Year Four News

Term 1 in Year 4

The Year 4 team would like to extend a warm welcome to our students and their families as we begin an exciting new school year. We have a fantastic year ahead planned for 2026, filled with fun, engaging and enriching learning experiences. This update provides a brief overview of what your child will be learning in Term 1.

Creating the Environment

In the first few weeks of term, our focus is on 'Creating the Environment.' These lessons are designed to establish classroom protocols and foster strong relationships within our learning community. Through a variety of engaging and cooperative activities, students will build connections, develop a sense of belonging and gain confidence in communicating with their peers and teachers. This foundation sets the tone for a positive and productive learning environment throughout the year.

Literacy

Our Literacy block will focus on language comprehension, writing, spelling, handwriting, fluency and daily review.

• Language Comprehension: Students will engage in a novel study on the book The Storm Boy by Colin Thiele, which is linked to our History unit on First Nations perspectives. The focus will be on vocabulary development, building background knowledge and enhancing comprehension strategies, particularly summarising.
• Writing: Guided by the Writing Revolution framework, students will participate in summarising activities that complement their language comprehension work. They will also develop skills and concepts to strengthen their writing at the sentence and paragraph levels, such as understanding sentences and fragments, creating single-paragraph outlines, taking notes and converting them into well-structured sentences.
• Spelling: Through the Spelling Mastery program, students receive differentiated instruction in spelling strategies, patterns, and rules through structured lessons that integrate phonemic, morphemic, and whole-word instruction.
• Handwriting and Fluency: Regular practice will be implemented to improve handwriting legibility and reading fluency, along with instruction in typing skills.
• Daily Review: To consolidate learning, students will participate in daily review that reinforces key concepts across all areas of Literacy, ensuring consistent practice and retention.

Mathematics

In Mathematics this term, students will begin learning maths through the Explicit Mathematics Program (EMP). This program focuses on clear teaching, step-by-step lessons, and regular practice to help children understand maths with confidence. New skills are taught carefully and built over time, with frequent revision so learning sticks. The program supports all students by giving extra help when needed and extension for those ready to be challenged. Our aim is to help every child build strong maths skills, confidence, and a positive attitude toward learning maths. Daily Review will continue to be incorporated during EMP to reinforce key mathematical concepts and to support retention of learning. Focus areas this term include place value to accurately read, write, compare, and order larger numbers. Students will develop strategies for addition and subtraction, with an emphasis on selecting the most efficient approaches. Additionally, they will explore two-dimensional shapes, graphs, and timelines among other concepts.

Knowledge Units

In this term’s knowledge units, students will explore modern Australian history through the topic ‘First Contacts’. In this unit, students will first explore what is meant by connection to Country by unpacking Indigenous perspectives in literature. They will then unpack the reasons for British colonisation; those involved in this process; its effect on those involved; and its lasting impact on the Indigenous people of Australia.

Homework

To complement and reinforce classroom learning at home, students in Year 4 will complete maths and reading homework each week, beginning in week 3.

Homework for Year 4 will consist of:

• 20 minutes of reading, 5 nights a week
• Practising individualised maths concepts of their choice through Essential Assessment

Homework will be distributed through the use of Google Slides on Google Classroom. This is where students will track what they have completed throughout each week. 

Reminders

We would greatly appreciate donations of tissue boxes for your child’s classroom. Thank you in advance.

Marco, Lee, Tim, Lauren & Towela

The 2026 Year 4 Team