What an amazing celebration!
On Tuesday the entire Junior School participated in a variety of activities to celebrate all aspects of literature. From drama to writing limericks to creating our own monsters!
We were so fortunate to have Sofie Laguna speak to us about being an author. Did you know that she really wanted to be an actor? However, she found it really difficult to ‘cut the mustard’ and became a writer instead.
We loved hearing about her first story ‘My Blanket’ which was a story based on her friend when she was three years old.
- She had some really interesting tips about writing too, she said to:
Start with something you know, like how your parents embarrass you….
- If you have ‘writer’s block’, the best thing to do is to write anyway and you can go back and fix it up and make it better later.
We are reading Tom Appleby Convict Boy by Jacqui French, but maybe next time we should read about the character Grace she created. She read to us from the book ‘Meet Grace’ which is the first novel in the series. It’s about a young girl trying to survive in England in the 1700s. It would be super helpful for when we write our Convict Diaries.
Here is a link to her website – click on it and find out more about Sofie and her books.
http://sofielaguna.com/
The students of 4T have written a sizzling start about their favourite part of Literature Day. Have a read and see if you can identify the elements of a sizzling start that they have used.
Tell us about what you enjoyed most about our Literature Festival?
This week our entire school has been celebrating Happiness Week.
We have been trying to practise mindfulness and being more in the moment by savouring our fruit snack. We have written down ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ tasks and paper battled to choose a random act. Our challenge is to do this for 5 different people without letting them know. 
Today is ‘Thankful Thursday’ and it is all about practising gratitude.
Almost the entire Junior School participated in a Gratitude Wall where we wrote a quick note to say something that we are thankful for.
In 4T we wanted to take this further, so we wrote gratitude letters to members of our school community to thank them for the impact they have had on our learning and wellbeing.
After giving our letters to these special people some of their reactions were:
‘Thank you so much’
‘This is really nice’
‘You have made my week’
‘I am going to put this on my fridge’
‘This is going on the wall’
In 4T the givers of the letters said they felt a bit nervous to hand over their letters but after they did, they felt happy and good about themselves because they brought joy to someone else’s day.
What are you thankful for and why?
As part of our new Integrated topic this term ‘First Contacts,’ we are learning about the impact of the European Settlement on Aboriginal 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 CERES environmental park and you are sure to learn lots of new information!
Today, all the Year 4 classes visited CERES and participated in four different activities related to traditional Aboriginal culture, including:
- Bush Tucker, where we learned about how Aboriginal people used plants for food and medicine.
- A Merri Creek history walk, where we learnt about the Victorian creation totem Bunjil (an eaglehawk), the last Wurundjeri Elder William Barak and looked at the landscape to learn how it has changed in the last 3000 years.
- Sustainable Gardening, where we learnt about the tips, tricks and benefits of organic gardening. We compared this to how the Aboriginal people used the land and found that there were more than few similarities!
- Storytelling, where we learnt about the importance of storytelling through art and dance and acted out the traditional story of Tiddalick the Frog.
Look at our individual student pages to learn more about our Aboriginal Culture research projects.
What was the most interesting thing you learnt at CERES?
What is something you are still wondering about and would like to explore further?
Can you believe it? End of Term 1 already. This means one thing!
HOLIDAYS!
Over the last few weeks in 4T we have been learning about elapsed time and displaying our learning in different ways.
We have planned our own AFL (Australian Football League) match schedules, we went out to Cluny and estimated then timed how long it took us to complete different challenges and we even planned a holiday around Australia using Google Maps to help us calculate distances and travel times.
Here are some holiday TIME challenges. Leave a comment telling me about one or more of these things:
- What was your longest sleep in? How many hours from when you went to sleep until you woke up? Can you convert this to minutes?
- If you watched a movie, how long did it go for? Tell me in both hours and minutes.
- Going on a car trip? Look up on Google Maps how long they say it will take to get there and then time it yourself! Who was more accurate?
- When you watched your favourite TV show, how long did all the ads go for?
- Be like Jamie Oliver and cook dinner for your family. Time how long it takes you!
Stay safe, have a wonderful break and I look forward to seeing you again in Term 2!
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:
- 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?
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.
To be grateful means to display deep appreciation for something done or received.
Today the students in 4T showed enormous gratitude towards our special visitors.
Together we played the game ‘Two Truths and One Lie’ where we got to know more about our special visitors’ lives. Together with our grandfriends, we completed a Venn Diagram comparing how times and the way we do things have changed including food, school routines, transport and technology. We even had some grandfriends sharing their experiences in different languages!
We then went off to a wonderful assembly where we heard many uplifting musical items and were reminded of the importance of the special people in our life who support us, love us and who we can turn to at anytime.
Leave a comment with something that you are grateful for and why.
In 4T we have been talking a lot about how our thoughts and feelings have a big impact on our learning.
This morning we had the school psychologists Jen and Jessie come to speak to us about our brains, how they work and where our feelings and thoughts are processed in the brain.
Watch the video below which explains ‘Neuropasticity,’ which neuro-scientists have discovered that our brains grow, adapt and learn.
We have also looked at number one brain (our rational and logical brain) versus number two brain (our often irrational and feeling part of our brain). When we are achieving our best as a learner, our number one brain is in charge. When we are tired, angry or make poor choices, usually our number two brain has taken over.
Leave a comment sharing what you know about the brain and how it works.
Together, we have been reading the text Fish in a Tree by Linda Mullaly Hunt. See the blurb below to get an understanding of the book. Or you can watch the book trailer if you like!
We are loving our class novel about Ally Nickerson, a girl who struggles with her learning.
“I like this book so far because it has some parts where the main character has to use courage.” Georgia
“Ally Nickerson has trouble reading so she creates distractions so the teacher’s don’t notice her.” Dougie
“This is an interesting book because I enjoy hearing her excuses but some of us feel frustrated because she gets opportunities to ask for help and doesn’t use them. Instead she calls herself dumb.” Alice and Eliza
This week 4T also received their first Book Chat books.
Our Book Chat Books
What do you love about reading?
Which book are you currently reading? Describe it so far using 30 words.
We have had a couple of exciting first weeks, settling in to our new class and participating in many school activities!
We have had many discussions about how we want to feel and our expectations of others and ourselves at school which led into creating our Learning Expectations for the year, so that we can come to school everyday and feel happy, safe and motivated to learn!
Which expectation do you believe is most important? Which guideline do you think you need to work on a little more?