Years 4 & 6

Literacy and Numeracy Learning

Literacy

We have started a new novel study - "Black Cockatoo" by Carl Merrison. This book is about a young girl named Mia who rescues a black cockatoo 'dirrarn".  It is about Mia’s connection with her culture and family, personal challenges she faces and developing her inner strength. We will use the novel to expand our vocabulary and write detailed character descriptions. So far we have learnt a lot about how different cultures have different relationships and rules within a family unit, and we have talked about how Mia is feeling when she has lost that connection with her brother

We have also been completing our persuasive letter drafts. Keep an eye out for you may be the recipient of one, and it would be awesome if you replied. 

Numeracy

Developing efficient mental computation strategies for addition continues to be our focus. We have familiarised ourselves with and practised using the jump, partitioning (split) and compensation strategies. We have also applied our addition knowledge to work with numbers and look for patterns. 

For example, if you add three consecutive numbers, what do you notice about the answer? 3+4+5 = 12, 10+11+12 = 33. I am not going to tell you the answer, but you can ask your child. Can they remember? This task was challenging – the students had to show a growth mindset, experiment and discuss a lot of mathematical thinking to solve the question. They then extended this learning further by trying to find out what happens when you add 2 consecutive numbers or 4 consecutive numbers. Does the same rule apply here?

Maths is not just about learning skills. We need to be fluent in those skills and understand when to apply that skill.