3/4IL

This term, we have been lucky enough to have a pen pal! Our pen pals are in Year 3/4 from Mount Waverley North Primary School (MWNPS). Our teachers paired us up together and two weeks ago, we received our first letter from them! It was such an exciting and new experience as many of the children had never had a pen pal or even knew what one was. The children were able to learn more about their new friends and share their letters with others.

When it came time for our students to write their reply letters to their pen pals, we discussed what format to follow and what important information needed to be included. At the top of each letter, we included their school’s address as well as our own. It was important that our greeting included our new friend’s name. The paragraphs that followed included: a thank-you, a description of themselves, their interests / year level / family members etc, a response to their questions, asking them some questions, and lastly signing off. All letters have now been delivered to MWNPS so we hope they enjoyed receiving them as much as we did. Hopefully this is the start of a special friendship.

During our Sustainability unit this term, we have been looking at how we can be guardians of our earth. We are dependent on our Earth and its resources to survive. As ‘Eco-Warriors’, we should have positive effects on Earth, so to that end, we brainstormed different ways we can be kind to Mother Earth. It was interesting to hear some interpretations of what Mother Earth was:

“The earth is like our Mother because it’s so special and unique to us” - Max.

“It’s a living thing and if we don’t look after our earth, we’re not being eco warriors” - Kayla.

“There is lots of life on planet earth and it’s beautiful” - Ian.

“A mother looks after us, so we need to look after our world like a mother would” - Anshika.

Our students were then required to write an apology letter to Mother Earth. The children shared these during our afternoon prayer session. It was a deep, enriching experience and the ideas that flowed were well thought-out and reflective.