Working together to achieve success for every child
Sharing the Planet
Our central idea and lines of inquiry are:
Living things survive and thrive in specific ecosystems.
- Adaptation and ecosystems (form)
- Why living things survive and thrive in specific ecosystems (causation)
- Human impact on ecosystems (responsibility)
We have been diving in at the deep end with tuning into what is an ecosystem and what does adaptation mean. This involves identifying what we already know about ecosystems and adaptations, immersing ourselves in new information and connecting this to our prior knowledge. Alongside this process we have been creating questions to spark our curiosity about what more we want to know. A variety of learning engagements have facilitated this process, involving flat chats; to share our present understanding, numerous websites, videos, online games, getting out into our special Secret Garden and Sky Garden, using thinking routines such as I see, I think, I wonder and I think, I am puzzled by and I will explore this by. Some of us have made a self sustaining ecosystem and some of us have created ones online. How will we know if they are self sustaining? What parts make an ecosystem? Do ecosystems need human help?
Some Year 4 classes were lucky enough to have KGV students with them all last week. The Year 4 students were so accommodating in helping the KGV students see what we do and how they can help us. Thanks to all the students involved.
Firstly, what an amazing opportunity the students had to showcase their learning in our Year 4 assembly last week. They spent all week practising their speaking, presenting and listening skills in preparation for their assembly to parents, Year 5 and Year 6. I think you’ll all agree their performance was outstanding and they showed commitment, agency and confidence.
Also well done for all students in speaking so articulately and confidently in our 3 Way Conferences throughout the last two weeks. The students were very excited to share their learning so far in Year 4, what an opportunity to practise preparing, speaking clearly, and presenting.
In other language learning, students have been inquiring into the different organisations of fiction and non fiction texts. How is it set up on the page? What does organization mean? What do you see that’s similar? What do you see that’s different? How does the text begin and end? What are some features you notice? What information can you learn? How are the picture and text connected? In the coming weeks we will focus on how to effectively take notes, using several different strategies and also how to organise writing our ideas into paragraphs.
We have been continuing to consolidate our learning of different addition and subtraction strategies. Some questions we have asked ourselves are: How many different strategies are there to solve an addition or subtraction? Why is it helpful to realise there are many strategies? Students have had a chance to share their strategies with peers and explain why they prefer one over another. Students have had the opportunity to apply this new learning to broader, open ended problem solving as you might have seen in our home learning this week. These problems have no one answer or no one way to solve it. In class students are encouraged to share and view different ways to solve the same problem. They are then encouraged to evaluate the strategies and prove their way might be efficient or effective and to be a friendly skeptic to each other. They are also encouraged to make conjectures (similar to a scientific hypothesis) about their maths thinking and follow it through to prove it or disprove it.
KJS Community and Upcoming Events
Students have been asked to bring their library bags everyday to school so that they can safely take their Chromebooks to Mandarin each day. Since they are walking up and down the stairs, having their library bag over their shoulder will ensure that they have their hands free to grab the handrail on the stairs.
Thank you to everyone who has sent in a pair of headphones or earphones to school with their student. We have been using these almost daily. It helps our students to focus better when listening to books online, watching videos or recording their own videos.
- Please help us in making sure students are given the opportunity to read everyday, either on their own or with someone at home
- Due to severe nut allergies in Y4, please do not send any food with any type of nut. Thank you for helping keep all of our students safe!
- Students are reminded to only use the central staircase in the morning and to wait until 8:15 before coming upstairs to ensure there is supervision in all the classrooms
- Students also need to bring a reusable water bottle every day, labeled clearly with their name
Thursday 21/ Friday 22 November Y4 Trip to Wetlands
Friday 22 November Library Workshop for Parents and Helpers
27 – 29 November Y5 Camp
26 – 29 November Y6 Camp
Friday 13 December Last day of term – Half day (finish at 12pm)
16 December – 3 January Term Break
Monday 6 January First day of Term 2