Learning in Grade 3/4

Grade 3/4 Learning News:

It has been an action packed few weeks in the Grade 3/4 classrooms! From the magical world of Roald Dahl to the technical precision of stop motion animation, our students have been busy growing, stretching and strengthening their brains. 

Here is a look at what we’ve been up to:

Literacy: Matilda and the Power of Words

We have dived headfirst into the wonderful world of Matilda. The students have loved exploring the contrast between the brilliant Matilda and the formidable Miss Trunchbull.

• Connecting Ideas: We’ve been focusing on improving our complex sentences using but, because, and so. Ask your child to tell you why Matilda decided to play a trick on her father using one of these connecting words.
• The Bat by Donna Jacobs: We also explored the beautiful and descriptive story of The Bat. This served as our inspiration for our big creative project (keep reading for more on that).

Mathematics:

In Mathematics, we have been working hard on growing our number knowledge:

• Addition & Subtraction: Students have been using mental and written strategies to solve problems. We are focusing on place value to ensure we understand exactly what happens when we "rename" or "regroup" numbers.
• Elapsed Time: This can be a tricky concept! We’ve been learning how to calculate how much time has passed between two events. Whether it’s figuring out how long Matilda spent at the library or how long our lunch break is.
• Big Numbers: We have even been practicing reading, writing and making numbers all the way up to the millions.

Media Arts: Lights, Camera, Action!

The highlight of our term has been our Stop Motion Animation project. Using our deep dive into Donna Jacobs’ The Bat, students have been working in small teams to recreate the story.

• Planning: Students created storyboards to plan every "frame" of their movie.
• Production: Using clay, paper, and digital tools, the students are capturing hundreds of tiny photos to bring their bats to life.
• Persistence: We’ve learned that animation takes a lot of patience; sometimes 10 photos only create 1 second of a movie!