Year 3/4

Welcome back to Term 4! We hope all of our families had a relaxing and enjoyable break and that our students are feeling refreshed and ready for a fantastic final term of learning.

It is hard to believe we have already reached the final term of the year! We are incredibly proud of the growth our students have shown and look forward to building on the skills, confidence and positive learning habits they have developed throughout the year. During Term 4, we will continue to maintain high expectations, encourage students to challenge themselves and support every student to finish the year feeling proud of their progress and achievements.

This term we will be covering the following subject areas:

Literacy

Our literacy learning this term will centre around our text study of The Wild Robot, giving students plenty of opportunities to explore characters, relationships, themes and ideas while developing both literal and inferential comprehension. Students will examine how authors use text structures, vocabulary and literary devices to shape meaning and will continue to share and justify their opinions about the texts they read. They will also explore how images, dialogue and other features contribute to meaning and engage in discussions that encourage them to share, extend and build on the ideas of others.

Students will also explore poetry, reading and creating a range of poems while experimenting with vocabulary, wordplay and literary devices to create meaning and effect. Across their writing, students will continue developing their ability to organise and connect ideas, build paragraphs, use adverbial phrases and make purposeful vocabulary choices. They will edit their work to improve its content and structure while continuing to develop their spelling, handwriting and understanding of how words are constructed. Our explicit literacy learning will also explore contractions, modal verbs, prefixes, suffixes and Latin roots, as well as using and punctuating direct and indirect speech.

Numeracy

Our maths learning this term will continue to build students' confidence as flexible and capable mathematicians. Students will conduct data investigations, learning to collect, represent, interpret and discuss data before exploring location and developing their understanding of position and movement. We will investigate the features and properties of three-dimensional objects and explore probability through practical activities and experiments. Students will also continue strengthening their multiplication and division knowledge, applying increasingly efficient strategies to solve problems and further develop their fluency with number facts.

Core Knowledge

This term our Core Knowledge learning will take us beyond our local community as students compare Australia with some of its neighbouring countries. They will explore similarities and differences in geography, environments, people and places, developing a greater understanding of Australia's place within our region. Later in the term, we will step back in time to investigate the birth of democracy, exploring where democratic ideas began and how they have developed over time. Students will have opportunities to discuss, question and connect these ideas to their growing understanding of the world around them.

Wellbeing

Through our Respectful Relationships and Happy Houses programs, our wellbeing focus this term will be on positive gender relations. Students will explore what respectful and equal relationships look like and develop strategies for communicating, cooperating and resolving problems positively. Through discussions, games and scenarios, students will consider how respect, fairness and inclusion can help us build positive relationships with others at school and beyond.

Specialists

Each week students will enjoy Art, Physical Education, S.T.E.M. and Auslan (LOTE), with these areas also woven into our everyday classroom learning. Keep an eye out for the weekly MVP awards shared on Seesaw! In Digital Technologies, students will explore how data can be organised and represented in different ways. They will develop their understanding of how digital systems can be used to collect, organise and present information clearly and meaningfully.

Students will not receive weekly Homework but will be expected to read for 60 minutes a week, having written this in their diary, signed by a parent and brought in by Friday. We strongly encourage all students to keep their diary in their bag and bring it to school every day.

For school news and key dates please refer to the school newsletter. As always, if you have any questions please don't hesitate to get in touch with your classroom teacher.

Thank you,
Mr Mason, Mrs Purdon, Mr Loomes & Mrs Hughes