What's happening in our classrooms?

The grade 3 students have been working extremely hard during the first few weeks of school. They have settled into classroom routines and have approached learning with determination and enthusiasm.

Literacy

During English we have been focusing on exposition text types. The students have been focusing on the structure and features of exposition texts including modal verbs, time connectives, punctuation and adding a conclusion at the end of the text. We were so excited to welcome a special guest, Stephen Graham, back into our classrooms. Stephen Graham is Mackellar's literacy consultant and we had lots of fun together working to create an exposition text about whether students should play sport. We are happy to say that most of Grade 3 students think that students should play sport! We look forward to writing other exposition texts over the rest of the term. 

Students are also participating in weekly handwriting lessons where they concentrate on improving letter position and formation using the correct starting points and pencil grip. 

Mathematics

This term, students are focusing on place value, reading and recording temperature and exploring the concept of time. We have been recording the daily temperature as well as temperatures around Australia. We have also been looking at the language that we use when reading temperature. 

Students have also been exploring the value of the digits within numbers to 1000 and beyond using concrete materials and identifying how many thousands, hundreds, tens and ones are represented in each number. They have been making numbers on place value mats using Base 10 and arrow cards. We have been playing games, trying to make the highest and lowest numbers that we can. Students have explored the importance of the zero and how it holds the place in numbers. 

When we are reading time, we are learning to use the words ‘past’ and ‘to’ to describe time on analogue clocks. This is really tricky! A great way to help your child at home is to ask them to read a random time for you. What time is it now? How would we read this as digital time (e.g. 5:45pm) How would we read this as analogue time? (e.g. quarter to 6).

First 20 Days of SWPBS

Students have been working on School Wide Positive Behaviour values lessons in our classrooms. They have been looking at the matrix and the rules that align with our values and areas of our school. 

We have practised safe and responsible behaviour in different areas of the school. These have included how to transition from different areas of the school, how to use the school crossing and how to show teamwork and respect while we are near the office and canteen. 

We enjoyed looking at how to keep safe online through lessons in Hector's World during eSafety week. We learnt how to protect our personal details while working and playing online as well as telling an adult if something doesn't look or feel right while we online.