Years 4 & 6

Literacy

This fortnight we have continued reading "Black Cockatoo" by Carl Merrison, and drafting persuasive letters.

Along with our novel, we read and discuss supplementary texts that help build our background knowledge. This week we read about The Kimberley (where Mrs Bell is having adventures), and we looked at a map of Indigenous Australia. Our novel talks about the main character's connection to culture and country, and how her parents came from different areas where, on their country, there can be different rules and language. The students were amazed at just how many different areas were on the map - and those are just the ones we know about! 

We also talked about the significance of Reconciliation Week and its history, and the importance of recognising the past, learning from it, and moving forward into a better future. 

Numeracy

We have been working on our fluency in Maths by practicing quick recall of basic and addition and subtraction facts and using efficient mental computation strategies to solve simple addition and subtraction problems quickly.

We have also been practising solving larger addition and subtraction problems using the written method.

One challenging concept we have worked on this week has been using the inverse property of addition and subtraction to check answers or solve equations that have a missing number. 

For example, Year 4 have worked on 2 and 3 digit equations:

162 + ____ = 264

Year 6 have been challenged to solve equations like the following:

89673 - _________  - 25607 = 42906

There was actually a little bit of moaning and groaning from Year 6 when I told them they were actually completing algebra - ready for Year 7!