The Year 3/4 class at the St Peters Campus has started the term well with all of our students coming back refreshed from the three-week winter break. This term our unit of inquiry is ‘How We Express Ourselves’, and we have focused on the different ways that we communicate in our society, both now and in the past. Mrs Molloy has been working with the class and one of the key things we have focused on is how to research and the importance of looking at key words in texts.
A significant part of the unit is studying the history of communication. The students have really enjoyed looking at the ways communication has changed over time. A cassette was used as a provocation. The students tried guessing its function, but the majority of them had never seen a cassette and had no idea what it was used for. One student had seen one and thought it was an old kind of building block kids used in the olden days to make robots. Other guesses were an old iPod, a specialist tool to fix something, and a guitar tuner.
The students have really embraced learning about the history of communication and they particularly enjoyed learning about how we communicate around the world using satellites in space. This topic has also given the students an insight into their own practices of communicating with others. Over the next few weeks we will be looking at cyber bullying and cyber safety in today’s world.
During our Mathematics lessons this term we are looking at measurement. The students are currently designing activities that will be made into cards for their peers to follow. Students have come up with challenging, open-ended questions designed to help them gain a better understanding of varying types of measurement. Topic such as converting mm to cm, cm to m, m to km, time and measuring temperature are some of the activities that students have designed. Once finished and made into cards, these activities will be completed around our St Peters Campus and then some peer feedback will be given to each group.
Darrin Warren
Year 3/4 Teacher - St Peters Campus
