FPS Cyberkids Year 4/5 Classroom Blog 

We love poetry in 45A/L. We have been expressing our thoughts and feelings in senses and cinquain poems.

When writing a senses poem we describe what we are seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting. Here is a senses poem that we wrote together.

A cinquain poem is structured as a short, but factual poem about one subject. The lines are set out like this:

Line 1. Title – one noun.
(This is the subject matter of the cinquain poem.)

Line 2. Description – two adjectives.
(Two things that describe the subject.)

Line 3: Action – three verbs.
(Three words that describe what the subject likes to do.)

Line 4: Feeling – four words.
(A factual line about the subject describing thoughts or feelings.)

Line 5: Title – one noun.
(A synonym for your title.)

In the comments section below we have posted examples of cinquain poems. We hope you enjoy them.

4/5AL are having lots of fun studying poems. Today we explored rhyming couplets.

A rhyming couplet is two lines of poetry that are the same length. They rhyme and complete one thought.

Roald Dahl is a famous writer renown for his use of rhyming couplets in his works, ‘Revolting Rhymes’.

One of our favourite ‘Revolting Rhymes’ is the tale of ‘Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf’. 

Extract from Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf
By Roald Dahl

As soon as Wolf began to feel
That he would like a decent meal,
He went and knocked on Grandma’s door.
When Grandma opened it, she saw
The sharp white teeth, the horrid grin,
And Wolfie said, ‘May I come in?’
Poor Grandmamma was terrified,
‘He’s going to eat me up!’ she cried.
And she was absolutely right.
He ate her up in one big bite. 
But Grandmamma was small and tough,
And Wolfie wailed, ‘That’s not enough!
I haven’t yet begun to feel
That I have had a decent meal!’
He ran around the kitchen yelping,
‘I’ve got to have a second helping!’

Students have posted their own rhyming couplet poems in the comments area below. We hope that they will make you smile.

On 14th October, 2014, Findon Primary School held it’s biggest production yet. The amazing show was called ‘Findon’s Enchanted Journey’. The story followed the main character, Findon (named after our school), who never took life too seriously and believed that life should be fun. He travelled through a portal to a magic library where he was granted four wishes. Findon then found himself featuring as the main character in the stories of ‘Pinocchio‘, ‘Kung Fu Panda’, ‘The Jungle Book’ and ‘Aladdin’.

Along the way he learnt that lies keep growing and growing until they are as plain as the nose on your face, it takes hard work to get what you want, the bare necessities of life will come to you and most of all it is just ok to be yourself. We were left wondering about whether Findon’s enchanted journey was a dream or reality.

For the last 6 months, students had worked hard with Performing Arts Teacher, Nicole Creek, practising their acting, singing and dancing skills.  The student’s dedication really paid off as they presented a well rehearsed and enthusiastic performance.

Volunteers worked tirelessly sewing costumes that looked magnificent and colourful on the night. A team of helpers also created and designed dazzling props. The show flowed seamlessly and went off without a hitch.

A very entertaining evening. Five thumbs up.

Today we had a lot of fun with our student teacher, Asha.  We conducted a science experiment and discussed reversible and irreversible change in liquids, solids and gases.

We used a candle, coloured water, a bottle and a bowl. We secured the candle to the bowl with BluTac. Then we poured the coloured water into the bowl.

Asha told us that she was going to light the candle then cover the candle with the bottle. We made our predictions.

“The candle would go out because there was no air.”

“The candle flame would be larger.”

“The candle would burn faster.”

“The candle would not melt.”

We were very surprised to see the result of the experiment. No one guessed what would happen next.

As soon as we put the bottle on top of the candle the air inside the candle was warmed and it expanded. When the candle went out the air cooled. This created a vacuum as the air contracted. The water from the bowl was pushed up inside the bottle. When we lifted the bottle the water spilled out as the air rushed back into the bottle.

This term 4/5AL students were given the opportunity to develop their understanding of the properties of materials and how these properties determine the ways in which certain materials are used. They explored the ways in which the properties of materials can effect the management of waste and how it may lead to pollution. By using scientific practices students were able to sort, classify and hypothesise when considering the characteristics of different objects and discuss the results of their investigations as they related to their hypothesis.

The unit began with immersive and exploratory activities that focussed on the problems caused through mismanagement of waste products and asks the question ‘how can we better use these materials?’ Students learnt about the properties of materials. They then elaborated on this knowledge by working in collaborative project groups to design, create and test a new product made of recycled materials. 4/5AL students then had the opportunity to share their product ideas with students in other classes in an exhibition held this week.

There was a feeling of magic and enchantment this week as students and teachers at Findon Primary School donned fairy tale costumes to celebrate Literacy and Numeracy Week.

Exciting lunchtime and classroom activities were held each day. Students enjoyed participating in ‘A Pocket Full of Poems’, creating origami and bookmarks, solving tangram and matchstick puzzles, listening to stories, play fitness bingo and writing fractured fairy tales.

The highlight of the week was the Fairy Tale Parade.  Fairy tale characters such as Little Red Riding, The Big Bad Wolf, Cinderella, Belle, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland and Prince Charming were seen prancing around proudly in circle.

Today we had a visit from Market Fresh Australia. We learnt that the fruit and vegetables are grown by farmers in different parts of Australia. The fruit and vegetables are then transported in large trucks, under controlled temperatures, to the fresh food markets across Australia. From there they are bought by local grocery stores who in turn sell them directly to their customers (that’s us).

Market Fresh Australia shared some amazing facts with us (see our comments below) before we got to sampling some of the healthy produce. Yummy!!

This morning in 4/5AL we conducted an experiment to see how far a lolly snake would stretch.

We measured the snakes were before we stretched them. We found the snakes were about 14cm long. We then wrote our hypothesis before beginning our experiment.

The longest snake we made by stretching it out was 45cm

Our hypotheses and conclusions to our experiment are written below.

This term students in 4/5 AL are investigating the different states of matter. We are examining the various properties of material such as metal, paper, wood, plastic, wool, glass, fabric, aluminium and organic materials. We are undertaking an experiment to find out how certain materials, buried in a container of dirt, will change over a period of time.

We have taken a plastic container and filled it with dirt. We got a small piece of paper, a metal bottle cap, an apple core and buried the materials, making sure they were equally spaced out within the container. We watered the dirt and sealed the container with a lid.

We will continue to water the materials in the dirt for 5 weeks. At the end of the 5 weeks we will recover the materials and discover what changes have occurred.

Students have written their hypothesis below.

The annual Findon Fitnessathon was held this week to raise money for sports equipment. The event was run by our very efficient Year 6 House Captains. They set up a number of fitness station on our basketball and netball courts. We moved from station to station until we completed the whole course. It took about 45 minutes. We had a lot of fun and feel a lot fitter and healthier.