Year 3/4 Term 4 Overview

Year 3/4 Term Four 2021

Welcome back all to the start of Term 4. We hope that everyone enjoyed the two week break and that you are feeling refreshed and excited about our return to school in two weeks time. We are very much looking forward to having all of our students together in the classroom again on Tuesday 26 October.

Our aim will be to continue to work with everyone as we make the most of the teaching and learning opportunities over the next two weeks and then transition back to the classroom. Thank you very much for the role you play as we continue to work together during these challenging times.

Looking back on Term 3, we were enriched by the opportunity to have 2 fourth year student teachers work with us. We enjoyed getting dressed up on “Fun Fridays” and celebrating Literacy and Numeracy Week, Wellbeing week and AFL day.

We are excited about the learning opportunities ahead and some of the awesome experiences the students will be involved in during Term 4 such as Socktober/Mini Mission, Bioeyes incursion (at school) and of course the recording of St John’s whole school production.

Religious Eductaion/Inquiry - Technologies Science and Design

Our inquiry unit this term examines the important role that plants play in our lives. Students will develop a greater understanding of living, once living and products of living things. Students will also identify characteristics which classify plants and examine life cycles of plants. Students will have the opportunity to participate in simple experiments which support greater understanding of plants. Teacher-led discussions, regarding ideal conditions for plant growth, will occur and include the geographical aspects of climate, seasonal growth and soil quality. Environmental issues such as our role in caring for plants will be addressed.

We will also investigate how we utilise plants for food, wood (shelter and furniture), clothing and other materials and resources such as paper. Students will research the process a plant based product undergoes to become an item of use in our daily lives. This will be in the form of a flow chart/timeline.

Our R.E. unit, Stewardship of Creation, will link closely to our inquiry learning. Students will be reflecting on the sacredness of creation by making links to the biblical stories and Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si: on the Care for the Common Home. We will examine ways we can protect our environment. To conclude the year we prepare for the season of Jesus' birth, investigating Advent and Christmas.

English

Reading - Weekly Literacy rotations including Reading Eggspress, Teacher Focus groups and Grammar activities.

Writing - We will continue to look at non-fiction writing to begin the term. Students will be analysing what makes a strong information report, self assessing and conferencing to identify positives and next steps in their learning.

Spelling - SMART spelling, 4 days a week.

This learning is linked to the Victorian Curriculum with a focus on:

using comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning and begin to evaluate texts by drawing on a growing knowledge of context, text structures and language features
understanding how to apply knowledge of letter–sound relationships, and blending and segmenting to read and use more complex words with less common consonant and vowel clusters
planning, drafting and publishing imaginative, informative and persuasive texts demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features and selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the audience and purpose
rereading and editing texts for meaning, appropriate structure, grammatical choices and punctuation

Mathematics

Through independent, small and large group activities students will explore the following concepts:

Chance and Data

Describe possible everyday events and order their chances of occurring
Identify events where the chance of one will not be affected by the occurrence of the other (for example, flipping a head or tail in a coin toss)

Money

Solve problems by adding amounts of money or shopping products together.
Work out the change given when purchasing products

Division / Multiplication

Recognise and understand the inverse relationship between multiplication and division. For example: 3X4=12 therefore 12➗ 3 = 4
Recall multiplication facts up to 10 X10
Develop efficient mental and written strategies for multiplication and division where there is no reminder

Fractions and Decimals

Count, order and represent fractions and decimals on a number line
Investigate equivalent fractions and make connections between fractions and decimals

Mass / Capacity

Measure, order and compare objects using familiar metric units of mass in grams, kilograms and tonnes
Use scaled instruments to measure and compare lengths, masses, capacities and temperatures

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

During term 4, students will be identifying and exploring their identities and developing an understanding of who they are in the world. Through a range of activities, students will name and describe the factors that contribute to their identity.

Later in the term, students will explore positive relationships. They will describe and demonstrate what respectful and inclusive behaviours look like in action and assess conflict situations and consider possible responses.

Communication

Effective communication between family and school is an important factor in students’ learning. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, comments or concerns.

We will endeavour to respond to emails within 24 hours, during weekdays. tjackson@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au

kcumming@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au

moshannassy@sjmitcham.catholic.edu.au

Please make sure that you have the Skoolbag App, as many school notices and reminders will be sent via the App.

https://skoolbag.com.au/web/?schoolid=22726

Many thanks,

Tom Jackson, Kellie Cumming and Monica O’Shannassy