Term 4 in 3/4 

English:

In spelling, students will continue to develop their phonic knowledge in the morning literacy block through a variety of spelling activities. These include both phonological and morphological activities. Students will practise key spelling patterns and sounds when revising their targeted word lists; and their progress will be assessed through weekly dictations.

In reading, students will be exposed to a variety of text types (fiction, non-fiction, digital resources etc.) in order to develop their reading fluency. Students will read texts with the class and be explicitly taught reading comprehension skills like skimming, scanning for keywords and finding the main idea. The texts will be linked to our unit of inquiry, ‘Heating Up’ and ‘Space’ where students will explore scientific methods and vocabulary as well as how to write a scientific report. Using rich mentor texts such as ‘Cece Loves Science’, ‘Rosie Reservere, Engineer’, ‘There was a Black Hole That Swallowed That Universe’, ‘Astronaut Handbook’ and ‘If I were an Astronaut’. Students will be developing their comprehension strategies such as making predictions, synthesising, inferring and making connections with the text.

In writing, students will be exposed to strong vocabulary, which they will then implement in their own writing. Additionally, students will be learning to use verbs, adverbs, plural nouns and figurative language to improve their writing as well as using paragraphs to organise their ideas.

Maths:

This Term in mathematics, students will cover a variety of key skills and concepts.

Firstly, our students will participate in a range of engaging activities that will develop their understanding of fractions and decimals. Students will also investigate Statistics and Data. and all four Number Operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).

Towards the end of Term, students will develop their understanding of measurement looking at the relationships between the units of Time eg: calendars timetables and am and pm time.

Students will continually be assessed on these topics in order to cater to all learning needs. Our students will also participate in a daily review three-times a week that revises concepts taught earlier in the year.

Inquiry:

This term in Inquiry, students will explore Heat and how it is important in our everyday lives, including practical ways we use heat, such as drying our hair, cooking our dinner or warming our water. They will explore primary and secondary heat sources and how heat moves from one object to another. Investigations will look at various examples of heat in our lives, including the Sun, the daily temperature, food temperatures, fire sources and heat conductors. Students will also investigate the ways that humans and animals keep ourselves warm or cool in extreme conditions.

Later in the term, our focus will shift to an exploration of Space. Students will be exposed to our solar system, the planets, stars and other properties of Space including the movement of the Earth, and the other planets, relative to the Sun. They will find out about moons and rings, which planets have them and the colours of the different planets. Students will have an opportunity to be creative in demonstrating their knowledge and understanding of our solar system with an end of term project.

The Grade 3/4 Teachers:
Staci Malberg, Lisa Bowden, Katie Lamaro, Meg Meyer & Will Shields