Year 4 Spotlight

Lots of Learning

Year 4 has hit the ground running in term three! Students have shared some of their learning below. 

Literacy 

By Nora and Emily, 4B

Grade 4 has been learning about Aboriginal culture and way of life, especially the Nightislanders and the Kaurareg, from the book Strangers on Country.

We have been finding examples of the three main themes in the text – belonging, survival and cultural practices – and recording them in different ways. In one story there was a boy named Anco who got abandoned by his crew and found by the Nightislander people. The Nightislander took him and Sassy (and Indigenous boy) taught Anco their ways of living. 

Grammar & Punctuation

In syntax we’ve been learning about adverbs of manner. Adverbs of manner are words you add '-ly' to at the end like; silently, swiftly and immediately. Some words don’t make sense with -ly... like welly, goodly and fastly.

Spelling

In spelling we have been learning about prefixes and suffixes. You add prefixes to the beginning of a word. For example, ‘pre’ or ‘re’;  preschool, preheat, recycle and rewrite. You add suffixes to the ending of words. For example, ‘ship’; friendship, leadership, partnership and championship. The suffix ‘ship’ means 'to have'. 

Numeracy

By Thea S, Stella FW, Millie G and Maddie U

This term we are learning multiplication and division. We have been practising our times tables in maths. Firstly, we all set ourselves a times table goal to work on. We are all practising our times tables to warm up in maths each day. We like to correct our work and check if we improved our score from the day before.

We have also been learning different multiplication strategies. We have mainly been focusing on the bar model and the vertical strategy. When setting up our equations for the vertical strategy, it is important we use our place value knowledge. 

First we multiplied 2-digit numbers by 1-digit numbers Here is an example:

Here you have to start at the ones place and multiply 3 times 1. Then you write the answer down underneath. After that you move to the tens place and multiply 3 times 2 which equals 6. Then you write 6 underneath in the tens place.  It equals 63! 

Then we moved on to double digits in multiplication which was much harder.

Inquiry

Reported by 4A

In Inquiry we are learning about Indigenous and Torres Strait Peoples and their way of life before European people came to Australia. We have been researching different topics; some of us are doing medicine, others are doing clothing, tools, or food. We are also working on creating artefacts, posters and dioramas based on our topics too. We are excited to see how our projects work out. Here are some pictures of what we have been working on.

Year 4 Teachers (Binh, Prue & Emilia) and Students