Year 4 Term 3 Newsletter

Teaching Team

4A - Sarah Lazzaro (PLC Leader)

4B - Robyn Apostolopoulos and Rebecca Robinson

Welcome to Term 3

We hope everyone had a restful break over the holidays and enjoyed spending time with friends and family. Once again, we are delighted with how smoothly the children have transitioned back to school and embraced a positive attitude towards their learning.

We have a wonderful term ahead, with many special events to look forward to, including our school disco, an excursion to Cheltenham Secondary College to watch their school production, Book Week, Athletics Day and, of course, our much-anticipated Year 4 camp.

We are looking forward to the opportunities the term will bring and to continuing to support, encourage and connect with your children as they learn and grow.

 Specialist Timetable

Important Dates

31/07: Silent Disco

05/08: Excursion to Cheltenham Secondary for "We will Rock you"

07/08: Principal's Day

10/08 - 12/08: Year 4 Camp

17/08: House Athletics Carnival

18/08: Special Food Day

24/08 - 28/08: Book Week

25/08: Book Week Parade 

14/09: District Athletics

18/09: Last Day of Term 3 - 2:30pm finish

Electronic Rolls

Our electronic rolls are legal documents; therefore, we must be accountable for any absences. If you haven't logged the absence ahead of time, please assist with this and inform the school by replying to the text message sent by Compass in the event of your child being away.

Teaching and Learning

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-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, continuing to focus on the join changes during suffixing and 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 activities and develop their confidence in expressing ideas and opinions during whole-class discussions and small-group settings. There will be a particular focus on listening attentively to others, recognising different perspectives, and responding thoughtfully to the ideas and opinions of their peers. Students will also develop their presentation skills, learning to adapt their language and speaking style to suit different contexts and audiences.

Mathematics

In Maths, we have started the term with a unit on angles, then a two-week unit on multiplication and division. Following this, we will work with fractions, location and decimals.  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. Fortnightly 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 in a similar way to Semester One. Classroom teachers will continue to support families with reviewing work upon 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 fortnight, 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. Students can find instructions for these games inside their Google Classroom accounts.

   

• Challenge. Students thrive with challenge, but struggle with failure. They only learn

  to manage adversity by surviving failure. Give them opportunities to fail safely. Eg, cook dinner (almost) on their own, make the shopping list for the week, plan and coordinate an outing with a friend.

Communication

Parents and carers are welcome to contact classroom teachers via email through Compass or by messaging us through Class Dojo. At this stage, teachers will continue to use Class Dojo to share learning updates and highlights from the classroom.

Teachers will endeavour to respond to messages promptly; however, please understand that during the school day, our focus is on teaching and supporting students, and we are often unable to check messages until after 3:30pm.

If you have an important or time-sensitive message that needs to be passed on to your child, please contact the school office directly. This may include advising us that your child will be collected early or will be going home with another family member. The office will ensure the message is passed on to your child’s classroom teacher.

As always, parents and carers are also welcome to pop into the classroom before or after school if you have any questions or concerns.

Compass: Compass is the formal tool for communication regarding attendance, payments, excursions, camps, permission forms, school reports, etc.

Please use Compass 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 will require an Early Leaver's Pass, provided by the office staff, before we are able to dismiss students. 

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