Year 3

MR CRAIG NEWTON year 3 coordinator

House meetings, carnivals, NAPLAN and overnight camps – all pivotal turning points as our TSS boys reach Year 3 in the Preparatory School. Enormous congratulations must go to our young achievers on rising to the many new challenges they faced as they continued on their learning journeys throughout 2018.

ACADEMIC LEARNING The Year 3 boys had opportunities to develop in all areas of the curriculum during the 2018 school year. This year in English, the boys continued to enhance their ability to communicate in many ways – through learning experiences aimed at developing reading, writing, speaking and listening.

NAPLAN in May enabled the boys to showcase their achievements in many areas of literacy and numeracy, with the boys’ hard work and success rewarded with a NAPLAN BBQ. This event was thoroughly enjoyed by all and was a memorable way to finish off what was most definitely a busy and tiring week. A main literacy focus in Term Three was on the promotion of a love of reading for our boys, and the real men read initiative was our way of using male role models to encourage reading for enjoyment.

The term began with the boys interviewing their dads, grandfathers, older brothers, and a few of the wonderful Prep School staff about their reading habits. Each boy brought in a photo of himself reading with a male role model, and these became an impressive display of a community of readers, young and old. The Rogers building was certainly a buzz of excitement, as the boys and parents were eager to admire and talk about the photos.

Then, Book Week in Week 6 saw an onslaught of MENtors visit our classes to share a book, with the boys having the opportunity to ask our guest readers about what they like to read, why reading is important, as well as their own journey in learning to read.

This really helped the boys begin to understand that it doesn’t matter if you are a builder, teacher, athlete, cleaner, property developer or doctor – reading is an important skill used and enjoyed by all. On behalf of our young readers, an enormous thank you to all of the fathers, uncles, granddads, teachers and

older brothers who offered their time to support us with real men read!

In our other learning areas, the boys continued to explore a range of topics relating to the world around them. Our budding scientists were off to a flying start as they investigated the living world and beyond. We began the year by learning how animals can be classified into different groups, as well as understanding what makes things living and non-living. Our science excursion to Sea World allowed the boys to broaden their understanding of living things and animal classifications.

Other standout science topics this year included our experimentation with solids and liquids, where the boys created an unusual substance known as ‘Oobleck’, and investigated which state of matter it is. We also observed changes that occur to various solid foods when they are heated up and then allowed to cool. The Year 3 boys also showed immense enthusiasm when learning about how the Earth, sun and moon work together to create day and night. They applied their ICT skills to develop an animated PowerPoint presentation explaining how this works. Within HASS, our Year 3 boys had wonderful opportunities to extend their learning experiences through exciting excursions and incursions throughout the year. In Term One, the boys enjoyed learning about Aboriginal life in our local community and took part in an Aboriginal history day on the Prep and Senior Campuses. The boys enjoyed building wurlies, fishing in the Nerang River, creating indigenous artwork and learning about who was here before them and how they lived. In Term Two our HASS focus was continuity and change and we focussed on the Gold Coast’s beach culture. The boys truly enjoyed visiting the Surfworld Museum in Currumbin where they had a chance to explore the evolution of surfing and beach life in Australia over the last 100 years. During second semester, the Year 3 boys were encouraged to examine their family history and origins, ultimately learning our various cultures have influenced the ways we live our lives here on the Gold Coast. We finished the year off learning about festivals and celebrations both here at home and around the world – from the traditional, to the scary, to the completely and utterly weird!

SPECIAL EVENTS November saw the highlight for many of the boys’ time in Year 3, with their first overnight camp – the Year 3 sleepover. This year’s event was the very first in our new Prep Hall, and was an evening filled with fun, friends, food and fire! Farewelling our parents in the afternoon, we began with a swim on the Senior Campus before returning to Prep for pizza around the campfire. As the sun went down, all eyes were on the big screen as we enjoyed a movie and drifted off to sleep. When our parents eagerly arrived bright and early to pick us up the following morning, we wondered where the time had gone!

YEAR 3B

SEATED ROW: M. NORMAN, J. CLEVERLY, Z. MARLAND, L. SUPPLE, R. COWAN, J. GLASS, C. WILKSCH SECOND ROW: X. HAMADI, J. FULLER, S. O’REILLY, M. MURPHY, L. ZHANG, E. DAN THIRD ROW: L. LUTHERUS, J. UCCELLINI, A. HERMANN, C. MITROPOULOS, H. CREAM, A. HUNT, H. KITCHIN ABSENT: A. NORTON, F. SALMON

YEAR 3M

SEATED ROW: L. CLEVERLY, J. SCOTT, L. GILBERTSON, T. EDLINGER, O. REARDON, J. SCOTT, P. O’KEEFE SECOND ROW: T. PICKETT, C. SIBLEY, J. QUINN, N. HALL, G. KAKAVAS, C. PACE, E. SNELL, C. LAMILLA JAMES THIRD ROW: H. ROBINSON, C. SNELLING, M. ILLES, H. BABBAGE, H. LEEDING, R. MARKEY, B. DOUGLAS ABSENT: J. TWEMLOW

YEAR 3N

SEATED ROW: A. ROSS, J. STREET, O. MAZEY, M. BENTLEY, O. DALGAIRNS, A. BATES, W. HAWES SECOND ROW: L. ZHANG, I. RAMSDEN, S. LYKISSAS, N. PARKER, A. GILMOUR, T. YOO, J. HILL, C. MUDGE THIRD ROW: M. CARBO, S. SKUBRIS, J. EDLINGER, S. RAY, Z. MIAN, C. DIAZ, I. BRIERLEY