23 December 2021
Assalamu Alaikum Parents/Guardians,
We have had a unique start to this term with a lot of uncertainty due to the lockdown resulting from Covid-19. Alhamdulillah, we are very privileged to be residing in South Australia where our students were fortunate to resume school in Term 3 maintaining necessary precautions.
The first week of online learning was a smooth transition into Term 3 for our Year 4A students with majority participating to the best of their capabilities.
Alhamdulillah, we have moved on steadily with hope and determination and have made it almost to the end of Term 3.
Year 4A students have been extraordinarily resilient throughout this journey and persevered despite the many hurdles. May Allah Bless them all. Ameen.
English
We began this term with a focus on Narrative Writing in English where we utilised Seven Steps Program and continued on from Term 2 to strengthen skills in adding details to their writing the concept of Five Senses, Plus One.
Our focus was also on the use of language as well when writing narrative texts and how to refine that during the drafting and publishing process.
Students have also been busy as they continued to read books towards Premier’s Reading Challenge.
They have been diligent in practising their daily spelling words and using them in constructing detailed, meaningful sentences using knowledge and skills from their grammar lessons as well.
In comprehension, we specifically focused on inferring where students had to use prior knowledge and clues given in the text to understand what the author showed in the writing rather than directly telling the reader.
Mathematics
A lot of practice and effort went this term to ensure division and word problems in Maths were learned in various engaging ways.
There were many multiplication and division strategies students learned this term to implement in solving various word problems.
We are continuing to focus on word problems and how various strategies can help us identify clues provided in the mathematical language to solve a given scenario.
Science
In Science, students learnt about contact and on-contact forces, gravitation force, air resistance, friction as well as conduct experiments to understand static electricity and magnetism.
Students had to evaluate and communicate scientific ideas in a logical manner to analyse their results conducted from experiments.
Drama
Our focus on drama this term was the script of Hansel and Gretel where students learned how to use vocal tones, movements and dialogues to act out scenarios from the script.
This enabled them to further establish their skills in teamwork and work as a team to reach and achieve their goals.
Design & Technologies
In Design and Technologies, we have been exploring coding with the Scratch program. I have been loving the enthusiasm by the students as they learn new skills.
Several times students have requested to stay in to continue coding rather than go to lunch. Students have created accounts that can be accessed from home so they can continue their interests after this topic is complete.
HASS
In HASS, we have been learning about Rules, Laws and Local Government.
Students have been exploring rules and laws, and how they affect us. They have investigated the difference between laws and rules and looked at the concepts of equal and equitable, and whether or not equal means fair.
After our extensive studies of First Nations culture, we compared the Australian law system and Indigenous Lore.
Students enjoyed the topic and were especially interested in comparing places they have been that have different laws to that of Australia. We were able to establish from this why rules and laws are good.
Despite the Covid challenges, we were fortunate to participate in the Book Week Parade and Quran Competition at school. This allowed a wonderful opportunity for students to explore their strengths and provided an insight as to how they can work on gaining skills and knowledge to expand their horizon.
– Rumana Mazhar and Katy Javor