News from Four/Five

Literacy

This week, 4/5 finished our class novel 'Leo and Ralph'. The students enjoyed this novel, by Peter Carnavas, about the value of self-acceptance, and the bravery it takes to welcome change.  Students have used the plot ideas in Leo and Ralph to guide their narrative writing. They have been working on the middle section of their stories, with the challenge this week to incorporate some correctly punctuated dialogue (direct speech). Have a read of these story sections!

One day he was sitting on the bench outside throwing rocks into the lake when suddenly he hit something hard. He went to investigate. He saw a golden basketball floating in the lake. “ What is the basketball doing there,” Jack asked. Then a head poked out of the lake “AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” screamed Jack “Who are you!” 

“I am Will, I got sent to help you with playing basketball and help you with getting along with your family.” Will looked like a smooshed green alien. ~ by Joe

As Marlee was walking across the beach, she saw Hannah. Hannah asks Marlee, “Can I throw the stick with you?” “Yes, you can throw the stick with me,” said Hannah. ~ by Maddi

Elliot was stunned, Timmy moving meant he would have no friends. But worst of all, he was stuck with bobacus. “You’re going into year 5 now,” Mum said gently.” You just need to make more friends.” Elliot couldn't believe it. How could they expect him to just get over Timmy leaving him?  That night, he and Bobacus devised a plan: if Elliot didn't make a new friend within a week of Timmy moving to Farenol, he’d sneak to Farenol and find timmy. ~ by Will

Hunter opened the package like he was a kid on Christmas morning.  There was a stuffed animal but it looked different to his other stuffed animals.  It talked!  Hunter was scared, frozen like an ice cube.   Hunter decided to trust it.  It was short, fluffy and soft. “What other stuff can you do?” asked Hunter.  It did cool tricks like flips and rolls.  Hunter was amazed. ~ Noah

REACH Foundation Incursion

The 4/5 students had their second workshop today from The Reach Foundation

This workshop was all about Teamwork! In this workshop, the students had to work together to figure out the secret path on the grid! BUT! There was a catch!!!! They could not talk! They had to figure out a way to get the whole team through without talking! It was quite a challenge at the start, but after talking about what makes good teamwork and establishing an understanding of how they could work together, they managed to make it through!

It was an excellent way to show students the skills needed to be on a team. We are looking forward to our 4/5 students sharing this learning with other students at St Joe's and being the fantastic role models that we know they are!

Head to Facebook to see some videos of the incursion!

REACH INCURSION-GRADE 4/5 -  by Lacey and Amelia

On Wednesday, the Grade 4/5‘s had a Reach Incursion.

A Reach incursion is when the Reach people come to your classroom to discuss wellness and wellbeing for you and others.

They run fun activities to help you get to know others better.

On Wednesday, we did a fun activity called grid racing.

The grid racing game has simple rules. There is a grid on the floor, and you have to figure out the secret path. 

This is how the game works.

First, you have to line up on the outside, then you spin three times and get your energy out while Coach Mac & Cheese enters. 

You are not allowed to talk, laugh, or sit down; if you do these things you will get a 10 second time penalty.

Our class didn’t grasp the idea of not talking, laughing, or sitting down the first time, the second, or the third time. 

So we discussed how we felt when others were talking or laughing, and what emotion that made us feel. 

Twelve people in the class were annoyed, and not surprisingly, those were the people who were not talking or laughing.

Then we discussed the importance of teamwork, most people said our teamwork was a 1-2 out of five. After that, we had a quick turn and talk about what we were going to do to help the team. After that, we got back into the game, then Coach Cheese & Mac came,

(he is not Coach Mac & Cheese!) Then we tried again, and we were way better than before.

We used better teamwork after our discussion.

We did accidentally break a few rules, which were the no entering from the side and exiting the same way you came in, you were also only allowed to have your second go once everyone had their first go.

There, however, was a rule that we didn’t break. It was the rule of 1 person on the grid at a time so everyone could have a go.

The 4/5 students have been given a challenge to fill their class PBL jar by the end of next week to receive a special prize!! They need to be showing Teamwork qualities to get their Gotcha's to fill their jar!!

Inquiry

Following on from our immersion excursion to the Melbourne Museum and IMAX a few weeks ago, we have begun our Inquiry unit on the Earth and weather. Students used MetEye, an online weather tool by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), to collate and compare weather data from different places in Australia.

Students explored slow and rapid changes to the Earth and began to think like scientists, considering what they see, think and wonder about places to pose investigable questions.

Welcome, Kade!

Welcome (back) to our class, Kade! You've settled in beautifully this week, and we’re all excited to have you with us on our learning journey and to get to know you better. 

Assembly

Next week we are on Assembly! Come along to see more of what we have been learning so far this term! This will be on Friday 30th May at 2:15pm in the SPA Centre.

Rare Visitor - Bassian Thrush

On Thursday we spotted an unusual bird outside our classroom window. A photo and quick search on a what bird is that app and we discovered it's the elusive Bassian Thrush. Have you ever seen one?

St. Joseph’s Birdlife 

By Archer Joyce and Bennett Ball 

The Bassian Thrush is a bird native to the South East of Australia, and we were lucky enough to see one outside our 4/5 classroom!

Did you know that when threatened, the Bassian Thrush runs a short bit and then stops relying on its camouflage as a defense against the lush forest floor. 

The Bassian Thrush’s appearance is a medium sized forest forager with scale looking feathers with mottled brown and olive green plumage separated by black lines. 

The Bassian Thrush is endemic to Australia.

Bassian Thrush can fly but tends to stay on the ground hiding amongst the leaf litter and vegetation to blend in with the scenery to avoid predators.

Did you know that the Bassian Thrush farts so the worms get so startled that their dismayed writhing puts them in danger!

The Bassian Thrush eats small invertebrates like worms, insects and grubs, they also eat fruit and berries.   

The population of Bassian Thrushes is only 12,000!

The red dots are where the Bassian Thrushes are found in Australia.

 Bassian Thrushes don’t join flocks, usually instead they are solitary or in pairs.

The Scientific name for Bassian Thrushes is Zoothera Lunulata.