Friday Weekly Reflection 19

Hello Grade 4 Families, 

I hope you have had a wonderful week! 

This week in Language most students polished and published their narrative. Some students shared their work with the class and received medals and missions (feedback) from their peers. We have organised Reader's Workshop to create a more efficient use of our reading time. Students now each have a reading box. Inside, students will keep their Reader's Workshop Journal, binder and a collection of both guided reading books and independently selected texts. Once a week during guided reading, each student will conference with me, discuss their reading during the week, read aloud with me and receive feedback and reading projects. The grade 4s are really excited about this new arrangement and I think it will allow those who want to be challenged more opportunity to read a wide range of texts and engage with the texts more effectively. Similarly, those  who require extra support will be able to receive individualized tasks to help them become more fluent readers. 

This week grade 4 combined mathematics with art in a Piet Mondrian project. Students have begun a geometry unit and utilised their knowledge of perpendicular lines, parallel lines and angles to create some gorgeous interpretations. I have included some images below of the masterpieces. The group also added to their maths vocabulary wall. I have included an image of the progress too. 



Inquiry is progressing well, albeit some network issues, preventing a few research sessions. Next week we will be starting a summative piece of work that will require students to write and illustrate a narrative based on their inquiry research. It will be wonderful to see the students combine their learning across the disciplines for this exciting project. 

Until next week, 

Have a great weekend. 

-Miss Raciti

Friday Weekly Reflection 18

Hello Grade 4 Families,

I hope you have been able to keep warm this week!

Grade 4 students have been busy finishing up their "Zentangle Landscapes", adding finishing touches and decorative borders. 

The group has begun a unit of Geometry in Mathematics and have been having fun using protractors and setsquares to measure and draw angles. There are new vocabulary words and concepts coming up, so I have put an invitation to explore on the Mathematics bulletin board. As we work through the unit, it is hoped that students will add their growing understanding to the vocab charts through words or pictures. I have included a photo of the board below. I look forward to seeing and sharing it's development. 

During Language, Grade 4 are continuing their creative writing. I have been conferencing with the students this week about the progress of their narratives. Most are coming along incredibly well and I hope to post the published and polished stories in next Friday's blog. We have targeted specific grammar skills that have challenged some students throughout this process such as punctuation, capitalization and using direct speech.  Additionally, we revised "awesome adjectives", "vivid verbs" and using better sentences to build interest and detail. 

Our Inquiry has taken an interesting detour over the past few days. The students have been keenly interested in discussing history and geography. I have had many questions such as 

" Why do countries want to take over another country"

"What did Ghandi do?"

"What is a continent?"

"Where is Greenland?"

" Is there bad countries?"

With these kinds of questions clearly of interest to grade 4, I decided to alter our approach to this unit. Students have started investigating "Colonisation", which builds on their prior knowledge of "Exploration", an area they investigated last year. 

This week we discussed primary and secondary resources and how these can help us to investigate events, people and places from the past. 

Students have been working on a timeline and world map to chart their research as they investigate some of their wonderings (see below). 

-Who
"were the powerful colonizing countries?"


-When
"were the most times of colonisation?"
"did these times start and end?"

-What
"happened to the people who already lived there before ?"
"what points of view did the colonial powers and indigenous people have ?"

-Where
"did colonisation take place?"

-Why
did colonisers choose particular places to settle?
did colonial powers want to expand ?

Art will be incorporated into the unit through the investigation and interpretation of primary sources as well as being part of the students summative task. 


Have a great weekend!

- Miss Raciti

Kanji Bingo

I got some letters from parents that they were so happy when they received really nice letters from children last week.

I am so glad that "Writing Thank you letter project" succeeded!

Students enjoyed writing letters to their mother and father in Japanese,too.
I hope we can do this every year.

This week, while JNL students were learning new Kanji idioms(カンジー博士の漢字しりとり),
JAL students also studied and wrote Kanji as much as they know.
After that we played Kanji Bingo.
It was so nice to see that everyone is very interested in Kanji and enjoy learning it.

Friday Weekly Reflection 17

Hello Grade 4 families, 

I hope you had a fantastic week!

Grade 4 are almost finished their Zentangle landscapes. We have placed a visual display on the bulletin board that tracks the steps we took to complete the art project. Most students have completed 2 pieces. 

Next week we are going to begin investigating symbols as a provocation to our unit of inquiry. 

In mathematics the group worked hard on revising areas of the fractions unit that are still a little tricky. Most now have a solid grasp of the methods to express improper fractions as mixed numbers and vice versa. The group completed a second review today and there was much improvement made. 

During language time, the group re-visited good, better and best sentences and workshopped some group examples before trying out their own independent ideas. This term, the group will be spending more time writing independently and developing their own individual voices and styles. Today we discussed "The Writing Process" and begun developing ideas for narratives. I have included some student examples below of the
 "pre-write" stage. 

Until next week, 

- Miss Raciti

Friday Weekly Reflection 16

Happy New Year!

I wish all Grade 4 families a happy and healthy 2015. 

This week, Grade 4 launched into term 2 with enthusiasm and commitment. To begin "How We Express Ourselves", students first discussed what they know about art. Some of the responses were as follows:

" Imagining and creativity"

" If you make so much lines, it's gonna be shape"

"Cool colours, warm colours"

"Even if it's pet bottles, you can make it something"

"Shapes can be 2D or 3D"

"Original ideas from your mind"

"Possibility"

Following this, the group investigated the elements of art and found examples of these elements around the school. 

To put their new found knowledge and skills into practice, students worked on an art project that focused on the use of line, colour, value and space to create "Zentangle Landscapes".  

These pieces will be featured at the art exhibition in February so be sure to take a look, they look sensational and the creativity and originality of each student's work is truly impressive. You can see a sneak peek in the photographs below!

In Mathematics, students are wrapping up their fractions investigation and will be moving on to a new and exciting unit next week. 

This week in Language, students practiced letter writing techniques, coincidentally coinciding with their Japanese letter writing lessons. Each student wrote a letter to me about their holidays and I replied to each throughout the week. It was a great warm up after the holidays, as most students have spent the 2 week break speaking in their mother tongues. Next week we will begin Writer's Workshop and start to focus on elicit skills and techniques to enhance each individual's writing. 

An upcoming event is a speech competition hosted by Grade 3. So far, no Grade 4 students have signed up despite my encouragement, so please mention it to your child. I am sure you would agree that the Grade 4s are excellent talkers! 


Until next week, 

- Miss Raciti