Ascot Vale West Primary School
The School strives to ensure that our students will become responsible,
motivated life-long learners who can confidently face future challenges.
Overview Term 4, 2015
Curriculum
Domain
Inquiry
Unit 3 - Years 3 / 4
Overview
Title of unit:
Focus area:
Why did the great journeys of exploration occur?
History
Key understandings
Students will work towards:
 Understanding what is an explorer
 Understanding how early explorers of Australia played an
important role in the development of the nation
 Recognising the risks taken and the hardships faced by these
brave explorers
 Understanding how to sequence significant events in
chronological order within history (timelines)
 Understanding and using historical terms
English
Excursions /
Incursions /
Homework
Explorers
Excursion –
Yarra
Tuesday 20
October
Inquiry Skills
Students will work towards:
 Using different primary and secondary sources to locate
important information
 Posing questions to guide research
 Reading and constructing timelines
 Drawing conclusions
Speaking and listening
Students will work towards:
 Listening for key points and interpreting ideas and information
 Planning, rehearsing and delivering a presentation to an
audience
Reading and viewing
Students will work towards:
 Understanding that we collect relevant information from a
variety of sources
 Understanding that great note-taking includes:
o Short dot points
o No sentences
o Specific/key words
o In your own words
o Abbreviations
 Being able to predict, question, summarise and clarify concepts
and ideas presented in more complex non-fiction texts
 Comparing modern-day texts with those of earlier times
 Understanding that great readers ask themselves a range of
questions and seek answers from texts
Serial Story The Tiger Rising – Kate Di Camillo
Reading:
20 minutes of
reading a night
(to be logged in a
reading diary)
Writing
Students will work towards:
 Developing Sentence Fluency
o Considering the rhythm and flow of their writing
o Reflecting on how writing sounds when read aloud
o Experimenting with a range of sentence structures and
beginnings
 Consciously considering Word Choice
o Using rich vocabulary
o Creating strong images by using well-chosen
vocabulary
o Using everyday words effectively
Mathematics
Number and Algebra
Students will work towards:
 Extending their knowledge of place value, including the ability
to rename numbers flexibly

Developing efficient mental and written strategies when solving
problems (using all four processes)

Solving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
problems in familiar contexts

Developing estimation skills to check reasonableness of
answers
Measurement and Geometry
Students will work towards:
 Understanding how angles are measured
 Identifying, comparing and classifying angles
 Understanding units of measure for measuring capacity and
volume
 Comparing and ordering several shapes and objects based on
length, area, perimeter and mass
Statistics and Probability
Students will work towards:
 Conducting chance experiments, identifying and describing
possible outcomes
 Describing possible everyday events and ordering their
chances of occurring
 Identifying data sources and planning methods of data
collection and recording
 Interpreting and comparing data displays
Personal
Learning
Students will work towards:
 Cooperating in teams for agreed purposes, taking roles, and
following guidelines established
 Living the school values
 Preparing to transition to their next year level
Writing:
Writer’s Notebook
entries
Maths: Mathletics
- assigned tasks
Ascot Vale West Primary School
The School strives to ensure that our students will become responsible,
motivated, life-long learners who can confidently face future challenges.
Specialist Program Overview Term 4, 2015
Unit 3 – Years 3 / 4
Performing In the Performing Arts Studio this term, students are learning about the musical elements of
playing the ukulele, as well as the ‘Count Us In’ singing program.
Arts
Physical
Education
Visual
Arts
Spanish
Students will work towards:
 Learning the structure of a song and perform the ‘Count Us In’ singing program’s song
‘Gold’, which is performed Australia-wide
 Learning to play basic rhythm to simple songs on the ukulele
 Developing aural skills by exploring elements of music including dynamics, pitch and
rhythm patterns
 Practising learnt notes and strumming on the ukulele, including silence, tempo, volume
 Building confidence and self-esteem to perform in front of an audience
Focus area – Health and Physical Fitness
Students will work towards:
 Understanding benefits of being fit and physically active. (The Beep Test)
 Understanding benefits of hydration and being sun smart
 Following safety principles when involved in physical activities
 Identifying and describing links between physical activities and health outcomes
Speedminton
 Practising and applying fundamental motor skill of forehand/backhand strike
 Developing awareness of positional play
 Improving co-ordination skills
 Setting goals to further improve fitness and stamina
Unit 3 sports program
 Identifying strategies for improvement of skill development, game performance and
understanding the concept of fair play
 Focusing on participation, teamwork, sportsmanship and responsibility
Students will work towards:
 Exploring creative uses of paper by refining ways of attaching, folding and cutting
 Devising techniques for folding and attaching paper by problem solving with others in
small groups
 Creating 3D works of art with a variety of recycled objects that encourage imagination and
problem solving skills
 Learning vocabulary specifically related to clay – fire, glaze, dry, pinch pot, coil, slab
 Developing both fine and major motor skills when manipulating clay
 Realising that clay responds to manipulation. They will be encouraged to poke, pinch,
twist and roll the clay
 Experimenting with clay to create an imaginative creature, paying special attention to
joining techniques
Students will learn about gardening and the life of plants using Spanish language and
vocabulary. This topic is linked to the Science curriculum  Understanding that living things have life cycles
 Understanding that living things depend on each other and the environment to survive
Students will work towards:
 Continuing to use basic structures in response to simple questions
 Writing short texts in Spanish using modelled texts and generating original material with
teacher guidance
 Reading and listening to short simple texts
 Making observations as they watch different seeds grow
 Documenting the growth of their plants and preparing presentations for the class
 Using simple software applications to demonstrate understanding of known vocabulary
and structures