Year 3
The English curriculum is built around the three interrelated strands of language, literature and literacy. Teaching and learning programs should balance and integrate all three strands. Together, the strands focus on developing students' knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. Learning in English builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years, and teachers will revisit and strengthen these as needed.
In Years 3 and 4, students experience learning in familiar contexts and a range of contexts that relate to study in other areas of the curriculum. They interact with peers and teachers from other classes and schools in a range of face-to-face and online/virtual environments.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view and interpret spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is aesthetic, as well as texts designed to inform and persuade. These encompass traditional oral texts including Aboriginal stories, picture books, various types of print and digital texts, simple chapter books, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, film, multimodal texts, dramatic performances and texts used by students as models for constructing their own work.
The range of literary texts for Foundation to Year 10 comprises Australian literature, including the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, as well as the contemporary literature of these two cultural groups, and classic and contemporary world literature, including texts from and about Asia.
Literary texts that support and extend students in Years 3 and 4 as independent readers describe complex sequences of events that extend over several pages and involve unusual happenings within a framework of familiar experiences. Informative texts include content of increasing complexity and technicality about topics of interest and topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum. These texts use complex language features, including varied sentence structures, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a significant number of high-frequency sight words and words that need to be decoded phonically, and a variety of punctuation conventions, as well as illustrations and diagrams that support and extend the printed text.
Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive types of texts including narratives, procedures, performances, reports, reviews, poetry and expositions.
(source: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)
Achievement Standard
Receptive modes (listening, reading and viewing)
By the end of Year 3, students understand how content can be organised using different text structures depending on the purpose of the text. They understand how language features, images and vocabulary choices are used for different effects.
They read texts that contain varied sentence structures, a range of punctuation conventions, and images that provide extra information. They use phonics and word knowledge to fluently read more complex words. They identify literal and implied meaning connecting ideas in different parts of a text. They select information, ideas and events in texts that relate to their own lives and to other texts. They listen to others' views and respond appropriately using interaction skills.
Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)
Students understand how language features are used to link and sequence ideas. They understand how language can be used to express feelings and opinions on topics. Their texts include writing and images to express and develop, in some detail, experiences, events, information, ideas and characters.
Students create a range of texts for familiar and unfamiliar audiences. They contribute actively to class and group discussions, asking questions, providing useful feedback and making presentations. They demonstrate understanding of grammar and choose vocabulary and punctuation appropriate to the purpose and context of their writing. They use knowledge of letter-sound relationships including consonant and vowel clusters and high-frequency words to spell words accurately. They re-read and edit their writing, checking their work for appropriate vocabulary, structure and meaning. They write using joined letters that are accurately formed and consistent in size.
(source: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)
- Plus Plan
Write a Biography Booklet
Use this biography booklet to help your students organise and present information about any person in a structured, engaging format.
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Making Predictions Reading Passages Task Cards
Explore the comprehension strategy of predicting using these making predictions reading passages task cards.
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Editing and Revising Checklist Pack
Download this editing and revising checklist pack to support your students when revising and editing their written work.
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Verb Tense Puzzle Pop Activity
Grow your students' knowledge of the tense of verbs with this puzzle pop matching activity.
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Hamburger Paragraph Poster and Worksheet
Teach your students how to correctly structure a paragraph using this hamburger-themed classroom poster and paragraph planning scaffold.
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Magical Story Starters Task Cards
Get your students writing magical stories with this set of story starter task cards.
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Factual Description Text Type Poster With Annotations
Display this factual description with annotations to help students identify the structure of this type of text.
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Persuasive Devices Crossword
Familiarise your students with the most common persuasive devices with an engaging crossword puzzle.
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Homophone Mandala Flower Worksheets
Have your students create a colourful mandala flower while simultaneously demonstrating their understanding of common homophones.
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Homophones Poster Pack
Surround your students with examples of homophones with this set of 20 classroom posters.
- Free Plan
Prefix Puzzles - Match Up Cards
Practise building, reading, and understanding the meaning of words with prefixes with a fun set of prefix puzzles.
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Re- Prefix Words Worksheet - Morphology Passage
Practise reading, defining, and using words with the Re- prefix with a morphology-based reading passage and prefix worksheet.
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The Mystery Door - Decodable Reader (Level 7)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
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Scarlett the Spider - Decodable Reader (Level 6)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
- Plus Plan
Which One? Listening Comprehension Exercise
An Interactive PowerPoint where students choose an image to match an aural description.
- Free Plan
Tricky Tongue Twisters – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine article from the Year 3 magazine (Issue 3).
- Plus Plan
Angry Outbursts – Comprehension Worksheet
Explore emotional awareness and healthy calming strategies with this comic-style comprehension passage and accompanying questions.
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Onomatopoeia Poems Poster and Templates
Use this onomatopoeia poem poster and accompanying template to teach your students how to write an onomatopoeia poem.
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Jamie Oliver Biography – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a biography from the Year 3 magazine (Issue 2).
- Free Plan
Extreme Environments: Lands of Ice and Sand – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for an information report from the Year 4 magazine (Issue 3).
- Plus Plan
Concrete Poem Poster and Templates
Use this concrete poem example and accompanying template to teach your students how to write a concrete poem.
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How to Make a Paper Plane – Procedural Writing Worksheet
Explore how to make a paper plane while your students fine-tune their procedural writing skills.
- Plus Plan
The Hovering Hoverboard – Worksheet
A comprehension worksheet for a fake advertisement from the Year 3 magazine (Issue 2).
- Free Plan
Books for Sharing Indigenous Perspectives - Poster
A list of Indigenous storybooks for the classroom recommended by Aboriginal education organisation, Wingaru Education.
- Plus Plan
Dice Roll Vocabulary Game
Use our Roll-the-Dice Vocabulary Game as an opportunity to help your students grow their vocabulary skills in the classroom.
- Plus Plan
Literary Description Text Type Poster With Annotations
A poster about literary descriptions, including an annotated example.
- Plus Plan
NAPLAN-Style Assessment Rubric - Procedural Writing
A NAPLAN-style rubric designed to help teachers to assess students' procedural writing.
- Plus Plan
Out of the Book - Comprehension Board Game
A fun comprehension strategy board game for students to play during literacy rotations.
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Inference vs Prediction - Presentation
A teaching presentation outlining the similarities and differences between inference and prediction.
- Plus Plan
Parts of a Friendly Letter Anchor Chart
Use this parts of a friendly letter anchor chart to explain and simplify the letter-writing process for your lower primary students.
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Compare and Contrast - Vocabulary Poster
A poster detailing vocabulary used when comparing and contrasting.
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Comprehension Task Cards - Recognising Cause And Effect
A set of comprehension task cards to help students recognise cause and effect when reading.