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Year 3 – November Update
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Lots has happened in the first three months of the school year! Not least, one of the most significant and challenging events of Year 3, the Y3 CAMP.
In this edition of the Blog, you will be able to see a short video compiled by the teachers on camp, as well as some photos from the two days.
All the staff were very proud of the growing independence of the students and how they demonstrated their coping skills and resilience during the two day trip.
Returning from camp meant an opportunity to do some valuable reflections about the experience and for the students to set some well being goals at the end of our Who We Are unit of inquiry.
Please find below details of our current and upcoming learning in different aspects of the curriculum.
Unit of Inquiry:
Our upcoming unit of inquiry will be How the World Works:
Central idea: Matter exists in different forms which can be changed and used for a variety of purposes.
During this unit of inquiry, the students will be learning about different forms of matter, how they are constructed and how they can change through physical and chemical changes. The students will be involved in various practical investigations whereby they can create and observe these changes and record their findings.
This is always an enjoyable unit and many of the students also extend their enthusiasm to the home.
This website gives some great ideas for you to try at home. We will be doing some of these in school too.
https://www.thoughtco.com/kitchen-science-experiments-for-kids-604169
In addition to the practical explorations, the students will be learning how to write up their findings scientifically including making a hypothesis, recording the equipment used, method, results and making conclusions.
It would be amazing if you did attempt one of these kitchen science experiments and send in to class some photos or a short video for sharing with the class.
We really want to instil the idea that science is fun, and also that it is all around us.
Language:
Explanation texts. Writing to explain or instruct.
Writing focus: Organisation.
Reading focus: Non-fiction: Summarise and synthesise, make observations, draw conclusions.
The students will be learning how procedural texts are constructed and have the opportunity to write different examples, developing their ability to organise their ideas in specific ways to suit the purpose.
They will be using Big Universe (the school online library) as well as a range of non- fiction texts to support our unit of inquiry about the states of matter.
How you can support at home: This is a time when reading and following recipes together is a good idea at home as these are good examples of real life procedural texts. A good opportunity to do some festive baking, perhaps?
Also any toys or games at home that have instructions are worth drawing their attention to, as they will come to understand the importance of how these types of texts are organised and why.
Maths:
Focus: Addition strategies and problem solving.
Central idea: We can use / choose different strategies to add numbers.
We can interpret and solve addition word problems.
Recently, we have been teaching a variety of addition strategies which are designed to help the students think mathematically and find the most efficient way to make calculations. It is not JUST about finding the answer, it’s about understanding where the answer comes from.
e.g. Bridging Strategy:
Bridging strategy looks at using multiples of ten, as these are EASY to add mentally to other numbers.
For example, 28 + 7 = ? might be solved by bridging 30, with 28 + 2 = 30, then 30 + 5 = 35. (which is an easier mental calculation)
Success in bridging is built on a foundation of knowledge about place value structures (e.g. 30 + 5 = 35) as well as number facts for 10 (e.g. 8 + 2 = 10) and numbers less than 10 (e.g. 5 + 2 = 7).
Partitioning Strategy:
Partitioning involves separating the ‘parts’ of a number (e.g. the hundreds, tens and units), adding the separate parts, then adding all the sub totals.
E.g. 135+ 153=
(add the units) 5+3=8
(add the tens) 30+50=80
(add the hundreds) 100+100=200
(add all the subtotals together) 200+80+8= 288
The point being these are easier for the student to add mentally than the original question.
For this strategy the students need to understand the place value of each digit, which is a good reinforcement of our earlier work on place value.
After learning the strategies, the students have been solving word problems in order to practise using the strategy.
E.g. Jen invited 127 people to her Halloween party. Larry invited 132 people. Write a number sentence that shows how many people were invited altogether.
The students are encouraged to look for the important information in the question, and clues to tell them what needs to be done to solve it. i.e. the word altogether means this will be an addition problem.
So, 127+132=
Using partitioning:
(units) 7+2= 9
(tens) 20+30= 50
(hundreds) 100+100= 200
200+50+9= 259
259 people were invited to Halloween parties altogether.
Pattern and Function:
Upcoming unit: Pattern and Function: Patterns can be observed, described and represented using numbers and other symbols.
We will be exploring patterns in our number system, which will include skip counting patterns and looking at the multiplication tables for 2,3,5 and 10.
We will be translating patterns using pictures, shapes and symbols. The students will be looking for and identifying simple rules for patterns and calculating future terms by using the rule, and creating patterns of their own using various materials, pictures, symbols and numbers.
Wellbeing
The students are just completing their well being goals after spending the whole of their unit of inquiry ‘Who We Are’, learning about the pathways to wellbeing using the SEARCH framework. This will be appearing on Seesaw.
They have all identified an area of their wellbeing that they would like to develop, giving examples of what they intend to do and how they will know if they are successful.
Once these have been published on Seesaw, feel free to discuss it with your child at home and see if you can support them with their goals.
Upcoming dates for your diary:
Family Fun Day: Saturday 7th December
Term 1 reports go live: Thursday 12th December 2019
