Apollo

Reading 

In Reading, students have been building important comprehension and language skills. They learned how to make predictions about what might happen in a story using clues from the text and pictures. Students enjoyed sharing their ideas during group discussions and explaining how their predictions changed as they read further into the text. They practised clapping and counting syllables in words, identifying direct and indirect speech, and exploring the features of different stories such as the characters, setting, problem, and solution. Students also made connections between different stories by finding similar ideas, lessons, and relationships between characters. They also worked collaboratively to identify how authors use language to create meaning and emotion in their stories. These activities helped students become more confident readers and deeper thinkers.

Writing 

In Writing, students focused on strengthening both their narrative and persuasive writing skills. Each week, they planned, wrote, and edited a narrative using a picture prompt to consolidate their understanding of story structure and language features. They developed creative characters, built engaging settings, and included clear problems and resolutions to create stories with a strong beginning, middle, and ending. Students also explored persuasive speeches, learning how to use powerful verbs, strong modality, and high-value adjectives and adverbs to convince their audience. They expanded their vocabulary by exploring synonyms and antonyms and published their persuasive pieces using pictures, videos, and other digital tools to make their messages more engaging. Finally, students practised presenting their persuasive speeches with confidence—using pace, volume, and expression to strengthen their delivery and connect with their audience.

Maths 

Over the last few weeks in grade 4 the students have been re-familiarising themselves with all things place value, and have been showing off their amazing knowledge when presenting their own ‘place value projects’ in poster form. Moving into the next few weeks the students will strengthen their understanding of Fractions, Decimals and Percentages as well as participate in further ‘real world’ maths through their origami frog project, where they will pose a research question, collect data on the question and analyse the data. It has been so amazing to see the kids put their learning into action the last few weeks, and we can’t wait to see what the next few weeks in numeracy bring!

Inquiry

The year 4 students have been working hard on immersing themselves in our inquiry topic over the last few weeks. They have explored concepts such as what a community is, what a local council is, different levels of government in Australia, what it means to belong to a community, the difference between rules and laws, and the different roles people play in our communities. We are excited to see the students' further immersion this week when they participate in our ‘Democracy, Community and Me’ incursion, where they will even get to participate in a mock election!

SEL

Over the past few weeks in the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships lesson (RRRR) the students have been exploring issues around violence and ‘gender-based violence’, and what to do if they are faced with certain violent situations they may find themselves in or witness. In the next few weeks, the students will move into ways to seek help or support others in seeking help in violent situations. 

Lately in The Resilience Project (TRP) sessions, the students have been continuing to explore and upskill themselves in different ways to practise mindfulness, including how to be mindfull outdoors. Moving into the next few weeks the students will explore further areas within he gratuity component of the ‘GEM’ model.