Year 4 English

Every day the Year 4 students focus on spelling (SoundWaves) and developing their knowledge of suffixes, prefixes, homophones and phonemes. We have also been expanding our vocabulary through novel studies.

This term, our novel study has been reading ‘Uncle Xbox’ by Jared Thomas. This book is about a 12 year boy, Dusty, who  is devastated when his stepdad moves out and takes his gaming console with him, forcing him to find new ways to fill his time. Uncle Rick introduces Dusty to surfing and Indigenous traditional culture, providing a new, healthier passion rather than gaming. This story covers challenges like growing up, changing families, poverty, and overcoming bullying.

Through our novel, we have also been learning about the impacts of European settlement on  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Students have been researching, note taking and planning a factual recount about the First Fleet and the process of settlement in Australia.

This is what the students have learnt so far this term…….

“We have learnt new vocabulary words” Archie 

“The vocabulary words have progressively been getting harder throughout the term.” James

“In writing, we have been note-taking about the First Nations people and the European settlers.” Maddie

“In factual recounts, we have been learning to expand our sentences to hook the reader.” Raph

“We have learnt adverbials of time, place and manner and where to put commas.” Ryan