Year 4 News

Pen Licences

We are thrilled to announce that many of our students have earned their pen licences again this fortnight! This achievement marks an important step in students’ writing journey, and we commend them on their hard work.

How We Organise Ourselves

Students have continued refining their writing skills as part of their ‘Survivor’ journal entries. We have spent time collaborating in groups and working individually to investigate what it takes for communities to operate effectively, and the different roles of individuals within communities.

Where We Are in Place and Time

We will begin our new unit of inquiry next week where students will explore historical explorations and discoveries and consider the reasons and impact of these explorations. Students will also look at their own family tree as a lead in to looking deeper into the concept of migration.

Year 4 Camp

We are super excited about our upcoming camp (first camp for many Year 4 students) and looking forward to all the fun activities, food and hanging out with our friends for 3 whole days!

Where We Are in Place and Time

Maths

Last week the Year 4 students completed a Mapping Learning Task, which focused on the continent of South America, using the elements of BOLTSS and being able to understand and reference coordinates.

Number and Algebra - we are now focusing on Decimals and Percentages. Students will be completing different physical and virtual tasks/games in order to understand the topic.

Measurement and Geometry - we are currently completing work on Volume and Capacity, with the introductory activities focusing on Litres and Millilitres.

Sport

Next Tuesday, on the 17th of September, Year 4 has 20 students attending the District Athletics Carnival. We would like to wish them all the very best forn the day and encourage them to make sure they enjoy the moment and aim to bring home some medals!

HOW WE ORGANISE OURSELVES

In Year 4 this term we have been working on the unit of inquiry – How we organise ourselves.

Since the start of the term, we have been learning about South America and the Amazon jungle and we have written a diary of our survivor journey based on daily dilemmas that we are faced with.

Our central idea is ‘Communities Evolve as a result of changing environments.’ We unpacked the central idea and brainstormed the meaning of each word.

By 4B - Harry

Our lines of inquiry for this unit are:

Specific needs of individuals in order to survive
Specific skills individuals bring to communities to help them function
The roles of individuals in the community
The key concepts are change and responsibility and the Learner Profile attribute that we are focusing on is Open Minded.

By 4A - Max

We have discussed and learnt about needs and wants. A want is something that you don’t necessarily need in order to survive. Here are some examples of wants – toys, jewellery, fancy cars, chocolate etc. They are nice to have but not essential to survival. Whereas a need is something that we actually need in order to survive… food, water, oxygen, warm clothes and shelter.

By 4A - Harry F

Early on in this unit we did some research about South America. First, we got given a map of the world, then we had to find South America, to see where it was in relation to Australia and the rest of the world. After that we had to colour code the 13 different countries within South America We looked up the different countries’ flags too. South America is made up of – Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Columbia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Paraguay, Guyana, Uruguay, Equator, Peru and French Guiana. We were given laptop time to research facts about South America. This included looking into the landscape, architecture, animals, vegetation, culture, famous landmarks etc. I researched the Three Toed Sloth.

By 4A - Cameron

We learnt a lot from watching Bear Gryll’s documentaries and through our own research. Some interesting facts I discovered were that Brazil is the biggest country within South America and that the Amazon rainforest is the biggest rainforest in the world. Nearly 60% of the rainforest is in Brazil! There are over a million species of animals in the rainforest The rainforest is so lush and thick that it can take 10 minutes for a raindrop to make its way from the canopy down to the forest floor.

By 4B - Noah

One of the tasks for this unit that we all love doing is writing daily diary entries. These are based on situations that the teachers present to us. To begin with, the scene was set with us finding ourselves in a rainforest. We were all alone, confused, hungry and not sure how we would survive. The teachers set up a whole lot of PowerPoints to ask us very challenging questions, and we need to make big decisions that impact our Survivor journey. We are currently up to Day 7 of 10 days. It’s a bit like ‘Choose your own adventure’ and we don’t know what will happen to us…

By 4B - Layla

Day 1:

Hey diary I have a lot to tell you.

I was buzzing with excitement - we were soon going to land “landing in 2 minutes” the said the pilot with NO excitement AT ALL!

We were passing the Amazon, almost in Brazil.

We started descending… I am not really sure what happened next but I must have blacked out because I woke up in a very humid environment and lying amongst damp foliage.

I slowly stood up and heard leaves rustling in the breeze and birds lightly chirping.

I was really hungry and noticed two bushes covered in different berries, one was purple and fuzzy and the other was shiny and red.

I decided I wanted the red ones as they looked safe so I slowly picked one and nibbled it… they were delicious, I grabbed a handful and dropped them into my bag.

Thankfully in my bag I have my phone with very little battery unfortunately, an inflatable pillow, muesli bar, pencil, paper, sharpener, a smaller bag with my toothbrush, toothpaste and socks and a little box of tissues.

Later my stomach was aching and hurting SO much, I just knew it must have been the berries so I threw them out of my bag and tried to go to sleep.

Day 2:

I heard leaves crunching which startled me.

I jumped up in a flash and slowly looked around me. The crunching then stopped. I was a little frightened but soon forgot about that because my hunger took over. I was STARVING so I took a small bite of my muesli bar – I didn’t eat it all, because I’ll never know when I’ll need it.

Once I was a little fuller I collected my bag and started walking to see if I could find a river.

After a pretty long walk I finally found a river. I had seen some Bear Grylls shows at home and tried to remember how he used sticks to make a fishing rod because if I could catch fish, I wouldn’t need my muesli bar.

Then I started to build a nice and cosy shelter so I would be more comfy and it will be easier so sleep.

By 4C - Izzie

On day 3 we had 3 different stages of shelter design. The first stage was making a decision about what materials we would use. I decided to use wood, vines, mud, bamboo, bamboo leaves sticks and more. The next stage was to design the shelter - I drew what my shelter would look like. Mine was a treetop hut. Here it is. The next stage was writing instructions for how to build the shelter. We had to be very descriptive and we wrote it in steps as a procedural text.

Step 1: collect all the materials

Step 2: find a big tree with lots of branches and so on.

And that was the very fun day 3 where we built a shelter that will hopefully last…

By 4B - Betty

On Day 4 of our Survivor Journey the teachers showed us the powerpoint slides which explained that we were going to wake up to a massive storm. We had 2 choices… 1 was to stay in our shelter and put our rain jacket on or 2 was to pack our bags and head into the jungle to explore. I chose to head into the jungle.

By 4A - Ned

Hey diary, I think I might escape. I’ll tell you why. As I was walking, looking for food, I saw footprints in the squelchy mud… ‘it couldn’t be, could it? Are there other survivors here?’ With excitement and adrenalin rushing through my veins, I began to run, following the footprints and to my surprise and excitement, I saw people off in the distance. I could hear them talking and as I got closer I could see that there were 3 of them. At this moment, I thought to myself I might escape. The 3 people I saw were Izzie, Lilly and Johanna. We were thrilled to have found each other and decided that we should make an SOS signal so that hopefully we would be rescued.

Here’s what we made the sign out of:

Wood

Stones

Mud

Leaves and purple\red berries

Hopefully someone spots our SOS signal, and we get back home safely. See you tomorrow diary.

By 4C - Ellie

I woke up after a great night’s sleep. The leaves that we got as a bed were pretty comfortable. I heard Alice and Zoe telling Evrim that he was snoring all night! I said that we should go exploring so we walked through the massive and dangerous rainforest and before long, we came across a river. We decided to drink from it because we hadn’t drank water for so long. We decided to follow the river stream when suddenly we heard crashing noises. It was a water fall and to our surprise, there were loads of people on the other side, we decided to swim across and meet them. The people on the other side was Levi, Ethan, Eddy and spencer. We all went back to my cave.

We can’t wait to see what is in store for us next...

By 4C - Ella

Year 4 Camp

Ever since the start of the year, I haven't been able to contain my excitement for year 4 camp at camp ADANAC. In our classrooms everyone throughout Year 4 has been talking about it to our teachers and asking them lots of questions and my favourite answers to them were we could bring our crocs and Oodies!

But there is one thing I am worried about... the people who are going to be in my cabin. I really want my friends to be in my cabin especially my best friends.

By 4C – Eddy

All year I could not wait to go to camp! We're going to ADANAC for 3 days and 2 nights in week 2 of term 4.

It sounds amazing! Just think about all the cool things we could do:

Disco

Movie night

Zip line

Swimming in the lake

Nature walks

Outside games

... and just enjoying camp and the wilderness. And we get dessert!

I get to work with people outside of school and sleep in the same room with friends!

But we do have to bring our own pillow, sleeping, bag disco and normal clothes, sun hat, swimwear and lunch and snacks for the first day.

By 4C – Alice

I think year four is the best year level in the entire school because you get to go to camp AND you get your pen licences. Really exciting, right? Most of the kids in our year level have gotten their pen licences but it isn't that simple. It started off way back in year three when we all got our joint writing licence and then we had to work hard in every single book to make sure our handwriting was neat.

In term one, year 4, everyone had already heard about the pen licences but were a little annoyed when they realised they had to wait two more terms before the teachers even started to give out the pen licences. At the beginning of term three, the teachers started to give out the pen licences and there weren’t that many, but Every Thursday afternoon, more people would feel the thrill of getting their pen licences. About four weeks after the first pen licences were given out, I also got to stand out the front of the class and receive my pen licence. The feeling was unreal.

Now, if you have your pen licence, you can bring in any pen you want to school. Most kids in my class bring in the erasable pens from Officeworks, but some kids (like me) stick to the red and the black ones we are given. We are not allowed to use our pens in language classes like Japanese or in Maths because you need to be able to rub out your mistakes and that’s mostly the same with our handwriting books, but in everything else, we are allowed to use our pens.

Now, I am going to talk about camp. In term three, week two, the year fours will be going to camp ADANAC (Canada spelt backwards) in Yarra Junction. We will be in camp ADANAC for three days and two nights which might not seem like much, but to the students, it feels like for ever!! The students recently got to write down a list of five students that we would like to have in our cabin.

I am really excited for camp, and I hope it’s fun 😊

By 4C – Johanna