Year 4 Term 3 Newsletter

Meet The Teaching Team

4A - Emma Cecil and Lauren Harris

4B - Robyn Apostolopoulos and Rebecca Robinson

4C - Sarah Lazzaro (PLC Leader)

Welcome to Term 3

Greetings from the Year 4 teaching team!

We hope everyone had a restful break over the holidays and enjoyed spending time with friends and family. We are delighted with how the children have smoothly transitioned back to school and embraced a positive attitude. As always, we have an exciting term ahead, packed with various challenging and engaging learning activities and events. We are excited about the opportunities ahead and look forward to continuing to support and connect with your children throughout the term.

 Specialist Timetable

Important Dates

05/08: Year 3-6 Athletics Day- Mentone Athletics Track

08/08: Casual Dress Day

08/08: School Disco 5:00pm-6:15pm

18/08-22/08: Book Week

19/08: Book Character Parade

19/08: Special Food Day

20/08: Grandparents and Special Friend's Day

22/08: NGV Excursion

27/08: Curriculum Day

10/09: Year 3 and 4 Music Concert 

18/09: Special Food Day

19/09: Last Day of Term 3 - 2.30pm finish

Electronic Rolls

Our electronic rolls are legal documents therefore, we must be accountable for any absences. Please assist with this and inform the school by replying to the text message sent by Sentral in the event of your child being away.

Teaching and Learning

Reading and Viewing 

This term, we will finish our class novel Kensuke's Kingdom and begin a new novel. Students will continue to develop their ability to use reading strategies through a range of activities, such as finding word meaning in context and building their prior knowledge. 

They will take part in activities to improve their comprehension, including: 

• Self-monitoring

• Summarising

• Making Inferences

Students will work on their reading fluency through a range of activities, including reading two-person plays, which they will present to their class, as well as single-passage reads. They will continue to read one one-on-one with their teacher to build on their reading strategies. Individual goals will be discussed, and students will practise these goals during independent reading time.

Writing

In Term 3, students will have many opportunities to build their skills in writing. 

They will:

• Practise their narrative writing through weekly writing prompts: students will be encouraged to use the grammatical features they are learning about, such as dependent and independent clauses, as well as choosing precise vocabulary to enrich their writing. 

• Continue their work on persuasive text types: students will use a checklist to ensure their paragraphs include all the elements necessary in persuasive writing, such as strong language, persuasive devices and supporting details. 

• Write an Information Report in connection with our Humanities topic: students will build their research skills whilst learning about British colonisation, and develop their understanding of the structures and language features.

   

  Throughout every genre, students will continue developing their skills in planning, composing, revising, editing, and publishing their writing. They will have opportunities to type their stories straight onto Google Docs and write stories in their workbooks. 

   

  As part of our study of English Orthography, students will further investigate how the written word works, focusing particularly on homophones. 

Speaking and Listening

This term, students will focus on developing essential speaking and listening skills. Activities will help them practise sharing their thoughts and ideas clearly and listening for key information to enhance their understanding.

Students will engage in active listening exercises and work on expressing their ideas and opinions in both whole-class discussions and small group settings. They will also learn to make presentations, varying their language and style according to the context and audience. 

Mathematics

In Maths, we have started the term with a two-week unit on multiplication and division. Following this unit, we will work with angles, fractions and location.  Our Maths lessons include:

• Daily Reviews where we revisit concepts previously taught.

• 'I Do' where the teacher teaches concepts and models to the students.

• 'We Do' where the students work on individual whiteboards to follow worked examples provided by the teacher.

• Frequent 'Checks for Understanding' to guide teacher support for individual students.

• 'You Do' where the teacher supports students as they work through maths problems independently.

Formative assessments and student work samples will be a regular tool to guide teaching. Outside of the classroom, students are encouraged to continue using Mathletics and the maths games set for homework to support their understanding of classroom content and to develop speed and accuracy when working with numbers.

Humanities

Our Humanities inquiry focus question this term is, "How did early British colonisation change life in Australia?" Students will embark on a journey back in time to explore the early stages of colonisation in Australia. They will investigate the reasons for colonisation in Australia, the journey of the First Fleet and describe the causes and consequences of early colonisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, new arrivals and the environment. Students will research the experiences and perspectives of individuals and groups involved in the establishment of the first British colony. They will examine multiple perspectives and consider how colonisation has shaped the world we live in today. This unit encourages students to think critically and empathetically about Australia’s past.

Wellbeing

CEPS VALUES

COURTESY    RESPECT    CO-OPERATION    RESPONSIBILITY 

This term, the value our school is focusing on is CO-OPERATION. Opportunities will be provided for students to explore various skills through age-appropriate activities. Friday afternoon assembly awards will be given to children leading by example. Parents of award recipients will be notified by the classroom teacher via Dojo prior to Friday’s assembly.

Supporting Learning from Home

Homework

This term, homework tasks will continue for all students very similar to Semester one. Classroom teachers will continue to support families with reviewing work on request, answering questions, and providing targeted support to students as needed. As per our school policy, homework tasks should be limited to 90 minutes per week. 

Weekly homework tasks should include:

• Mathletics - Teachers do not have specific tasks set so students have access to the full range of activities within Mathletics. Students are encouraged to choose tasks that support their understanding of topics covered in the classroom, in addition to building number fact fluency and revising any areas of difficulty. If your child has difficulty with a particular problem, they are encouraged to speak to their teacher for help.

   

• Reading - Students are encouraged to source their own reading material which should be a range of both fiction and non-fiction. They are encouraged to engage in a combination of reading experiences that include being read to, reading aloud to a parent and reading to themselves. All students would greatly benefit from being asked comprehension questions about what they have read and comparing different reading material. All students should aim to read for a minimum of 15 minutes at least four nights during the week. Your child is encouraged to reach out to their teacher if they require support with accessing reading material.

   

• Maths Games - Each week, in Mathematics, the students will learn a maths game and are encouraged to play this at home as part of their homework. These games will provide students with the opportunity to build fluency with number facts and reinforce concepts taught in the classroom. This week, your child will bring home a Matific password for them to familiarise themselves with the Matific platform then their week 4 homework will involve competing in our CEPS Olympiad. Please see Class Dojo for more information on Matific.

Communication

Classroom Dojo : Whilst we endeavour to get back to you in a timely manner, please understand that we are often unable to check these messages until after 3:30pm. If you need an important message to be passed onto your child, we ask that you communicate this via the office.  

Sentral: Sentral is the formal tool for communication regarding attendance, payments, excursions, camps, permission forms, school reports, etc…!

Please use Sentral to advise the school in a timely manner of all student absences.

Early Pick Up: If you need to pick up your child early, please collect them from the office area and be sure to sign them out. 

You can also keep up-to-date by using the school website and weekly newsletters:  http://www.cheltenhameast.vic.edu.au