From the Year 4 Classroom

The students have continued their terrific start to the school year throughout the last couple of weeks. The learning spaces are well and truly delving into new learnings and have established great structures and routines in their daily practice. We would like to congratulate the Year Fours for the way in which they have been safe, respectful and their best. Keep it up!!! 

In Literacy, we have continued reading the narrative Kensuke’s Kingdom. This text has created terrific engagement as we have developed our understanding of it. We have unpacked sentences identifying the independent clause and the dependent clause, naming the elements in each. In Writing, we are learning about the elements of a persuasive text and are beginning to write a persuasive text based on their opinion about Island Living. Students have investigated both pros and cons and have taken their arguments into their formal writing pieces. Students' writing is guided through a ‘I do, We do and You do’ approach and the writing quality we are seeing is fantastic. Vocabulary has been a big focus. We are encouraging students to unpack content related words in our class novel as well as incorporating these into their own writing samples.  

In Math, we are continuing to add to students' math toolbox of strategies and have explored another strategy students can use when adding and subtracting. We have been learning the addition and subtraction vertical algorithm with and without the use of regrouping. We are currently working on naming and modeling fractions, showing fractions of collections and placing fractions on a number line. We will be learning about the concept of time in the coming weeks. The students have enjoyed the incorporation of Maths games and brain breaks throughout our sessions to keep them engaged.   In Religion, we have continued the topic of Prayer. We have visualised and creatively illustrated their vision of Jesus in Prayer and discussed when, why and how Jesus may pray. We are going to be exploring three types of prayer including prayers of thanks and gratitude, prayers of sorrow and prayers of blessings. Students will write a prayer of each type and collate these into our own class prayer book. Year 4s will attend the Parish Mass next Friday 7th March at 9.30am. Parents are most welcome to attend. 

In Inquiry, we have been identifying and applying resilience skills required to respond positively to challenges and failure such as ways to calm the body; using self-talk, optimistic thinking and help-seeking behaviours. Students were given a range of strategies where they needed to unpack the emotion they may have been feeling at the time and the strategies they could use under each of these headings. We will also cover how to be persistent during challenging situations and will write goals related to their own perseverance.  

Congratulations to all the Year 4s who made it to the Regional Swimming this Wednesday in Wangaratta: Billie Archibald, Indi Perks, Maddox Oughton, Billy Manoj-Margison, Olivia Deglaitis and Annabelle Kennedy. 

We will be cheering you on!!!