Year 3

Term  2 has come to an end, and what an exciting term it has been with lots of learning and a period of Remote Learning. Well done everyone for adapting so well to Lockdown 4.0!  Our students also managed to complete

NAPLAN. We are all very proud of  all our students’ efforts and resilience during a challenging time. 

Reading

The Grade 3’s have had a wonderful term in reading learning to grow as readers and become critical 21st century thinkers. The focus of the learning has centred around inferring. Students learned to use their prior knowledge and evidence from the text to infer a character’s feelings and traits, motivations and the hidden message or theme of the text. That is, what lesson did the author want the reader to learn by reading this text. During individual conferencing and small teacher groups, students were taught how to use specific reading  strategies to support their individual growth and achieve their personal goals.

Writing

This term, the students were introduced to narratives. Students learned the 

structure of a narrative with a focus on their independent narrative having a clear problem and solution. Students also learned how to write poetry, specifically free verse, haiku, cinquain and tanka poems. We looked at the structure of each 

different poem and how to use poetic devices such as personification, 

onomatopoeia, similes, metaphors, imagery, repetition and alliteration to  enhance  the coherence and quality of their poetry.  There was a specific focus on teaching the students to use interesting nouns, verbs and adjectives in their poems.

Mathematics

The Grade 3’s work in Maths this term mainly focussed on addition and subtraction. Students learned to use strategies such as counting on, 

bridging to 10, the split strategy  or partitioning, and the jump strategy to efficiently solve addition and subtraction problems. We also spent some time learning about 2D shapes, area and angles.

Students also had a skip-counting goal which was practised on a daily basis to enhance their number sense. The term ended with the students using the strategies they learned to solve addition and 

subtraction problems involving money. 

Inquiry

In Grade 3 Inquiry, our learners have been exploring a topic titled, ‘Everybody Wants to Rule the World’. The students have been building their understandings on why rules and laws are necessary in a community to provide for safety, respect and fairness. Our learners have also been exploring the difference between rules and laws and the consequences of not having rules or laws in a community. They have also engaged in whole class experiences where they have experienced the consequences of having no rules or guidance and compared it to the experience of having rules and expectations. Students have been encouraged to deepen their thinking by considering whether regulations are fair and thinking about what rules or laws they would create or change in different contexts.

Well done Grade 3 on a great term of Inquiry!

ART

Term 2, has been all about colour theory for the grade 3/4 students. The students have completed their complementary colour activity featuring ‘Monsters’, and have been learning to enhance the appearance of their  artwork by using ‘opposite’ or ‘complementary’ colours together, to make their work ‘POPOUT’! In line with this activity, the students have been learning about ‘POP ART’ legend Andy Warhol who was popular in the 60’s and still is to this day with his work selling for $90,000,000 on average. The students, now inspired by Andy, have created designs using the PicCollage app on the iPads. This was a treat for the students to use technology for Art and they really embraced it and created some fabulous designs (Below)! The 3/4 students have also been getting messy with acrylic paint; firstly mixing  tertiary tints and shades and then creating warm and cool colours to create a design. They have created sunsets over water and will add reflection and a night time element in Term 3. Due to lockdown, finalising this activity and our ‘line’ unit will carry over into Term 3. I have had a fun and creative time in the art room with the grade 3/4  students this term, and I look forward to working with them again next semester. 

LOTE-CHINESE

Well done for another fantastic term! In term two, the grade threes and fours developed their language skills in Chinese Mandarin, including listening and speaking and recognising words in Pinyin. They learnt about some Chinese festivals such as the Tomb Sweeping Festival and the Dragon Boat Festival. They learnt new vocabulary focused on topics such as clothing and verbs. They were involved in actions games, songs, books, arts and crafts as they study the new topics. The grade three to four students integrated technology in their lessons by using their iPads to complete tasks and research given topics. Some students also participated in some optional remote learning tasks.

PE

What a great term we had between grade 3&4 cohorts! We were able to learn the game of soccer through playing a game, understanding where it originated from and the rules associated with it. We got to have some fun with the frisbees inside and outside and learn several techniques when throwing the frisbee and were finally able to finish off with our athletic component where we were able to break down the triple jump technique. Great work grade 3&4 looking forward to next term!

SCIENCE

The Grade 3’s have put in a big effort during term 2, exploring our solar system and our planet with topics such as night and day and why there are different seasons. We have undertaken some fun experiments, which the students have thoroughly enjoyed, to demonstrate the distances and sizes of the planets in our solar system and investigate how shadows are created. Unfortunately, due to the lockdown, the Design & Engineering unit has been postponed to the start of term 3 - I hope you’re all looking forward to it, it’s going to be a lot of fun! Congratulations on an enthusiastic and fun term 2, enjoy the mid-year holiday break and I look forward to seeing you all in term 3.

 We look forward to Term 3 and continuing to work in partnership with you to ensure high  levels of learning for all. Have a wonderful and safe term break.