Grade 4 News
Dear Year 4 Parents and Guardians,
The start of Term 4 has been bustling with activity, and it’s inspiring to witness the incredible growth and confidence our students have developed! This term continues to be full of exciting challenges, enriched learning experiences, and numerous chances for students to excel both inside and outside the classroom. In this edition of our newsletter, you’ll discover updates on our recent projects and a glimpse of what’s ahead in the coming weeks.
We would like to celebrate the last week of Term 4 where many of our 3 and 4 students attended Camp Sunnystones in Bacchus Marsh where they embarked on new and exciting outdoor activities, made new friends and built independence and resilience. We had such an amazing time!
Reading
Students have continued to work on their reading skills by reading short passages of text in class. They have been working on building their skills in expression, pace, use of punctuation, and accuracy. Students have been reading aloud to a partner as they learn how to adjust their tone and expression to match the meaning of the text. They are working hard on not sounding like robots when they read! They are also focussing on reading at the right pace, not too fast or slow, to ensure they understand and convey the message clearly. In addition, students are paying close attention to punctuation marks like commas, full stops, and question marks to guide their reading and improve their fluency. This practice is helping them become more confident and accurate readers, while also strengthening their overall comprehension and expression.
Typing
Students have been enthusiastically practising their typing skills in order to improve their speed and accuracy. As the year progresses, we are seeing a steady increase in the students’ typing speed and accuracy which is fantastic! You can practice with your child at home using free typing activities on Typing.com or Monkeytype.
Handwriting
This term our Year 4 students have continued to work on their handwriting skills. Handwriting is an essential life skill, and we have been focusing on improving both legibility and fluency, ensuring that each student feels confident in their writing. Students have been focussing on letter formation to ensure each letter is clearly and accurately written. They practice writing the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet making sure that each letter is formed correctly and is neat and consistent in its formation. Some students are even beginning to write their names and basic words in cursive in order to challenge themselves.
Grammar & Syntax
In Grammar and Syntax, students have been learning how to upgrade nouns and verbs within an argument in order to increase the complexity of their writing. Students have also been learning to use adverbs of affirmation in their arguments in order to make them more convincing, an example of this is “obviously, fresh water is a basic human right we should ensure for all.”
Writing
This term, we have been exploring the story The Fall, which focuses on the tense moments leading up to the main character’s skydiving experience. The goal of this unit is to help students develop their ability to build suspense in storytelling. Through oral activities, students engaged deeply with the story, learning the key events and internalizing the character’s actions and emotions.
Throughout the unit, students practiced four essential writing techniques:
-showing the character’s feelings through reactions,
-using questions to create a sense of worry for the reader,
-selecting powerful verbs that reflect the character’s emotions, and
-gradually intensifying the sense of threat.
In the coming weeks, we will begin crafting our own class story, after which students will have the opportunity to write and publish their own suspenseful pieces.
Knowledge
Over the past three weeks, our Year 4 students have been actively engaged in two exciting units of study in Knowledge.
In the first unit, students explored world mountains, focusing on how mountains are formed, different types of mountains, mountain animals and how humans make the most of mountains. Students were able to investigate mountains and mountain ranges in Australia as well as around the world to understand their importance to our communities.
In our current knowledge unit, students are exploring the fascinating world of the solar system. They are learning about Earth, the other planets, dwarf planets, and various space objects, as well as expanding their understanding of galaxies beyond our solar system. Alongside these scientific concepts, students are also discovering the history of space exploration and uncovering intriguing facts about the universe, sparking their curiosity and deepening their appreciation for the vastness of space.
Maths
In Maths, our Year 4 students have been focusing on decimals. They’ve been learning to read and write decimals, compare and order them, convert between fractions and decimals, understand decimal place value, and round decimals accurately. Next, we will be moving on to a unit on Money—an essential life skill that will help students in everyday financial situations.
Upcoming Events:
- Friday 31st October - Colour Run
- Monday 3rd November- Staff Professional Practice Day (student free day)
- Tuesday 4th November- Melbourne Cup Public Holiday (student free day)
Wednesday 12th of December - Curriculum Day (student free day)
Thank you for your continued support in continuing and strengthening our home and school relationship, which is so vital for students.
Have a well deserved weekend!
Miss Lochhead, Miss Carlesso and Mrs Schache