Dear Year 4 Parents and Guardians,

We’re now well into Term 3, and it’s wonderful to see how much growth and confidence our students have gained! This term has been a busy and productive one, filled with new challenges, deeper learning, and plenty of opportunities for students to shine both in and out of the classroom. In this edition of our newsletter, you’ll find updates on what we’ve been working on, what’s coming up in the weeks ahead.

Camp

For those who are attending Camp, there will be further updates to come, please keep an eye out for notifications on Compass or in your emails.

Reading

Students have continued to work on their reading skills by reading short passages of text in class. They have been working on building their skills in expression, pace, use of punctuation, and accuracy. Students have been reading aloud to a partner as they learn how to adjust their tone and expression to match the meaning of the text. They are working hard on not sounding like robots when they read! They are also focussing on reading at the right pace, not too fast or slow, to ensure they understand and convey the message clearly. In addition, students are paying close attention to punctuation marks like commas, full stops, and question marks to guide their reading and improve their fluency. This practice is helping them become more confident and accurate readers, while also strengthening their overall comprehension and expression.

Typing

Students have been enthusiastically practising their typing skills in order to improve their speed and accuracy. As the year progresses, we are seeing a steady increase in the students’ typing speed and accuracy which is fantastic! You can practice with your child at home using free typing activities on Typing.com or Monkeytype.

Handwriting

This term our Year 4 students have continued to work on their handwriting skills. Handwriting is an essential life skill, and we have been focusing on improving both legibility and fluency, ensuring that each student feels confident in their writing. Students have been focussing on letter formation to ensure each letter is clearly and accurately written. They practice writing the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet making sure that each letter is formed correctly and is neat and consistent in its formation.

Grammar & Syntax

In Grammar and Syntax, students have been learning how to use ellipses in their writing to represent unfinished thoughts, incomplete dialogue and to add drama and suspense. Students have also been working on using appositives - extra information placed next to a noun- to add detail and make their writing more descriptive. For example, in the sentence

My dog Fred, a fluffy pomeranian, loves to eat chicken.

The appositive (a fluffy pomeranian) adds more detail about Fred.

Writing

Students have successfully completed their work on the adventure tale titled Adventure at Sandy Cove, which follows a finding tale structure where the main character discovers a hidden or special object, with a focus on describing action within the story. Students explored the story orally, learning the actions and internalising the story and key events. Students learned four writing skills (tools) throughout this unit: using similes to create interest, using a variety of sentence lengths to create mood, using dialogue to advance the action forward and use a range of dramatic connectives to support intense action. They then used these writing tools to independently plan and write their own narrative tale. Excitingly, students were also able to publish their final writing pieces using the school laptops where they were able to experiment with fonts and images to enhance their writing.

Knowledge

Over the past three weeks, our Year 4 students have been actively engaged in two exciting units of study in Knowledge.

In the first unit, students explored Australian history, focusing on the arrival of the First Fleet and the impact of European colonisation on Indigenous Australians. They investigated what life was like for Indigenous Australians before and after colonisation and developed a deeper understanding of how these historical events have shaped the lives of Indigenous Australians today.

In the second unit, students were introduced to the fascinating world of life science. They began learning about the structure and function of living things, discovering how plants and animals have specific features that help them survive, grow, feed, and reproduce. In an exciting highlight students undertook a science experiment where they investigated how water flows through celery using dye. In the coming weeks, students will continue this learning by investigating how living things use their senses to interact with their environment and support their survival.

Maths

In Maths, our Year 4 students have been learning about 2D shapes, 3D objects, and area. First, students explored 2D shapes, learning how to identify and describe them by looking at their sides and angles. They explored the idea of composite shapes and how to identify squares and rectangles. Next, we moved on to 3D objects. Students learned the names and features of common 3D shapes such as cylinders, prisms, and pyramids. They investigated how many faces, edges, and corners each shape has and how to draw each one. Most recently, we have been learning about area—the amount of space inside a shape. Students practised finding area by counting square units and using simple multiplication.

Upcoming Events:

Monday 1st September - Curriculum day (Student free day)
Monday 15th – Tuesday 16th September – Year 3/4 Camp

Thank you for your continued support in continuing and strengthening our home and school relationship, which is so vital for students.

Have a well deserved weekend!

Miss Lochhead, Miss Carlesso and Mrs Schache

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