End of the Year Comments

Ann-Marie - I really liked going on the Earthkeepers camp with my friends. I loved roasting marshmallows and I liked the lookout where we got to see the river below. I loved the key ceremony as well! 

Ella - I had fun at Earthkeepers camp! The best part was the tadpole fishing because I got to work with my friends. We got to use nets and dig around in the pond looking for weird insects, bugs and tadpoles. We caught a lot!

Caleb - I really liked the excursion to the mosque and the temple. We got to eat turkish delight which was delicious. I really liked the egg drop because it was fun making the boxes and trying to protect the egg. Mine was a really good design and my egg didn't crack when I dropped it onto the concrete.

Kunal - I really liked the egg drop. We got to be creative and design something to protect an egg. My design kept the egg from breaking. The other thing I really enjoyed was visiting the turkish delight factory and the mosque. We got to buy stuff and I learnt that it was the best turkish delight factory in the world. I got to try some and it was different to normal turkish delight. It tasted better.

Abby - I really liked the Earthkeepers Camp because it was fun. I got to sleep with my friends in the Emu's cabin which was great. I really liked when we got to meet some native animals and got to touch them. I loved the food at camp! I enjoyed sitting next to Millie in class all year! I liked when Mrs Stephens came and taught us and we got to do art which is my favourite subject!

Keira - I liked when we went to the Earthkeepers camp and we got to sleep with our friends in a cabin. I was in the Kangaroo cabin with my friends. I liked when we got to go fishing for bugs and insects and tadpoles. It was lots of fun. I liked when Mrs Taylor told a scary story around the campfire while we drank hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows.

Daniel - I really loved going on camp and learning about the environment and also being in 3/4T! I made lots of new friends in class. I loved designing my egg drop in class. We got to be really creative. My design was really good and when I dropped the container that I designed with the egg it didn't even break! 

Remi - I loved going on the Earthkeepers camp because we got to play with our friends and it was like a big sleepover. I really liked being chosen by my class to do the Boronia's Got Talent and also play the violin to the class.

Charlie - I really loved designing the egg drop package. My design was really good and the egg didn't break when I dropped it. I loved the Earthkeepers camp and learning about the environment. Like Remi, I also thought it was like a big sleepover with your friends. I liked seeing Remi play the violin in front of the class. I also loved doing art with Mrs Stephens. 

Leo - I liked when we went to Earthkeepers camp because I liked sleeping with my friends and the bicycle. I liked learning about the environment. I liked when we did the egg drop too.

Amelia - I liked being in Mrs Taylor's class and I liked getting into the talent quest. I really liked being with Jade in my class. 

Jade - I liked being with my best friend Amelia and I'm really happy that Amelia and I got to be in the Boronia's Got Talent.

Lucas - I really liked designing the egg drop and my egg survived even though I didn't think it would. I really liked being in class with Caleb because we've known each other for a long time and hardly ever got to be in class with each other. I loved going to the turkish delight factory because I LOVE turkish delight!

Abigail - This year I liked doing the art classes with Mrs Stephens and library with Mrs Paull. I also liked going on the excursion to the mosque and the temple and I also liked the packaging unit where we got to design a package that protected an egg. My design was awful and the egg broke. It was too small and when I dropped it the egg was coming out everywhere. 

Lucy - I liked doing the egg drop. My design was a box of hay with the egg in it. It had bubble wrap around it and it kept the egg from breaking! I also liked the excursion to the temple and the mosque. I think the paintings in the mosque were really pretty! In the temple I liked how they had a bowl of fruit and they had white ash which people put on their forehead.

Caillie - I liked when we got to go to the mosque and temple. I loved the turkish delight! I also liked doing creative writing with Mrs Taylor. I liked doing art with Mrs Stephens as well. 

Jonathan - I liked the art we did with Mrs Stephens. I liked doing handwriting with Mrs Taylor. I loved going to Earthkeepers camp with my friends. I loved roasting marshmallows at the campfire. 

Ash - I loved playing soccer with Mr Smyth in the PSSA team. We should've won but because of the year five and six camp we had to forfeit a game which meant we didn't get to go to the finals. I loved doing PE as well. 

Josh - I liked visiting the mosque because we got to play at the park at lunch. I liked designing the package for the egg drop. My egg survived the drop! 

James - I loved being in PSSA teams this year. I also liked designing the package for the egg drop. Mine was made out of cardboard, felt, paddle-pop sticks and bubblewrap. My egg survived! 

Liam - I liked being in the PSSA AFL team with Mrs Taylor and the privilege it gave me! I liked the egg drop and how it challenged us. My package was made out of cardboard, foam, tape and newspaper and it kept the egg safe when I dropped it! My favourite subjects were maths, science and writing. I've enjoyed the year and the mosque and temple excursion were very interesting. I've enjoyed the computers and enjoyed reading the books from the library and learning new things every day, just to name a few.

Katija - I liked the Earthkeepers camp because it was a memorable thing and I wish we didn't have to leave. It was so funny when Mrs Taylor kept telling the scary stories and I guessed what the crime was. It was the gas! 

Madison - I liked the egg drop and my egg survived! I also really liked camp. It was my favourite excursion! I really loved doing the Kris Kringle at the end of the year too!

Egg dropping fun!

The egg-drop has been one of our highlights this year! The design process made us think about which materials to use and how to keep the egg safe. We had a couple of practice runs of throwing our packages off the balcony and seeing how they faired. Poor Mr Lau didn't know what was going on! He thought we were throwing rubbish over the balcony. 

The egg-drop intrigued year one so much we ended up with Mr Lau and his class as spectators. What fun we had! Having a whole class ooh and aah over every drop really added to the occasion. 

Watch us below:

A make-up gymnastic lesson...

I had forgotten that we had missed a gymnastic lesson last term and so today we were pleasantly suprised to have one. The colourful equipment was back and the excitement level was at a ten! Two sessions of exciting games in one day!

Today we moved around the different equipment, from the side-vault, mini-trampolines, parallel bars, and high-bar, to the balance pods and finally the wedge blocks where we did some forward rolls and cartwheels. We had to remember to finish properly with bent knees and arms out in front of us. Here are some action shots!

SISA Social Skills Program

Today I got to watch first the year fours and then the year threes during the SISA social skills program. First there was an activity where the girls and boys were split and stood in a line facing each other. They each had a ball that they had to throw from above their heads into the centre. In the centre, between the boys and girls was a large ball sitting on cones. All students had to use their ball to throw at the big ball at the same time with the aim of knocking it off the cones. Students had to work together to all throw the ball at the same time, knocking the big ball toward their opponents. Lots of cooperative talk and fun was had by all!

The next game was working in teams with a net. The purpose was to work together to bounce a ball as high as you could while then catching it on the net. It was very important to work together as a team!

Creating shapes was the purpose of the next activity. Students had to use an elastic band around their bodies to make a shape. For example to make a square, students would have to make four points by moving their bodies away from each other.

Once students had mastered making shapes in the air they had to make shapes with the elastic on the ground. The shapes got more and more complicated. So much positve teamwork happening and watching the problem solving in action was wonderful!

The last activity of the day was working together to move a small ball through a maze as a group. Wow! Now that was a tricky one! Lots of talking and working together. Level one was holding the metal plate with their hands. Level two was using rope handles attached to the metal plate.

Year four ended the session by talking about working as a team and using our words to work through problems. Now it's time for year three to have a go!

Packaging Experiment

Amelia

Today we did some science experiments. We had to drop a can of baked beans on to a protected biscuit. Then we had to record the changes it made when we dropped the can on to the biscuit. The types of packaging we were using were bubble wrap, air bags and paper. Everyone thought bubble wrap would be effective but it actually wasn't. We were so suprised that we got most cracks from the bubble wrap. After that we handed in our work and got to eat the biscuit it was very yummy.

Jade

Before we dropped the baked beans we had to hold a ruler on top of the packaging. We had to measure 10,15, 20 and 25 centimetres and drop it from that height. The reason why we did this is to get prepared for the egg drop. We had to see which materials are best at protecting the biscuit or egg. After we dropped the can we had to record the cracks, crumbs and splits on the biscuit and where they occured. We had to work with partners and of course I went with my BFF, Amelia and afterwards I wanted to eat the can of beans. 

Fun with water

We are learning about capacity using coloured water. What fun! Makes estimating and measuring with liters and milliliters engaging and very wet!

Music Count us in 2015

We joined thousands of students today to sing the song Gold, as part of the 2015 Music Count us in program. 

Buddies

We went and helped our buddies today with some messy craft. It involved cutting up pieces of colour from a magazine and then pasting these onto their design. Since year two couldn't be involved today, we had a chance for year 3 to share some of their buddies with year 4. Everyone worked really well and were very encouraging and helpful to the year one class.

Below is an overview of the buddy session from Abigail:

Today, at school, we got to meet our buddies. As an activity, we got to help our buddies finish their mosaic. All we had to do was cut out bits of magazine or glue it on. I had two buddies, Mia and Olive. But since the year fours didn't have their buddies with them, I gave up Olive to Millie. I didn't choose to give her up, but Olive wanted to do it. And so I only got to help Mia :( . I only got to stick a few pieces of magazine on until the mosaic was quite full. So Mrs Butler got her another mosaic. When the small bell rang, Mia wouldn't let go of the magazine. When we finally got it off her, she crawled under the table and wouldn't come out until the recess bell rang. 

Making sherbert

We had a no bake, very little fuss cooking session. Only four ingredients and delicious! It gave us a chance to talk about the parts of a procedure or recipe and then had to write our own 'Sherbert' recipe. A small spoonful of Sherbert was the reward and the rule was that they had to eat it on the balcony. A very messy and sticky treat. 

Welcome back!!

I can't believe that we're about to head into week 3 of term 4! Where has the year gone? We've been very busy already and really have hit the ground running!!

Unfortunately I wasn't at school on Monday (thanks to Hamish having a nasty stomach bug) to be part of the SISA social skills program but heard it was a great success and lots of fun too! Everyone got to work together and learn to cooperate with one another while learning to play some really cool games. The best part was that year three got to hang out with the rest of year three and the year fours got to hang out with the rest of year four. What a great opportunity for everyone in each year to hang out with their friends from other classes!

In class we have begun to look at writing procedures. Today we were lucky enough to be sent some iBooks to read from a class at North Ryde primary. They had written procedures on how to make origami after their class had read the book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. They had turned their procedures into digital books which included short videos that helped with the steps. After watching/reading one we made some paper cranes. Unfortunately we don't get to keep them as I have promised that we'll give the class the origami that we make so that they can see how effective their procedures were. You can see the three books we were sent via the itunes links below.

How to Fold an Origami Dove

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to-fold-an-origami-dove/id1046818738?ls=1&mt=11

How to Fold an Origami Butterfly

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to-fold-origami-butterfly/id1047636174?ls=1&mt=11

How to Fold an Origami Iris

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/how-to-fold-an-origami-iris/id1047552523?ls=1&mt=11

 

Next week we'll be combining procedures and measurement by reading a recipe to make something yummy to eat. We'll then write our own procedures that explain how to make the recipe. Yummo! We looked at what 'mass' means today and practiced writing the shortened form of kilograms and grams as well as changing weights from kilograms to grams and from grams to kilograms.

We have begun to read the novel, The Inventions of Hugo Cabret, which has wonderful black and white pictures in it which add to the story. We have begun to read the images by looking for the salient parts, reading the characters body language and facial expressions as well as looking at how the use of light and shade can add meaning to the images and hence to the novel. 

We're fine tuning our comprehension strategies and skills by revisiting some in more depth and also introducing some new ones. This week we're looking at identifying the main idea of a text and the details that support the main idea. We're joining 4S twice a week while we explore our comprehension skills and strategies. 

As part of library research we are looking at people that have made a difference in some way to the world. At the beginning of this term we made a poster of our 'famous' person and later this term we will be using the information we have found to create a large cardboard poster that we will show off to other classes.

During science we'll be looking at packaging. What is it used for? Why do we have packaging? What is the design process when companies look at packaging products? We'll have to design a package to contain an egg and stop it from breaking when we drop it from our classroom to the concrete below. This has really excited everyone!!

Science - Among the Gum Trees

Over the term we have looked at eucalyptus trees, explored their life cycle, tried (with some success) to germinate seeds we found, learnt about how bees are part of their life cycle through pollination and even learnt about how eucalyptus oil stops bread from going mouldy. Here are some great photos from the term.

Earthkeepers Camp 2015

What an amazing camp! Brewongle EEC had us busy exploring the bush, seeing a wildlife animal show, sitting in our own magic spots, walking down to the Hawkesbury River to picnic alongside it, learning about sustainability, having tons of fun and more. Here is a post from the Brewongle EEC blog about our Earthkeepers camp.

Computers and Prezis

Now that we've spent a number of weeks researching and taking notes on an animal of our choice we have begun putting all that information together. Some chose 'prezis' as their tool and others stuck with what they know best which is a Power Point presentation.

Grandparents Day

What a wonderful sense of community! We had many grandparents visit our school today and watch our talented students perform in front of them. We started with performances by Kindergarten, year one and two before there was the band, the junior and senior choirs and a special performance by 4/5C. We were part of the last song which was an alternate school song. All of year 3, 4, 5 and 6 performed at the end of the concert. After the concert there was time for grandparents to visit classrooms and then the library where they were able to purchase a book. Our classroom was buzzing with grandparents and parents and younger siblings. What a truly wonderful day! Here we are waiting for the concert to begin.

The concert items were fabulous!

Katija: I really enjoyed having my grandparents at school even though I'm going to see them Friday and I saw them yesterday. I liked the play by 4/5C. I liked that Sam was the leader and then ripped off his t-shirt and then was one of the boredom busters.

Keira: I liked when Sam said, 'I want to be myself, but famous!'. Callum then went over and said, 'Can I have your autograph?' and then he said, 'Selfie!'. I liked the junior choir and how they sung their song, 'Ten Feet off the ground'. I really liked how the Kindys sang the greeting song. I really just liked all of it.

More maths...

Maths is great! We tried some mental computation and problem solving today with dominoes and dice. Great work and lots of fun!

Measuring up

Keira:

On Monday we did maths that included the trundle wheels. The trundle wheels click every metre as you push them. We had to measure the basketball court, the handball court, the dodgeball court and the black asphalt. We had to name the area, then estimate the perimeter and then measure theactual  court and write it down in a table in metres. I thought it was fun measuring outside with the trundle wheels.

Athletics Carnival 2015

The Athletics Carnival was held on Thursday last week at Dunbar park. There was so much anticipation as we lead up to the day. We had the opportunity to do the discus and shotput prior to the day with the help of Sam. During the day we ran in our heats and some of us made it to the recording table where I was stationed throughout the day. There were many lovely 3/4T faces that made it to the recording table where they held tightly onto the coloured plactic marker which let us know their place in their race.

What a lovely day it ended up being after rather a cold start. The canteen was kept busy and I know many students visited the year six icy-pole station to help them with their fundraising efforts by eating as many ice-poles as they could.

We arrived back at school just after the bell looking very tired.