Year 3/4–Celebrating Learning

Science! 

In Weeks 4, 5 & 6 of Science, we have been learning about Rube Goldberg (1833-1970). He was a cartoonist and inventor whose name is now an adjective in the dictionary! A Rube Goldberg machine solves a very simple problem (like watering a plant or turning a page in a book) in the most inefficient and ridiculous way possible. 

The grade 3/4s have designed their own outrageous designs (some of which included dragons and rockets), and then some more plausible ones that we were able to try and build! It was great fun to see some incredible creativity and use of recycled materials. 

(taken from the Rube Goldberg Institute website)

Maths!

In Maths, the 3/4s have been creating fraction and decimal board games. They have made spinners and score sheets, as well as a fractions mat. The goal is to colour in more of the fractions mat than the other players. When you roll a dice, you total up your fractions score, which has been helping the students add fractions and decimals and use language like tenths and hundredths. It has been a really fun activity!

English!

In Reading, students are working on summarising and recounting, especially for non-fiction texts and real life events. We have been reading more interesting articles and taking notes on the main ideas to then write up or retell a short summary. 

In Writing, we are finishing up our paragraphing unit. The grade 3/4s have finally gone through the whole TiP ToP strategy (Time, Person, Topic, Place) to know lots of ways we can use paragraphs in our writing. There has been a huge improvement across the grade 3/4 students, and the teachers are all very impressed!