Grade 4 Community News

Wow! It’s hard to believe that we are now in Week 6 with only 3 more weeks before Term 1 holidays. 

4J - Mr. Hanlan 

Hi parents and carers! My name is Trevor Hanlan and I have been teaching for the last 23 years in total, with 2 years being spent here at Tarneit Rise Primary School.  I am originally from Canada and enjoying my teaching time here in Australia. In my spare time, my partner and I enjoy going to the movies, mall walking, travelling and enjoying life as best we can. I am very excited to be teaching Grade 4 again, as there are so many rich and engaging topics for the children to learn. 

READING

We have had a strong start to Vocabulary this term, with our words being taken from our new serial text ‘Birrung the Secret Friend’ by Jackie French. In our Read 2 Learn unit, students have been learning about Captain Cook. We have looked at the early life of James Cook and how he became a successful lieutenant with the Royal Navy, his many achievements and how his expedition to Australia changed the course of history. In the coming weeks, we will dive further into The First Fleet and students will have the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about Australia’s history. The Grade 4’s have demonstrated amazing listening skills and have asked deep and enriching questions whilst learning this new content.

WRITING

In our writing lessons, students have been learning the structure and features of writing a biography. They began to write single paragraph outlines (SPOs) and from that will create an introduction, life events in chronological order and a conclusion for their biography about Captain Cook. They have already planned out some of their paragraphs using an SPO, and have been using their notes from their Read 2 Learn unit to help them write their supporting details. Additionally, the Grade 4’s were given a chance to self-assess a piece of their writing to see where they fit on a student-friendly rubric and from that, created a writing goal. Throughout the term, they will refer to this goal in order to improve their overall writing achievement. 

MATHS

After working on number properties, representing, ordering and comparing numbers we have started to apply these skills to partitioning numbers. Students have needed to break numbers apart according to their place value, and use this strategy as a way to quickly add numbers. Additionally, students also had to create a 5-digit number, decide how many more or less tens, hundreds, thousands and ten thousands, and order from smallest to largest and/or largest to smallest. 

Reminders:

Hats

In Term 1 and Term 4, all students must have a Tarneit Rise hat to wear at recess and lunch. Hats are available to purchase from the office if your child needs one.

Attendance

It is crucial that all students are attending school every day so they can work on their learning goals and don’t miss important lessons. Please book holidays during school holiday periods rather than during the school term to make sure valuable learning time is not missed.

Public Holiday

Labour Day is the 11th of March and a public holiday.