Year 3
The Grade 3 teachers are very excited to see you all back and ready for learning this term!
We look forward to a productive and enjoyable term!
Mrs Bird, Miss Cooke, Miss Agarano, Miss Moore and Miss Davies.
Reading
This term students will be spending the first 20 days learning about the expectations of reading in grade 3. They will also use this time to organise their reading books and continue to build their love of reading! Students will then be focusing on the text structures and features. They will be looking at various forms of fiction and non fiction texts. Students will be exploring characteristics of both genres including narratives such as realistic fiction and informative texts such as information reports. The students will be looking deeply into descriptions, chronological sequence, comparison and contrast, problem and solution, question and answer. Students will also be focusing on vocabulary and other comprehension strategies such as making connections and visualising.
Writing
In writing this term students will be understanding how to prepare themselves to be successful writers in grade 3. They will be understanding how to build their love of writing and plant their writing seeds in their writers notebook to prepare them for future writing experiences. They will then be looking at the structure and features of a persuasive text. Students will be exploring how to create persuasive pieces that they have strong opinions about.
Mathematics
In maths this term students will be understanding how to be prepared and organised maths learners in grade 3. The students will be focusing on time, place value and data length. Students will be building their number and measurement knowledge when learning about each topic by understanding how to use effective counting and measuring strategies.
Inquiry
This term in Inquiry, for the first 20 days we started the year with our ‘Learning to Learn’ program. This start up program provides the students with the opportunity to establish a collaborative working environment and helps set us up for the year.
Later in the term, the students are going to be learning about health and safety in a unit called ‘ Stay safe’. Students will learn about what strategies they can use to make familiar environments a healthy and safe space.
ART
The students have started the term exploring collage to decorate their art folios; Collage is an art technique that uses coloured paper, magazines and newspapers, the students are cutting and gluing images and words that represent their interests.
The main focus of this term is about colour theory, we will start by revising primary colours and students will make connections to famous artists that have worked with primary and secondary colours, such as Andy Warhol and the Pop Art era. The students will be introduced to the colour wheel and they will explore where primary, secondary and tertiary colours live together on the wheel, and how they complement each other. The students will also be mixing and experimenting with the different colours to create new ones, and will create artworks using these colour groups.
The 3/4 students will have great fun working in the art room and getting messy with paint, as well as experimenting with a range of colouring materials, such as pencil, Texas, crayon and chalk pastel this term. I look forward to a fun and creative time in the art room this term.
LOTE-CHINESE
Welcome back to an exciting new year! In term one, the grade threes and fours will be learning basic language skills in the Chinese Mandarin language, including listening and speaking, recognising sounds and pronunciation, as well as Chinese character reading and writing. They will learn about some Chinese culture such as the Chinese New Year celebrations and traditions, for example red envelopes lanterns and good luck symbols. We will also be learning Chinese vocabulary and phrases about bodies and clothing. Throughout the term, the students will be involved in various activities and learning songs with actions like Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in Chinese. They will also explore stories of legend such as the race of the Chinese zodiac animals.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Welcome back to an exciting year ahead of Physical Education! In term one students in grade three and four will be developing their gross motor skills such as throwing, catching and striking in order to effectively use these in a game scenario. These games will include the likes of cricket, tennis, bat tennis and many more. Students will be generally focusing on each skill over a two-week block. Week one will be re-introducing the skill and week two using these skills in a game sense scenario. Students will gain cardiovascular endurance along with developing their gross motor skills to use within games.
SCIENCE
Welcome to STEM to our Grade 3 students! This year, Grade 3 will be undertaking a new and exciting approach to learning called STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) with a focus on developing skills including problem solving, thinking critically and creatively.
In Term 1, students will be focussing on Biology. Students will be learning to use observable features to distinguish between living and non-living things and then also grouping these things – such as distinguishing between plants and animals. There will be lots of hands-on investigations and experiments, which makes this a very engaging and fun subject to kick off the year!