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 1
The Grade 3 team is looking forward to welcoming our new students to their first year in the senior school. We have high expectations for all of our students, and will strive to create safe and supportive learning environments for them to grow in confidence and academics. Towards the end of the term, students will be participating in NAPLAN testing in literacy and numeracy. We will have them well prepared, so there is no need for additional homework or testing at home. Below is a summary of the topics we will be teaching the students in Year 3 in Term 1.
Reading
In the first weeks of reading in year 3, students will begin by learning how to choose appropriate, ‘Just Right’ books, develop strategies to grow their reading stamina and expectations in lessons. Throughout the year students will learn and practise a range of comprehension strategies. In term 1, they will be learning how to make connections from books they are reading to their own life experiences, their prior knowledge and to other literacy texts. We will also be using a variety of questioning strategies to deepen their understanding of texts and learn to make predictions about texts they are reading and justify these using their previous reading experiences and text structures. Lastly, students will be learning to apply text processing strategies during their guided reading sessions, including letter-sound relationships, blending and segmenting and understanding the English rules to read and recognise high frequency and more complex words.
Writing
In year 3, students will be thinking like authors as they utilise the 6+1 Traits of Writing through the ‘Writing Process’. During our first 20 days of literacy, we will be setting up expectations and introducing the Writer’s Workshop for year 3 before moving towards explicit teaching of Narrative and Persuasive texts with a focus on structure and generating clear, original ideas that they can use in their writing throughout the year. 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 1, we will be looking at strategies to accurately spell high frequency words.
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 Australian Geography unit 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.
Maths
In year 3 numeracy, students will explore a range of problem solving strategies as they develop their proficiencies of number & algebra, measurement & geometry and statistics & probability. In term 1, students will be learning about place value and recognising, modelling, representing and ordering numbers to at least 10 000 as well as partitioning, rearranging and regrouping numbers to at least 10 000 to assist in calculations and solve problems. They will also be able to recall addition facts and related subtraction facts (fact families) for numbers up to 20 to develop increasingly efficient mental strategies for computation and problem solving.
Students will be given ample opportunity to extend their thinking through open-ended questioning and provocation. Students can challenge themselves by manipulating numbers to suit them. Later in the term, we will be learning how to collect, organise and create data displays to interpret data and make appropriate conclusions.
Wellbeing
We currently run the Respectful Relationships Rights and Resilience wellbeing program at NMPS. Students will also explore Mindfulness and Growth Mindset through meditation and circle time.
Technology
This year, students will be using educational iPad applications to support and enrich their classroom learning. Some apps we will use include: Doodle Maths, Doodle Spell and Doodle English, Epic, and Book Creator. Students will use iPads to research topics, represent their learning as well as to strengthen skills. It is very important that students abide by the iPad agreement, this includes using the iPad only in the classroom and not before or after school hours.
Geography:
This term the Year 3s will be focusing on Australia and its neighbouring countries in our Geography unit. Students will be examining major natural and human characteristics of Australia and its neighbouring countries. They will investigate how the Australian continent was (and still is) divided into many Aboriginal Countries and Torres Strait Islander Places, as well as learn using maps and their conventions (border, scale, legend, title). Throughout the unit, students learn researching skills to identify key information and represent this appropriately.
Home Learning
Year 3 students are expected to read for 20 minutes per night to improve their reading ability, and in turn, their writing acquisition. There will be times when explicit home learning tasks are set and students will be expected to complete these activities. These tasks will generally be open-ended and project based. Your child’s iPad will continue to have new school apps added to it. Many of the numeracy and literacy apps will support the learning we do in the classroom.
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 the App or access 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.