YEAR FOUR

Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Primary School provides a range of holistic learning experiences to enable students to:

• Participate in the life and mission of the school.
• Deepen their knowledge and engagement with the Catholic faith and tradition.
• Build the capacity to continuously reason, reflectively, logically and critically.
• Embrace interdependence of human existence as global citizens, who are responsible to and for themselves and others.
• Engage in learning in a multitude of ways, through personalised and self-paced learning.

Religious Education

4.6 One with God’s Creation

We are all created in the image of God and are called to live in harmony with our world.  In this unit, students will develop a deeper understanding of God as creator and will appreciate more fully that creation is good.  We are called to be one with each other and the earth community.  The unit focuses on developing an understanding of our responsibility to care for God’s creation. It also explores our decisions to respect and care for the environment which will affect our world, both now and in the future.

4.5 Mary Mother of God: First Among Saints

This unit explores how Mary listened and responded to God in the events of her life. It highlights the importance and challenge in the Christian life of listening and reflecting and trusting in the ways of God. It explores Marian prayers and feast days as ways in which the Church honours Mary, the Mother of God. The unit also explores the qualities of listening and responding demonstrated in the life of Mary MacKillop. It invites students to reflect on how they can receive and respond to God’s call and grace in their lives.

English

Students will engage in a Narrative Unit focused on the works of author Ursula Dubosarsky. They will have opportunities to listen to, read, view, and interpret spoken, written, and multimodal texts designed to entertain, teach, and nourish the reader's imagination. These texts will include both print and digital formats, as well as films. Students will discuss how authors, illustrators, and filmmakers create engaging, moving, and absorbing stories by employing techniques such as character development and plot tension. They will identify these characteristic features in imaginative texts and use them to create their own literary works, developing storylines, characters, and settings.

The students will also continue to develop their skills in persuasive writing through a Stage 2 public speaking competition. They will revise skills in relation to grammar, punctuation, vocabulary and specific concepts about print.

Students will continue practising their reading strategies in Reading groups. They will also engage in the ‘Soundwaves’ spelling program, which is encouraged to be used at home. 

Mathematics

This term we will be focusing on the following units:

• Chance/Data (Week 1)
• Additive Relations (Week 2)
• Representing Number/Geometric measure (Length) (Week 3-5)
• Non Spatial Measure (Time)/Additive Relations (Week 6-7)
• Geometric Measure (Position/Angles)/2D Spatial Structure (Week 8-10)

Students will engage in differentiated tasks in their homerooms. These class groups will remain fluid as we cater to the needs of individuals and their understanding of various mathematical concepts. Please continue to practice the instant recall of the two, three, four, five, and ten times table facts with your children at home, as this is an essential skill they will require. 

Science and Technology

This term, students will participate in a range of STEM activities to develop their knowledge of forces and motion. They will design and create various products that utilize the forces of gravity, air resistance, friction, magnetism, thrust, and tension. Additionally, students will participate in Science Week in Week 4

History

This term the students will be studying ‘First Contacts'. This unit gives students an insight into what it was like to explore the seas in the early modern period. They will identify how the major discoveries changed the world and the positive and negative effects of world exploration. The students will examine the impact the arrival of Captain Cook had on the Indigenous Australians.

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education

In Term 3, Year 4 students will be involved in multiple class tournaments such as the Olympics Games, in which they will be given the opportunity to undertake specific roles, such as being coaches, captains, referees and scorekeepers. This will allow them to demonstrate their leadership and communication skills while giving them some creative freedom and independence in the implementation of the tournament. The unit will end with a final game for each sport including soccer, netball and volleyball to showcase the gameplay strategies that they have developed throughout the term. 

Students will also be going to 2 gala days for Shark Tag in week 6 and Tri Tag Rugby in week 8. They will learn and practice the games in sports lessons. 

Open Parachute will continue weekly. Open Parachute aims to provide students with practical support on mental health. The program aims to reduce stigma and generate authentic dialogue in classrooms about the real issues students face. The psychological skills-building exercises aim to increase empathy, self-compassion, self-awareness, mental health literacy, and self-efficacy in students.

Creative Arts

In Creative Arts this term, students will participate in 5 weeks of Music and 5 weeks of Drama. During Music lessons, students will learn to play the ukulele and explore music from various countries around the world, including Greece and India. They will also learn about notation, composition, and elements of music such as pitch, dynamics, and structure. 

During Drama lessons, students will learn to perform a play. Students will use the elements of drama including vocal expression and projection, character creation and costumes to create and perform engaging characters.

Students will create artwork based on the shortlisted Book Week Texts and Aboriginal storytelling. The creative arts unit will further explore artworks created in the early years of Australian colonisation. 

Amadeus Music Program

Students will continue with the Amadeus Music Education Program and participate in activities in listening, performing and organising sound within their regular Classroom Music lessons. 

• It is the student’s responsibility to ensure that they:
  • Arrive on time for each lesson
  • Bring their instrument and required accessories to every lesson
  • Bring their Essential Elements* music book
  • Bring a lead pencil and eraser

Mandarin

Our students continue to enjoy participating in the Chinese language program called the Meg Language Program. The co-author of the Australian Curriculum writes the Meg Curriculum. All students and teachers will participate in the digital learning platform via Zoom weekly sessions with educators in China.

Homework 

Students in Year 4 are expected to complete 30 minutes of homework nightly. Twenty minutes is expected to be dedicated to reading. The homework grid will be shared through Google Classroom.

We look forward to continuing to work with you and your child this term. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher via a note, email or by appointment via the office. 

Mr Michael Faber (4 Blue)

Mrs Lisa Mann and Mr Ethan Parlato (4 Gold)

Mrs Margaret McCarthy (4 White)

Important Dates for Year Four

Sports Days:

4B & 4W are Monday & Friday

4G Monday & Thursday

Students are to wear their sports uniform on these days. 

Library 

Each week, students will have the opportunity to borrow books from our school library. Please ensure your child brings their Library Bag to school each Monday.  

2024 - School Term 3

Parent calendar available at this link