Classroom News
Grade 3 & 4
Term 1, Week 9
What a busy term it has been! We have met many families new and old during the Information Night and have celebrated Harmony Day this week and it was wonderful to see so many families at the Holi Festival. The Year 3s have also worked hard this term on the NAPLAN test. We have enjoyed working with Trinity in the new and improved Patch garden and have used some of the produce grown to make pizzas. They were delicious!
The students have settled in well into the routines of Reader’s Workshop. This term, we investigated a range of different texts. We identified the purpose of each one and who the target audience might be. We highlighted unfamiliar vocabulary and looked at strategies to help us find the meaning of those words. We are still working on choosing appropriate iPick books that suit our reading level and making deeper connections to the text we are reading as well as unpacking our thinking.
In Writing, the Year 3 students spent time preparing for NAPLAN. They focused on building their understanding and skills in persuasive and narrative writing. The students practised building paragraphs from topic sentences, using descriptive language including rhetorical questions, and varied punctuation to add expression and effect. All Year 3 students did an amazing effort and we are very proud of them!
Our writing workshop always focuses on building student’s writing skills through the 6 + 1 Traits of writing. We have been using our class text ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ to examine how an author writes for an intended audience and its effect. Some focuses have been sentence fluency (how varied sentences are structured including dialogue), word choices (descriptive language), conventions (quotation marks and other punctuation).
In Mathematics, we examined the topic of measurement before moving on to geometry. In measurement we had the opportunity to measure the length of our jumps and the weight of various classroom objects. This allowed us to easily compare length and mass, and use correct terminology to do so. We also had lots of fun jumping around and finding interesting items to weigh!
In geometry, we have been examining the features and properties of various 2D and 3D shapes. We have been learning to use language such as vertices, faces, edges, parallel, as well as acute, right, and obtuse angles. They had the opportunity to make some interesting 2D shapes and create nets for various 3D shapes. We have completed a lot of great maths work this term.
Reminders:
Friday 24th March Chinese Day
Wednesday 29th March. Whole School House Cross Country
Thursday 6th April. Last day of Term 2