Expert savvy shoppers were the roles that 4T took on at our local supermarket yesterday. Trolley pushers, Expiry date checkers, Price comparers and Budget analysers were some of the others.
4T roamed the aisles on their mission to spend their hard-earned fundraising money on various food items to be donated to the Christmas Hampers for the Salvation Army. Many groups only had 5c or 10c leftover – what careful, yet great budgeting and choosing of items!
4T outside the supermarket
Mid-Shop
4T, leave a comment with what some of the chores were that you completed at home to raise your money and a reflection on yesterday’s shopping trip.
In Year 4, we called August ‘COMMENT BONANZA MONTH.’
The focus was to teach as many people as they could how to write a great comment and share their learning with their family.
At the beginning of the month we predicted we would receive an average of 1000 comments by the end of the month.
WELL, we didn’t reach 1000, but we received 625 comments and were busy feeding our comment monsters EVERYDAY! Well done 4T – there were blog buddy comments coming in DAILY with many 4T members leaving quality comments for the whole class.
Thank you to Ava for creating this image
Have a look at the world map on our sidebar to see where many of these comments came from.
Leave a comment telling us about someone that you taught to write a quality comment.
A large focus in Year 4 at our school is on community service. We try to empathise with the issues people face in our community and what we can do to help.
We support the Salvation Army who support families going through rough times or at risk of homelessness. Peter from the Salvation Army came to speak to all of the Year 4s about the different ways that this organisation supports people.They help those experiencing rough times by:
- support people in finding somewhere safe and secure to live.
- talk through the different emotions they might be experiencing.
- link them with other services they may need eg. doctors.
- assist with booking appointments or driving them to medical appointments.
- assist with access to food and self care products.
In conjunction with our Integrated science units focussing on properties of materials, we created a project where students had to test various materials to see which would be most suitable for a blanket.
Our blankets with a small care message
The students in 4T raised money by doing extra chores at home as part of their weekly home tasks. Our class alone raised a whopping $783.
With this money we purchased the materials to make our blankets and also bought and donated various toiletries items which will go into care packages created by the Salvation Army to give out to those experiencing homelessness. Peter also mentioned to us that another temporary and last resort which they offer are swags or ‘backpack beds.‘ With the incredible efforts of the Year 4s and strong empathy for those who are disadvantaged in our community, we pooled our funds with the other classes to be able to buy and donate 4 of these beds.
On Friday we had a special ceremony where
Presenting to Peter
each of the year 4 classes presented various aspects of the project to Peter and helped him pack the donations into his car.
Well done Year 4. We are all so proud of you!
4T with their donations
4T, what was your favourite part of this project?
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?
Guest speakers…lunchtime festivals…author workshops…poem in pockets…
These are just a few of the engaging and inspiring events that our school had to offer during Literature Week.
We were so fortunate to have author George Ivanoff speak to us about being an author. Did you know he has written 119 books in total, including take home books for Preps, non fiction books, educational books for teachers and of course ‘You Choose’ novels which the year 4s have been reading in Library.
He was inspired when he was younger by fan fiction such as Dr Who and computer games such as Space Invaders which influenced his early writing.
George told us about how he creates his books. He uses a story map to outline each chapter on a huge whiteboard. He figures out the ending first so he knows where the story is going.
No book is ever published after the first time it is written. Each book goes through approximately 10 drafts before even sending it to a editor.
The process of writing his ‘choose your own adventure’ books was a little more confusing…
George showing us his plan for a Choose your own adventure story
George also read an excerpt from one of his choose your own adventure books, ‘The Night of the Creepy Carnival.’
The students in Year 4 have written their own Choose Your Own Adventure stories. Check out their blogs to see how you survive!
Leave a comment with your favourite part of Literature Week and why.
On Sunday 26 May, Australia commemorated National Sorry Day to remember the mistreatment of the country’s Aboriginal People. This week is Reconciliation Week. The date commemorates the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision, two significant events in the reconciliation journey.