Middle Report (3/4)

Being Curious

The days have certainly been cooling down, but the curiosity and learning has kept everyone warm and excited as we make our way to the end of Semester 1. Our PBL focus this term is "Our Body," a topic that has captivated our interests since the beginning of the year. We have been amazed to learn how different parts of our bodies work (and a bit surprised to discover the size and shape of our heart and brain). A particular focus has been how we keep our bodies healthy. This lead us to discover the importance of breakfast and eating healthy foods.

Some of our discovery has happened through reading books in our 3/4 library. Other information has come from researching on the Internet. Students have developed their knowledge and awareness of safe behaviours when searching online and how to identify reliable and trustworthy websites. They developed concept maps to record their information which is then used for their projects.

During reading sessions, we have been building our strategies for working out unfamiliar words such as "reading on" to find what would make sense. Students have selected appropriate books both for independent reading at school and as part of the "Take Home" program. Our writing sessions this term began with narratives and we were supported by hearing different strategies authors used while listening to our class novels (3/4A - James and the Giant Peach and The BFG, 3/4B - Demon Dentist and The Witches). Students also learnt to write explanations (which explain how something works). These were linked to students' individual PBL topic (eg. "How the Heart Works," "How the Brain Works").

Maths sessions have focussed on strategies for solving addition, subtraction and multiplication problems. We worked very hard to understand the concepts behind each of these, rather than just trying to memorise facts. Students developed their understanding of arrays to support multiplication and began working on different strategies to build their knowledge of times tables facts. In other areas of maths, we investigated telling the time on analogue clocks. This was a challenge at the start, as most of us were used to digital clocks, however the students' curiosity again shone through and their confidence and skill grew. In recent weeks we have learnt about angles, discovering many different sizes, both inside and outside. Through investigation, students found that right angles seemed to be everywhere!

Learning Goals

Students have negotiated individual learning goals with their teacher for Reading, Writing, Maths (Number) and Maths (time). Many Reading goals involved students selecting an amount of time they wanted to read at home each day). Writing goals included paragraphs, descriptive words and editing. Maths goals focussed on skip counting and telling the time on an analogue clock. Have a conversation with your child about their individual goals and how they are working on improving them. 

23rd June Addison D turns 10 (3/4A)