Year 3/4 News

Religion

On 24th October, we celebrate the feast day of our school's patron saint, Saint Raphael. Raphael is one of the seven Archangels, and one of the only three mentioned by name in the Bible, together with Gabriel and Michael. Raphael is the patron saint of travellers, the blind, physicians, nurses and medical workers. Students in Year 3/4 explored artwork depicting Saint Raphael (including the one in our school corridor). They observed that he is often portrayed holding a staff and a fish. Students then completed a craft activity, in which they created their own St Raphael archangel using a paper plate!

Here are some examples of their work

Writing

In weeks 2 & 3 of this term, students in Year 3/4 revisited explanation texts.

An explanation text tells us how something works or why something occurs.

Each student chose a topic of interest to them and followed the research process to find out information on the object, event or process.

Many students completed a diagram or created a flow chart to help them explain the process they were investigating.

Students then drafted their explanation text by following the structure outlined below:

Clear title to show what is being explained

A general statement to introduce the topic of explanation

Series of logical steps explaining how or why something occurs

Concluding statement

Here are some of the Year 3/4 explanation texts. Enjoy!

Jake R - How do bikes work

Grace S - How the heart works

Juliette V - How do chameleons change colour?

Larisa S - How a volcano erupts?

Author Visit from Cameron Stelzer

On Tuesday 11th of October, St Raphael's was very fortunate to have Author and Illustrator, Cameron Stelzer visit. Year 3-6 students looked at the behind-the-scenes of creating a book and applied their own creative components in story writing.

Prior to the visit, Year 3/4 students explored Cameron Stelzer's Pie Rats Book Series, particularly his first book, The Forgotten Map. In the first chapter, students were introduced to the main characters and story. Below is a video trailer of 'The Forgotten Map' book series.

Some students were lucky enough to even get an autograph from the Author and Illustrator!

Italian

The students have been showing great progress in learning their Italian phrases. They're making sentences combining both their old and new vocabulary knowledge. This has been evident in their Italian sessions and during their reading sessions when they complete an Italian-based independent task.

Here is a sample of pair of students who wrote a script in Italian and then recorded themselves.

Fantastica work to Pia P & Sophie L!