Japanese conjunction

Grade4 students have been learning how to use some Japanese conjunctions.

It is from their Kokugo textbook "文と文をつなぐ言葉”.

On Parents' morning, each student introduced one conjunction and how to use them in a sentence.

They understand that some conjunctions like しかし or ところがonly lead to negative sentences.

Friday Weekly Reflection 26

Hello Grade 4 families, 

I hope you have had an excellent week. A big thank you to the families who made it to Parents' Day!

This week has been a big week for grade 4. Most students polished and published their stories for the Grade 1 students about energy. Some students presented them on Thursday and received medals and missions from their target audience!

Unfortunately, we still have not recorded our summative task, "The Grade 4 Evening News Program" but hopefully will be able to complete this next week.

We are also hoping that the weather is bright and sunny so that we can finally begin planting our vegetables and flowers in our garden! 

This will be the last blog post of Term 2. Thank you once again for your support this term and I look forward to seeing everyone refreshed after spring break. 

- Miss Raciti

Friday Weekly Reflection 25

Hello Grade 4 Families, 

I hope you have had a fantastic week. Finally it seems that the weather is beginning to warm up!

Grade 4 have printed their very own newspaper this week during inquiry. In small groups, they explored various class inquiries with many groups choosing to write about the impacts of energy use on the environment as well as on our health. One group also reflected on the visit we had on Monday. Kinou San had some great information about Japan's energy use and practical suggestions for us to do our part to save energy. 

I have included images of the newspaper pages below, however I am sure the class will be more than keen to share them with you next week at the celebration of learning. We are now focusing on the news panel presentation that we will film and show next week. Then, if the sun continues to shine, we will get back into the garden and start planting!

When we discussed the 3rd line of inquiry "how people communicate about energy use", we discovered that the newspaper and presentation may not be able to reach some of our audience. The class identified that young students may not understand and took action to rectify this. They decided to use their writing process structure to create a book for the younger student that helps to teach them about environmental issues. Each student is working on their own publication and the stories are so far fantastic. I can definitely see progress in the group's ability to write independently and with confidence, showing the development of their own voice and style!

This week during mathematics, students tried math rotations, a structure similar to centres. They focused on key learning outcomes relevant  to our current math unit as well as essential revision from previous units. Each group was given a large task card with a simplified version on the learning outcome at the top, along with instructions on how to complete the task.  I was so pleased with the way the students worked together and independently, dependent on the station and demonstrated a great ability to work through problems and stay focused. This approach proved great for me too, as I was able to monitor students, assist and facilitate questions where needed. After discussing with the students, we decided that this is a system we would like to continue!

That is all for this week, 

Have a great weekend, 

- Miss Raciti

Friday Weekly Reflection 24

Hello Grade 4 Families,

Grade 4 thoroughly enjoyed the activities that were arranged throughout the week for Science and Numeracy Week! There were chemicals mixed, balloons popped, slime, rockets, a paper airplane contest and more. 

During inquiry, students discussed the second line of inquiry and investigated the negative impacts of human energy use. We looked at different kinds of pollution and the impact pollution has on the environment and our bodies. Students then selected an area of interest and with a partner collaboratively wrote a news article. We are going to compile these news articles into a class newspaper, relating to energy use and its impacts. This will nicely transition into our third line of inquiry which is about how people communicate about energy use.  

On Monday we will welcome a guest speaker from the Asia Energy Efficiency and Conservation Collaboration Center  who will be talking to the students about energy conservation and deepening their already growing knowledge of energy and its uses. 

During Mathematics, students have begun using the formula for finding an area of a rectangle in various situations. We have investigated perimeter by attempting to measure the garden bed outside. Students were not happy with their results from the first measurement as there was some inaccuracies with the measurements, so they have decided they need to take a second measurement of the space. 

In language, we explicitly tackled newspaper reports and the various features a newspaper has, in order to help guide students with their newspaper articles. I have also set up a student blog, which is shared among students. They have been contributing their ideas and reflections about the unit so far. I hope there are more contributions this week! I will hopefully be able to send you out a link to this student blog at some point next week. 

That is all for now, 

Have a wonderful weekend,
-Miss Raciti

3 wishes

Grade 4 students have been reading "Mittsu no onegai" from Kokugo textbook.
The story is really cute and students enjoyed reading.
They also practiced making sentences with conjunction.(文と文をつなぐ言葉）