Connect: Year 4

Our Next Fortnight of Learning

Literacy

Our mentor text this term is Kensuke's Kingdom. The story revolves around a young boy named Michael, who embarks on a sailing adventure around the world with his parents and their dog. However, their voyage takes a tragic turn when a storm hits their boat, and Michael finds himself stranded on a deserted island in the Pacific Ocean. Alone and separated from his family, Michael must learn to survive on the island, which he soon discovers is not entirely uninhabited. Throughout the novel we will be consistently tracking our thinking, identifying themes and specific vocab, summarising, predicting and making inferences. The students will consistently use these skills to gain a greater understanding of any text they are reading. 

Our focus for Writing is persuasive writing. We have decided to demonstrate this through debating. The students will be placed into grouping and given a topic in which they will need to formulate arguments for, or against the topic. They will practice their speeches and present their arguments to a couple of very special guests. We will be brainstorming possible topics to debate, and it would be great if you could all have a conversation at home about possible topics (eg- topics around deforestation, meat consumption, violent video games etc.)

Our vocabulary words for the next two weeks are:

Maths

We have started the term with subtraction and are using the same strategies we used for addition (jump strategy, vertical algorithm and the split strategy). It is important for students to recognise the connection between addition and subtraction and understand that the same or similar strategies can be used for both. Our Maths focus will then shift to multiplicative thinking where the students will learn ways to generate numbers using multiples of one to ten, demonstrate their proficiency with multiplication facts and related division facts and identify emerging patterns. 

Through our applied maths students will be learning about various lines of symmetry (horizontal, vertical and diagonal). Students will identify a range of objects that are symmetrical as well as identify, prove and justify how many lines of symmetry that particular object has. Our focus for our problem-solving sessions has been finding symmetry in letters. 

How many lines of symmetry can you find in your name? You might like to ask your child for help with this one (a piece of paper is a great resource to assist your thinking)!

Inquiry

The students will be reflecting on their first inquiry topic this year, The Game of Life before delving into our next topic, Our Island Home. We will be delving into how places, people and environments are connected to navigate our world. 

We will be conducting investigations into:

* Changes cause by adding and removing heat

* Climate zones and natural vegetation 

* Conditions in different places on Earth

* Using and making maps

Wellbeing

Over the coming weeks your children will be learning the importance of understanding different perspectives through The Zones of Regulation. Through this, your child will gain awareness of how others perceive them in the different zones and learn that their behaviour can change and affect others' thoughts, feelings and zones. They will further reflect on the positive and negative impacts of regulating their zone to the demands of the environment and situation.

Sports

Our year 4 students had their athletics day on the last day of Term 1 and it was a resounding success! The atmosphere was electric with cheers and encouragement from both participants and spectators and the house colours and banners were everywhere. 

The students displayed excellent behaviour and sportsmanship throughout the day, congratulating their classmates and offering words of encouragement to everyone. 

It was heartwarming to see so many students exhibiting such a positive attitude and genuine camaraderie. A special shoutout to Mr. J who ensured the day ran smoothly and created such a supportive environment

House Cross Country was also a hit! To look out and see a wave of colour chanting and shouting words of encouragement to their peers of varying year levels was wonderful.

We are blown away by the level of enthusiasm your children displayed throughout both events and are particularly proud of their resilience. They couldn't wipe the smiles off their faces! 

Athletics Day

Cross Country

Olivia Pendreich, Amanda-Lee Bongers, Dean Ross