Year 4

Year 4 Natural Disasters Model

By Aliq 4A

My name is Aliq from Year 4A. In the last unit of this school year, Year 4 students created a natural disaster model. My model is about tornadoes. It explains how they are formed, the impact on buildings and people, and how to evacuate it, all in a game called Minecraft. I chose Minecraft to make my model because there are almost infinite possibilities by using Minecraft. I also chose tornadoes because it is one of the disasters that I have learned the most about. For tornadoes to happen, It needs specific conditions including supercells-a type of thunderstorm-, rising air, condensation, moisture, and warm and cool air.

Firstly, condensation releases heat, and rising air uses heat as energy to become stronger. As it reaches the supercell, it can change directions and become faster. Then at the storm’s base, a huge cloud base appears, which will give ‘food’ to the tornado if it has enough moisture. Finally, a vortex forms, creating a tube of spinning air called a mesocyclone. Then, cool air wraps around the tornado creating uneasy temperature differences inside and outside the mesocyclone, which allows the tornado to have more chance of forming. Once the mesocyclone touches the ground, it will officially become a tornado, destroying nearly everything in its path.

Link to the videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmWh9jV_1ac

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1gxCAlfic6cAP-rfjGhVeV0py5HJPu_-J

Natural Disaster Simulation - Stop Disasters Game

By. Milka & Jana 4B

We play the Stop Disasters Games to get deeper understanding on the topics learn in UOI 6.

In this game we learn how to reduce risks and victims of a natural disaster. There are many options of natural disaster that we could choose. Each and every natural disaster had three levels: easy, medium, and hard. Most students in 4B choose to level up once they accomplish one level but some people prefer to try different disasters but in the same levels. We could Google Hangouts with our friend/s to discuss strategies on our class GMeet.

Everyone can play this game. We are learning about natural disasters and this is a great way to learn and have fun to learn to survive in a natural disaster. We learn many things in this game, this is an educational game so it is appropriate for almost everyone.

Since Stop Disaster simulator is an online game you will need WI - FI connection. In 4B after we played it, we shared our experience in our class Gmeet with Ibu Yulia. We are sharing tips, opinions, and recommendations. When we get the tips, opinions, and recommendations from our friends and teacher, we will use it and see if it works or not for our natural disaster scenarios. By doing the discussion, we could reduce the risks and victims. When we played it for the first time we mostly failed but we learned from it and did the advice given by our friends and teacher.

You can play a Stop disaster simulator on an iPad, laptop, and phone. You can also play it in different browsers like safari, chrome, and other browsers. They will all work the same way. The simulator is online so unfortunately we can’t download the simulator but we usually played it using the browser on our gadgets. For us we would prefer using a laptop.

The reason we are playing the simulator is because we are learning about natural disasters and this game teaches us how to save ourselves and others. In the simulator we could build houses and buildings wherever we wanted but not every place is safe. We have to think critically where to put the important buildings. We also have to build defenses to protect the city when a natural disaster strikes but we have limited budgets so we will have to use the money wisely. Not only that, it teaches you where the safe places to go are during disasters. When we played the simulator, we learned a few things: how to survive, where to go and to save the city with a limited budget.

How do we play it?

You will have to choose a natural disaster and its level.
You will get a budget for $50,000 (only level easy), and $35,000 (hard and medium).
Then you will spawn on an island.
Your job is to protect the area by using only your budget.
You could buy houses, upgrade your property and buy defences both in water and on land.
You will have limited time before the disaster could possibly crush the whole area.
When You think you are ready and you still have time you could click the start disaster.
After you did the disaster you will get the report of how many victims you had and if you fail or accomplish the level.
Keep challenging yourself to move to a higher level and try different natural disasters.
Have fun!

Our tips:

Tsunami : buy the local alarm, sign, etc.
Tsunami : buy defences for water (a breakwater), it will cost a little bit, but it’s worth it.
Tornado : try not to put buildings in high places.
Flood : Put a lot of trees near the river.
Flood : buy defences such high walls.
(all disaster) : housed or sheltered everyone before buying defences.
(all disaster) : Make sure to put the hospitals, hotels, and schools in safe places. For

example, put them on high places (tsunami).

Wildfires : get rid of the dry trees and replace it with moist trees
(all disaster) : click the button “show risk” to know if the place is safe or not sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t.

This is the link of where you can play it

https://www.stopdisastersgame.org/stop_disasters/

Here are the photos when we are sharing our strategies:

Article #2 4B Screen-Free Activities

During the online learning response to Coronavirus, our children must be surrounded by computers, smartphones, and televisions. As teachers and parents, we want them to live a balanced life and appreciate the value of healthy and enriching offline activities.

The COVID 19 pandemic has closed many schools throughout the world. Most schools are catering for home learning so children can continue their education. Let's face this difficult time by trying to focus on the positive. Spending time at home allows us to spend quality time with our children, which we might not have had before.

There are lots of ideas about screen-free activities that we can do with our children at home. Staying indoors to stay safe and healthy is a must, but it doesn't have to be boring. Let's show them that it's possible to have fun without involving the screen, and to set limits to keep excessive technology from interfering with healthy development.

In our KONTAK this month, we will see how Year 4 students do fun offline activities during our online learning. Some of us do activities related to our interests, and some of us practice improving our life skills.

4B Screen-Free Activities