Year Four
The Year Four students have been buzzing with learning as we dived deeper across all learning areas to end the term. The much anticipated Book Day was celebrated on Friday 1st September 2023 with a costume parade and a visit from Claire Saxby, author of popular books such as The Big Red Kangaroo, Emu, Koala and many more. Leading up to Book Day, students were exposed to numerous texts written by Claire Saxby. The success was clearly expressed by our students and they vouched that it was another memorable day in Year 4.
Our passionate readers visited the Book Fair and had a chance to purchase and order books. Students also visited the Year Six exhibition to appreciate the hard work and dedication these students have put in towards their unit of inquiry.
Inquiry
Over the last few weeks, we have been inquiring into the Transdisciplinary Theme of 'Where We Are In Place and Time' with the central idea Exploration leads to discoveries, possibilities and new understandings. Students have been provided with multiple opportunities to consolidate their understanding and dive deeper into the motivators of explorations and how they have changed over time, such as curiosity and knowledge cannot go unnoticed when we dig deeper to understand what motivated mankind to engage in exploration. The timing of our unit of inquiry couldn’t be more accurate for students to make connections with the recent Indian spacecraft landing on the moon. This event generated a lot of curiosity and questions in the minds of our students while making connections between exploration and space.
Mathematics
In Maths, we explored the concept of Fractions and Decimals. Students learned the vocabulary and created their fractions strips to consolidate their understanding of fractions. Further into the week, students engaged in equivalent fraction activities and learned that equivalent fractions are fractions that have different numerators and denominators but are equal to the same value. Our mathematicians were busy creating fractions walls to compare equivalent fractions. In weeks 9 and 10, students used their knowledge of fractions to facilitate their understanding of decimals. Students were also able to use their knowledge of place value to visualise decimal place value and were exposed to vocabulary such as tenths, hundredths and thousandths. Students were able to apply their understanding of decimal place value to compare and order decimals to make connections between fractions and decimals.
Literacy
In Reading, students have been reading hybrid texts and celebrating some of the wonderful texts written by Claire Saxby. As enthusiastic readers we have been using these as mentor texts to discuss the writer's craft and the importance of voice to understand the author’s message. In week 9, the mentor text One Giant Leap by Robert Burleigh was introduced to students to generate interest and curiosity about the first person who stepped foot on the moon. Students are also learning to write summaries after reading their texts with a focus of including the main idea, and supporting details in their own words.
Reminders
- Hats will need to be worn first day back!
- School begins at 8:30am, with continuous entry from 8:20am. Please be on time promptly at 8:30am.
- Late arrivals (8:30am onwards) require a late pass from the office.
- Absences- If your child is away, please remember to upload your reasons on XUNO; and please reach out to the office or your classroom teacher if you need support doing this.
- Remember to bring a waste-free lunch on Wednesdays for the school waste-free Wednesday!
- Camp- Notice is on XUNO please ensure you approve this event and make payment. If your child will not be attending please decline the event.