Year 3

This year, the Year 3 classroom has been overflowing with students who were determined to do their best across all areas of the curriculum. The Year 3 students have become expert and entertaining writers expressing themselves fluently in written form. This skill was particularly observed when they wrote beautiful descriptive imagery poems about their ‘Willow Pattern Vase’ paintings which were admired by many at this year’s Junior School Art Show.

A highlight in Term 1 was spending the day exploring Healesville Sanctuary, investigating the features and classification of living things. In Term 2, they became historians and researched the changes that have occurred over time in the local area. The students spent a very wet day walking around Canterbury learning about the history of the area by listening to both the President of the Canterbury and Camberwell Historical Societies. In Term 3, the students became experts on the meaning of the symbols on the Australian flag and came up with their own flag designs that included symbols to represent Indigenous Australians, and ones that would make the Australian flag unique. In Term 4, they attended a seriously fun Science incursion where they got to use the magic of dry ice to create everlasting bubbling fountains and cool chemical fire extinguishers. They also went to Scienceworks to learn how the Earth’s rotation on its axis affects the day and night cycle. However, the absolute highlight of the year was definitely the Year 3 Camp to Gundiwindi lodge. The opportunity to go on the heartracing 18-metre-high giant swing and fly down a 150m flying fox were just some of the reasons why the Year 3s will never forget their first overnight school camp. Throughout 2022, it has been a pleasure getting to know and teach this group of curious, thoughtful, and heart-working students.

Mrs Josephine Bhaskaran

Year 3 Teacher

Star Warts: The Umpire Strikes Back

Year 3 were thrilled that they were finally involved in the biannual Years 3 to 5 production and were ecstatic when they learnt they were going to play the role of Lord Yoga’s apprentices, in the production Star Warts:The Umpire Strikes Back. It certainly was a crazy galactic space adventure light years from home for the apprentices that had names like Axe, Bax, Crax, Drax, Fax, Max, Quax, and Wax. The Year 3s believed that they looked amazing in their dark-coloured obis and brown pants on Plant Pilates where they got to sing the energetic song, Squeeze the Sauce. Harrison Gration, Cooper O’Meara, Kai Rajakulendran, Isaac Yuen, and Ethan Chong

NAPLAN

In Year 3, we completed NAPLAN (National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy). The assessment tested our skills in numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and punctuation. The hardest test was the writing because we only had 40 minutes to brainstorm, plan, write, and edit a narrative. After completing the assessment, we all thought that it was a lot easier than we had anticipated. In fact, NAPLAN was a blast!

Anthony Li and Scott Yao

George Ivanhoff

During Book Week, we had the pleasure of meeting the very zany and funny author, George Ivanhoff. He has been responsible for writing many of the books that we love to read, especially his Survival Guides and choose your own adventure novels. We learnt that he bases his books on his personal experiences and that once he writes his first draft, he has to revise it many times before it is ready to publish. Even though he made us squirm with his gruesome stories of cutting his finger deeply and holding a spider the size of a dinner plate, we were all very entertained and grateful that we had the experience of getting to meet him. Ethan Zhu and Ryan Xu-Zhang

Healesville Sanctuary

Scratch! Scratch! Scratch! The kangaroo lazily lies on the lush green grass as he enjoys the nice weather. Year 3 had a remarkable adventure at Healesville Sanctuary. These are some of the amazing Australian animals we saw. The Mountain-Pygmy Possums’ black eyes and furry ears stood out as they sniffed their way out of a dark hole. It was so small and cute, its tiny little eye sparkled in the red light. The amazing bird show started with birds soaring miraculously in the sky. The wedge-tail eagle’s beak pecked rapidly for juicy, revolting bugs. We felt the birds gliding gracefully in the air. The emu had soft, fluffy feathers but we saw it attack the ground aggressively in search of a worm to eat. We were all thankful that we were not that worm! We had the best day at Healesville Sanctuary! Matthew Moi, Jake Lin, and Aaron Loi

House Swimming Carnival

SPLASH! The Year 3s entered the water for their first-ever Swimming Carnival. We were hyped for our first-ever Swimming Carnival. Year 3 was up first. The crowd was thrilled and our hearts were beating so fast that they were in our throats. When we finished, the crowd lost their marbles. Although we were doubtful and had butterflies in our stomachs at first, the experience was not bad at all! The House Swimming Carnival was a blast! Josh Ko and Aiden Ding

House Cross Country

‘Take your marks, GO!’ Suddenly, everyone bolted through the park. We could feel the breeze blowing on our faces. Kimi was in the distance, he was trying to overtake Eoin who had taken the lead. We sprinted past the Senior School classrooms, it was like a blur. ‘Keep going!’ Mrs Rice cheered. We could see The Green up ahead. Then all of a sudden Alex overtook Kimi. Our legs were aching. Eoin reached the finish line first and watched us, while we crossed the finish line.

‘Wow!’ we thought. Although it felt longer than anticipated, we all really enjoyed it. Only this kind of joy comes from finishing Cross Country! Kimi Xi, Alexander Bhattacharjee, and Eoin Whelan

Australian Flag

In 1901, Ivor Evans was only 14 years old when he won a competition to design an Australian Flag. In Term 2, Year 3 started to ask some questions about the design created by Ivor. Does the flag represent all Australians? Is the Australian flag too similar to the British and New Zealand flag? After considering and debating the topic, we all created a new design for the Australian flag following the five principles of flag design. Many of our flags contained symbols important to the Indigenous people of Australia. After viewing and discussing the new flags, we were all left wondering, should the Australian flag be changed? Chris Jiang and Gordon Chen

ANZAC Cookies

There is one thing that all Year 3 students agree on, ‘ANZAC biscuits smell and taste delicious’. In Term 3, we had the opportunity to write recipes and bake some delicious ANZAC cookies. We first had to watch a video on how to make ANZAC cookies and then we had to write a detailed recipe that we had to follow to make the sweet cookies. Each group baked at least 20 delicious ANZAC cookies. It was fun, messy, and a finger-licking time! Evan Jiang, Samuel He, Tony Lu, and Alexander Lim