Year Three

Dear Year Three families,

Welcome back! The holidays are over and the students have been busy, busy, busy getting their brains back into gear and doing all sorts of fun and interesting learning!

Reading:

In Reading, the students have been building on their understanding of synthesising. Synthesising is when you combine what you already know (schema) about a text with what you are learning (new information). As you read you are forming new understandings. During the first week back we practised synthesising using fiction texts, before moving on to non-fiction texts in the second week. 

During their Guided Reading and Reciprocal Reading groups the students have worked collaboratively to achieve their group reading goals, while focussing on achieving their personal writing goals during independent reading time.

Writing:

In Writing, the students have continued their focus on cohesion. Cohesion refers to how we structure our writing to link our ideas together. Cohesion needs be present in a sentence, paragraph and across paragraphs for a text to make sense. The students analysed texts to investigate how cohesive devices, such as include conjunctions, connectives and pronouns, are used to link our ideas. 

Mathematics:

In Mathematics this fortnight, the students have been investigating the properties of 2D shapes and 3D objects. Understanding the features of 2D shapes helped the students to recognise symmetry in our environment, as well as understanding transformation and how it is shown in the real world. Transformation involved flipping (reflecting), sliding (translating) and turning (rotating) 2D shapes. To build their knowledge, the students investigated patterns involving transformation, both determining and creating their own rules for the patterns.

When investigating 3D objects, the students explored the school grounds and photographed objects in the real world, which they then analysed to determine the number of faces, edges and vertices they had.   

The students also had to explain and classify common 3D objects, such as prisms and pyramids, and justify how common everyday objects are created using different 3D objects.

Inquiry:

In Inquiry, we have continued exploring our unit on 'How the World Works', with the Central Idea 'Understanding forces can help design effective machines'. On the first day back, the students put on their engineering hats when they were challenged to follow a 'Design Brief' and create a 'Proof of Concept' design in Minecraft for a fictional new rollercoaster to be built in Point Cook. To prove that their design was safe, they then had to explain to their peers how different forces work together to make their rollercoaster work. 

General reminders:

• Hats are compulsory for Term Four.
• Doors are opened at 8:20 AM and classes start at 8:30 AM, please obtain a late pass from the office after 8:40 AM.
• Fully charged iPads should be brought to school every day.
• Homework expectations – students should be doing daily reading and their fortnightly homework tasks, found on your child's Schoolbox page.

Kind regards,

Year Three Team