Years 4 & 6

Term 2 Learning

Literacy

We have been working to finish reading "The Wild Robot" by Peter Brown. 

We have also been working to draft and publish some persuasive letters. It was powerful learning when we researched facts to back up our opinion.

For example, we found out that there have been an estimated 1.2 million visitors to the Grampians region in the past 12 months. We also found out that recent studies show children between the ages of 8-18 spend approximately 7.5 hours on screens every day.

We have talked about how people use facts like these to sway opinion. 

This brought up an interesting discussion about how, in the current climate, politicians are using many persuasive devices to encourage people to vote for them. The were audible gasps of horror when I showed them how a politician may use emotive words to make their opposition look bad in the public eye, and how they use repetition to reinforce their message. We even talked about the orange dogs…..

Numeracy

In week 1 we revised – place value and time.

We have moved onto addition. This week has been practising efficient mental computation strategies for addition. We talked about the meaning of “efficient” – things can be done quickly with little waste. So far we have practised the “jump” strategy and the “partitioning” (split) strategy. Although not all of us find these methods efficient, they help us to build our number sense so that we become more fluent and faster when we are solving addition problems. Students also had the option to choose the size and style of number they were adding so that those who needed a challenge, got that challenge.

How do you add numbers in your head? Talk about your strategy with your child. Ask them to show you their strategy.