Year 4 News

From Ava, Year 4 teacher

Similes, metaphors, hyperbole, personification and more!

Maths 

We have been learning about fractions. We got to play one of our favourite games called Colour Me in Fractions. When you play this game you need to think about equivalent fractions. Equivalent fractions are fractions that have the same value as each other. Some equivalent fractions are 12 and 24. Can you think of any equivalent fractions? 

The winner is the person who has the most shaded. Can you tell who won this game? 

If you are stuck, an excellent strategy for fractions is to draw it out. As we say in 4B, “When in doubt, DRAW IT OUT!” This really helped us when we converted mixed numerals into improper fractions and vice versa. 

Something new we have learned is related fractions. Related fractions are fractions where one denominator is a multiple of another. For example, 

13 and 46 are related fractions because 3 x 2 = 6 so 6 is a multiple of 3! 

Can you think of any related fractions? 

Reading 

We have been enjoying our Book Club meetings. The books we are reading in 4B include: Because of Winn-Dixie, The Tiger Rising both by Kate DiCamillo, The Wishbird by Gabrielle Wang and Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan. One of our focuses during our Book Club meetings is finding great examples of literary devices like similes, metaphors, hyperbole and personification in our books. Here are some examples we have found: 

Simile : similes use like or as to compare two different things. 

 “He wouldn’t be grinning like a proud rooster then.” 

Esperanza Rising p. 55

Metaphor : comparing two different things by using is/was/are 

“Boy’s shadow was a tall young tree.” 

The Wishbird p. 73

Personification : giving human characteristics to non-human things 

“The rain beat a sad rhythm on the roof of the motel.” 

The Tiger Rising p. 26

Hyperbole : exaggerated statements 

“ ‘She liked to plant things. She had a talent for it. She could stick a tire in the ground and grow a car.’” 

Because of Winn-Dixie p. 26

Are you reading any books at the moment? Can you find any examples of similes, metaphors, personification or hyperbole?

Writing 

We have been practicing our typing skills to help us when we complete digital cold writes and other tasks. Ava impressed us with her fast typing. 

We used this writing seed as inspiration for our pieces. What can you see? What does it make you think about? What does it make you wonder? 

We also reviewed interesting sentence leads and added them into our stories when we revised our work. 

Here are some examples of our favourite sentences from our pieces so far: 

“We couldn’t help ourselves from entering, the ominous glow under the door was irresistible, pulling us in like a magnet.” 

“HELP!” yells Shadow… a second later he took his last breath…” 

“As they walked in all they saw were lights pointing to the chandelier in the centre of the room stealing the spotlight.” 

“Immediately, Bella sliced the emperor in half and heard his very last words.”

“The bell rang for the end of school, and the students who were packing their bags ended up pouring out of the doors like a human tsunami through the gates to their parents.” 

“Slowly, Emma picked up one of the old pieces of wood, and then she had an idea.” 

“And by the way, this isn’t just any world. This is the Detective World.” 

“The white walls had gold painted flowers on them, and the ceiling reached as high as a skyscraper.”