HOW THE WORLD WORKS

Students will investigate how different factors influence the design and construction of structures. They will explore the properties of materials and how these impact function and form. Using the design cycle, they will plan, create, and reflect on their own structures. Through hands-on inquiry, students will develop thinking, self-management, and social skills. Becoming communicators and risk takers, the students will deepen their understanding of how innovation and design shape the world around them.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF IMAGINATION

Students will read a variety of stories to understand how narratives are structured and develop their comprehension. They will use strategies like making connections and summarizing to deepen their understanding. Students will explore story elements such as characters, settings, and plot, and identify how these details create meaning. As they write their own stories, they will apply these insights to structure their narratives and engage their readers, using descriptive language and revising their work for clarity and accuracy.

SHAPE & SPACE

In this integrated maths unit, students will explore 2D and 3D shapes by identifying, drawing, and describing their features. They will learn how shapes connect, transform, and appear in everyday life. Students will use words like flip, slide, and turn to describe transformations and create patterns. They will find symmetry, recognize shape relationships, and follow directions to describe position and movement. Through hands-on tasks, students will build spatial awareness and use geometric language to explain what they see and create.

FRACTIONS

Students will explore fractions as parts of a whole. They will use fraction names and symbols to describe and compare parts like halves, quarters, and thirds. Students will recognise simple mixed fractions and place them on a number line. They will see how some fractions are equal and learn to use diagrams to show this. Through hands-on activities, students will connect fractions to division and build a clear understanding of how parts and wholes work together.

NUMBER OPERATIONS

In this unit, students will build fluency with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They will explore how operations connect and can be shown in different ways. Students will use mental strategies to solve problems when working with facts to 20, use a range of strategies to add and subtract bigger numbers, and conceptually explore multiplication and division. They will double, halve and skip count to solve problems and model equations. Through word problems and hands-on practice, students will develop confidence and flexibility with number operations.

STORIES, EVIDENCE AND IDEAS

Students will strengthen their Portuguese literacy skills through meaningful connections with two Units of Inquiry: How the World Works and Where We Are in Place and Time. Using structures, design, materials, artifacts, and history as contexts, students will use Portuguese to read, discuss, interpret, and create narrative and visual texts that support their UOI learning. They will practise sequencing events, identifying important details, making predictions and inferences, explaining relationships between ideas, and supporting their interpretations with evidence from texts and images. Students will also use oral rehearsal and collaborative discussion to organise their thinking before writing. As part of their stand-alone Portuguese learning, they will develop greater fluency and comprehension in reading, strengthen descriptive and narrative vocabulary, and write increasingly organised narratives with clear beginnings, developments, conflicts, and resolutions. They will also continue developing paragraphing, dialogue, punctuation, spelling, syllable awareness, and the processes of planning, revising, and improving their writing.

DESIGN MOVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE

Students will develop their skills through Ball Skills and Swimming, building greater control, accuracy, coordination, technique, and confidence in both land- and water-based movement. Integrated with the Year 3 How the World Works Unit of Inquiry, students will explore how the design, materials, and properties of different balls and aquatic equipment influence the way they are used, how they move, and how they support performance and safety. They will investigate characteristics such as size, shape, weight, surface, and buoyancy, and consider why particular equipment is better suited to different purposes. As part of their stand-alone PE learning, students will practise bouncing, catching, and throwing while moving, combine locomotor and object-control skills into sequences, perform movements with increasing speed and accuracy, develop swimming technique and water confidence, and demonstrate fair play while solving movement challenges.