Around the Classrooms

Term Four is always a super busy time in schools anyway, but Year Three and Four are taking this even further this year! We would love to share what we are working through at the moment. 

Integrated

This term students have been learning about all things Design and Technology. This began with a delve into the concept of inventions being made to solve problems or make life easier. Students researched when certain inventions were created and contrasted this to other inventions. For example, did you know hallways were not common until the 1800's? Or that soft toilet paper was only introduced in 1942? 

Further to this students have been discussing the properties of materials used in machines and inventions, including the toughness, strength, elasticity and water proof levels in different materials. For example, we know that wood makes a pretty good material to make a bookshelf, but would make a pretty uncomfortable pillow! Similarly that tissue paper is great for drying our hands but you would feel pretty upset if you brought a t-shirt made out of it and wore it outside! 

English

To match closely with our Integrated Focus, students are now embarking on research assignments to consolidate their learning. 

This means that students are using the internet as a resource to find information about both inventions and inventors. 

Students are being asked to pay close attention to their paragraphing when writing these Information Reports. We know that each paragraph marks a slightly different idea, even under the one topic. For example, if I was researching the invention of the Toaster one paragraph might be about when it was invented where another might be dedicated to explaining how it works. 

Students are also being asked to consider how we take information and reproduce this in our own words. They practiced this recently with the celebration of Halloween, reading a shared group text on the history of the event. Students practiced responding to questions in a full paragraph, using the text as a reference but writing in their own words. Check out a few examples below! 

Working through this in the next few weeks, soon our students will be ready to share their writing with parents in an interesting way. We will be able to reveal this soon! 

Mathematics 

Students have started a new unit on the classification of Angles.  They have learnt all about how we measure angles, and important angle classifications such as a Right Angle, Obtuse Angle and Acute Angle. 

Students have practiced finding angles in everyday life, as well as creating angles of their own. 

Students understand that a Right Angle is always exactly 90 degrees. Using special care to start with a ruler,  students created Right Angles of their own on coloured card. They then combined this with their imagination, creating an open mouth for their new crafty creation. Have a look at some examples of this work below, with each mouth showing a nice and neat Right Angle! 

Camp Allambee

In two weeks the Year Three and Four students will be jumping on a bus heading to Camp Allambee for an overnight stay which we are all very excited about! This Camp will be full of active and fun group activities, but also gives us a chance to spend time together in a different setting. Students will be introduced to the concept of 'Challenge by Choice' where activities might be a little bit nerve wracking or outside of their comfort zone, but ultimately a heap of fun to take part in with some encouragement! 

We look forward to sharing our experiences with Camp with our whole school community when we return! 

On a final note about this, sorry Mr O's wall shaking snoring all the way from the teachers cabin will just be something the students will need to deal with! haha. 

Take care everyone! 

Tim O'Mahoney, Linda Di Camillo and Emma Clausen