During the beginning of this term, Year 3 have been looking at a range of cities and settlements within Australia. We have discussed and researched many towns, familiar and unfamiliar to us, and compared them to each other. Rural and urban, beachside and countryside, cities and farmlands were all investigated. The areas that the classes have been looking at and recreating on a small scale were Bathurst, Bondi Beach, Stanmore, Zetland, Gloucester, Gerroa, Mudgee and Manilla (NSW).

In small groups we produced a small area of a given settlement and made a 3D settlement from our 2D map. Each group decided upon a specific process to lead them to success. The process included important and useful skills such as collaboration, planning, cartography and mapping, learning about recycling/reusing, 3D awareness, 2D awareness, adapting to different ratios and scales, using technology and creativity, among many other skills. A huge thank you to the families who contributed to our building project by keeping aside and bringing in reusable and recyclable objects.

This building project has equipped us to further understand how and why places change over time. What are the catalysts for change? Can we predict what might happen to cities or settlements in the future? How might this be helpful for societies and governments? The project also exposed us to a range of geographical tools and language.

More importantly, we had a great time learning with our classmates.

Hugh Scott
Year 3 Teacher & Team Leader