Grade 4 News
Important Reminders/Dates
- Hats - As per our school's SunSmart policy, all students are required to wear hats till the end of April 2024.
- Anaphylaxis awareness - a student in the cohort is allergic to all nuts, dairy and seafood. We ask that you be aware of what is being sent in the students lunchboxes, and remind the students not to share food at school.
Weekly Timetable
Learning In Action
Literacy
During our Head Start program, the Grade 4’s have been reconnecting with different Literary techniques that they will delve into throughout the year. We have been getting to know each other better through different activities, learning about our interests as readers and writers, and establishing our routines for our literacy sessions for the year.
We reflected on ourselves as readers through a reading survey, and then used the "I PICK" technique to choose books that are a good fit for us to read.
We have begun planning pieces of writing, focusing on topics we are interested in, and using the Narrative Hill to help us plan. We have also had a focus on using descriptive language to describe our characters and settings.
Below you will see photos of some Grade 4 students using blocks and their descriptive language to work with a partner to draw an “unknown picture”.
Preview: We will be beginning our narrative unit through a novel study of the book Kensuke's Kingdom. We are also starting our word work program and will be focussing on sentence verbs when looking at grammar.
Mathematics
During Head Start, the Grade 4’s have enjoyed learning about their ‘Math’s Mindset’, through a series of engaging videos and tasks. We discussed how our brains grow and change and the importance of a ‘growth mindset’ during maths sessions. Students learnt the following maths strategies and used these to complete tricky maths problems, such as the $100 Money Challenge!
- Draw it out
- Teamwork
- Experiment
- Look for different resources
- Start with a smaller problem
Students have also been investigating length and the units of measurement. We made the most of the sunny days and we're exploring the length of different objects around the school, using metre rulers and trundle wheels to measure the objects.
Preview: We will continue looking deeper into our length unit with a focus on Jack and the Beanstalk. We will also begin our number unit by looking at the properties of odd and even numbers.
Inquiry
During Head Start, the Grade 4’s have used Inquiry to set up some of their classroom expectations and to remind themselves of what it means to be an ‘LPS kid.’ Students delved into the school rules, explaining what this looked like to them, explored the Learner Profiles by applying them to different learning tasks and reviewed our school values. The Grade 4’s enjoyed talking about the growth mindset and creating a learning pit that represents themselves.
Preview: We are starting our community unit with the grade 4 focus being on rules and laws and how they affect our society. Over the next fortnight, we will look at the difference between rules and laws, and the impacts they can have on people’s lives.
Wellbeing
Over the past two weeks, our Grade 4’s have spent lots of time getting to know their new teachers and classmates! We played games including holiday bingo, 2 truths and a lie, and the name game to name a few. Settling back into the school routines can be daunting, so our students have revised a few key topics from Friendology to help them settle into the routine. Students looked at their character strengths, practised ‘ask & pass’ and role played ways to make new friends!