A warm welcome back to Year 3 students and their parents. The information below will outline the Term 4 curriculum and provide some useful information about the term ahead.
During Term 4, students will learn about the structure and language features of procedural texts. Sentence-level Grammar and Vocabulary lessons will continue to develop and extend the girls’ word knowledge, awareness of parts of speech and punctuation including commas and quotation marks. The girls will practise proofreading and editing skills. In reading comprehension lessons, the girls will continue to learn critical literacy skills to question, challenge and evaluate the meanings and purposes of imaginative and factual texts. Students will continue to be involved in explicit Spelling Mastery lessons for three sessions a week.
In Mathematics groups, the girls will have opportunities to use varied strategies in their written work for addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. Mental computation skills will be practised regularly to improve speed and accuracy. The girls will explore and further develop knowledge in time, area, 2D shapes, angles and data. Additionally, focus will continue to be placed on learning how to communicate reasoning for provided answers. Whenever possible, the girls should be encouraged to participate in everyday mathematical tasks such as cooking, shopping, telling the time and reading a timetable to practise these skills.
Girls will continue to explore the topic of The Living World Beneath the Sea. In this unit, students will learn how to group living things according to their external features and distinguish them from non-living things. They will investigate the life cycles of both plants and animals. Students will conduct an inquiry into a coral reef environment to explore how environments and living things are interdependent. They will design an informative item to promote the protection of living things, such as turtles in the Great Barrier Reef.
In Digital Technologies, students will continue to investigate multistep algorithms with the Scratch platform as they further develop their computational thinking skills. They will apply their understanding and skills of coding a Scratch program for a small project that links to other areas of their learning. This will be a STEAM focused collaborative project where students design, engineer and calculate appropriate solutions to a problem.
In the unit Natural Environments, the girls will examine the importance of natural vegetation and resources to the environment. They will identify sustainable practices and recognise that there are differing views on how sustainability can be achieved. They will develop geographical inquiry questions to investigate, collect and record relevant data and information to answer these questions.
In Term 4, the girls will learn more about French culture such as games like pétanque. They will be introduced to vocabulary for different games that children play and learn new verbs to express how to invite someone to play. They will also learn to give their opinion on which games they like and dislike in French.
This term the girls will complete their Science project about the living world. Key skills will include identifying key points and synthesising information about the animal researched to create a scientific fact sheet.
Students will further develop their conversational skills through initiating conversations in familiar social contexts by greeting participants and introducing themselves. They will be supported to prepare a presentation about themselves and their family in class. ‘Pinyin’ will be consolidated as well as other aspects of the writing system.
Year 3 students will be undertaking their final period of instrumental tuition in Music this term. The focus will be on consolidating note reading and developing ensemble skills. Classroom Music lessons will concentrate on developing the students’ knowledge and application of musical concepts.
On Wednesdays, students will need to wear their PE uniform to school. They will be participating in a range of activities and games to develop their skills in a variety of invasion games. From Week 5 students will participate in net/court games including Tennis. Students can bring their own tennis racquet if they wish. During Thursday PE lessons, the girls will be participating in a Cricket unit where they will participate in a range of modified activities and games. From Week 5 they will participate in a Swimming unit. They will be required to wear full summer uniform on this day and bring their Ascham Swimming costume, swimming cap, goggles, towel and a change of underwear.
In PDH, students will commence the Keeping Safe unit. In this unit the students will examine the dangers that exist in and around the home and school. Additionally, students will be guided through the steps of an emergency 000 call. They will investigate the principles of personal safety and practise assertive responses to unsafe situations.
The unit It’s Not Easy Being Green focuses on observational drawing and the exploration of cultural, structural and ethical aspects of plant life. The exploration of works by Leonardo da Vinci, Mondrian, Rousseau, Elsworth Kelly, Lucy Culliton and William Delafield Cook will provide students with insight into a variety of precise and more expressive drawing techniques.
A weekly homework outline will continue to be provided in Term 4. Please note that it is suggested that your daughter spends no more than 35 minutes on homework, four times a week. Also, remember Homework Help sessions are available three times a week, as outlined on the weekly homework slips.
I would also like to remind you to sign your daughter’s diary once a week, preferably on a Tuesday night, as this is when her weekly homework slip will be glued into her diary. Thank you for your assistance with this.