Updates
Welcome to Year 3
Posted by kimward
Introduction:This is the place where you will be able to keep up to date with what is going on in Year 3 in terms of your child’s learning in Unit of Inquiry, Language and Maths, as well as reminders of key dates and some photographs or video clips of life in Year 3.
What an amazing start to the year the Y3 students have had! All the teachers and EAs have been very impressed at how quickly they have been learning new routines and expectations.
It was a pleasure to meet you at the Parent Information Fair last week and begin to develop those connections and relationships that will enable your children to flourish and be well supported this year by us all. For anyone who was not able to attend, a copy of the slide show we used at the presentation is included for your convenience HERE.
We would like to draw special attention the the two slides about creating ‘BREAKER SPACES’. If you have any old electronic equipment that you no longer want or need can you please send them in to Mrs. Klatt. She is developing opportunities to take things apart and investigate how things are made, sparking an interest in science and technology. (STEAM)
Unit of Inquiry:
HOW WE ORGANISE OURSELVES
Central Idea: Organisations are structured to solve problems and achieve goals.
We have spent the first few weeks of school getting to know each other and also building an understanding of how people work together. This first unit introduces the idea of teamwork and how groups of people in different settings can work together to achieve goals. The students will explore different groups or teams of people they know about – for example the adults in the school, and explore their roles and how they work together. They will be interviewing members of the school leadership team as well as EAs to find out how they work together for the smooth running of the school.
They will also carry out some teamwork challenges in groups to develop their social and communication skills. This year we have decided to spread this unit of inquiry across the whole year, as there are many opportunities in other units of inquiry where it is appropriate to spotlight the value of collaboration and effective teamwork. For that reason, next week, we will be moving straight onto our second unit.
WHO WE ARE
Central idea: Understanding who we are as individuals and as a community helps us GROW.DISCOVER.DREAM.
The focus of this unit of inquiry is on visible wellbeing. We will inquire into the SEARCH Framework and explore the elements of this in different, practical ways with the students to help them gain a deeper understanding of their strengths- how to use them, and how to develop the, their emotional management – using the zones of regulation to support this. We will also look at strategies to develop their attention and awareness, relationships, coping and habits and goals. Once again this wellbeing focus will permeate all units throughout the year. By having a strong focus early on, we can build on the students’ understanding and support them in having more agency around their own wellbeing.
This unit leads into Y3 Camp, which is timely and will enable them to apply many of the skills, strengths and strategies they will have been learning about in school.
Language:
Focus: Narratives – People write stories for the enjoyment of others.
The students will begin by retelling stories that they have heard to help them understand the structure of narratives. They will have the opportunity to create stories of their own, reflecting the structures they have learned.
We will begin guided reading sessions in groups during school at the students instructional level, which will be a little more challenging than their home readers (fluency books).
We will begin teaching the students pre-cursive letters, with joiners, this term to prepare them for cursive handwriting later in the year.
We will be revisiting the high frequency words, continuing the work done in Y2 on this and also introduce more phonics to support spelling and word study.
How you can support at home:
We ask that you not only listen to your children read at home, but also read to them and discuss and share books with them. The books they bring home from the library are based on their interests. We encourage reading for pleasure and enjoyment.
Maths:
Focus: Place Value: The base ten place value system is used to represent numbers and number relationships.
During our first maths unit, the students will:
- Apply place value to partition and rename four-digit numbers.
For example 4,356 is 4000+300+50+6 (this is partitioning)
- Skip count by twos, fives, tens and hundreds starting from a number other than zero
- Recognise, model, represent and order four-digit numbers
- Round numbers to the nearest 10 or 100
The students will engage in various place value games and activities in order to reinforce, consolidate and learn these concepts.
How you can support at home:
You can support at home by working with them one-to-one and also by taking advantage of the many activities on StudyLadder (accessed through Ding! – check the diary for login details) which support our class learning.
Wellbeing:
The start of a new school year is always a time to build positive relationships and set the tone for a happy and productive year for all.
The year 3 classes have been reconnecting with character strengths and how these can help us. We have also reconnected with the zones of regulation as a means of the students easily communicating whether or not they are in the green zone (for learning)- and if they are not, how to get back there using various tools and strategies.
We have all spent a good deal of time developing essential agreements with our classes to establish the kind of environment the students would prefer to learn in.
Throughout the year we will be asking the students to engage in various wellbeing practices, including circle times, reflecting using ‘See. Hear. Feel’ and engaging with a reflection journal. Although we have a particular focus during our Who We Are unit of inquiry, aspects of visible wellbeing will permeate school life throughout the year.
Important Dates for your Diary:
Class Assemblies:
3LKT (Mrs Klatt’s class) – 10th September 2019 (done)
3CHN (Ms Hanlon’s class) – 26th November 2019
3KWD (Mrs Ward’s class) – 26th May 2020
3SPT (Mr Pratt’s class) – 6th June 2020
Parent-Teacher Conferences: 18th and 19th September 2019
Y3 Camp: Thursday 24th and Friday 25th October 2019
