Yr3 Curriculum Update – 07/09/18
Working together to achieve success for every child
Welcome to our 2nd edition!
In each update, the Year 3 Team will bring you snapshots of what your children in Year Three have been up to every 2 weeks. You will see a variety of learning experiences exemplifying learning which is fun, exciting, challenging, innovative and/or creative…and whatever they are, we know that your child has worked really hard to get there and should you have the chance, you may want to share this newsletter with your child to find out the juicy details and discuss the great learning he/she have been doing!
Transdisciplinary Learning – It’s all connected!
How we express ourselves : ‘Artists can use scientific principles to create’.
We are currently at the tuning in stages to our new Unit of Inquiry that investigates using scientific principles to create and inquire into light and sound.
We started off the unit by walking around the school identifying lights and sounds in different areas. We heard sounds from the music room full of beautiful instruments played by teachers and students. We also found different types of lights around the school, including the lift buttons, the ceiling and decorative lights set up in the Dance Studio!
Students looking at the different lights set up in the Dance Studio. This one was glowing and creating shadows on the curtains!
Students identifying artificial lights in the hallways and lifts.
In addition the students have started to look at the skills and personality of a scientist and were asked to draw their ideas of what a scientist is, what they look like and what skills they should have.
We explored and consolidated the students’ understanding what a scientist is by looking at literature such as ‘Ada Twist, Scientist’ and Mystery Doug videos ‘Why do scientists know everything?’
Students read Ada Twist, Scientist book that explores the skills of a scientist
Students found out that everyone can be a scientist (including themselves) as everyone is knowledgeable and can use research and observation skills to find things out!
Literacy
In literacy, the students have been exploring their creativity and stamina in reading and writing.
The students have been experimenting with choosing a topic to write about based on their interests. Students have been sharing their finished pieces with their peers and exploring setting writing goals to increase their confidence as writers.
In reading, students are challenging themselves to increase their reading stamina to help them visualize and understand the story.
The ongoing bar chart of students practising reading stamina each day. Can we get to 15 minutes this week?
At home you might like to…
Try finding different lights and sounds around your home and neighbourhood. Can children identify which of these are natural or artificial?
Rewatch the Read Aloud ‘Ada Twist Scientist’ on youtube, talk about the story at home and what skills Ada and your child have in common!
Maths
The students have continued to inquire into inspirational maths and have explored challenges that have helped them to reflect on who they are as a learner and the important messages we should be learning from maths. Such ideas included: Maths is not about speed, everyone is a capable maths learner and to always keep trying because if we believe in ourselves, our brains can do anything!
Students were challenged to show their creativity by making different shapes from a rectangular piece of paper.
Stay tuned for our next edition where we will be exploring Place Value!
At home you might like to…
Explore the inspirational maths website by Jo Boaler with your child.
CHINESE
In the Chinese classrooms, our focus continues to be on the concept of wellbeing; what it is, and what we can do to promote our own and other’s wellbeing within the classroom. In our current Chinese learning, we have been providing different opportunities for our children to explore their own interests and promote agentic learning.
Here is a glimpse of some of our classrooms:
Reminders
A few key reminders for students and parents:
- Please remind your child to pack his/her hat for school each day, as children who do not bring their hat will not be allowed to take part in snack or lunch play.
- There are extreme peanut allergies in Year 3, so please make sure your child does not bring nuts to school or eat peanut butter or nutella for breakfast before he/she heads to school.
- Please remind your child to pack his/her own cutlery as we do not provide extra sets of cutlery at school.
We Need your help!
If you have any old or unused magazines or newspapers, we would love to get our hands on them for some creative art lessons!
Library news
Like previous years, we will be working with Scholastic Asia to offer students the opportunity to order books from their catalogues. All book order forms from students are handed in to the library where we will centrally collect them and send to Scholastic. There will be a box by the front door where the book orders can be handed in.
Please note the deadlines and book delivery times below. We will not process orders after the order deadline.
| Sep | Jan | Mar | |
| Flyer to classrooms | 12/9/2018 | 14/1/2019 | 6/3/2019 |
| School order deadline | 19/9/2018 | 21/1/2019 | 13/3/2019 |
| Book delivery time | 19/10/2018 | 20/2/2019 | 12/4/2019 |
Key dates for the Diary
Friday 14 September KJS Lantern Festival & PTA AGM
Tuesday 18 September ESF Secondary Music Festival
Monday 24 September Staff Continuous Professional Development Day – No school
Tuesday 25 September Mid Autumn Festival – No school
