It’s not long until camp and we thought it might be handy to have some information on hand to help you to prepare. We are going to a fabulous place called Ferngully Lodge. 

Here is the packing list.

Here is an article about helping your child with any anxiety they may be feeling.

At the end of this term, the Grade 3’s will be participating in our Earn and Learn Market Day! Each student (either by themselves or in a small group) will be in charge of producing items for their own stall, calculating the transactions on the day and keeping a record of their sales and purchases. The items for the market stalls must be handmade (nothing bought from a shop and re-sold!). In previous years, we have had stalls such as:

• Handmade Cards
• Comics and Books
• Jewellery
• Experience Stalls (dance lessons, jokes, carnival games etc.)
• Homemade food
• Art (drawings, paintings, sculptures)
• Paper Aeroplanes and Origami

While parents are welcome to assist when creating the items for the stalls, we want full participation from the kids in all aspects of their stalls. We want to stress that the items in the stalls should be made from things already around the house/garden/kitchen. The kids will need to be creative!

The students will be using “Grade 3 Dollars” which they have been earning all term through our Earn and Learn Program. If you have any further questions about the Market Day, please feel free to talk to your classroom teacher!

This term the Grade Three classes are learning about money. Parents and carers can support this learning at home in several meaningful ways:

• Allow your child to count coins to make a certain amount – “We need $2 for milk, can you get $2 in coins from the change jar?” or “I wonder how much change is in my purse/wallet/pocket/dish beside the bed, could you count it for me?”
• Include your child in purchase decisions – “We are buying this brand of juice because it is .50c cheaper and tastes the same.” or “this brand costs $2.50 and this one is $3.20, how much would we save?”
• Teach your child to handle money and transactions – “here is $10, we had two hot chocolates at $4 so that is $8, how much change will you get? You go and give it to the man…”
• Encourage your child to save up for something they want.
• Have jobs that children can be paid to do.

Working out change can be really tricky at this age. There is a fun online game for working out change that uses Australian money at Funbrain. 

via GIPHY

Welcome back to School!

It’s great to see the children so well rested after a lovely break. It’s going to be an action-packed term with a lot of exciting things going on. Our Inquiry unit will explore the history of Australia through different perspectives. To help spark our curiosity and inform our learning we will visit the Melbourne Museum on Thursday 2nd August. Please speak to your child’s classroom Teacher if you would like to come along and help.

Image from Melbourne Museum

This term in Science we have been learning about the States of Matter

Here are a few links to websites if children would like to explore further…

ChemiCroc

http://www.chemicroc.com/ 

A fun little website with games to assist student’s ideas about chemical reactions and states of matter and their properties.

The properties of solids, liquids and gases

http://www.abpischools.org.uk/page/modules/solids-liquids-gases/slg2.cfm?coSiteNavigation_allTopic=1 

This website contains a series of 12 different animations that explain the properties of the three states of matter and how states of matter can change from one form to another given certain circumstances or changes to the environment.

Science Games for Kids

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities/gases.html

The following website contains a game about liquids, solids and gases. It involves categorising different objects in the right state of matter.

What the World is Made of 

https://fuse.education.vic.gov.au/content/81ce2a98-fd8b-471d-8dfe-d8856b7cd44b/p/index.html

A great little interactive text based on the subject of matter and how everything in the world is made up of it.

Chem4Kids

Liquid Basics

http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_liquid.html

Looking for Gas

http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_gas.html

Solid Basics

http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_solid.html 

On Thursday 31th May the Grade Threes will Visit Hamer Hall to see the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Please be at school on time as we will be leaving straight away.

Here’s a little bit about the event from their website

Soloists

Benjamin Northey conductor
Tripod featured artists

Program

Tripod (arr. Wintory) Jokes Jokes Jokes
Kodaly The Sneeze
Rimsky Korsakov (arr. Ben Northey) Flight of the Bumblebee
Rameau Le Poulet
Respighi Gli Uccelli 3: La Gallina
Gershwin An American in Paris
Haydn Symphony No 94: Surprise
Prokofiev Classical Symphony
Mahler Symphony No 1
Tripod (arr. Ben Northey) Sponge Farmer
Tchaikovsky The Swan Lake, suite Op. 20a
Bernstein Mambo!

About the performance

The MSO invites you and your students to take a hilarious leap into the world of the orchestra with musical comedy trio, Tripod. Experience Scod, Yon and Gatesy performing songs and making funnies (sometimes at the same time), joined live onstage, of course, by Associate Conductor, Benjamin Northey and one very charismatic orchestra.

It’s finally time to answer a question that has long plagued the global arts community: Who knows more about music? Tripod or Leonard Bernstein?

Comedic legends Tripod return to the Hamer Hall stage with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and conductor Benjamin Northey to take on the big man himself, in three spectacular tributes which will have you (and possibly 80 musicians) in stitches!

Come and be part of the silliest bit of the 100th anniversary celebrations of the iconic composer, educator and musical ambassador.

Children in Grade Three will be sitting the NAPLAN tests on Tuesday 15th, Wednesday 16th and Thursday 17th May. Our regular Friday spelling test will not take place this week. More information about the tests is available from the ACARA website and the parent information sheet is available here.

Please rest assured that the children in Grade Three have been well prepared and are very familiar with the format and content of the tests. Teachers do all that they can to ensure the tests are a positive experience for the children.

Students are currently reading a lot of fables as we prepare to write our own. Fables are short stories written to convey a moral message.

Here’s a link to BBC Education audio where 40 of Aesop’s Fables are told by by an all-star cast, including: Brenda Blethyn, Lindsay Duncan, Richard E Grant, Jane Horrocks, Jonathan Pryce, Alison Steadman and the late Richard Briers. Each episode is accompanied by a printable transcript, for the children to follow as they listen. These would be great as a wind down activity before bed or to listen to on a car trip. Children really enjoy thinking and talking  about what the ‘moral of the story’ might be.

We try to ensure the Grade Three classrooms are a calm and peaceful place in which to learn. We regularly practise mindfulness and have been using the Smiling Mind app. This free app can be downloaded to most devices. Here’s an interesting article that looks at the benefits of mindfulness and meditation for students http://theconversation.com/why-meditation-should-be-taught-in-schools-42755