From the Year 4 Classroom

A Busy and Exciting Start to Term 4!  The first two weeks of Term 4 have been full of energy and enthusiasm. From jumping back into learning routines to participating in excursions, it’s been a wonderful start. Students have shown a fantastic attitude, and we’re looking forward to keeping up the momentum for the rest of the term! 

Excursion - (linking our learning from the mentor texts we have read and our Inquiry unit)  

The students started week 2 heading out on their two-stop excursion. Firstly, to the Jindera Pioneer Museum and then the Bonegilla Migrant Experience. At the museum students had a rotation of 6 stations of activities exploring and viewing the way of life and all the olden day resources and collections. Students explored these through scavenger hunt activities and matching olden to modern day things. The Bonegilla experience was a fantastic way of understanding life as a migrant. Students listened and read stories of different migrant groups, walked through the walls of what it was like back then as well as participated in pottery making classes whilst there.   Our Sacred Heart Yarrawonga students had such positive feedback from both sites on their engagement and respectful participation.   Students’ reflections on the excursions:

  I enjoyed completing all the scavenger hunts that we went on at the Pioneer Museum. I enjoyed seeing all the things they used to wear and all the different things they used to have. I enjoyed the activity where we had the olden day items, and we had to match them against modern day items. The pottery at Bonegilla Migrant camp was also great. - Charlotte Arnold 4HD  

I enjoyed having the 6 different activities at the Pioneer museum to explore all parts of it. I found looking at all the machines interesting and understanding how much they have progressed today from what they were. I liked that you could also live the experience at the Bonegilla Migrant experience, for example making the pottery and seeing where and how they lived. It was really interesting; I enjoyed the three videos on different migrant experiences and stories.  - Annabelle Kennedy 4S 

I loved Jindera, they had a lot of things to explore and look at. I liked going into the cellars and machinery shed. The pumps and old cars were great to see, particularly living on the farm myself. I couldn’t believe the little water that one family would have to shower in only once a week. I found interesting at the Bonegilla Migrant experience, the migrant centre was over 2km long and wide. They have redeveloped since and only have block 19 still standing. I didn’t know that Bonegilla had a YMCA and theatre back then available for migrants.   - Mitch Blomeley  4M 

Literacy - Students have shown a high level of engagement when writing their narrative that has a similar storyline to our class novel, His Name was Walter. We have been amazed by the quality of the students writing. They have been working hard to use adjectives and similes (figurative language) to build rich description of their characters and setting in their orientation (beginning), so that the reader can visualise what it is happening. Students have just completed their action part of the story, which builds up the tension in the story and leads to a problem. They have been explicitly taught how to include conjunctions, adverbials (for time, place and manner), adjectives and character dialogue to enhance the quality of their writing.  

 Maths – Students have just begun a unit on ‘3D (three-dimensional shapes). They have already focused on identifying the two-dimensional faces that are included on 3D objects. We have also named and described a range of 3D objects, identifying the number of edges, faces, surfaces and vertices. You could encourage your child to share their understandings with you at home with 3D shapes in environment around us.   Respectful Relationships - Last term during Respectful Relationships sessions, students created their own ‘Bookies’, which was an 8-page booklet designed to suggest help seeking strategies to overcome a problem. Students' bookies had an intended audience aimed at Prep students and they had the opportunity to share their stories with the Preps (pictured below). We were blown away with the result of the students' books, with their story lines to show their challenges and strategies, alongside their illustrations. Listening to the students read their bookies with engaging expression and pace was outstanding. Well done Year 4.  

 Injury – To help students better understand the Earth’s geography, we introduced a fun, interactive activity in class using simple materials. 

Each pair of students inflated balloon to represent the Earth. They were guided to draw the Equator around the middle of the balloon, marking this important imaginary line that divides the Earth into two halves. Next, they drew a dot at the top and bottom of the balloon to represent the North Pole and South Pole. 

To deepen their understanding, students wrote where the Northern Hemisphere is and then on the other side they wrote where the Southern Hemisphere is. This hands-on activity helped students visualize how our planet is divided and reinforced key concepts about hemispheres and poles in a memorable and engaging way. 

Student of the week awards: 

We congratulate the following award winners from weeks 1 and 2.  

Upcoming Dates - 

Monday 3rd November – Pupil Free Day 

Tuesday 4th November – Melbourne Cup Public Holiday 

Friday 28th November – Christmas Concert 5pm – 6:30pm 

Tuesday 16th December – Last Day of School. Dismissal 3:15pm