Year 4 Learning
This week we have commenced our English Workshops 4 days a week. This is an opportunity for students to consolidate their learning participating in a variety of hands-on and engaging small group activities. Weekly tasks include practise writing and sentence structures, investigating words of the week, reading comprehension tasks and tailored teacher workshops. In writing we have been learning the fundamentals of creating powerful narratives. Students now know that a story only has about 60 seconds to grab the reader’s attention and that a great sizzling start will start their stories off with a bang! We have collaboratively worked together to investigate step 1, 2 and 3 in the writing process, writing sizzling starts, using our senses to create tightening tension and identifying character traits. We read picture books to compare the different stages within texts. In the coming weeks students will be given the opportunity to experiment with dialogue to bring life to their writing and to make it more realistic.
Maths
We have been investigating how we can use different measuring tools to measure different lengths. We designed 3 different paper planes and measured the distance they each flew using a trundle wheel. We then used our addition strategies to add the total distance flown for each plane. Through hands-on learning students were able to measure, record, compare measurements and demonstrate our ability to convert measurements between millimetres, centimetres, metres and kilometres. We have also been focusing on multiplication through counting large collections in a variety of ways.
We have also been able to share what groups we all belong to and how these groups work together. If we are able to demonstrate these Christian Values within our groups, then the groups will be a safe and enjoyable place for every member to be a part of.
Among The Gum Trees (Geography/Science/Visual Arts)
Our Among The Gum Trees unit provides students with rich learning opportunities for hands-on learning through a variety of lenses. We have taken on the role as biologists, representing and explaining our understanding about how living things have life cycles and that living things depend on each other and the environment to survive. We are investigating closely the conditions that affect the germination of eucalyptus seeds. Students later in the term will consider the impacts some animals and eucalypts have on each other.
We are learning a variety of techniques used in watercolour art and how they create different effects. From these experimentations we have begun planning and designing our own unique eucalyptus watercolour art.
Students have developed an understanding that our eucalyptus trees are a natural feature in our Australian environment and we have located and represented these on our class maps.
