Year Four
Welcome back! It’s hard to believe we are now in Term 4, at the tail end of yet another school year! Students have returned after the holidays rested and ready to learn, and have excitedly engaged in a variety of fun activities and experiences.
Reading and Writing
In Reading, students have strengthened their inferring skills by finding clues in texts and combining them with their prior knowledge. Additionally, to support their author study of Jeannie Baker, they investigated techniques employed in her collage-style illustrations and their effects, using these to inspire their own creations based on her picture book Window. Students demonstrated innovative creativity when using natural materials such as bark and leaves to create their own window collages.
In Writing, students have been inspired by Jeannie Baker’s literary techniques and author craft such as repetition and figurative language. They have used these elements to work through the writing process to create their own writing pieces, ensuring they have used sentence fluency effectively, including a range of sentence starters and different sentence lengths.
Maths
Over the past two weeks students have been investigating time concepts, including revising how to tell time on analogue and digital clocks to the minute. They have also explored converting between different units of time (seconds, minutes, hours and so on), as well as calculating elapsed time in worded problems. Students investigated the differences between 12 and 24 hour time, and how to convert between them.
Unit of Inquiry
As part of our fifth Unit of Inquiry, exploring how “Demands of growing communities drive urban planning”, students were lucky enough to hear from a parent from our Year 4 community, Mariana, who works as an architect. During this session she explained how the design process relates to urban planning, answering student questions in relation to the local community. Thank you Mariana for your valuable insights!
Additionally, students have been delving deeply into the design process, beginning to plan what their group will create in our upcoming Big Build project. Please don’t forget to keep bringing in small boxes for your child to use.
Allergy Awareness Week
Week 1 of Term 4 was also Allergy Awareness Week at Saltwater College. Across the week each class participated in a short presentation led by Nurse Alison and Year 6 students exploring different allergies, their symptoms and steps to take if an allergic reaction occurs. Students enjoyed joining in on our Allergy Awareness Day, with some students participating in a school-wide poster competition. Congratulations to all involved!
Reminders
Students are reminded that as we are a SunSmart school, hats are required to be worn during Term 4. Please ensure your child brings their hat to school every day.
Please ensure your child continues to bring their fully charged device to school every day!
Looking forward to a successful Term 4!
The Year Four Team