Hi Families,

It’s been a full few weeks in Year 3/4! Despite a few extra events like school camp and photo day, the Year 3/4s have been involved in plenty of learning over the last few weeks.

Here's the run down!

Spelling: We’ve continued our structured spelling lessons using the PLD program. Over the past few weeks, students have explored a range of new phoneme-grapheme correspondences (sound to spelling), including:

or and aw as in fork and draw
a making the /o/ sound as in was
y saying /ē/ as in happy
c saying /s/ as in city
ew and ue making the /ū/ sound as in new and blue
g saying /j/ as in giraffe

Reading: We’ve moved on from Uncle Xbox and are now reading Yirra and Her Deadly Dog Demon by Anita Heiss, as a class. This novel offers a rich perspective from an Aboriginal Australian voice, exploring identity, school life, family and community through the eyes of a spirited young girl named Yirra.

We’ve also continued our regular reading fluency practice and are starting to see real gains in expression, pace, and word recognition.

Writing: We’re deep into factual recount writing now! After learning about their purpose and structure and practising introductions, we’ve now turned our attention to writing body paragraphs, focusing on sequencing events clearly and logically. We'll spend a little bit longer than planned on this topic, so students have the time to really grasp it!

We’ve continued our regular handwriting instruction, focusing on developing fluent, legible writing. As always, it’s a mixed bag — some students really enjoy the routine while others find it a bit more of a challenge — but everyone understands the value of building writing stamina as an important real-world skill.

We also practise typing twice a week, and we’re seeing steady progress in both areas as students develop their confidence and accuracy.

Grammar: We revisited verbs and adjectives, discussing how strong verb choices can add meaning, and how adjectives help create imagery that readers can “see”.

Maths: We've wrapped up our work on fractions and shifted our focus to measurement. Students have explored the metric system and developed an understanding of when to use different units (mm, cm, m, km). We’re now investigating area and perimeter, learning how to calculate and compare different shapes using formal units.

Religious Education: We’ve been learning about the Sacrament of Reconciliation, focusing on its meaning, purpose, and connection to forgiveness and healing. Students have explored key stories, the steps involved in the sacrament, and how it helps us grow in our relationship with God and others.

French: We began the term by learning greetings and responses, including how to ask and answer questions about how we’re feeling. From there, we moved on to classroom instructions, and are now focusing on asking and responding to "What is your name?". Next up, we’ll be learning how to express our likes and dislikes.

Wellbeing & Positive Behaviour: We’ve continued our Social Detective lessons, helping students develop awareness of their own behaviour and how it affects others. As part of our school-wide Positive Behaviour Learning program, we've explicitly taught and practised expectations such as safe walking, lining up respectfully, and following instructions from all adults within the school.

Grade 4 Camp Recap: The Grade 4s had a fantastic time on camp! They showed bravery, patience, and maturity across all the activities — and while they came home tired and ready to see their families, they did an amazing job and had a lot of fun along the way. I’m sure you’ve already heard all about it!

If you're like to receive some photos, we took plenty! Send me a message and I'm more than happy to send some across.

Until next newsletter and best wishes,

Mr. Giles.

Grade 3/4 Teacher

St Mary's School, Castlemaine

Respect, Resilience, Responsibility

TERM 1, WEEK 5 · 23 May 2025

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