Term 3 Letter
3 Al Battani (AL)- Alex Lilly
Friday 29th July 2016
Dear Parents and Carers,
Wow! Term 3 already. Where has half the year gone? It only feels like yesterday that I was
introduced to your wonderful children. They have achieved so much this year and are to be
commended on their positive attitude towards school, their dedication to learning and the
SCARFF values they display everyday. I hope everyone had a lovely break and all are
rejuvenated and ready for the second half of the year. I had a terrific time in New Zealand
exploring the beautiful country and doing some thrill seeking activities along the way including
throwing myself out of an aeroplane, swinging through canyons and jet boating up rivers
whilst managing to stay injury free this time.
Our bi-annual STEM Festival (Sciecne, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) is fast
approaching and we are all very excited about our theme this year STEM for Humanity. Our
festival this year will expose, encourage and inspire students to understand the many ways
that STEM can help us solve problems now and in the future. We will be heading to Questacon
on Wednesday of week 4 to tune our brains in to all things STEM and the festival will run from
Thursday of week 4 through to Friday of week 5. Turner is awash with students who are
curious, energetic, passionate and entrepreneurial; we want to foster and promote these skills
and build a better future together.
Parent/teacher interviews commenced last term and continued the first couple of weeks this
term. It has been a pleasure putting faces to names and discussing your child’s progress at
school. If you have had an interview and forgot to return the portfolio, please return at your
earliest convenience. We continue to put work in them until the end of the year! Thanking you
in advance. If you still would like to book an interview time please come in and organise an
alternate time and day with me.
Our learning journeys near the end of the term will provide you with the opportunity to see
and talk about all the fantastic learning that happens throughout the festival and the rest of the
term. The learning journey is a wonderful and very valuable sharing time for your child to
explain and share their learning. Look for further information closer to the time and remember
to make an appointment to come in for a learning journey.
Also to note for this term is National Numeracy and Literacy week which is from the 29th of
August until the 4th of September. It is a week to raise awareness of the importance literacy and
numeracy plays within schools and beyond. Book week is also coming up soon it is held from
the 20th to the 26th of August. This is a time where we celebrate children’s books, authors and
illustrators.
Though the months of June and July were a hat free time at school, please remember that
August begins our Sun Smart policy again. Children will need to wear a broad brimmed hat
when outside. A grace period will be given to students for the first couple of days as they get
used to wearing hats again. Children without hats will be asked to sit in the shaded areas.
Please label all hats and other personal items to help reduce our mountain of unclaimed lost
property. This also assists children in being responsible for their belongings at school.
Inquiry
Did you know the Australian Curriculum also looks at “Science as a Human Endeavour”? This is
the way we want children to see science fitting into their own world, as a way of problemsolving, as way of making sense of our world and how humans can understand the impact and
affect of their actions. The Australian Curriculum focuses on 2 strands – the nature and
development of science and the use and influence of science. Our STEM festival having the
theme “STEM for Humanity” as well as our big science inquiries sit perfectly within our
programs to support this part of the curriculum. Ask yourself what impact science has in your
life. That’s the understanding we want our children to develop as well.
We are getting rather excited for our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics) Festival which begins in week 4 and continues through to week 5. Sitting with
the topics of science this term our major inquiry is also science based. It was a pleasure to see
just how much the children enjoyed our science rotations last term so we will be sticking with
this structure for this term as well. Our science are focus for this term is chemical sciences with
the year 3 students inquiring into how states of matter can be changed by adding or removing
heat in their inquiry “Melting Moments”. Science for our class will be taught by myself and
Heather Walker on Friday middle sessions.
English
The main focus of our writing this term is to further develop the children’s ability to write texts
that engage the reader. They will use a variety of descriptive words to communicate their
ideas, opinions and understandings. You may have heard your child talk about ‘bump it up
words’. This is when children read their work and choose one or two words to ‘bump up’. For
example, big - enormous, walk - strutted, etc. This is using synonyms and also adjectives. As
children read their work to identify words to bump up we are also focussing on our editing
skills. We are reading for meaning, reading for spelling and reading for correct structure and
layout. Each time we check our work we identify an area to focus on. It may be for meaning
where the children are asking themselves: Do my ideas flow and make sense?
We will also be investigating the different types of informational texts including procedural
texts. Through these writing experiences the children will be involved in brainstorming,
planning, drafting, revising, editing and publishing pieces of writing. The text will be closely
linked with the science inquiry unit.
Reading workshops will continue this term. We have been working on determining the authors
purpose. Are they writing to persuade, inform or entertain and what is the difference. In class
we have looked at how authors use rich vocabulary to engage the reader. We will continue the
focus on these areas as well as reading for sustained periods of time, self-questioning for
understanding and reading with others to develop conversation skills discussing major
themes, messages and key ideas prioritising information to share.
Spelling skills are taught within writing as part of the classroom program. Throughout the year
we have studied a number of comman word families. These are groups of words that have
some of the same combinations of letters in them and a similar sound. These charts are
displayed around the classroom. This encourages children to investigate word families and
have a conversations about them with their peers. As well, words from topic lists are
developed from the inquiry units. Oral recounts will also be encouraged, particularly in sharing
information from our units of work. I work with each child to take their spelling skills to the
next level.
Mathematics
This term we will continue to develop our understanding of numbers through reading, writing
and ordering numbers. We will investigate four and five digit numbers to further develop our
understanding of place value leading to tens of thousands. It is important for children to have a
solid foundation of place value as this knowledge connects to areas of fractions, decimals and
percentages where they need to know how hundredths work to compare and order numbers.
Looking at numbers and discussing how they change when we add, subtract, divide and
multiply supports their understanding of place value and develops their independence of
selecting appropriate and efficient strategies to problem-solve.
We will revisit addition, focus on subtraction strategies and continue our mental computation
work to assist children to develop a deeper understanding of concepts covered.The strategies
we use range from counting on from the biggest number, bridging numbers to the decade and
splitting numbers into workable units to calculate answers. The children will also continue to
investigate the relationship between the four operations (+, -, x and ÷ ). These learning
experiences will involve problem-solving and thinking skills. Other areas covered this term will
be fractions (simple), data and chance, shapes, space and measurement which will be linked
with our science unit and the upcoming Olympics..
Health and Physical Education
This term we started training for the Athletics Carnival and will continue our 3/4 sports
rotations on Monday afternoons. The feedback from students about these sessions is very
positive. They love the mixed sports groups and selection of skill activities. The sports covered
this term include golf, ultimate Frisbee, soccer, netball, tennis and oz-tag. We will also have a
focus on dance this semester where the students will be able to extend their awareness of the
body as they incorporate actions using different body parts, body zones and bases.
In health we will be focusing on positive and trustful relationships and valuing health and
safety and that of others.
Learning Technologies
This year students have had the responsibility of creating their own passwords and managing
their logins. They have been very successful in remembering their passwords to work
effectively around the school when using technology. We have been enjoying using computers
in class to publish writing pieces and researching using search engines to answer inquiry
questions and our wonderings. This term we will continue to develop our ICT skills to
communicate our learning and research information for our inquiry units. We will also
continue developing our word processing skills and navigating the desktop to use various
applications to enhance and extend our learning and thinking.
Enrichment
Mathematics enrichment will continue this term. Maths will run for 5 week blocks where those
selected students will work with Iesha for 45 minutes each Thursday on deep problem-solving
strategies. At this time, every other child will be working with their classroom teacher also on
deep problem-solving strategies. Writing enrichment was a success last term and will continue
for the first 3 weeks this term as the children are given the opportunity to publish their writing
and share it with other student’s within 3/4. Once this has finished each child in 3/4 will be
asked to select other area of writing they are interested in and will work in smaller groups for
the remainder of term on that specific area.
Chess
Chess for Al-Battani will be on Tuesdays at 12.00pm with 3/4 Hippocrates. Jeff Suptet will lead
the sessions with support from classroom teachers.
Fruit Break
Everyday during the morning session we have a fruit break. Please make sure your child is
bringing fresh fruit or vegetables each day. When packing your child’s lunchbox please keep in
mind that students continue to work at their desks or sit on the floor and listen to a story
during this time. So the less mess is best during this time! It is also important that students
drink plenty of water throughout the day, so remind students to bring a water bottle to school,
there are bubblers around the playground and also a tap in our room.
Nut Aware and Safe Food Guidelines
Turner School asks that you do not send food containing any nuts or nut oil with your child. We
have many students with allergies and this whole school approach links to our inclusive policy.
Library with Norma John
3/4 classes will continue to read the CBCA shortlisted books this term and be Junior Judges
prior to the winner’s announcement at the end of week 5. The children will look at the Book
Week theme of Australia: Story Country and write their own Australian story or that of
someone in their family. These ‘Turner’ stories will be recorded onto QR codes and be part of a
display during Book Week. Visitors to the CBCA Children’s Book Seminar to be held during
Book Week will be listening to them. Our Book Fair will take place in Week 6 during Book
Week. Book Week books will be sold before and after school and during lunch time during this
week. Norma John
Indonesian with Ibu Jenny
Selamat Datang! Welcome! This term we are off to the Olympic Games, ‘Kita pergi ke Olimpiade
di Rio.” We will use Indonesian vocabulary to talk about the sports we enjoy playing. We will
inquire into the favourite sports of Indonesian children. In conjunction with library lessons, we
will write a story about ourselves in Indonesian and record it. Using QR codes, we will be able
to scan the code with a device and listen to our stories. Ibu Jenny
Art with Sally Visser-Marchant
In Art this term the children will learn about famous Dutch artists such as Piet Mondrian and
M.C. Escher and study how they used STEM techniques in their art making. They will combine
drawing and printmaking techniques to create their own coloured collage inspired by
Mondrian and then continue with artworks incorporating tessellations, as seen in Escher's
work. Creating a mobile will further develop skills in kinetic sculpture. During the Olympic
Games they will be inquire into the flags that represent different countries and make their own
flag. Sally Visser-Marchant
Music with Giselle Nathan
In music this term we’ll return to a focus on song repertoire and work on short pieces that
push our inquiry into forms of harmony. The children will apply their awareness of dynamic
choices and rhythm patterns to play improvised accompaniments to well-known songs that
have accessible, repeating chord progressions. Giselle Nathan
Communication
If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me on the email listed below, I
will respond within a day or two. For non-urgent matters, I am usually best contacted through
email as I check this daily. For more urgent matters (such as changes to pick-up arrangements
in the afternoon) it is best to call the office and leave a message to ensure that it gets to the
classroom in time. If you would also like to have a one on one meeting regarding your child
please feel free to make an appointment. I will be available at times throughout the week and
am happy to negotiate a time that suits you.
Kind regards,
Alexander Lilly
Classroom Teacher
[email protected]
29.07.2016
3/4 Team Dates for your Diary
Term 3 2016
Please note: These dates are correct as of time of printing this letter. Please regularly check the
website as well as the fortnightly newsletters for any changes and additions. Whole school events
are on the term overview calendar in the week 1 newsletter and on the website.
Week 3
Wednesday
3rd August
Week 4
Wednesday
10th August
Week 8
Wednesday
7th Sept
Week 9
Wednesday
14th Sept
Senior Assembly – hosted by 3/4 Leonardo and S3/4 da Vinci – 2:10pm in the senior hall
All 3/4 classes to Questacon for the day
Senior Assembly – hosted by 5/6 – 2:10pm in the school hall
Year 4s to Mugga Lane Recycling Depot