on plural nouns. They have learned when to add ‘s’ or ‘es’ to correctly form plurals. For example, one cat becomes two cats. For words that end in –s, –sh, –ch, –x, or –z, students have learned that we add ‘es’, such as one glass becoming two glasses.

Students have also been exploring the different types of sentences, including statements, questions, commands and exclamations. They have been learning how each sentence type serves a different purpose and how to use them effectively in their writing.

In text level writing, our students were very excited to begin planning their narrative writing pieces. They started by creating detailed characters, brainstorming what their character looks like, feels like and how they behave. Students then used a narrative plan to carefully plan the orientation, action and problem within their story.

Preview:

Looking ahead, students will continue reading Matilda, with a focus on building and expanding their vocabulary as they engage with the text. In writing, students will plan and draft the action and problem sections of their narratives, incorporating Tier 2 vocabulary and enriching their ideas with adverbials of how, when and where to enhance their writing.

➗ Maths

Over the past fortnight, students have continued their learning in our Place Value unit. They have been practising writing numbers in both standard and expanded form, building a strong understanding of how numbers are constructed.

Our Grade 3 students have also begun exploring two-digit addition and subtraction fact families. They have been creating number bonds and using them to complete related fact families, developing their understanding that addition and subtraction are inverse operations. Students have also used the bar model to represent fact families, recognising the relationship between part, part and whole to help solve addition and subtraction problems.

Preview:

Over the next fortnight, students will build their skills in adding and subtracting two- and three-digit numbers using an open number line. They will practise skip counting in hundreds, tens and ones, as well as partitioning numbers into place value parts to support their problem solving. Students will also begin working on worded problems, focusing on identifying and solving for unknown values in subtraction equations.

🗺️ Knowledge Rich Unit

Over the past fortnight, students have thoroughly enjoyed exploring Australia and its neighbouring countries. They have been learning about Australia’s natural and man-made features, with great interest in places such as the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Kokoda Trail.

Students have also explored the key factors that influence a place’s climate, including sunlight, landforms, oceans, wind and cloud cover. They have been learning how climate types are shaped by a location’s proximity to the equator, its altitude, and whether it is inland or near the coast. Students begun to learn about Australias neighbouring country, New Zealand!

Preview:

Over the next fortnight, students will dive deeper into exploring New Zealand, learning about its major landmarks and attractions across both the North and South Islands. They will investigate places such as Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown and Milford Sound.

Wellbeing

This week the Grade 3’s were very excited to complete their first circles sessions for 2026 with their new circles group! The students enjoyed meeting new peers from across the school and getting to know one another. During wellbeing in the coming weeks, students will be focusing on building new friendships and understanding the different feelings that can arise when meeting new people. They will learn to recognise how emotions can feel in their bodies (for example, butterflies in the stomach) and continue developing their emotional literacy by expanding their vocabulary of feeling words. Students will also strengthen their ‘inner ninja’ awareness to help build confidence and support positive, green-zone friendships.

Students have enjoyed getting outside every Friday to participate in Middle School Sport! This term we are focusing on the sport Tee-Ball, practising our throwing, catching and batting skills.

Grade 3 Team,

Miss Manning, Miss Egorov and Miss du Vallon

Parents Association