Working hard

We've been working hard this week and have settled back into school and our normal routines. The week began with us catching up with our shotput which we weren't able to finish last week because of the rain. The afternoon then had us enjoying our first gymnastics lesson which everyone loved. The equipment was great and we worked hard at the different skills we were practicing. I watched everyone's trampoline jumps and their landings. We had smiles all round while performing skills on the different equipment.

We continued with our HSIE unit, 'People and their Beliefs' and came up with some questions we have about different cultures and religions. Liam asked why we don't just have one religion. Much deep thinking went into the questions that we ended up with and that we'll answer over the term.

Our science unit, 'Among the Gumtrees' begun with us first singing along to 'Among the gumtrees' and 'Kookaburra sings in an old gum tree'. We then spoke about what a 'survey' is, as we will be doing our own survey tomorrow. We thought about the surveys we have done and the surveys our families have taken part in. Surveys have questions that need answering. The answers or data is then put together to learn something. We will be doing a survey on trees in our school on Friday. The purpose of our survey is to identify which trees are gum trees and which are not. We will also be looking at what sort of animals and insects we might find on gum trees. We spoke about the 'evidence' that we might see that will tell us that animals or insects live there. We thought about what sort of evidence we might see and came up with a long list of: droppings, eaten leaves, bird and ant nests, spider webs and scratchings on bark. Tomorrow we will be taking photos of our findings and then analyse the data from our surveys too. We will be little scientists this Friday!

A visit to the library had us choosing our novel for this term. We had a look at novels that interested us and then checked them with me before getting Mrs Paull to scan them out. We have begun to read them already and will be practicing some of the comprehension skills we learnt in term 1 and 2. That will be making predictions about what will happen next, making connections with the text, summarising sections of our novel, visualising parts of our novel through drawings, monitoring our understanding of the vocabulary and language used in the novel and asking questions. We will be learning about 'author's craft' as a class. This means learning to critically view and respond to a novel by looking into the author's mind and trying to understand the workings and intentions of the author. It will also help us as writers ourselves!

During writing lessons we have been learning about information reports, what they are and where we find them. We know that they are informative writing and are filled with facts. So we have begun researching an animal to find our own facts online. We will then write that information into our own words which should end up as our first information reports. 

We're learning about visual literacy this term and have already been learning words like, 'vector' and 'salience' and how the artists that draw and paint the images in our picture books do so with meaning. We are going to learn how to 'read' pictures. We already read pictures all the time. Everytime we see a sign that doesn't use words but rather symbols we are reading pictures. It is known as environmental print. We brainstormed the sorts of signs we read everyday and came up with this list: no smoking, watch out for children, falling rocks, hospital or first-aid crosses, poison, emojis, handicapped parking and of course the golden arches. We will continue to learn many new terms to help us read images this term.

Our buddy time this week involved using air dry clay to create 3 dimensional insects. We had looked at information books about insects with our buddies last term and then drew the insect that we were the most interested in. Working with the clay was tiring for our small hands. We had to knead the clay to make it pliable and then work quickly with our buddies to create our insects. They will dry over the weekend and next week we will paint them. It has been a great way to get to know our buddy and we've really had fun at the same time.

Wow! We really are working hard at our learning!

Welcome back to Term 3!

The week has been pretty good. We have done shotput and discus. We have done some writing of what we did in the holidays too. We did some sizzling starts and one person from each table had to read their work out loud to the class. Everybody on my table was too embarrassed to read their stories out loud so we did '21 is in' and luckily I didn't have to read out to the class.  

Millie

As you can see from Millie we had a very busy first week back for Term 3. We began the term by changing the seating arrangement as we do at the beginning of every term. We also changed the layout of our tables as well. Our class jobs were given a cull so that there are less jobs and more responsibilities per job. We had the chance to verbally share what we did during our holidays in small groups and also listen to our friends share what they did. We then wrote a personal recount about our holidays and some of us shared these with the class. 

We began our HSIE unit, 'People and Their Beliefs' and found out what everybody knew about beliefs and cultures. We all had a chance to share and have our comment typed up onto the Smart Board with our names. The next thing we are going to do is think about what we want to find out about beliefs and cultures around the world. As part of our homework this term we will be doing a project on a country and its major religion. All the information for this will come home on Monday. We also had maths groups and worked hard on our strategies with the four operations. 

Our assembly has been changed to Thursdays after lunch. This will take a little getting used to! I know I needed reminding on Thursday morning that we had an assembly that afternoon! 3/4T were very good about remembering that we had an assembly and were all lined up on Thursday straight after lunch. Well done 3/4T!

During computer lessons we all learned how to use our collaborative OneNote file for our class where we all get to use the same document at the same time. It means that we can research during library time in small groups and add information to our groups page within OneNote and all be typing at our own computer BUT all get to see each other's work at the same time. Wow! Technology really helps us collaborate with our classmates so easily!

We wrote stories this week remembering all of the strategies that we had learnt last term. We had to ban the boring bits by making sure that we started from an exciting part to help draw the reader in. That is why we begin our stories with 'sizzling starters'. We also had to have some complications in our stories and we think of these as pebbles, bricks and boulders. The smallest problem in our story is a pebble problem. We then have a slightly larger complication which is our brick problem and then we go onto the huge complication in our story which is the boulder problem. It helps to make sure that we have an interesting story. We also have to include a conversation in our stories between two characters  and then make sure that we have used some descriptive vocabulary and figurative language in our work. Wow! So much is expected of us. We have come a long way with our writing this year. We can't wait to share some of our fabulous stories with you all.

We made minions with Mrs Stephens and all got to joke about Bob and his 'b-a-n-a-n-a'. The minions are displayed on the bulletin board in the office. It says, 'A minion reasons to love 3/4T'. Go and check it out!

It was such a short week! We did manage to do our discus just before it began to rain thanks to Sam. We all had some practice before we did our proper throws with the discus. We have some talented sportspeople in our class. We will have to wait until next Monday to do our shotput! A pity that PSSA got rained out again. Hopefully this coming week will be better weather wise. 

Are you north of Macquarie Park?

Last week I made a connection with a lovely librarian, Mrs Donaldson, from a school near Canberra. After chatting, we decided that we'd let our classes meet and ask each other questions to work out where we are both from. 

This morning after assembly we took some atlases and with a partner came up with some great questions to ask the other class, to work out where the other school was from.

It took a few minutes to dial up the other school via our video conferencing equipment. Technology of course, always likes to work in its own time when we're in a hurry. We kept the other school waiting for a good 10 minutes while getting the equipment to work. Luckily our persistence paid off and the video conference, once up and happening, went off without a hitch!

Firstly, I spoke to both classes about what we were doing. I let them know that it was important to be still and quiet during the video conference unless we were asking a question. This was so we didn't distract each other while trying to listen to each other. Then we took turns asking questions. The rule was one 'yes' or 'no' question per class. It probably took us about 15 questions to work out where they were from and not long after that to work out where we were. 

We had atlases in front of us, but once we had worked out the area we were focusing on we changed to 'google maps'. This gave us the opportunity to zoom into the map and see the area close up. 

Now that we've met each other and have worked out what schools we attend, we are going to come up with 10 questions for each other. We also have to create a presentation of our school that we can share. I can't wait!

Here are some photos of today:

Highschool students who visited Turkey

Today we had students visit us from Balmain high school, who had been to Turkey during the ANZAC Centenary. They visited us and spoke about where Turkey is, why we commemorate it and some of the important aspects of the ANZAC campaign at Gallipoli that we learn about. For example, Simpson and his donkey.

We also learnt about how the students got there. They were put in a ballot by their teacher and their school was picked. The students that were picked from year 9 had created amazing artworks, poems or videos as their entry. We got to see them. Wow!

Welcome back!

Welcome back to a new term. I can't believe that is is already Term 2! There is so much happening this term. We have our ANZAC ceremony at the end of the first week, then NAPLAN for our year threes followed shortly by our excursion to the Field of Mars. Winter sport will begin this term and homesport will be doing the Sports in School Australia (SISA) program on Fridays for homesport.

In science this term we are looking at a unit called 'Melting Moments'. Here is an overview of the unit:

Every day we see or use things that have been melted or frozen, heated or cooled. All around us are items that we find both useful and attractive that have been moulded into different shapes using heating and cooling. These can range from cast iron frying pans and plastic rubbish bins to chocolate bilbies. Understanding the properties of materials and how they change state under different conditions can help materials scientists to develop even more extraordinary products to help improve our quality of life.

We'll be carrying out some investigations and experiments this term to help us understand how heating and cooling change the properties of materials. I'm really looking forward to this!

Book Club began today. We chose our novels at the end of Term 1 so there were a few last minute changes this morning before everyone began reading. We are trying to build up our ability to read silently for at least 20 minutes. Some of us are already there and some of us are working on it! There'll be lots of reading, comprehension activities and 'book club' discussions where we'll get to share our understanding of the book with our peers over the course of this term.

We'll be writing stories and explanations this term and look forward to sharing some of these with you in the coming weeks. Our writing is improving all the time. We're learning to plan what we want to say before we write and then write fabulous work, revising and editing it at the end. Some of what we write we'll publish and some of it is just for us.

The last day of last term we received our letters from our Penpals and managed to reply over the course of the day. For the last day of term we were amazingly all present and very busy and still managed to finish the drafts and then write our letters ready to send. I sent those wonderful letters over the holidays and hopefully we'll get our next letters soon. This snail mail business is really exciting! We're doing lots of writing and it doesn't feel like work at all!

Number groups are all working hard and over the next few weeks the number teachers will have the opportunity to meet with parents to talk about how everyone is going. We're all working hard on strategies to help us with adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing numbers and also working with fractions and problem solving. In class this term we'll be looking at the difference between perimeter and area, 2- and 3- dimensional shapes and continue to do a bit of time too. We looked at telling time last term and many of us found it very tricky. Many of us don't have the opportunity to use analog clocks and noone seems to wear watches anymore, so we need a lot of practice to really understand what the different hands mean. We're also working out what the two hands are trying to tell us as they move around the clock face.

Today during number groups my number group looked at the connection between multiplication and division using arrays. We used stickers to make the arrays and got to take home the left overs which was exciting.

For the next two weeks we'll have Miss Butcher (a practice teacher) teaching some of our lessons. She spent last term in and out of our classroom getting to know us, our class routine and a little about our school. She'll be back again later in the year to do some more with our class and we're really looking forward to having her.

This term we're really hoping that the wifi is complete and we can start using our iPads in our room to do research. We don't want to have to wait for library time or computer time to be able to research. We want to be able to do it as we're writing. The wifi will also mean that we can write a little more on our class blog. We love sharing our work! Today we had the chance to practice a NAPLAN maths test for year 3 and do a short maths assessment for year 4. Then we got to look at our slide shows from last term and make some adjustments to finish them off. I'm hoping to upload these to the blog over the next couple of weeks.

This morning I had a call from my parents to say that a tree had fallen through the roof of the house.  Thank goodness they're both safe as it fell straight over their bedroom. You can see from the photos below how enormous the tree is. It makes the house look really small!

Victoria Cross

We found out about the Victoria Cross while learning about the ANZACs. We found out that this was a medal given to soldiers for bravery in the face of the enemy. The award was named after Queen Victoria. During World War 1, 64 Australians were given the Victoria Cross. Each Victoria Cross has been made from the same cannon that was from the Crimerean War. 

Half way through...

Week 6 and an introduction to a new comprehension strategy - questioning. Good readers use questioning to help clarify their understanding. We played a game as a class where we read short paragraphs and had to ask questions to unlock the door to the castle. We went room to room asking and answering questions to unlock doors and find more information.

After our game we worked with a partner reading articles and using a question chart to create questions about the articles we were working on. We have to wait until tomorrow to share our work as we had to rush and pack up so that we could meet our buddies for 'Clean up Australia Day' in our school. We worked with a buddy to pick up rubbish in our designated areas. Many hands make light work and before you knew it the playground was spotless!

Number groups and then some HSIE where we looked at some of the wars that Australia has been involved in. We talked about World War 1 and how the landing in Gallipoli was a part of this war. We also looked at the Vietnam War and discovered which countries were involved. We visited Google Maps and explored the different places that we had spoken about. Some of us wanted to know why we would be involved in wars of places so far away from us. We spoke about the British Empire and how in WW1 many Australians felt a strong connection to the mother country (England) and wanted to not only fight for the 'Britsh Empire' but also for Australia.

The afternoon was spent looking at persuasive texts and planning out our arguments for convincing Mrs Taylor to let us sit next to a friend in class. We then had to elaborate on these arguments. This week we will look at using a hook as an introduction to our exposition. We talked about using a hook to grab the reader's attention and listened to examples of different hooks. Eg. Beginning with a question, an exaggeration, an idiom, onomatopoeia or by painting a picture. 

We finished a very busy and productive day with some graphing and chance work. 

Tomorrow we need to finish our penpal letters and send them to the school we have formed a partnership with in Shell Cove. There have been some very keen children asking about what is happening with our penpals and I've finally been able to say that we're going ahead! Very exciting!

Fabulous Week Four

Our fabulous week has involved learning about how 'visualising' or making movies or pictures in our heads can help us with our comprehension. We continued to look at persuasive writing and had to think today about how we can use more interesting vocabulary when trying to persuade someone to do something. We said goodbye to 'nice' and 'good' and found some more interesting words to help us persuade!

Number groups were next and then we thought about what a community means to us.

The day finished with computers where we learnt to send emails. Everyone managed to send a beautiful email to me and I made sure that I've replied to them all! A big job!

Here is a little of one:

What a busy, productive and interesting day we've had!

Busy little bees!

What a busy day today. We continued looking at connections this morning and got into groups where we took turns reading to each other and discussing connections that we could make with the text. We then had to write down what the connection was and what type it was. I got to listen to half the class read to me and they learnt how much I like to take notes while they read. They did a fabulous job remembering to make their voices sound interesting and smooth and go back and re-read something if it didn't make sense. I was impressed! We got back together to share our connections and talk about the difference between a small connection and a deeper connection. Everyone managed to make a connection with one of the books their group looked at.

After reading groups we looked at common nouns. What are they? We worked out that most of what you can see with your eyes are common nouns. Eg. book, board, carpet, pencil, tote tray, windown. We also talked about Proper nouns and why they use a capital letter. We know that we're important and that is why we have a capital letter at the beginning of our names. After sharing the common nouns we knew, we worked in our grammar text books and before we knew it was time to pack up for recess.

Number groups followed shortly after recess. There were only a few reminders about what rooms to go to and then followed a good hour of maths. Too soon maths was over and it was time for some HSIE. We talked about what we knew about ANZAC day and made a great list that included the what the poppy represents, where ANZAC biscuits come from, the story of Simpson's donkey and a couple more. Some of us knew about family members that had fought in wars and were keen to share what they knew with the class.

The afternoon included writing the rest of our stories, marking our grammar work, reading some of our class novel, skip counting and tables practice and our end of the day jar question.

I'm looking forward to reading lots of interesting stories!