Year 3/4

We love doing hands-on activities in our Maths lessons. Any concrete materials we can use helps the students solve Maths problems. The students have been learning about division by using arrays. We have been focusing on connecting multiplication and division. The students used counters to make their own arrays to help them solve a tricky division problem. It was great to see how engaged all the children were with this activity.

I love class sport. It is such a great opportunity to get the students out of the classroom and do a range of activities that involve movement and teamwork.

We recently played a game called Poison Ball. This was a game that I had not seen before. Usually it is me teaching the kids how to play a game, but this time, the kids taught me a game.

The aim of the game is to be the last one standing. All the players gather in a small area while two people throw balls at their legs. If you get hit, you become a ball thrower. Last one standing is declared the winner.

The students started their new topic on persuasive writing. Persuasive writing can be quite tricky sometimes because it requires a mixture of opinions and facts. We started our topic by learning how to plan before we write by using the Seven Steps to Writing Success. The children started by writing a sizzling start. They are very good at writing interesting starts for narratives, but writing them for persuasive writing is very different. We worked in groups to come up with a sizzling started for one of the following topics:

'Homework does more harm than good'

'Mobile phones are ruining communication'

'It is unnecessary to own more than one car'

I love watching the students work in groups, bouncing ideas off one another.

The students in Year 3/4 and Year 5/6 learned a new game during class sport. It is called Pony Express. It is a bit like our favourite game, Dodgeball, but the students need to run from one end of the hall to the other without getting hit. If they do get hit, they need to drop where they are and protect their teammates from getting hit by stray balls without moving. It was a lot of fun watching the children try to make it across the danger zone by avoiding the soft balls. I was impressed with the way they were able to weave around their fallen peers while trying to dodge the balls flying from both sides.

Our Inquiry topic for Term 2 was Change. The students learnt about changes over time and how change affects our lives. They learnt about the age of exploration, discovering information about explorers and their journeys. 

As part of their deep dive into this topic, we were lucky enough to visit the Melbourne Immigration Museum. The children really enjoyed learning about the stories of immigrants and their journey to Australia. By exploring these stories and histories, the children made connections to their own family histories and how they came to be where they are today.

Every year, the Australian Library Information Association holds the National Simultaneous Storytime. A picture book written and illustrated by an Australian author is chosen and is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, child care centres and bookstores around the country. This event aims to promote the value of reading and literacy.

St. Bridget’s took part in this exciting event. The book chosen this year was called ‘The Speedy Sloth’ by Rebecca Young. After the book was read, the children took part in some activities such as colouring their own sloth, making bookmarks and other fun games.

As part of our Inquiry topic on Change, the students researched as a group one of the following explorers: Christopher Columbus, Vasco de Gama and Ferdinand Magellan. One of their tasks was to create a timeline of the important dates in the explorer’s life such as their date of birth and death, as well as the start and end of their main voyage.

Kind regards

Mr Tom Brophy

Year 3/4 Classroom Teacher