Caring Mary, Trustworthy Joseph, Cruel King Herod and Three Wise Men…of should I say women?
To finish off the Term 4, 4T explored the testaments of Luke, Matthew and John to piece together the events leading up to Jesus’s birth, the Nativity. We explored the characters and what traits they have. The students then used this knowledge to write their own scripts, with their own interpretation and flair, plan their costumes and rehearse their actions.
4T have performed to their peers in Year 4, the residents at our local nursing home and today will have their final presentation to their parents and Year 2 buddies.
Check out the 4T student blogs to see their individual reflections.
In the meantime, here is a video of our surprise finale at yesterday’s nursing home visit.
Our landscape is always changing by both natural and human impacts. These can be both positive and negative.
On Monday, Alex from Hands-On Science came to help us to broaden our understanding. 4T participated in a range of experiments to experience natural processes such as weathering and erosion and to understand how landforms around us were created and are changing.
Read the comments on this post for 4T’s insights and curiosities from the session.
Watch the video below to see a quick snapshot of the hypothesising, testing and observing that went on in our session.
4T, leave a comment with something interesting that you learned from our session and a question that it has prompted you to wonder about.
The Year 4 ‘Design Your Own Experiment’ project culminated with a ‘Meet the Scientist’ afternoon, where the Year 4 scientists shared their thinking with family visitors and the school community.
Here is a snapshot from the afternoon:
4T, leave a comment with something that you have learnt from this term’s Integrated Unit or what worked well at our Open Afternoon and something you are still wondering about.
The 4T students were nowhere to be seen on Monday, in their place were dirty, untrustworthy First Fleet convicts! During the day, the convicts participated in many different activities.
The convicts, smiling on a rare occasion!
They completed water colour paintings of their ship, re-enacted scenes from the 18th century and created their own love tokens. Outside on Cluny, students mapped out the actual size of one of the First Fleet ships. Safe to say we were all mystified as to how they fit so many convicts on ships that were not that big!
In the afternoon, the convicts were relieved from their duties for a short time to share their expertly written convict diaries and other learnings throughout the term with the free settlers (parents). Some convicts were even sentenced on the spot by a special guest appearance, Magistrate Mitchell himself!
Be sure to check out the individual student blogs for their own recounts of Convict Day.
What is the most interesting thing you learnt about convicts?
As part of our new Integrated topic this term ‘First Contacts,’ we are learning about the impact of the European Settlement on Indigenous Australian culture.
Have you ever wondered what traditional life was like for the Wurundjeri people (the Aboriginal tribe of the Melbourne area)? Well, take a trip to Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne and you are sure to learn lots of new information!
We spent the first half of the day with our guide Bridget, who guided us through 3 activities:
Indigenous tools – we learnt a lot about how Indigenous people used materials from the bic (land) to make tools for hunting, cooking and clothing. Cordials made from nectar, bags made from reeds, fire sticks and spear throwers.
Indigenous art – ochre is a type of paint used to tell and pass on stories through art. We learnt how to make the red and orange paint from rocks and left our own mark at the gardens…until the next rainfall that is!
Indigenous food – There were so many wonderful smelling plants which excited our senses as we walked through the garden. We heard how the indigenous people used various plants for water, seasoning such as salty pig face and much more. We even drank some delicious warm lemon myrtle tea!
We then finished the day off with a scavenger hunt throughout the gardens with various challenges which brought out the competitive and creative side in many of us – particularly the adults! Challenges included: make a stick sculpture, sniff out the plant with the best smell and hug a tree with smooth bark.
Be sure to check our individual student blog pages to see the group research videos that 4T have created on their own Indigenous culture inquiry questions.
On Monday afternoon, the 4T students put on their ‘blogging expert’ hats and welcomed family, school staff and friends into our classroom to demonstrate and explain their learning of the digital world this term.
Adults were encouraged to ask the students lots of questions to help their learning. This list of questions helped them know what to ask:
What is a blog?
Why do you blog? What are the benefits?
How do you stay safe while blogging?
What makes a quality blog post?
What makes a quality comment?
What tips would you give to someone who wants to start blogging?
Can you show me around your site?
What’s the difference between the dashboard and the site?
Can you show me how to create a post?
How do you leave a comment?
4T’s visitors
The adults were all SO impressed with the students’ ability to answer these questions in such detail they even admitted to learning a thing or two in our surprise blogging quiz for the adults in the room at the end of the session.
What was your favourite part of the afternoon? Why? OR Tell me about your Digital Citizenship poster and why you think its theme is important.
The Year 4 ‘Design Your Own Experiment’ project culminated with a ‘Meet the Scientist’ afternoon, where the Year 4 scientists shared their thinking with family visitors and the school community.
Here is a snapshot from the afternoon:
4T, leave a comment with something that you have learnt from this term’s Integrated Unit or what worked well at our Open Afternoon and something you are still wondering about.
After a term of questioning, researching, clarifying, publishing and presenting, our First Contacts Integrated Unit has come to an end.
During the unit we explored the following questions:
Why did the great journeys of exploration occur?
What was life like for the Indigenous Australian people before the arrival of the Europeans?
Why did the Europeans settle in Australia?
What was the nature and consequence of contact between the Indigenous Australian people and early traders, explorers and settlers?
We even researched our own family history to learn our own immigration stories. Watch our video to see the origins of our families and the year they arrived in Australia.
What is your family’s immigration story and what was their reason?
“Goodmorning M’am.” “I’ve got the scurvey!” “Watch out for them giant rabbits!”
The 4T students were nowhere to be seen on Monday, in their place were dirty, untrustworthy First Fleet convicts! During the day, the convicts participated in many different activities.
4T Convicts
They learnt calligraphy, re-enacted scenes from the 18th century and created their own love tokens. Outside on Cluny, students mapped out the actual size of one of the First Fleet ships. Safe to say we were all mystified as to how they fit so many convicts on ships that were not that big!
A variety of activities throughout the day
In the afternoon, the convicts were relieved from their duties for a short time to share their expertly written convict diaries and other learnings throughout the term with the free settlers (parents). Some convicts were even sentenced on the spot by Magistrate Mitchell.
Our Meet the Convict Afternoon
Be sure to check out the individual student blogs for their own recounts of Convict Day.
What is the most interesting thing you learnt about convicts?
Explore this resource with a partner to find out about Indigenous activists and sporting heroes who were also noted down in history.
4T felt very strongly about the injustices that the Indigenous community endured. They put themselves in the shoes of the Aboriginal people when the first white people arrived and empathised how it must have felt to be told you have ‘no rights.’
Think about this year’s theme, ‘Don’t let history be a mystery.’
Why is commemorating Reconciliation Week important? Why do you think they chose this as their theme?
