Year 3/4 - Newsletter

Dear parents,

Welcome back to everyone! We hope you all had fantastic holidays. From what we have heard, it sounds like it was a well-earned rest for everyone. Lots of camping trips and easter eggs!

Important ‘at home project’ information:

This term, all year 3/4 students will be completing an ‘at home project’. Students are required to research a famous Indigenous Australian and complete an oral presentation (keynote, poster, brochure etc). Students will be presenting to the class in week 9. Your child will be given a checklist and will need to complete all the tasks each week, and bring it back to their teacher by the dates outlined. The checklist and recording sheet will be sent home after school shortly. Students need to tell us who their famous Indigenous Australian by this Friday 2nd May, following this, the first component of research is due to be returned to us by Friday 9th May. We are more than happy for homework to be completed BEFORE the assigned date.

Year 3/4 Excursion - Indigenous Landscapes Tour, 26th June

As part of our Year 3/4 Inquiry unit 'How did the arrival of the first fleet impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders?' Year 3/4 students and teachers will be participating in an ‘Eltham North and Surrounds Indigenous Landscapes Walking Tour’. We will discover how European settlement impacted on Indigenous people and Indigenous landscapes such as waterways, fauna, flora, and the effects on our local area today. This event will be available on COMPASS in the coming weeks.

What's happened in year 3/4 over the first weeks of term?

English – This week, we have resumed our morphology studies, introducing the new base word ‘port’. You might like to quiz your child about its meaning! Throughout the term, we will continue to review and expand our understanding of new affixes and vocabulary.

Through our reading program, students will further develop their comprehension strategies, focusing on summarising, making inferences and predictions, and identifying the author’s purpose.

Our new class novel, Yirra and Her Deadly Dog, Demon, will also inspire our writing unit, which will focus on crafting factual recounts.

Maths – This week, our students have explored geography skills by learning to interpret and create two-dimensional maps of familiar environments. They practiced locating key landmarks and objects relative to each other, and used grid reference systems to describe and find positions and pathways.

This learning will help students develop their spatial awareness, problem-solving, and communication skills. They have had opportunities to design their own maps and use grid coordinates and directions (such as north, south, east, and west) to navigate and describe different locations.

We encourage you to chat with your child about these activities — perhaps even asking them to draw a simple map of your home, street, or a favorite place!

Inquiry – ‘How did the arrival of the first fleet impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders?’

This term, we will investigate how the arrival of the first fleet impacted Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. We will be aiming to answer the following key inquiry question:

What was the First Fleet and why did they travel to Australia?
How are Indigenous peoples connected to country and place?
1788: Was life the same for everyone - the convicts, free settlers and Indigenous Australians?
What was the nature and consequence of contact between Indigenous Peoples and those on the First Fleet?
How did the contact between Indigenous Peoples and those on the First Fleet impact the daily lives of Indigenous Australia?

This week consisted of learning about who the first Australians are, and then looking at what the First Fleet was, and why they travelled to Australia.

Wellbeing – Our Wellbeing sessions have been centred around building self-compassion, helping students learn how to calm their "butterflies" and manage big emotions. We have also explored the foundations of healthy friendships, guiding students to develop realistic expectations in their social connections. The students are encouraged to use these friendship skills to transform into a Friendship Ninja!!

Fidget Tools

We understand some children’s learning and focus are supported by these and they have been a strategy recommended by a medical professional, and we support this. If this is the case for your child, can you please let me know. For our students that just like to have a fidget toy, if they are not supporting their focus and learning we will encourage them to use them at recess and lunch times. Please note, fidget tools should be small and non-distracting (slime is NOT allowed at school). Thank you for your understanding.

Friday Afternoon Craft - Thank you to the parents who offered to share a skill this term. Due to unforeseen reasons, we have had to make some changes and will be running this program next term.

Platoons – This term, we are implementing our platoons program. Your child will be involved in local walks and PE activities.

Homework - Homework this week continues to consist of:

Minimum 4 nights reading with at least 80 minutes per week recorded in school diary (Book title, pages read, minutes read).
Diary is to be brought to school each Friday signed by parents.
At home project - based on a famous Indigenous Australian. The project is split into 5 sections that will need to be checked by teachers each week. Projects will be presented in class in Week 9.
Although not compulsory, we encourage your child to complete assigned Mathletic tasks.

Things to Remember:

Wednesday 14th May - Maths Day Celebration
Friday 16th May - District Cross Country
Wednesday 21st May - Life Education Begins
Monday 26th May - Sorry Day
Tuesday 27th May - ENPS Athletics Carnival
Monday 9th June - King’s Birthday Public Holiday
Thursday 26th June - Year 3/4 Excursion - Eltham North and Surrounds Indigenous Landscapes Walking Tour. Please see COMPASS for event details, to make payment and give consent for your child to attend.
Wednesday 2nd July - PST Conferences
Friday 4th July - Last day of term 2.

Student Awards

Look out for your class’ individual email Friday afternoon for the Student of the Week & Student Recognition Award shoutouts.

We wish you a relaxing weekend.

The Level 3/4 Team