Grade 4 News
Important Reminders/Dates
Friday, September 13th: School Disco
Tuesday, September 17th: Celebration Morning
Thursday, September 19th: 4FD Kinder Visit
Friday, September 20th: Last Day term 3
Each Tuesday in weeks 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 from 9am - 12pm: Swimming Program
Swimming Times - 4E & 4D: 9.40am - 10.25am
4FD: 10.25 - 11.10am
Looking forward to Term 4
Monday, October 7th: Term 4 Begins
Monday October 7th - Wednesday October 9th: Grade 4 Camp ADANAC
Tuesday, November 5th: Melbourne Cup Public Holiday
Friday, November 8th: Colour Run in the afternoon
Monday, November 11th: Curriculum Day - no school
Thursday, December 19th: Last Day Term 4 - 1.30pm Dismissal
Literacy
In Literacy this fortnight, students have focused on the structure and features of a biography. They read a range of biographies and identified key facts about the person’s life, before then placing these along a timeline and writing a short summary about their life. Students explored how the focus person in a biography are often influenced by those around them (secondary characters) e.g. Steve Irwin’s parents owning a wildlife refuge inspired his love of helping animals.
Students have begun to research their own focus person for a biography. They have used articles, books and the internet to research their person and take notes about the key events in that person's life. They used a timeline to help sequence all this information into chronological order.
Preview - over the next fortnight students will finish drafting their biographies before publishing these.
Word Work
This fortnight, students looked at the ‘Rabbit’ pattern in Word Work. This extended on our previous lessons around how short vowels ‘need protection’, and supports students in their spelling of certain words that follow this pattern.
Numeracy
This fortnight in Maths, students have continued with their Division unit. They have explored the connection between multiplication and division and have enjoyed completing quick times tables tests to improve their fluency. They have also looked at how we can simplify more complex division problems using the bundling strategy, by splitting larger numbers into smaller, friendlier parts.
Students also began their new applied topic of ‘Chance’. They discussed the language of chance, such as will, won’t, perhaps, likely, possible, impossible and definitely. They made predictions about the possibility of selecting a certain counter colour from a cup filled with a variety of different colours in different amounts e.g. 3 red, 2 green, 1 blue. They tracked this in their maths book and shared their findings with the class.
Preview - Over the next fortnight, students will continue their focus on division by looking at worded problems.
Inquiry
In our history unit, the grade 4s have begun looking closely at the First Fleet and its journey. They learnt about the 11 different ships that made the 252 day voyage, covering 24000 kms. The students were excited to look at the different types of passengers including convicts, marines, officers and the ship’s crew. After gaining a snippet into each group, the students chose one to delve into, researching and gaining an understanding of what life was like for them on the voyage.
Students have put themselves in the passengers’ shoes, and have begun writing diaries as if they were sailing on the ships themselves.
Preview - Students will continue writing their diaries pretending to be either an officer, convict, marine or crew member, preparing for Celebration Morning in week 10.
Wellbeing
Over the past fortnight, the Year 4 students have continued to work on their communication skills to find help. They worked through various scenarios to ask for help from others (examples below).
Students also discussed what the word ‘violence’ means to them. We had discussions about the different forms of violence: physical, emotional, and psychological.
Preview - Students will continue working on the Positive Gender Relations topic in the 4Rs program (Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships). Over the next fortnight, they will discuss what gender-based violence is: violence that targets individuals or groups based on their gender.
Calm Kids
The Calm Kids program has commenced with Kim and the kids are loving it. The Calm Kids program will cover a number of key concepts before we head to camp such as:
- What is anxiety and why do some people have it?
- Everyone worries but it doesn’t need to stop us from doing things
- Our thoughts create feelings and our feelings impact our actions
- Identifying when you are overthinking
- Thinking Traps and how to manage them
- How to be more positive and why it is important
- Worry bullies
- Grounding technique (for when things start to spiral)
- The importance of relaxation, breathing, and mindfulness
- Sleep and disconnecting