PLT Spotlight

Year 4

Can you believe we are nearly at the end of another term!  What a term it has been.  We are still settling into our new learning space and feel so lucky to have the opportunity to be in our modern classrooms. 

This term, Year 4 have continued working on developing comprehension skills when reading unknown texts.  We have also been looking at Author’s Purpose, what the message the author was telling us is, and whether it was written for persuasion, information or purely entertainment.

In Reading, we have combined our Inquiry topic with learning various reading strategies. We have used these sessions to learn about our Indigenous Australians as well as the continents of Africa and South America, reading about how nature, culture and history affects the way different people think about their world.

In Writing, our focus has been on writing narratives.  We looked at folktales and fairy tales to compare history with current times and texts.  Narratives require an orientation which introduces the setting and characters.  Next we include a problem, which has a climax in action and events.  The resolution is the solution to the problem. 

Paragraphing is also an area we have been focusing on.  The inclusion of higher-level vocabulary to gain the reader’s interest has been included when we are revising our written work.  The last step in writing narratives is the presentation and we have been looking at various ways we can showcase our writing pieces, whether digitally or handwritten.

In Maths, Number is always a strong focus.  We have continued working with place value and extended this knowledge in order to work with the different processes of addition, subtraction and multiplication.  Problem-solving is an area we visit weekly.  Solving mathematical problems is continually about discovering the best way to find an answer and whether this answer is feasible. 

We have been looking at length and volume and using the correct formal units when investigating Measurement.  Symmetry is another area we have been exploring.  We have found many items in nature that have symmetry elements. 

We would like to thank Mrs Bevis for arranging our Train Like A Vixen excursion.  Our first bus ride for the year and it was great fun to see a professional sporting venue and learn how athletes train and look after their bodies.  All our aspiring sports competitors have an idea now of what it takes to become good at their chosen field.  What a fantastic complex.

What a day!!!  We had so much fun and some of us learned how unfit we really are.

Foundation

In Reading this Semester we have continued to learn letters of the alphabet.  This week we have been learning the letters Z and J.  We have also been developing our comprehension of texts by learning how to sequence the main events in order.  Students have continued practising reading. In Writing, students have many opportunities to practise spelling words, forming letters and writing full sentences.  Each Monday students reflect on their weekend and write a recount about what they did.  The handwriting focus will match what letters students learned in Reading, so for instance, students will practise writing the letters Z and J this week.  Students have also continued practising how to sound out words and record the sounds they can hear.  

In Maths, students have recently finished their unit on Addition where they were taught different strategies on how to solve simple problems such as using their fingers, drawing pictures, counting all and counting on from the biggest number.  Students were also introduced to relevant vocabulary such as “plus, all together, combine and add.”  We are now learning about money and positional language such as “between, under, over, next to, left and right.” 

In Inquiry, we have been learning about places, how to look after places and how people are connected to different places.  This week we have been looking into what places Indigenous Australians feel most connected to.  

In Stem, the students have had the opportunity to explore different materials and their uses.   They have thoroughly enjoyed using different materials and problem-solving strategies to build the Three Little Pigs house, where they need to ensure it was strong enough to withstand the Big Bad Wolf.

We look forward to continuing with their learning in Term 3

Foundation Team