Year 4A Newsletter

School of Play

The School of Play was an incursion which focused on positive relationships with one self, and one another. The students played a variety of games, which focused on encouragement, positive self-talk and respect for self and others. Here are a few things the students have to say about the incursion: 

“When the School of play came to St Finbar's we played lots of different games but my favorite game was a game called rock paper scissors cheer and you had to play rock paper scissors against your friends. Whoever won went to challenge another player and the loser was cheering for them so that was my favorite game.” - Jayden

I enjoyed the school of play because I loved supporting my friends and I. My favourite game in the school of play was doubles, the way you play it is your in a group of 4 and you each have 2 dice, you roll the dice until you get 2 of the numbers of the dice the same, if you get it the same you start writing numbers from 1 to 50, once you get 50 you win. - Mima

We learnt from the incursion about friendship and cheering each other on. - Mia O

I liked the School of play because they would always make losing fun like when we played rock-paper-scissors-cheer and everyone had so much fun and Kalan won. It was so fun. - Adriana

My favourite thing about the school of play was all the fun games that they planned and it also helped us in being a good person in life and having lots of fun. - Jakub 

During the school of play I really enjoyed myself because I had freedom, I got to be myself and I was laughing and smiling the whole time. - Mia R

The Long Walk

The students have been working hard to put together their assembly item this Friday. In art, the students created the Little Long Walk banner, incorporating Indigenous symbols. 

The long walk was started by Micheal Long - you might recognise that name. He was an indigenous football player and he walked to Canberra to ask the prime minister at the time where the love for his culture was. - Lily

I have loved writing  my sentences for the assembly and excited for our real item. - Chloe L

The Long Walk is when some schools walk all around the area and some schools can carry a banner. Our banner is made of a piece of fabric and some people like to decorate it. Some people even walk around the MCG. This all happened because a man named Michael Long walked from Melbourne all the way to Canberra. That would take a long time. That was a good thing he did. - Chloe O

 Michael Long played in the AFL, won a premiership, won a norm smith medal, he was a great player. A few years after retirement, he wanted to make a change to this 14 day walk from Melbourne to Canberra to meet the Prime Minister. - Ben W

The long walk is where you would walk to the MCG, but our school will walk around the school block. In art we made a banner and 2 students will hold the banner. - Rose

History 

I enjoyed learning about the first fleet. They left Portsmouth in England then they went to Santa Cruz on the island of tenerife. Then they went to Rio de janeiro before going to table bay, South Africa Then then the eleven ships went east to botany bay 8 days later they arrived in Sydney Cove. When the aboriginals saw them some were excited and some were scared and nervous but the more they stayed the more nervous they became. Soon they started making their homes out of the woods, cutting down trees. - Nico

In history we have been learning about the First Fleet where people in prison went on a boat to Australia and the trip was 8 months. - Ben A

In history we learnt about the First Fleet and how it affected Indigenous Australians. 

We have been learning about where they left and where they ended. There were 11 ships which sailed to Sydney Cove on January 18 1788. My favorite part was having a group and learning about it. - Milo

We talked about how the Indigenous Australians felt when the First Fleet arrived. - Josh

The British thought that they were the only one at the land and they thought that they could claim it. - Harley

I’ve enjoyed learning about the First Fleet - Jack

We know that there were eleven ships sailing to Botany Bay; the Indigenous people were scared. No one ever set foot on their island because it was theirs. 

Writing - Diary Entries

We wrote a diary entry from the perspective of a Aboriginal person. My favourite part of mine is "A large canoe with big white wings." - Margot

We wrote our draft in our writing books, and we made our good copy on a thick piece of paper. We dipped the good copies in tea to make them look like they were from 1788 and so that they looked really old from when the First Fleet came. - Kalan

We have been doing a diary entry about the first fleet. This is mine - George

I have enjoyed making up a diary entry and coming up with a date. It was super fun. - Seb

For the diary entry all of us had to write a diary entry from the perspective of the Eora people when the first fleet arrived. After that we have to make a good copy, and then we put tea on it to make it look more old. My diary entry is the best because I used a lot of time connections. - Xavier 

Will - We learnt about how the First Fleet affected the Indigenous Australians. 

Cooper - I wrote a diary entry about the Aboriginal People when the First Fleet arrived.