Curriculum News
English
Reading and Viewing
This term we will continue with our weekly reading foci. In our whole group daily sessions of introducing and exploring different texts hardcopy and digital, we will be using the Strategies of CLOSE reading where we will look at unknown words to better understand the text, main idea of the text , summarise the main points, what connections the children can make with the text and what is the purpose of the text.
In reading groups, the students will use Fountas and Pinnell leveled texts to work on comprehension strategies about, within and beyond the text.
Writing
This term students will focus on ‘writing to inform’ and ‘writing to explain’ as it also supports the literacy needs of our science units.Texts will be created following text structure and features of both forms.
Spelling will be continued following our scope and sequence for the year.
Speaking and Listening
This term, the students will continue to be required to be active listeners and respectfully respond to the work of others such as the individual Genius Hour presentations. They will be given opportunities to listen and contribute to conversations and discussions, to share information and ideas. In collaborative groups students will also plan and deliver short presentations on given topics.
Maths
Number and Algebra
Students will be focussing on multiplication and division. We will continue to develop efficient mental and written strategies using known facts and strategies, such as commutativity, doubling and halving for multiplication, and connecting division to multiplication when there is no remainder.
For Money and Financial Matters students will represent money values in multiple ways and count the change required for simple transactions to the nearest five cents. They will also solve problems involving purchases and the calculation of change to the nearest five cents.
Students will extend their understanding of fractions and decimals from Term 2. They will explore the relationship between fractions and decimals, looking at equivalence between the two. They will explore converting fractions to mixed numbers and improper fractions.
Measurement and Geometry:
Students will be learning to tell time to the minute, convert from digital to analogue time and identify Time duration through reading calendars and timetables. Students will use am and pm notation and solve simple time problems.
The children will investigate properties of 2 dimensional shapes, lines and angles and use this geometric language to describe regular and irregular 2D shapes.
Inquiry/Religion
Religion
The Church and Community
We will begin the term looking at the role of Mary and her discipleship in the early church and what this means to the church today. Students will reflect on their parish community and ways in which discipleship is enabled. We celebrate Mary through the feast of the assumption and we acknowledge Australia's first Saint, Mary McKillop.
God, Religion and Life
We will begin preparation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Through the stories of the new testament, children will explain the relationship between God, Jesus and Spirit. They will then interpret the Christian understanding of God’s loving forgiveness through these stories.This will lead to reflecting on the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation, nationally, communally and personally.
Inquiry
This term our host area for Inquiry is Physical Science. Our big question is ‘Why is it so? Students will investigate how heat can be produced in many ways and can move from one object to another; a change in the temperature of an object is related to the gain or loss of heat by the object. Students will learn that forces can be exerted by one object on another through direct contact or from a distance.
Vocabulary
Energy, movement, push, pull, force, motion, energy, friction, gravity, Isaac Newton, momentum, contact, non contact, heat, movement, matter, energy, molecules, atoms.
Social & Emotional Wellbeing
The Wellbeing focus for this term is Positive Focus Strategies. We have begun working with the Zones of Regulation where the students identify emotions in various situations. Working with each zone, students list words to say and actions to take to overcome negative emotions to get back into the green zone.
