Aboriginal Paintings
We looked at examples of Aboriginal art and talked about the symbols they used and the way the symbols told a story. In our paintings we tried to reproduce the symbols and we are telling you the stories of our pictures.
Integrating Habits of Mind in our Learning
Year 4 have begun to use the Habits of Mind in our quest to (amongst other things) improve our critical thinking skills, hone our ability to strive for excellence and become lifelong learners.
The first Habit of Mind we explored together was ‘Listening with Understanding and Empathy’.
‘Devoting mental energy to another person’s thoughts and ideas; holding in check one’s own thoughts in order to perceive another’s point of view’
We discussed three important aspects of listening that we should consider including:
- Pausing – Wait time – showing that we are thinking about what has been said before reacting
- Paraphrasing – Showing that we were really listening by including something of what was said, in our questions E.g – ‘You’re suggesting … – ‘You’re thinking … - ‘You’re saying that …
- Probing / questioning / clarifying – posing powerful questions to understand other’s ideas
We discussed what this would ‘look like, sound like and feel like’ in daily practice.
How important do you believe it is, to listen with ‘understanding and empathy?’
Mathematics
This week in Maths, we have had fun learning about measurement.
Our first investigation involved making paper aeroplanes. The fun part came however, when we had the opportunity to see how far each of our aeroplanes would fly. Some of our aeroplanes were aerodynamically well designed and flew very far. The longest flight was measured at 8.43m and the shortest flight was 2cm (0.02m). In the process of measuring the distances flown, we learned how to convert cm to metres using the decimal point.
Our second investigation involved answering the question, “Are you Square?” Our task was to measure our height and then our ‘width’, by measuring our outstretched arms from fingertip to fingertip.
We were astonished to find that many people were a few cm short of being ‘square’. Two of us were actually perfectly square.
We thoroughly enjoyed these investigations and learned a lot about measuring.
How many of you are square? We’d love to hear from you!
By Alex, Claudia, Isabella, Chianru, Sonali, Hannah and Madeleine
Visiting The Rocks
We had a wonderful excursion to The Rocks. As part of our learning about British Colonisation, we saw where the First Fleet landed in 1788 and looked at the first buildings. We learned about the conditions that convicts and first settlers faced.
Walking Tour of The Rocks on PhotoPeach
Creating Picasso Constructions
Year 4 has been learning about Picasso. We have enjoyed a visit to the Picasso Exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. The girls have enjoyed researching Picasso’s life and learning about his techniques and styles. We looked at a picture of his 3D model of a violin. This inspired us to make our own 3D sculptures.
We love reading
We all enjoy reading in Year 4. We would like to share our reading corner with you. This displays an interesting selection of books we can choose to read. Students can share a review about a book they have enjoyed reading and encourage others in the class to read it as well.
Welcome to a new year
We have begun a very exciting and stimulating year at school. Our first two weeks have been spent with a variety of activities which have allowed the teachers to get to know their students and the students to get to know one another. We have made some very attractive cubes which contain information about the students’ families, friends and interests. The girls have also begun to show their creative talents by designing bright and colourful names to display in the classroom.
The teachers and students have worked together to discuss expectations of one another during the year. These are displayed in the classroom as a reminder for the time ahead. Together we read and signed a class manifesto. This expressed our desire to work as a community of learners, interested in each other, respecting each other and treating one another thoughtfully.
Each classroom is an environment where learners are encouraged to make decisions and take responsibility for their learning. Good questions are regarded as important as good answers.
We look forward to the year ahead which we believe will be a wonderful year of laughing and learning.
