Year 4 News

Welcome to Grade 4 2021!

We have had a great start to our year launching into the swimming program. The teachers and students have enjoyed the daily walk to swimming with the chance to socialise with their peers and get to know each other. We are proud of the way the children have prepared and conducted themselves and looking forward to being well-prepared for our house swimming carnival next Wednesday 17 February. Big thanks to Mrs Hall for organising the program. 

We have launched our first Unit of Inquiry with the Central Idea being, “All children have rights regardless of who they are”.  Students are learning about the United Nations convention on the rights of a child. We have had class conversations about children less fortunate in other countries, and we have understood how this convention is needed to make things fair globally. 

We have also discussed responsibilities, so although children know it’s their right to have a bed, they are learning about their responsibility to make it each day – we hope you hear all about not just their rights, but hopefully their responsibilities at home too! 

We have launched some Daily Five elements in our Literacy blocks. We have talked about “Good Fit Books” where we likened it to choosing the right pair of shoes for the right purpose!

Maddie found Mr Farmer’s footy boot all the wrong fit for her! Children know that there are three ways to read a book and they are working on their “Reading to Self” stamina. 

We have also launched Café strategies that aid us in Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding our Vocabulary. Children know to “Check for Understanding” when reading by asking “Who and What?” at the end of each page and when reading for accuracy, they are learning to “Cross check, double check” by asking themselves when attacking a word, “Does it look right, does it sound right, does it make sense?”

In Writing we are working on our Student Agency Team speeches-SAT (formally JSC and Student Voice). One representative from each class will be selected. Children are persuading us to why they should be selected or writing about what they would like from their representative. Students running for the SAT will present their speeches to the Year 4 cohort next week.

In Maths children are busy showing us what they know. We are using Essential Assessment to pre-test children’s knowledge on each strand, Number and Algebra, Chance and Data and Measurement and Geometry.