Prep | Year 3 News

Unit of Inquiry

The last few weeks have been busy as the boys looked into how their actions affected the ability of their classroom to function. Classes have had daily check-ins to see which boys were organised each day, with teachers tallying the results. We noticed that as the week progressed, boys remembered to bring more of their items each day. Although, this is still something that we are working on.

Throughout Week 6, students will focus on community organisations through the lens of current events.

To finish this unit, Year 3 students will work towards organising an afternoon of activities for Year 1. This afternoon will bring together all the skills the boys have learnt in order to organise an activity from beginning to end.

English

The last 5 weeks have seen boys use their persuasive writing skills to convince their peers and teachers that their opinion is correct. They have used rhetorical questions and high modality words to ensure they get their opinion across to their audience. Boys have learnt the structure of a persuasive text and how to use OREO in the most effective way. OREO is an acronym and stands for Opinion, Reason, Example, Opinion. Have a talk with your son about their experience persuading people.

As we enter Week 6, we move on to Narrative writing. Year 3 will explore how to sequence a narrative using the terms orientation, complication and resolution. We will also consider what is needed to create a descriptive orientation using our 5 senses. We can’t wait to read what the boys have in store for us.

Maths

As our inquiry into Whole Number ends, we will now apply our understanding of place value to addition and subtraction. In class, the boys will practise various strategies for both, including Split Strategy, Jump Strategy, Compensation Strategy and Column (algorithm) Strategy. As always, the boys go beyond just learning these strategies and will look at how we can transfer our mathematical knowledge into relevant and meaningful problems. This supports the boys’ reasoning skills and ability to problem solve creatively.

Some questions you could ask your son may include:

What strategy could you use to add/subtract 43 and 25?  What is the best strategy to add 49 and 26?

Christian Studies

The Bible is integral to all we do in Christian Studies and Chapel at our School. The boys were presented with their new “Action Bibles”. This version of the Bible allows the boys to read through many of the stories from the BIble alongside some creative graphic comic designs. The boys have been learning how the Bible is organised and the different sections. Over the next few weeks, they will be using their thinking and research skills to investigate the history of how it was put together over hundreds of years and how it is relevant for us today. We have also been conducting Chapel outside on the new basketball court where we have begun our journey looking at covenants / agreements between God and us. We will be examining how important it is for us to understand the relationship between covenants and God’s amazing plan of salvation.