Religion
Last term, Year 4 was tasked with presenting a dramatic representation of the week leading up to the death of Jesus and his resurrection. The liturgical drama came together brilliantly and our Year 4 students put on a fantastic show, capturing the emotion and how harrowing it must have been for Jesus as well as the confusion and sadness felt by the apostles and people closest to Jesus. This term, we learned about the life of Pope Francis and were very surprised with some of the facts we learned. Pope Francis had a lung removed at a young age, was once a bouncer at a venue in Buenos Aires and rejected materialism his whole adult life - much like his namesake St Francis of Assisi. We learned that if a humble young man can live such an incredible life and end up being one of the most influential people in the world - then we too can make a difference.

English
We have started our new class novel “Kensuke’s Kingdom” by the wonderful author Michael Morpurgo. The novel is based very loosely on some of Morpurgo’s life experiences. This term we have also introduced daily paired reading fluency practice. It has been received brilliantly by Year 4 who read aloud from a different passage each week to a “reading buddy” who follows along and gives constructive feedback at the end. We will plot our progress over the course of the term on a graph so we can see how far we have come. Last term we started the Mayor’s writing competition and we will continue to improve our stories over the next few weeks as we learn about, and implement, specific sentence and text level writing rules.

Maths
So far this term has been all about fast paced daily reviews and learning how to represent different 3D shapes by both sketching them freehand and by also using isometric paper. Students have been using their prior knowledge to draw the shapes and imagine what they could represent in real life. For example a cylinder could represent a drink bottle, a mug or even a toilet roll! Cones could be used for traffic management, delicious ice creams or even to represent the beam of light coming from a torch!

History
Following on from our Journey and Exploration unit in Term 1, we are now learning about the first fleet and the initial struggles by the Europeans to settle in Australia. So far we have had an in depth look at the reasons why the British Empire were so desperate to expand the colony and we have studied what life would have been like living in England during the industrial revolution of 250 years ago. Life for the average person would have been very difficult with many workers being made redundant by new machinery and being forced into a life of poverty, starvation and eventually, crime.

Science
The topic of focus for Term 2 is the ever-fascinating world of chemistry. We have discussed how the study of chemistry differs greatly from the idea of “chemicals’. Chemistry is the study of what everything in the universe is made up of. So far we have learned that everything in the universe is made up of tiny particles called atoms and that they arrange themselves in different patterns to form elements, molecules, compounds, material and objects. We spent the afternoon having fun with play dough, constructing different atoms including Hydrogen and Helium. The reason these two are so important is that Hydrogen and Helium are the most abundant and also the first two elements formed when the universe came into existence.

PDHPE
With the St Mary’s Athletics carnival just on the horizon, Mr Hill has begun to put our Year 4’s athletic skills to the test. This week we have been focusing on the marquis event - the 100m sprint. We have practiced starting and sprinting techniques as well as the most important - how to stay in a straight line for 100m! Over the coming weeks we will build on our knowledge of the techniques required in field events and compete and record to see who will make it to the next level at Southern Region. Mr Hill’s run club is also paying off for many of our year 4 students with some outstanding performances late last term and ten students representing St Mary’s at Wolumla this week.

Visual Arts
Our talented Year 4 students have been exploring the vibrant world of contemporary artist Pete Cromer. Known for his bold use of colour and playful animal designs, Cromer inspired students to create their own unique animal collages with an Easter theme. Using layers of textured paper and a burst of imagination, each child brought their chosen creature, either a bunny or a chicken to life with flair and creativity. The finished artworks are now on display, brightening up our classroom with a wonderful mix of colour, personality, and artistic expression. Well done, Year 4!