Grade 4: Term 2 - Week 3

Inquiry

We have been trying out more styles of art this week. We have tried our hand at some geometrical patterns and linked it to our mathematics. We first looked at art from different cultures - including African pattern making inspired from nature and geometrical patterns created in Islamic art. We then looked at tessellations created by Escher, inspired by his travels to Spain. We made our own tessellation templates to create a simple symmetrical pattern. 

Language

We have continued to work on our understanding of poetry by examining the features of poetry - especially the poetic language including similes, metaphors, personification and onomatopoeia. We then wrote poems based on our own likes and dislikes. At the end of the week we performed our texts in front of Grade 5 & 6 in a poetry slam in the library on Friday. It was great to hear everyone write (and read out) such a wide range of poetry - free verse, rhyming - even haiku about anything we wanted. 

Mathematics

As we were looking at geometrical patterns and tessellation in our art inquiry, we spent our mathematics sessions investigating the properties of 2D shape. We have looked at quadrilaterals, the different types of triangles (and their angles) and also parallel and perpendicular lines. At the end of the week we played a fun game called 'Which Shape?' to show our understanding of the vocabulary needed to describe shapes.