Level 3/4

Welcome Back to Term 4!

The students of Level 3/4 have made a wonderful start to the term and it is so pleasing to see them re-engaging with each other, playing and laughing. After such a long break, the students have shown how eager they are to learn and grow and just how happy they are to be back at school. 

Literacy

Reading

In Reading for Term 4 we are focusing on three different comprehension strategies: inferring, analysing and evaluating, words in context. As part of inferring we will be learning how our prior knowledge (schema) and clues from the text can help us to develop a deeper understanding of the text. We will be analysing different texts and evaluating them based on our own individual preferences and using evidence from the text to support our thinking. Later on in the term, we will be expanding our vocabulary by looking at words in context, particularly within poetry. This term there will be a big focus on metacognition skills in reading (thinking about our own thinking) which will lead to us connecting with different texts more thoroughly. 

Writing 

During the first part of Term 4, Level 3/4 students will be learning about procedural texts. This type of writing provides instructions about how to achieve a goal by following a series of steps. Students will be provided opportunities to investigate procedures such as recipes, board game rules, science experiments and instruction manuals. They will also explore action verbs, common nouns and adverbial phrases in procedures, alongside their structures and language features. We will then focus on poetry for the rest of Term 4. During our poetry unit, the students will be learning about different styles of poetry, the importance of rhythm and rhyme as well as experimenting with different word choices.

Spelling & Grammar

This term will see students continuing to follow the Jolly Phonics spelling and grammar handbook. Different spelling activities and lists will be provided for Level 3 and Level 4 students. The ongoing focus for Level 3 is a range of letter digraphs (letter combinations) that form a range of spelling rules. The ongoing focus for Level 4 is the application of the schwa sound that forms the basis of the way vowels are sounded and pronounced within words.

Grammar lessons continue to be a mixture of introducing new information and revising previously learned skills.

Maths 

This term the students of Level 3 / 4 will be revising addition, subtraction and multiplication strategies before being introduced to angles. They will look at finding angles in everyday situations as well as comparing and classifying these angles.

The students will then move on to 3D shapes- describing, comparing and splitting common shapes.

Students will also be introduced to symmetry- identifying symmetry in the environment and creating symmetrical patterns, pictures and shapes.

Division, fractions and chance will also be areas of focus towards the end of the term. 

Inquiry

Following the success of the Term 3 First Contacts unit, this term students will discover Australia and its closest neighbours.

Once students have shared with us their prior knowledge of Australia and the neighbouring countries, teachers will create individual lessons. 

Students will be introduced to the countries of New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor-Leste and the Pacific Island Nations.

As a family, you could discuss the reflection activity associated with each presentation, to help your child gather the resources that will be provided throughout each lesson.

After the conclusion of this series of lessons, students will  gather information about a selected country and begin to make comparisons about their country of choice with Australia.

Whole School Challenge

As you may remember, 3/4B have been collecting bread tags for the wonderful organisation ‘Aussie Bread Tags for Wheelchairs’. ‘Aussie Bread Tags for Wheelchairs’ collects bread tags nationally in Australia. The tags are recycled locally, raising funds to buy wheelchairs for disadvantaged people in South Africa. More information can be found at this website:

https://ozbreadtagsforwheelchairs.org.au/ 

We are having a competition across all levels to see which grade can collect the most bread tags! Students can continue collecting them in their home, and/or start bringing them to school now we are returning to on site learning. You can bring them to the collection tub outside the 3/4B classroom. Ms Lord will offer a prize for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for the classes who can gather the most bread tags by the end of term 4.

If you have any questions about this wonderful cause, please feel free to email Ms Lord at 

rebecca.lord@heathmonteastps.vic.gov.au

Key Dates

Term 4 Start                                                                   5th October, 2020

Grand Final Eve - Public Holiday                            Friday 23rd October, 2020

Melbourne Cup - Public Holiday                            Tuesday 3rd November, 2020

Curriculum Day                                                            Friday 27th November, 2020

Last Day Term 4                                                           Friday 18th December, 2020