Welcome back to another wonderful term of learning in Year 3! We have picked up where we left off in term one and have started a new term with lots of enthusiasm for some wonderful learning experiences to take place.

Religion
This term in Religion, we are looking forward to our new unit, ‘The Local Faith Community’. We will be looking at how we are part of our Sacred Heart Parish Community and The St Mary’s School community. To begin, we discussed groups we belong to and what it feels like to belong. The unit will explore rites of initiation, eg: Baptism and identify the significant people connected to our school and our church. This unit will also deepen our understanding of our place within our faith community here at St Mary’s.

Some students reflected on what it looks like, feels like and sounds like to belong to a group.

Some students reflected on the various groups we can belong to.

Koa: I belong to a family group and a League Tag group.

Ryan: I belong to a Karate group.

Zane: I belong to the Sharks Under 9’s rugby group.

Charlotte: I belong to a Netball group.

Reign: I belong to a guitar group.

Calvin: I belong to a soccer group

Maisie: I belong to my family group.

English
Students are well and truly into the swing of our new routines and are enjoying the Reading and Spelling Mastery programs which run 4 x sessions per week. In Year 3, we have started our new novel study units, and are enjoying our novels written by Indigenous Australian authors.novel. This term, our novel is Yirra and her Deadly Dog Demon, which is about a mischievous dog named Demon and provides young readers a contemporary view of urban Indigenous life in Sydney.

Students in Year 3 began our first week back at school making predictions about the text and using the cover and title to suggest what they think might be happening in the text.

I predict….

Ashley: ‘that the dog is very annoying because he steals undies and chews up shoes. They might have to sell Demon to the pet store.’

Bentley: ‘they will get a dog trainer to train the dog. He will be sensible and not be crazy.’

Charlotte: ‘that Yirra’s Mum will get cross because the dog steals undies and run away.’

Oliver: ‘that the dog will be very annoying and they will eventually find someone to train Demon. Yirra doesn;t want to give Demon away but someone will help her.’

Tash: ‘ that Demon the dog is a mischief because he steals things. After they find someone to train him, he will be a whole lot better than he was. He will learn to be a better dog and not have to sell him.

Calvin: ‘Yirra will get a trainer and the dog will become nice and won’t steal undies and shoes. The dog will have a better life not being bad and not getting into trouble. Demon will be loved.’

Eve: ‘ that Yirra won’t be able to find a dog trainer and will have to give away her beloved Demon. But then, after a few days, he will be too much for the new owners to handle and they will give him back to Yirra and he will be much better behaved.’

Cooper: ‘ the dog will go wild and keep stealing things like shoes and undies. They won’t find a trainer in time and they will have to sell him.’

Zane: ‘ the dog will go wild even though he looks like a nice dog.’

Hattie: ‘they will find someone who will be very good at training Demon to be better behaved.’

Koa: ‘that the story will be about Demon the dog being a bit naughty and cheeky.’

Maisie: ‘that Yirra will try to find a trainer and one day, she finds one who has very good methods and the methods work and Demon becomes a much better dog.’

Akeyla: ‘that Yirra will be worried she won;t be able to find a trainer in time and Demon will run away. I think that Yirra will have to go find him and she will find him living in a gutter.’

As part of our English session, we investigate new and interesting vocabulary which is linked to the whole class reading text. Some of the words we used this week included the words slyly and nuisance - which were both used to describe Demon the Dog. The students were asked to complete a sentence about a nuisance dog. 

‘The dog was a nuisance because…..’ 

Maths
CMC (Connecting Maths Concepts) continues to be our main maths focus this term and students are gaining confidence with the reinforcement of mathematical skills each day. As part of our maths learning, we also use Daily Review to consolidate our understanding of many key concepts and enjoy practical, hands-on activities each Friday. As part of our learning last Friday, we investigated right angles and went in search of these within our classroom. We were able to find some right angles in some very strange places!

History: Community and Remembrance and Anzac Day
In History this term, we will continue to learn about the heritage of our local area and explore the historical features and diversity of our community. Students were impressed by the famous Mrs Christine Greig who showed the students (and featured) in a video on the Moruya Quarry and its link to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Linking nicely with our History unit on Community and Remembrance, we celebrated ANZAC day by joining in a whole school Liturgy to mark this special and will continue to deepen our knowledge into celebrations and commemorations, both locally and in other places around the world. 

We used a recent Art session to complete drawings of Poppy flowers as we learnt these were growing in Flanders fields and are also used as a symbol of remembrance for those who fought and died in the Wars.

Akeyla F bought some of her Dads Army uniform and supplies to show us and told the class about her Dad being in the Army in East Timor. ‘My Dad was in the Army for 5 years. He joined when he was only 17. He has been to lots of different places and lived all over Australia. My Dad was a weapons specialist, teaching the trainees in the Army how to use weapons properly.’

Slouch Hat: My Dad wore this only to special events and when he was doing a drill.

Small Hat: This is called a beret. My Dad wore this every day. In the Army, only people who work in combat jobs are allowed to wear these hats everyday instead of the slouch hat.

Shirt: My dad wore this shirt as part of his uniform everyday and overseas. The middle part of the shirt has a rank slide. This tells people what rank he was in the Ary. My dad was a corporal. 

Music
The students in Year 3 are buzzing with excitement to participate in Music this term. We will be exploring different aspects of musical concepts in singing, playing and moving activities which will focus on temp, beat, dynamics and rhythm patterns. We will also focus on music appreciation and discuss the differences and similarities between various types of music. This week's introductory activity was playing the game of ‘Apple Pie’, where a student stands at the front of the class with eyes closed, while having to guess who is saying the words ‘apple pie’ in a disguised voice. This game was lots of fun and identified changes in pitch, tone and volume.

My favourite musical instrument is….

Reign: Guitar - ‘because I like strumming the strings and learning the songs with my Nan.’

Benjamin: Flute - ‘because it can be peaceful and relaxing and my mum likes listening to flute music.’

Ryan: Drums - ‘because you can bang them really hard and they make a loud sound.’

Patrick: Piano - ‘it would be good to learn to play the piano because it can make peaceful music.’

Science
This term, students in Year 3 will be learning about states of matter: solids, liquids and gases in our new Chemistry unit. The students will begin by identifying the difference between each of the following states of matter and understanding they are different because they have different properties, which can be explained by looking at the arrangement of their particles.

Solids - Solids are objects that keep their own shape and do not flow. 

Liquids - Liquids flow easily and are neither a solid nor a gas. Liquid can take on the shape of any container it is poured into.

Gases - Gases are air-like substances that can move around freely.

We are using the Good to Great Schools Australia program (GGSA) which provides a thorough and comprehensive learning program into the various aspects of the science curriculum. The students are very excited for the practical sessions in this unit which will no doubt provide lots of fun as well as deep learning opportunities.

Sport
This term we welcome Cheryl Sutherland to St Mary’s to share with us her love of everything HOCKEY! Cheryl has been part of the Eurobodalla Hockey Association for many years and is very keen to share her incredible skills and knowledge about the game. Last week, the students were shown a hockey stick and discussed the importance of having a stick that was the right size for them. They focussed on dribbling the ball and keeping it stuck to the bottom of the stick. The students also practised doing push passes to a partner, stepping forward with their front foot and pushing (not hitting) the hockey ball using the strength and power from their legs and arms to ensure the ball makes it the distance to their partner. Rules and safety measures were also discussed - including NOT raising the stick above the knee or swinging the stick around. We thank Cheryl for volunteering her time to teach the students the skills to play hockey and we hope that in the future, we may be able to participate in a gala day to practise these skills.

Mrs Megan Grant
3 Blue Teacher