Curriculum News
English
Reading and Viewing
This term we will continue with our weekly reading focus. In reading groups, the students will use Fountas and Pinnell levelled texts working on different comprehension strategies. We will also be reading texts, in particular information texts that compliment our Inquiry focus ‘Day and Night.’ We will be working through whole class oral and written responses and grouped activities as part of literacy.
Speaking and Listening
The students will be given opportunities to listen and contribute to conversations and discussions and to share information and ideas. In collaborative groups, students will also plan and deliver short presentations on given topics. Students will be required to be active listeners and respectful speakers when working in small groups. Feedback will be built into the process as learners.
Writing
The major focus of our Writing in the first part of the term will be writing to inform and will be explored through various information texts. To support the features of explanations we shall be modelling creating correct structure and language features such as technical vocabulary, chronological order, headings, annotated diagrams etc. The students will investigate and create a text to explain, the movement of the Earth that results in the day and night cycle, the seasonal cycle, the cycle of the moon or the movement of the sun across the sky.
Mathematics
As part of our Multiplication and Division unit, we will focus on identifying factors and multiples of numbers and using mental strategies. The students will work on simple one step problems and the processes required and some will move onto two step problem solving. The children will be encouraged to check their calculations through the use of inverse operations of multiplication and division.
Our Fractions and Decimals unit will focus on identifying equivalent fractions, ordering fractions on a numberline and identifying fractional parts of a whole.
Students will also look at different types of fractions with a focus on adding related common denominators. The students will also be re-introduced to decimal fractions in tenths and hundredths and the interrelationship between both fractions and decimal fractions.
As part of our Measurement unit, students will investigate and record the area of regular and irregular shapes. They will solve problems using days, hours, minutes and seconds to measure the duration of events including time elapsed. Students will locate landmarks, create and interpret grids using directions to describe positions.
In our Chance and Probability unit students will look at the randomness of events happening using the vocabulary of chance and probability.
Inquiry
Earth and Space: ‘Blame it on the Sunshine and the Moonlight’
In this Unit, students will develop an understanding of the difference between day and night. They will develop their understanding on how the Earth's rotation on its axis causes regular changes, including night and day and seasonal cycles.
Learning Unit Vocabulary:
orbit, earth, sun, moon, phases, dawn dusk sunset sunrise waxing crescent, new moon, full moon, waning crescent, quarter, waxing gibbous, waning gibbous, rotation, revolution, axis, tilt, system cycles
Changing Landscapes
In this unit the students will investigate how the Earth’s surface changes over time as a result of natural processes and human activity.
Learning Unit Words:
erosion, run off, deforestation, change, rain, wind, flooding, logging, land clearing, landscapes, natural process, weathering