Grade 4: Term 2 Week 7

Inquiry

Over the course of the week, students in Grade 4 have been researching and preparing a presentation linked to their inquiry of How the World Works. Below is a brief schedule written by two students in grade 4:

Monday

Today, we discussed the recess schedule. Two people went to talk with the upper grades.

  So, the two people told grade 4 about the schedule that the two people made.

Tuesday

Today we started to learn about energy and we divided into groups and worked on 

different energy types,  we chose to do electricity. We had to collect a lot of data then had many ideas to present.

Wednesday

Today we got information for our project we were making. Some people were filming to make videos.

Thursday

Today we had to finish our work because tomorrow we needed to present our work.

Most people were almost finished.

Friday

Today is the day we presented the work to everyone. We saw many presentations and laughed very much at everyone’s fun ways of explaining their ideas. It was really good to see everyone's work. 

Language

Students have been looking at the features of a balanced argument in order to write their own discussion texts based on a subject of their choosing. We will be continuing to write and debate over the course of this unit.

Mathematics

We have begun our unit on division. We are looking at both mental and written methods of division and also our understanding of the language of division in order for us to divide correctly. The students have been working together on their own strengths and weaknesses in this subject.

Grade 4 Term 2: week 6

Inquiry

We started off this week with a reflection on our unit and a very successful celebration of learning. Many people came to see our artwork and enjoy some activities. We had to write about how successful we had been in our assessed piece of artwork and explain how we might improve our ideas next time.
We have also started talking about our new unit of inquiry - How the World Works - by finding out what we already know about energy and its uses and all the different types of energy in the world. We have also discussed what kind of science investigations we would like to try and do as part of the inquiry.

ISA

All the students in Grade 4 participated in our ISA tests this week. They worked very  hard to answer questions on Mathematics and in Reading, and wrote extensively for their two pieces of writing. I would like to commend all the children on their positive attitude and diligence towards the assessments this week.

Language

We have begun our new unit by researching what energy is, using reliable sources (books from our library) and making notes alongside diagrams and drawings to show our understanding. Over the course of this unit we will be preparing persuasive arguments in order to be able to debate the issues surrounding energy use on our planet. 

Practising our multiplication knowledge and creating our own mathematics games

Grade 4 - Term 2 Week 5

Monday

Today we went on a field trip. We went to Mori Art Museum. We saw many types of art including lots of sculptures. We ate lunch outside (luckily it wasn't cold). When we came back we had Japanese lesson and worked on our unit of inquiry.

Tuesday

Today we did lots of art to prepare for our celebration of learning on Friday. Today we also had a morning meeting. We did a Kanji test and practiced our music for the performance. In language we did identify feature of an information text so that we could write about our own pieces of art for display.

Wednesday

Today we did language, unit of inquiry, math and music. We also went to the library and borrowed some books.

We organised ourselves so that we could begin to create our art gallery.

Thursday

Today we made a grade 4 art gallery. It was hard work moving all the furniture and putting up all our artwork but worth it when we finished at the end of the day. We also did PE and practiced our music and created art in ICT. Some people did swimming class .

Friday

Today our parents came to school and we showed them our art gallery. We had prepared some art activities for our parents and visitors to try as well. It was very busy! After we did music and ICT.

I hope everyone enjoyed our art gallery.

This blog was written by Grade 4 students

Grade 4: Term 2 Week 4

Monday: We learned about an art style called Agamographs. This art changes when you view it in different directions. We then chose to make our own based on our Beliefs and Values. In our language lesson we learned about a poet called Michael Rosen and made our own 'Don't do that' poems.

Tuesday: We learned a poem about the forest. It’s a poem with lots of personification in it. The poet used lots of interesting language to describe her favorite forest in Guyana. In math class we investigated about the different types of angles and triangles, for example equilateral triangles and acute angles.

Wednesday: We learned how to make a Calligram. It's a poem about anything you want but you have to write the words and sentences so that they make an image of the object you are writing about. We also made different sculptures in our inquiry sessions using both wire and clay. We also looked at famous sculptures from around the world made of different materials to inspire our own ideas.

Thursday: We completed our clay sculptures by painting them - it was hard because we needed to paint all sides without getting paint everywhere as they were 3D. We have also been completing the rest of our art work so that it is ready to display in our celebration of learning next week. In our math session we investigated polygons based on their properties.

Friday: In math we looked at how many lines of symmetry different polygons have and also how shapes can change when reflected across a line of symmetry. We have also started to create our own visual artwork that expresses our own ideas, values and beliefs. We will carry on with this next week and hopefully have them ready for our show!

This Blog was written by students in Grade 4.

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.

Grade 4 Term 2: Week 2

Inquiry

This week we got into small groups to research about the main beliefs from around the world. In our groups we had to prepare a short presentation to the class so that we could gather information about different beliefs for our inquiry. The groups had a limited amount of time to use the library to find books about their chosen topic and then more time to prepare a slideshow of the key points. Finally each group had some time to work on their presentation techniques - no reading from the slides; interact with your audience; speak in a clear loud voice. 

We watched each others' presentations and then recorded their information and reflected on our presentation skills. It was nerve-wracking but fun!

Art

We have continued our theme of expressing ourselves through art by looking at a different style of art - Pointillism. We first practiced by making pictures using small dots using marker pens of any simple object we wanted. We then sketched a picture of a landscape we were interested in and then chose whether to paint or color using marker pens to create a finished product. We found out that it takes a long time to create a piece of artwork using this technique as you have to make so many dots!

Language

We have been reading and writing poems this week. We learnt that there are many types of poetry and that they don't always need to rhyme in order to be poems. These types of poems are called free verse. We used 'The Magic Box' by Kit Wright  to create our own free verse poems of fantastical things we would put in our very own magic box.

Mathematics

We have continued our learning of patterns and sequences this week by consolidating our knowledge of how to identify a pattern by looking for the rule (and practicing our four operations at the same time!) and using these skills to investigate repeating shapes. It was challenging to find the links between the numbers.

Grade 4 Term 2 Week 1

Inquiry

We have started the unit of our second term back – it is all about how we express ourselves. We are looking at how our own beliefs and values influence our personal expression. This week we have been looking at different styles of art from around the world. We have looked particularly at pop art.  Our class tried to recreate some Andy Warhol inspired pictures. First we took a picture of our faces and then traced them. Then we painted them in different bold and bright colors. After that we copied a series of our portraits and designed them in different bright colors.

We had lots of fun.

Language

This week we have been expanding our language and vocabulary by exploring how we can write about art. We have developed our language and learnt about the different ways we can talk about a piece of artwork.  We wrote about what people used to create art like lines, form, texture and shape. We used this language in order to explain and give our opinions on famous paintings. We had to choose from 7 choices. We wrote what we saw, how we felt, and who was the artist.

PSPE

We practiced how to play soccer. We learned how to kick a ball up. Then we played the game.  We had lots of fun and learned a lot about soccer.

 Math

This week we are starting to look at patterns in mathematics, in particular those linked to our times tables. We played a game to help us revise our number facts. We had a dice and rolled it 2 times and multiplied them, marking off a number on a bingo board. The person who had 4 numbers in a row won. Everyone enjoyed it. We then looked at patterns using shapes and made our own. After that we began to look at patterns using numbers and a hundred square.

Grade 4: Week 15 - End of Autumn term

This week, we went to the park to do a treasure hunt for Grades 5 and 6 which we had designed as part of our inquiry to help us understand map work and directions. There were 5 groups of 4 people. We came before the other two grades so that we could hide our clues. When the other grades arrived we told them what to do and then we started! When they finished, they got prizes! They told us they really enjoyed the activity.

On Thursday, we went to Grade 6's room and they showed their end of unit presentation to us. They talked about Ancient Egyptians, the Gauls and the First Nation People in North America. While they were presenting, we assessed their work.  After that we played a game called Kahoot and completed other activities that they had prepared for us linked to their civilizations.

Today, we went to the gym and we performed our dress rehearsal for Monday’s performance. We have been practicing hard to get all our words and dance moves right. Also we watched the performance from other grades . It was fun and amazing! 

This week there was a competition to find a hidden book in the school. Grade 4 managed to win it!! It was fun to find the book, but we wish we could do this again.

We look forward to seeing all of you at our Winter Performance on Monday! Wishing everyone a good end to the year and all the best for 2020!