Literacy
Grade 3 students have been using alliteration, personification, similes, rhyme and ‘show, don’t tell’ to draft and publish some amazing poetry.
Numeracy
Students in Grade 3 have been exploring fractions and making connections with decimals. We have learnt how the place value system can be extended to tenths and hundredths and have started to make some links with percentages.
Student Voice and Agency
3A are working in teams to develop a story as the basis for a short film as part of our Frame by Frame inquiry learning. We have been brainstorming ideas, creating characters, writing scripts and storyboarding in preparation for the final production stage.
Grade 3/4 Bendigo Camp
Grades Three and Four campers have had an amazing time at our Bendigo Goldfields camp this week! Highlights included tours of the Great Stupa, the Central Deborah Gold Mine, Bendigo Art Gallery and the Golden Dragon Museum. We have been demonstrating our ability to problem solve in a variety of situations by spending time with students from other classes and year levels. It was great to see all our students confidently demonstrating the values we have been working on, respect, responsibility and learning, in a range of environments.
Personal and Social Learning
Grade 3 and Grade 4 students explored the Zones of Regulation during Week One. They created posters to show what emotions they feel in each of the zones.
Numeracy highlights
This week 3A have been continuing our unit of work on division. We have been using materials to model division problems and making connections with multiplication.
This week in 3B, we have been developing and applying our knowledge of division, fact families and commutativity to solve number problems.
This week 3C, we have been developing our knowledge of basic number facts by practising a variety of problem solving games and using some new strategies.
Book Week
Grade 3A loved dressing up as our favourite characters as part of our whole school book parade and sharing books during our buddy reading session. We especially enjoyed creating our own narratives using the 7 Steps of Writing process. Students examined Jetty Jumping by Andrea Rowe to see how other writers use the pebble, rock and boulder stages to keep us in suspense.
Science Week and Numeracy Highlights
3A
This week students in 3A have been making connections between addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as part of our daily maths warm up challenges.
3B
3B have been exploring our understanding of multiplication and developing our ‘personal toolkits’ of strategies we can use to solve problems. A real focus throughout this year is being challenged to ‘think about our thinking’, explaining strategies to work the problem out, rather than just providing an answer.
3C
We have been learning about elapsed time and how to add or subtract minutes from digital and analogue time. We have also been learning about vertical multiplication methods and discovering the power of zero!
Inquiry Learning
This week Grade 3A students have been researching the culture and traditional lifestyles of the First Peoples of Australia. Students worked in pairs to examine the Dreaming and investigated the tools, clothing and transport traditionally used by Indigenous Australians.
As part of our Inquiry Unit ‘First Contact’, 3B have been exploring what it means to be a Historian.
We have immersed ourselves into the perspective of the first fleets travelling from the UK, using our visualising skills to imagine and think about the conditions convicts may have experienced on their journey. We have also been exploring how First Nations people must have felt when an unknown people arrived, and how their lives may have changed upon the arrival of the English.
This term, our Inquiry unit is titled ‘First Contact’ where students learn about the lives of First Australians before European settlement and discover the journey of the First Fleet and beyond. During one of our sessions, grade 3 students learnt about the difficult conditions experienced during a convict’s journey to Australia, and what their cramped living quarters were like during their time upon the rough seas!
NAIDOC Week
Students in 3A celebrated NAIDOC week by investigating the different symbols used in Indigenous artwork. We watched a video of proud Yuin woman and founder of Ngandabaa, Rheanna Lotter talking about her artwork and explaining the meaning behind her work. We created our own artworks showing our connections with our own families and communities.
3C celebrated NAIDOC week and our indigenous culture by learning about aboriginal art and the meanings behind various symbols and drawings used. The class watched a brief video outlining some easy ways to create their own artwork and focusing on their own families through their drawings.
Literacy and Numeracy Highlights
This week in mathematics, Grade 3A have been exploring angles! We investigated the properties of right angles and learnt about straight, acute, obtuse and reflex angles.
National Reconciliation Week and Inquiry Learning
This week Grade 3A have been investigating the significance of National Reconciliation Week and discussed the importance of recognising and valuing culture. We learnt to say some words in the Woiwurrung language of the Wurundjeri people, such as Melbourne, friend, and farewell.
In 3B this week, we have been celebrating Reconciliation Week and discussing what and who it is about. We have discussed the inequalities that our First Nations people have faced throughout history, what improvements we have made and what we still need to do to right the wrongs and allow our first nations people to feel valued and equal.
This week in 3C Inquiry, we have been looking at how different ecosystems are such an important part of our world and how we must protect our environment for future generations. The class completed an ecosystem scavenger hunt around the school and identified how people have impacted the environment in different ways. There was a lot of discussion about living and nonliving things around the garden areas!
School Wide Positive Behaviours (SWPBS)
Grade 3A brainstormed how we can be respectful, responsible learners when we are moving around different areas of the school. We discussed how we walk carefully on the concrete paths and move quietly in areas where other students are learning.
In 3B this week we have been re-visiting our School Wide Positive Behaviour Matrix with a particular focus on respectful relationships and discussing how that looks in our classroom. We spent time discussing what collaborative and cooperative teamwork looks, sounds and feels like. We also enjoyed identifying personal skills we need to be successful in this through some fun activities that required these skills in order to be successful.
Commemorating ANZAC Day
Grade 3A read the book, Meet the Anzacs. We shared our thoughts and feelings as part of a class discussion and students reflected on their learning. Students learnt about the importance of mateship and acknowledging how much these soldiers went through for our country.
3C recognised ANZAC Day this week by watching a presentation that outlined the origin of ANZAC Day and how we celebrate this day each year. Students wrote a paragraph about their thoughts, feelings and what they’d learnt about ANZAC Day. The class also took part in a detailed discussion about the ANZAC soldier’s landing at Gallipoli.
A Spotlight on Literacy and Numeracy
Grade 3A have been exploring how we can use persuasive devices, such as rhetorical questions to convince our audience. We created sentences including high modality words to add some extra impact to our arguments.
It’s essential you play by yourself so your teammates don’t take the ball. Dean
Clearly all children should play a team sport because it’s good for your health and you might make a friend or some friends. Summer
Undoubtedly, playing a team sport makes your brain work better. Chanel
You should obviously play a sport because you learn so much. Bradley
A major focus this year for Grade 3B, is developing our reading comprehension skills. To do this, we have been exploring the art of ‘thinking about our thinking’ this term. It has been fabulous to see the students gain confidence in expressing their ideas and opinions in this way. Moving the focus away from just giving the right answer, to taking chances and explaining (justifying) our responses by sharing our thinking. The students are laying great foundations for the rest of the year, to experiment with increasingly more complex ideas and delve much deeper into the meaning of what they read.
Grade 3C have been having fun learning about 2D and 3D shapes in numeracy over the past 2 weeks. Students have explored how 2D and 3D are found everywhere throughout our worlds and learnt how to describe their features (using new language such as vertices, edges, faces, length, width, height, polygon and quadrilateral). The class have discovered how 3D shapes have ‘nets’ when represented in 2D form and how these can be constructed into a 3D form to display.
National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence
Harmony Day
As part of our National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence, Grade 3A discussed the ways in which we can treat others with kindness and understanding. We created a paper chain of the kind deeds we have performed or are planning to perform over the next few days. On Harmony Day we discussed the many different cultures that make up Melbourne. We read My Story by Shirley Purdie, which told us about her background and culture growing up in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.
Grade 3C recognised the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence by creating a wonderful kindness culture paper chain to display in the classroom. The display included a large range of positive messages and inspiring comments for all to read and enjoy. The class watched a video about bullying, took part in a deep and meaningful discussion about being kind to each other and also how to stamp out bullying in the school yard.
Respectful Relationships: Emotional Literacy
In grade 3A, we had fun playing a guessing game. We worked in teams to design and perform a freeze frame: a situation in time in which someone might feel a certain emotion.
In grade 3B, we brainstormed a list of emotions and played some games exploring the different ways we show and feel these in our bodies.
In grade 3C, we discussed what we knew about different types of emotions and demonstrated how an emotion can be represented by the many facial expressions and body languages we display. We had some fun acting out these emotions to the whole class.
Inquiry Learning: Someone Else's Shoes
Grade 3A: As part of our Social Justice unit, Grade 3A have been practicing the skill of thinking flexibly. We worked in teams to come up with as many solutions as we could to a given scenario. Students had to think beyond the obvious and be open to different ideas.
Grade 3B: As part of our unit ‘Someone Else’s Shoes’, Grade 3B have been learning some basic Auslan. Students have shown great interest in learning a new way of communicating which has led to us spending more student led time exploring key word signs.
Grade 3C: As part of our inquiry learning, Grade 3C have investigated what it is like to live with a disability and have participated in class discussions about the ways in which technology can enable independence.
Routines for Success
In 3A we have been getting to know each other and created a mural out of puzzle pieces, all about ourselves. We brainstormed ideas for our class values and put them into categories: Respectful, Responsible, Learners. We have been learning how to look after our school environment by remembering to put rubbish in the bin.
In 3B we have spent time getting to know each other and identifying our similarities. Tasks and activities have included a wide range of topics, exploring and using our resources in our new classroom. We spent time transferring our learning to outside, utilising the outdoor spaces we have available. The students have designed their own flags representing what is important to them, whilst also exploring and discussing how they would like our classroom environment to best support their learning.
In 3C, we have been getting to know each other by playing games and completing tasks that tell our classmates more about our different worlds! We have designed our own flags and also brainstormed important answers to questions about reading, writing and mathematics.
