Design and Make

A very important part of the Science and Technology Key Learning Area is the children's ability to design, modify and make devices. These devices should fit a given criteria and also give the children an opportunity to modify there design and make important changes to it.

In term four, year three are learning about simple machines. In week seven we are going to make a design and make with one or more simple machines in it. Here are some photos.

Use a simple machine to secure a screw

The wheels on a car are a simple.

Creation Story

Working together to create our first class video.

During this term, the children have been extending their learning by incorporating the use of stop motion to recreate Genesis 1-2. whilst working in cooperative groups the children read and discussed the 'Creation Story'. As well as deepening their understanding of the creation narrative they also learnt about the value of working together on a project. First they developed their ideas by organising them on a storyboard and then produced visual elements to highlight the main sections of their selected day. Together we used the 'stop motion app' to take photos of their selected day.  The children had to line up their pictures, take a photo and move them slightly to build the story up. Together we created our version of the the seven days of creation as read in Genesis. Below you can view the two videos created by the cooperative learning groups. Enjoy!

Extending Learning by Independently Exploring Concepts.

During Guided Reading sessions the children are exposed to a wide variety of genres. Whilst in the session they explored the topic of dinosaurs. To help build their understanding of it and improve their vocabulary, the children used ipads and googled videos explaining 'Pangaea' and gathered more information about the 'Iguanadon'. Below is some of the information the group collected during their investigations.

Alyssa: In learning centres we are reading "How to Build A Dinosaur". We discovered the Iguanadon was 10 metres long. Although we estimated how long it would be , we decided to check it by using tape measures. As you can see it was close to our initial estimate. Check out their video showing how they checked their estimate.

Jacob: The Iguanadon is two times taller than a grown man.
Luc-Pierre: The Iguanadon is so big. It is amazing! I want to investigate in further.
Riley: The Iguanadon is a herbivore, this means although it was huge it only ate plants.
Austin: We measured how long 10 metres was because Iguanadon was 10 metres in length. Alex could not believe how long it was. He was speechless!

The team tried drawing one.

The Iguanadon.

The children working during Learning Centres

Bringing Meaning to Reading.

Reading for meaning is an important skill as without meaning children are just decoding words. The role of the teacher is to develop in the children a variety of strategies, which allow them to make links between the text and themselves, the world and other texts. These connections allow them to bring meaning to and extract meaning from texts. According to the new NSW syllabus the key comprehension strategies include:  

• activating and using prior knowledge
• identifying literal information explicitly stated in the text
• making inferences based on information in the text and their own prior knowledge
• predicting likely future events in a text
• visualising by creating mental images of elements in a text
• summarising and organising information from a text
• integrating ideas and information in texts
• critically reflecting on content, structure, language and images used to construct meaning in a text. (glossary - comprehension)

Throughout the week, the children in Year 3 participate in a variety of activities to enhance their comprehension skills. Gabriella, Eden and Declan reflected on one area of our reading program:

Learning Centres

Everyday Year Three work in teams for Learning Centres. There are four groups; pink, green, purple and blue. Each week we rotate throughout the activities, which include Reader's Theatre, Comprehension Activities, Guided Reading or Reciprocal Reading  Sessions with the teacher, Whisper Phones and Published Writing. Gabriella, Eden and Declan

Guided Reading sessions allow us to develop our reading strategies

Readers' Theatre helps us develop our expression.

We love using the 'Whisper Phones' as it is a great way to hear ourselves reading so we can improve our fluency.

Our favourite part of Readers' Theatre is using expression to show different characters and emotions.

Fern Gully Helps Us See How We Are All Connected.

During Religion we have continued learning about God's creation, as part of our unit we watched the movie "Fern Gully'. It was an outstanding movie and helped us understand how we are connected to God's creation. It also showed us how important it is for us to look after our world.
By Darby, Ashton, Callum and Giada.

This week for homework Miss Veling and Mrs Standring have asked us to read Genesis 1:1-31. We have to retell the main events and draw a picture showing our understanding. They are going to choose some to share on our blog. Good luck everyone! Will yours be one of the chosen ones?

The children did a great job summarising the creation narrative from the Old Testament, in particular the book of Genesis. I have included some of the drawings and a collection of their summaries below.

God created everything and this is how it started. On the first day God created light and the night and day. On the second day God created the sky and sea. On the third day God created the land and the plants and seeds. On the forth day God created the sun, moon and stars. On the fifth day God created the animals for the sea, land and sky. On the sixth day God created all living things, animals, woman and man.

God first made heaven and earth. He made morning, night, evening and dry land. God also made, plants, creatures, light, dark, water, fruit, vegetables, trees and seeds. God also made male and female.

In the beginning the earth was covered with nothing but darkness. But then God said, "Let there be light". So he made light and he named the light day and the darkness he called night. There was the evening and there was the morning. On day 1 God made the water and he called water - sea.

Once the world was empty and darkness all around. Day 1: God made light and called it "day' and called the darkness 'night'. The night went and day came.
Day 2: A dome was made to keep the water in two places. The dome was called 'sky'. Night went and day came.
Day 3: Then the water came to one place and the land was shown. It was called 'earth'. Night went and day came.
Day 4: God made two larger lights the 'sun' and 'moon' and he added stars. Night went and day came.
Day 5: God made birds and animals and other animals and said 'reproduce'. Night went and day came.
Day 6: God made humans and blessed them that was day 6. The whole world was done and God rested. That was day 7.

On the first day God created the heavens, earth, day and night. On the second day God created the sky, and water. On the third day God named the earth and seas, grassland , trees bearing fruit. On the fourth day God created the sun, moon and stars so there was light. On the fifth day God created creatures for the sea, land and skies. On the sixth day God created mankind. On the seventh day God rested and made the day a Holy day.

On the firt day heaven and earth was created. On the second day God created the sky. On the third day God created the sea, land, plants and trees. On the fourth day God created the stars in the sky. On the fifth day God created the living animals on land and in seas as well as in the sky. On the sixth day God created man and woman.

On the sixth days of creation God created all the beautiful things we see now. On the 1st day of creation God created light and dark. On the 2nd day God created sky and water. On the 3rd day God created plants and land. On the 4th day God created moon, sun and stars, On the 5th day God created creatures on the sea and sky. On the 6th day God created the wild animals. This is the 6 days of creation.

In the beginning God created the heavens and earth. But the earth was dark with no light. On the first day, God said, Let there be light. On the second day, God said,"Let there be water under a vault.' then God called the vault sky. The other days, but not on the seventh day, God made ground, plants, trees, fruit, sun,moon,creatures, birds, male and female. On the seventh day God said it was good.

God said "Let there be light and there was day and night. Next God made water and clouds. Then he made land and hills. Next God made the sun, moon and stars. Then he made bids and fish. On the last day God made every sort of animals and the first people, Adam and Eve.

First God made light and called it day and darkness, night. Then God seperated water and sky. He made land and called it Earth. He made plants and fruits. Then he made animals and humans. He told them to have lots of children and to look after the animals and plants. He was always happy with what he saw.

On day one God created light and seperated the light from dark. He called light, 'day' and dark ' night'. On the second day God created a vault, he called it sky. On day three God created water spots and called it sea. God created vegetation. On day four God created lights thatwere in the sky to seperate the day from night. On fifth day God created the sea animals and the birds. He said to them 'reproduce'. On the sixth day God made the trees and plants and other living things reproduce according to its kind.

Healthy Habits
Throughout the year the children in Year Three have learnt about the importance of keeping healthy. During Term1 the 'Healthy Harold' van visited our school and the children learnt about the importance of healthy eating habits as well as the role medicines play in our lives. They also were kept active by participating in weekly gymnastic lessons, where they learnt how to complete somersaults and use the mini trampoline.  During term 3, 'Sports In Schools' came to our school and the children were involved in weekly skills development lessons. It is a fun way to high the importance of keeping active.
This term the children will participate in swimming lessons during week 6/7. 
At the moment the children have been developing their ball skills by participating in class activities based on the popular playground game of "Handball".

Lewis: We enjoy playing handball.
April: Mrs Tannous taught us the proper way to play handball.
Zac: Year Three have enjoyed playing handball since Kindy. Now we know how to play fairly.
Tahli: We have taken some pictures of handball. 

Handball is getting harder now we all know how to play.

It is an enjoyable way to add some exercise to our day.

Creativity continues!
Every Friday we are lucky enough to participate in art. This week we continued our simple machine drawings by using soft pastels to add colour to our pencil drawings.
Mrs Standring gave us a short input session on how to look for shadows and light as we colour our art work. 
Ebony, Emily and Madison

We have included some of our art work below.
 

Mrs Standring explaining how to add tone.

Adding tone to a slide.

A screw is a simple machine.

The water looks amazing. Great shading.

Another example of amazing shading using soft pastels.