Year 3 News
English
Reading
During term two the grade three students will be focusing on summarising their texts. During this unit students will be learning to understand and summarise fiction and non-fiction texts. They will be learning how to use paraphrasing to be able to create a summary in their own words, whilst also including the important events or ideas from the text. During the summarising unit students will also be building their skills in determining important information, inferring, and identifying and understanding text structures and features of both fiction and non-fiction genres.
Writing
Students will begin this term learning about Persuasive writing. During this unit the students will be learning about the features and structure of a persuasive text. Students will be learning to craft a persuasive text that includes their opinion or thoughts on a chosen topic with reasons and evidence for this opinion, as well as, using language features such as high modality words and emotive language to persuade the reader. They will then move into a unit on Poetry that will be a larger focus for this term. During this unit they will be learning about free verse, Haiku and Cinquain poems, as well as, poetic devices such as onomatopoeia, metaphors, similes and alliteration.
Mathematics
We will start the term by focusing on angles where students will be learning to identify a right angle and angles smaller and larger than a right angle. Students will then be learning about length and using formal units such as centimetres and metres to measure length. We will then move into our focus of addition and subtraction. During this unit students will be learning to use multiple strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems. They will learn how to describe these strategies while developing a preferred method to solve addition and subtraction using a place value method e.g., jump strategy, fact families, mental recall. Students will then finish off the term with a short unit on mass using metrics units grams and kilograms.
Science
It is great to see all the Grade 3 students back for an exciting term 2 in STEM. This term, students will be investigating Earth and Space. Students will compare the sizes of the planets in our solar system and learn about how the rotation of the Earth gives us our night and day. Additionally, the students will learn about the orbits of various space bodies and how they relate to our days, months, and years. Students will also be exploring the engineering design process by planning, designing, and building a rollercoaster using straws. This hands-on activity helps to develop critical thinking and analytical skills in a fun and engaging way.
LOTE – Chinese
I would like to welcome back the Grade 3 students to Chinese for this term. In term 2, students will start with the revision of what we have learnt in term 1. Meanwhile, students will learn some martial arts based on the Chinese zodiac animals that we learnt last term and practise it through the whole term. There are two important topics that will be covered in this term for Grade 3 which are how to pronounce the names for family members and how to pronounce the shapes, including: circle, rectangular, triangle, square, oval, heart and star.
Art
Term 2 will be about colour theory and it will be a messy term in the art room! We have started the term using warm and cool colours, and students will be printmaking using leaves as stencils, taking into consideration the current season and tones of ‘Autumn’. Warm and cool colours play a vital part when designing, and particularly when painting to create a sense of mood in the artworks. The 3-4’s will be learning to use the colour wheel, identifying where colours sit together in order and colour opposites.
It will be fun to start working with paint this term and to replicate some of the great artists work, such as Vincent Van Gogh and his sunflowers and Keith Haring’s ‘Subway art’. The students will work with mediums; such as acrylic, watercolours, glue and chalk and will learn new techniques.
I look forward to more fun in the art room this Term with the grade 3 and 4 students.
P.E.
For term 2 the grade 3 students will focus on the sport of basketball and being able to apply the skills required in basketball in a games-based approach. Students will be engaged in small-sided games of 3 v 3 basketball and be asked to apply the skills of bouncing a ball, throwing, catching, and shooting and play the game of basketball. Students will use their prior learning and aim to apply this for this sport. Students will have ample opportunity to play the game and learn as they play. By the end of the unit on basketball, students will have had the opportunity to show their ability to bounce, pass, and shoot a basketball and be able to play the game in a 3 v 3 setting. For the second half of term 2 students in grade 3 will continue to work on the fundamental skill of running as it applies to athletics. Students will learn correct running form, conduct a relay running race and partake in a hurdles athletic event. Students will also be introduced to shot-put and discus throwing events that take place during athletics carnivals. These skills will be built on through the different year levels as more depth will be added as the students’ progress through their learning in PE. This term should be heaps of fun and I can’t wait to be started with the grade 3 students! We have plenty of exciting learning ahead and I am looking forward to all of it.