Year Four
Dear Year Four Families,
Students have successfully completed the ‘First 20 Days’ of learning at school for 2024. During this time, students focused on establishing classroom expectations, fostering a positive learning environment, and developing consistent routines.
The first Unit of Inquiry has begun and students will explore the Central Idea 'Who we choose to admire reflects our beliefs and values' under the Transdisciplinary Theme of Who We Are.
Lines of Inquiry into:
• An inquiry into the qualities of individuals we admire.
• An inquiry into our beliefs and values influence our choices.
Key Concepts:
• Connection
• Perspective
Learner Profile Attributes:
• Open-Minded
• Reflective
Reading
In Reading, students have been reading every day to extend their stamina. We encourage students to strive towards being able to read independently for 25-30 minutes by the end of Term 1. Each day and while reading, students utilise a reading log to track their personal reading and goals. During the reading lessons students developed their understanding of non-fiction text features and identified these features within mentor texts. Students also applied multiple reading strategies to make meaning and build understanding of the text they read. Examples of strategies they applied are summarising, visualisation, prediction, clarifying key words, inferring using clues in the text, questioning and connecting to a text through text to text, text to world and text to self connections.
Students participated in our first Unit of Inquiry Provocation which sparked curiosity while encouraging them to discuss and clarify key words.
Writing
In Writing, students have been learning about 'writing leads'. They have explored five different leads to introduce their writing in an engaging way to build a strong introductory paragraph using; dialogue, questions, actions, reflections and onomatopoeia. Students demonstrated much enthusiasm and applied what they learnt to be wonderful writers!
Using the mentor text 'The book that eats people', students worked their way through the writing process beginning with planning stage before progressing towards writing their draft, revising and editing before publishing. They concluded the writing process with a written reflection of their published writing in conjunction with a schoolbox post.
Numeracy
In Numeracy, students have been learning about setting goals, unpacking the four proficiencies in Mathematics along with unfamiliar vocabulary as part of the 'First 20 Days'. Quick math warm up games are utilised at the beginning of a lesson to capture students' attention. Students are currently working on recognising place value in tens of thousands, and accurately reading and writing these numbers. Math manipulatives such as MABs, and counters are used to give students the hands on aspect while they expand and grow the concepts effectively.
Homework:
Homework has started this week and was handed out on Monday (will continue to be handed out fortnightly) and should be handed back to the teacher the following week Wednesday.
Homework is a reflection of their prior learning and access independently as a way of practising skills learnt. Students will be sighted by the teacher.
Reminders
• In Term One, it is required that all students wear their hats during recess and lunch. We kindly remind students to remember to pack their hats each day.
• Please ensure MacBooks are sent to school fully charged each day.
• Water Bottles need to be brought to school each day with fresh water.
• Late arrivals (8:40am onwards) require a late pass from the office.
• If your child is absent, please ensure the reason is entered onto XUNO; if you need support with this please reach out to the office staff or your classroom teacher.
Academic Uniform:
• Worn to school every day besides on days the students have sport
Sports Uniform:
• Worn to school on days your child has PE classes
• Can be worn on a Friday each week (optional)
• House tops to be worn during house events or on a Friday (optional).
Kind Regards,
The Year 4 Team