Year 3 Teaching Team
3A- Matilda Bailey
3B- Esther Chan (W-M)/ Joe Grabin (Th-F)
3C- Amanda Stevens
3D- Ari Gurr (PLT Facilitator)
3E- Risa Hammell
Curriculum Overview Term 3
Reading
In Term 3, students will study the main idea in fiction and nonfiction texts, and use evidence from these texts to support their responses. They will also summarise key information from text in a clear, logical and succinct way. Students will extend their knowledge of text organisation by looking at structures, features, vocabulary and grammar, as well as take into account the purpose, audience and context.
Through the guided reading sessions, students will apply reading strategies such as letter-sound relationships, blending and segmenting, identifying homophones and recognising prefixes and suffixes to read more complex words. They will continue working on recognising their bank of high frequency and monosyllabic words rapidly and automatically.
Writing
This term, students will continue to think like authors as they utilise the 6+1 Traits of Writing through the writing process; idea generation/unpacking, plan, draft, revise/edit and publish. They will explicitly learn how to use and maintain appropriate tenses and experiment and explore with a range of different text types as they develop their independent writing styles. They will also learn how to use more complex punctuation accurately, such as contractions.
Up to three pieces will be published by each student this term, which will be displayed in our ‘Writer’s Gift’ for all students to share and enjoy. Word Study curriculum will also be taught throughout the week to allow students the opportunity to apply it into their writing. In Term 3, we will be focusing on word sounds, word investigations and handwriting. There will be an opportunity to consolidate their spelling of all high frequency words, and use multiple taught strategies to spell unknown words they come across during literacy sessions.
Speaking & Listening
Students will have regular opportunities in all areas of the curriculum to share their learning and listen to others. Students will be encouraged to collaborate in a team learning environment to develop social skills and understand the various language contexts of English. This will allow students to understand specific and appropriate vocabulary for learning areas and develop their content knowledge. Our Geography unit, Australia’s Neighbouring Countries, will give students a chance to share their research with their peers and work together, where they will learn to plan and deliver short presentations providing key details in a logical sequence and use appropriate tone, pace, pitch and volume.
Numeracy
In Number and Algebra this term, students will be exploring different ways to identify fractions including ½, ¼, ⅓, ⅕, through concrete materials and abstract representations. They will also be learning about Money, the different denominations of the Australian currency and how to calculate and count change to the nearest five cents. In Measurement and Geometry, students will extend understanding of 2D and 3D shapes as they investigate symmetry and how transformations of flips (reflection), turns (rotation) and slides (translations) occur in our natural and built environments. They will also be introduced to angles where they will compare and classify the sizes of different angles in everyday situations. In Statistics and Probability, students will be conducting chance experiences to describe and recognise the difference between possible and actual results. At the end of the term, students will revise their mathematical operations (multiplication, division, addition and subtraction).
Throughout the term, students will be given ample opportunity to extend their thinking through open-ended questioning and provocation where students can challenge themselves by manipulating numbers to suit their capabilities.
Other Learning Areas (OLA)
Wellbeing
With student wellbeing remaining our priority, this term we will be covering what is safe and unsafe through our safety learning program across the term, where we will go through topics like bodies and consent. The students will continue to engage in targeted weekly Wellbeing sessions, guided by the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships curriculum and utilising the Zones of Regulation, enabling us to develop our students’ social, emotional and physical wellbeing.
We are also having an incursion conducted by the Project Rockit team, where the Year 3 students will be going through a workshop called ‘Belong’ where students will learn to build an inclusive school community, with strategies and empathy to combat social exclusion and increase awareness of diverse perspectives. Students will walk away from this incursion with the thought “Each one of us matters, and we all have the power to make everyone feel like they belong.”
Design & Technology
We will continue to use educational iPad applications to support and enrich our students’ classroom learning. Some apps we will use include: Doodle Maths, Doodle Spell and Doodle English, Epic, Makers Empire, and Book Creator. Students will continue to develop digital literacy skills, through research, presentations, and multimedia analysis. It is very important that students remember to follow our iPad agreement, to ensure safe and effective technology use across all learning areas.
Geography
This term the Year 3s will be looking at Australia’s neighbouring countries. Students will be using digital resources, books from the library and atlases to investigate countries such as Indonesia, Samoa, New Zealand, and more. They will learn about the population, climate, culture and major attractions of these countries, and present their findings to the class.
Home learning
Year 3 students are expected to read for 30 minutes per night to improve their reading ability, and in turn, their writing acquisition. It is also an expectation that students are completing at least 10 minutes of Doodle Maths and Spell (their 5-7 a day task) to consolidate their knowledge and fill any gaps.
To support your child’s learning at home, here are some things you can do:
- Encourage reading every night – including short periods of read-aloud. We cannot stress how important reading every day is. A student who reads less than a minute per day outside of school reads only 8,000 to 21,000 words per year. However, a student who reads 20 minutes per day outside of school reads almost 2 million words per year!
- The Doodle Learning apps (Maths, Spell, and English) are programs that families can download – either via the App or by accessing the website from home iPad/computers, so their child can log in to their personal MAP, lessons, texts and literacy games from home.
- Use real life opportunities such as shopping and cooking to discuss money, addition and other mathematical concepts.
- Write at home – it can be about anything. The more short pieces your child can write, the better writer they will become.
- Encourage random acts of kindness. This could be anything from using manners, to writing a card to a grandparent. Students can play www.freerice.com to build global perspectives and empathy for those less fortunate.