We have been learning about what happens inside our brains when we feel both safe and unsafe.

It’s incredible!

We learned that:

• a young person’s brain will produce about 250,000 neurons per minute, however an older person’s brain only produces about 800 per day!
• brain cells need to connect to each other and they do that by feeling safe, but when they feel unsafe they can disconnect from each other.

Our generosity is hard-wired to the reward mechanisms in our brains. When we give our time, energy and kindness to others it not only helps them, it’s also great for our wellbeing too.

When we start to help each other out, when we start to make others feel safe, then we help to connect their brain cells once again… and we also connect our own brain cells at the same time too! SO COOL!

Make a comment about your safety commitment to the other people in the school. Think about the actions you could take to help make those people around you, in your class, year level and school, to feel safer and write them down. It could be a few lines or many lines.

You could start with something simple: “I am going to help the people in my school feel safe by…” and add more ideas to that. Remember, it is SO important to make others feel safe, so that their brains can learn and grow… and it’s easier if we all do it together!

 

Learning our times tables is vital for mathematical success.

This helps us to work out answers in many areas of mathematics from fractions to area and even calculating the scores on the footy! When you are confident with your times tables, your confidence and mindset towards mathematics will soar.

Here are some ways that our Year 4s are still practising their times tables whilst online. The more we practise the stronger the connections (neural pathways) in our brain, meaning that it is easier and faster to recall them. When you don’t have to spend your time working out number facts, it frees up your brain to focus on problem solving and learning many new things.

What is a strategy that you use to increase your efficiency in learning your times tables?

 

Hi everyone,

With online learning started, we have revised our agreement and added dot points that we think are important. Check it out!

It’s great that the class decided we should keep our original rules and just add to them. Great job 4D!

As we continue our Online Learning and Teaching we believe it is important to revisit our Class Agreement that we established in Term 1. 

 Learning from home will be different to learning at school, so are the expectations the same?

You have each been assigned a statement in our agreement to comment on. 

Please think about the following when writing your comment:

• Does the statement still apply to our new learning environment?

• Does it need to be adjusted or completely changed? If so, what would you suggest we could change or include in the statement to reflect Online Learning and Teaching.

Please leave a comment below with your feedback regarding our Class Agreement.

Statement 1: Chloe, Max, Fergus, Ellaina, Oscar

Statement 2: Grace, Ben, Kabeer, Mila, Wilson

Statement 3: Olive, Noah, Casey, Katya, Mia

Statement 4: Isola, Sadie, Tahlia, Tiger, Joanna

Statement 5: Charlie, Zane, Will, Cassie

 

Hi 4D,

Well, it seems that even these holidays, when we are encouraged to stay at home, have flown by and we are nearly at Easter.

It’s time for some family holiday fun to tide you over the Easter break when you are staying at home. Here are some simple suggestions of dinner table games you can play with your family. I hope you have fun and see you next week…

Salad Bowl Game

Before dinner each family member writes down the names of five people they admire, on five separate pieces of paper. These people can be fictional characters, historical figures, people you know personally, or people you have never met. Mix up all the pieces of paper in a bowl and place this bowl on the table during dinner. Each family member takes a turn drawing a name from the bowl and describes this person to the rest of the family. The only rule is that the “describer” can not say the person’s name or any part of the name. Once the person is identified, try to guess who put this name in the bowl, and then talk about why the person plucked from the salad bowl is admirable.

Book Babble

Book babble will get you and yours babbling about books over some delicious dessert (say that ten times fast).

So, you eat dinner. Then everyone cleans up together. And then, instead of turning on the TV or the video games, you read. Depending on the age of your kids you can read together, or everyone can read a book of their choice separately, for about 15 minutes. Lastly, you gather back at the table for Blondie cupcakes or berry crumble or some other inspired dessert, and talk about what you’ve read. Some questions might include:

• Do you like what you’re reading?
• What do you and the main character have in common?
• What do you wish you could ask the author about the book you are reading?
• Consider the world of the book—is it a place you would want to live or visit? Why?
• Would you want to be a character from this or another book? Which one?
• If you were to write a book, what would it be about?

Fictionary

This game is great if you have a dictionary handy (or a smart phone). The “Picker” chooses an obscure or strange word from the dictionary and announces (and spells) it to the table. Make sure no one at the table knows the word! Then every player writes down a made up definition for the word, initials it, and hands it to the Picker. The Picker writes down the real definition to the word and puts it in the pile as well. The Picker reads all the definitions aloud and everyone votes for the phrase they believe is the correct definition. The person who wrote the definition that gets the most votes gets a point. If no one guesses the correct definition, the Picker also gets a point.

Where in the World?

Imagine everyone at the table has the gift of teleportation, but it only lasts for 24 hours. Where in the world would you go? Would you bring anyone with you? How long would you stay? What would you do there?

Story Starters

Write several words on slips of paper and put them in a box. Have each person at the table choose a word from the box. These words are now your “Story Starters”- Everyone at the table has to help make up a story using all the words that were chosen!

Which One?

Whoever is asking the questions thinks of two people (e.g. Nana and Nonna; Mum and Dad) and asks the rest of the table questions to which only one of the two people is the right answer. (Which one got married when she was 19? Which one met her husband on a cruise? Which one has 5 brothers and sisters?)

Playing this game is a great opportunity to learn a little about your family history and people’s friends, something research has found to positively influence children’s mental health.

One Minute Questions:

The goal of this game is to answer as many simple “or” questions in two minutes as possible. It can be a fun way to learn little things about each other that you might not have known!

One person starts as the “interviewer,” and chooses someone else to answer questions. (It can be helpful to have a list of questions at the ready, but some families find it more fun when the interviewer is challenged to come up with the questions on the spot.) They set a timer, and begin asking questions and getting answers as quickly as possible. A third person at the table, if possible, keeps track of how many answers are given before the timer goes off!

A list of possible questions to get you started:

• Dogs or cats?
• Sneakers or sandals?
• Coffee or tea?
• Juice or milk?
• Chocolate or vanilla?
• Earth or space?
• Summer or winter?
• Movies or TV?
• Listen or speak?
• Read or hear?
• Watch or do?
• Football or baseball?
• Plays or musicals?
• Inside or outside?
• Art museum or science museum?
• Draw or write?
• Run or walk?
• Paris or London?
• New York or L.A.?
• Vacation or staycation?
• Socks or no socks?
• Zoo or aquarium?
• Car or truck?
• Plane or train?
• Beach or mountains?

20 Things I Love About

Come up with a topic together – or put some ideas in a jar and pull out one randomly. Examples include a season or a person or place, or anything really! Then go around the table and have everyone name something silly or serious they love about that season or person or place until you have twenty items. Make sure to write everything down so you can have fun looking at it a month, a year, or 20 years from now!

Can you believe it? End of Term 1 already. This means one thing!

HOLIDAYS!

To keep our families and communities safe, we need to stay home as much as possible. To keep our bodies and minds healthy and strong, it is important that we don’t spend ALL that time plugged in to screens.

Let’s put our creative thinking caps on and come up with as many ideas as we can for how we can keep ourselves engaged and motivated during the break time.

Maybe lucky dip from this grid:

Or get your pets involved:

Or go Lego CRAZY:

Or learn how to re-grow vegetables from leftovers.

Or conduct some simple science experiments

Leave a comment below for ideas that you have that we can do at home, over the break.

Be safe, be kind and always, Be Your Best!

I hope you have all enjoyed sharing the reading of Fish in a Tree.

There are a lot of great messages in this book and the author even left a message for her readers’ at the end.

“We all have our special talents, and areas where we need to work harder. Honestly, I’ve learned so much more from – and have been ultimately successful because of – my failures. Things will not always be easy; sometimes we do fail. But it isn’t failing that makes you a failure. It’s staying down that does. The ability to stand up, brush yourself off, and try again is a huge strength. It’s something that will take you very far in life. Very far indeed.”

Can you think of a time when you found something challenging; when you had to try and try again? How did you feel before? During? After? Share your courage, resilience and perseverance in the comments section below.

Rulers, clocks, measuring tapes, thermometers, scales, stopwatches, protractors, measuring jugs, are just to name a few!

What do they all have in common? We use them to measure on an everyday basis!

Over the coming weeks in maths we will be tuning in to the different types of measurement and their purpose. Leave a comment below explaining 2 examples in real life where knowledge of measurement is used and the tools used to measure.

BONUS CHALLENGE:

• Can you find 3 items that are longer than your eraser but shorter than your pencil?

• Find something or someone that is the same length as your height.

• Draw 5 shapes that have a perimeters of 12cm

• Find 3 objects that cover a greater area than your eraser but smaller than your workbook.

POSTING

When we post on our blogs, we all agree to make sure our posts follow the guidelines we have created below.

• We start with a catchy title.
• We use interesting vocabulary.
• We provide interesting information to keep our readers engaged such as detail and explanations that include pictures, videos and links.
• We use full sentences with correct punctuation, spelling & grammar.
• We organise our posts into paragraphs so it’s easy to understand.
• We stay on topic – all of what we write, matches our blog title.
• We only use our first name.
• We ask open ended questions (fat questions) to initiate a conversation.

COMMENTING

• Start with a greeting
• Give a positive comment on the post
• Make a connection with the blogger
• Answer the question in the post
• Include some relevant detail that links you to the comment
• Provide some tactful tips
• Ask a question to keep the conversation going
• Finish with a closing
• Check for spelling and grammar before submitting
• Make sure it’s not too long.

Our landscape is always changing by both natural and human impacts. These can be both positive and negative.

On Monday, Alex from Hands-On Science came to help us to broaden our understanding. 4D participated in a range of experiments to experience natural processes such as weathering and erosion and to understand how landforms around us were created and are changing. 

Read the comments on this post for 4D’s insights and curiosities from the session.

4D, leave a comment with something interesting that you learned from our session and a question that it has prompted you to wonder about.