Genius Hour

Each Wednesday all of Year 3/4 participate in Genius Hour. During Genius Hour, students have an opportunity to explore and investigate their own passions. It gives students a choice in what they learn and encourages creativity. Students begin by coming up with a driving question which becomes the big idea for their research. They then come up with smaller questions to help them focus their research and organise their learning about their driving question. Finally, students have an opportunity to share their learning with others.

Take a look at the incredible work that some of the Year 3/4 students have shared during Genius Hour this week.

What is the tastiest flavour of cake? - Survey made using Google Forms

What are the benefits of Yoga? - Powerpoint

What makes a volcano erupt? - Powerpoint and experiment

What are the world's fastest cars? - Powerpoint and Youtube videos

What causes a volcano to erupt? - Experiment and fast facts

Readers' Workshop

Somebody Loves You, Mr Hatch

Can you list 3 different emotions Mr Hatch feels after receiving the Valentine's Day card?

Are they positive or negative emotions?

History Inquiry- Our Fleeting Past

This term we have been investigating early European Explorers including William Dampier, Matthew Flinders, Willem Jantszoon and Captain James Cook just to name a few. We have also learnt about what life was like back in England and in Australia before the First Fleet. We have been learning about some of the reasons that people were sentenced to transportation and became convicts and which ships they sailed on as part of the First Fleet. 

Take a look at some of the convict 'Wanted' posters that we made after researching some of the convicts from the First Fleet. We learnt about their crimes, their original sentences and which ship they were transported on.

We also read a book called a Penny To Remember written by Kirsty Murray, which is about a boy named George who is sentenced to seven years transportation and wants to give his sister something to remember him by. The story is insipred by the convict love tokens that were made by convicts, who would beat a penny until its surface was smooth and then carve a message on it for someone they love and is linked to the love token that is kept at the National Museum here in Canberra. We created images while listening to the story and added them to our summary to create a story board for the book.

What have you learnt during the 'Our Fleeting Past' Inquiry so far?

Readers' Workshop

The Tooth

Marissa ate lots of candy, and that caused the problem with her tooth. How can you protect your teeth if you eat candy? What are some foods that will help keep your teeth healthy?

Classroom Pets

We have adopted some interesting and unusual classroom pets in Seussville this year. We have fish tanks of colourful jellyfish (ours even glow in the dark). Did you know that a group of jellyfish is called a 'bloom', 'swarm' or 'smack'?

What interesting facts do you know about jellyfish?

Year 4 Maths - Place Value

Year 4 have been exploring place value in maths. We have been working on identifying landmark numbers and placing 4 and 5 digit numbers on number lines. We have also been comparing numbers using the greater than or less than symbols . Take a look at some of the great number lines and comparing that we have been doing.

What have you learnt about number lines or comparing numbers?