Around the Junior School
4A Return and Earn
This year, 4A have been collecting 10 cent bottles to take to the Return and Earn depot. We were inspired to do this after learning about the shocking effects of landfill in our Term 1 Geography unit. We wanted to take the bottles off the playground and make sure they were disposed of responsibly. We decided that with the money raised from the Return and Earn initiative we would donate to an environmental charity. This week we donated $60 to the Australian Conservation Fund, a charity who are fighting to reverse the effects of the climate crisis in Australia and restore the environment. We are so proud of ourselves for raising this much money!
Year 4 Maths
As part of the AIS Numeracy Project that has been running in the junior school this year, the Year 4 teachers have overhauled the way they teach problem solving.
This week Year 4 students have been working on their problem solving skills. They have been using the 5 Step Process; Read the problem and decide what it is asking, underline the key information and circle the questions, select the most appropriate strategy to solve the problem, solve the problem showing your working and answer the problem and check.
As part of Step 1 they had the information of the problem slowly revealed to them, making it easier to make sense of each part of the question.
Lots of fun was had coming up with different combinations of animals that Noah saw getting onto his ark.
Here's the question we worked on if you would like to try for yourself! 'Noah was getting ready to set sail on his Ark. He saw 28 animal legs walk onto the boat. How many creatures could he have seen? How many different answers can you find?
Area 51 Lunchtime Clubs – Term 4
Minecraft Social Clubs continue on Mondays and Wednesdays with an open invitation to all students to come along on their designated days.
One of our new clubs this term is GarageBand Jam, on Tuesdays for students from Years 2 to 4. Students use GarageBand on the iPads to create pieces of music with a variety of instruments. Mrs Sinclair came along in the first week to share some tips with our budding musicians.
The other new club this term is Game Design Skills for students from Years 3 to 5 using Microsoft MakeCode. This activity is designed at beginners as they work through skillmaps to develop the skills necessary to code their own game.
Mrs Muriel Fatai
JS Leader of Technology and Innovation
Year 4 Science
This term in Science, Year 4 are learning about how living things are dependent on each for survival. Our focus is on the microbat populations that are native to Orange. We spent a session at Windermere conducting a field survey to look at the suitability of the habitat for microbats. We found many old trees with hollows that would be perfect for them. We have also set up a night vision camera to record any bats that may come into the area.
In Weeks 6 and 8 we will be building nesting boxes for the microbats to help them breed and hopefully repopulate the area after much of their habitat has been destroyed around Orange to make way for new houses. Watch this space to see our final products!
Kinder Weather Watchers!
In Science, Kindergarten are learning all about the weather and its effect on daily life. On Wednesday 19 October, Kindergarten visited Windermere Farm to learn about what types of clothes we need in certain weather. We read one of our favorite stories, ‘All through the year’ by Jenifer Godwin and looked at how the clothes changed throughout the seasons.
The real fun began when Kindergarten assisted in dressing our very own Windermere scarecrow, Windermere Willie. We had to think about what clothes would be best for Willie to not only protect him from the sun, but keep him cool in Summer. We reckon he looks pretty stylish!
