Year Four
We’ve had a truly amazing week celebrating the joy of literature and the wonder of storytelling! Guided by our Book Week theme, “Book an Adventure,” our students have embarked on exciting journeys through rich narratives, diverse voices, and meaningful themes that both challenge and inspire their growing minds.
Reading
What a wonderful week it has been celebrating the magic of stories during Book Week! With the theme “Book an Adventure,” our students explored new worlds through literature, diving into rich stories that spark curiosity, imagination, and reflection.
To extend this celebration of storytelling, students also created stunning artworks inspired by Jeannie Baker, an author and artist known for her unique collages made from natural materials. Using leaves, bark, twigs, seeds, and other treasures from nature, our students designed their own story-inspired collages. Each piece of artwork tells its own adventure, capturing landscapes, characters, and moments in ways that words alone cannot.
The creativity on display was truly remarkable. Through this process, students not only celebrated books but also learned to see the natural world as a source of inspiration and storytelling. Their artworks remind us that stories can be told in many forms—through words, pictures, and even the textures of the earth itself.
Writing
In Year 4, students have been busy as budding authors, exploring text innovation as part of their writing program. Using familiar stories as inspiration, they experimented with changing characters, settings, and events to create fresh and imaginative versions of well-loved texts.
Through this process, students learned how authors make deliberate choices to engage readers, while also developing their own unique writing voices. They enjoyed playing with language, reimagining storylines, and adding creative twists that reflected their ideas and sense of humour.
The results were outstanding! From adventurous retellings to completely new endings, students demonstrated both creativity and critical thinking. This unit not only strengthened their understanding of narrative structure but also encouraged them to see themselves as authors who can take risks and have fun with their writing.
Numeracy
In Numeracy, students have been exploring multiplication in a hands-on and visual way by using arrays and MAB (Multibase Arithmetic Blocks) to build area models. By partitioning numbers into tens and ones, students constructed arrays with flats (Hunderds), longs (tens) and units (ones) to represent multiplication problems.
Through this process, students were able to:
See the connection between numbers, place value, and multiplication.
Break apart larger numbers into more manageable parts.
Understand how area models help us calculate totals systematically.
The activity encouraged problem-solving, collaboration, and mathematical reasoning. Students enjoyed physically building their models, then translating them into written multiplication sentences and calculations.
Inquiry
In our current Unit of Inquiry, How We Organise Ourselves, students have been exploring the challenges of a growing population and what it means to design communities that meet people’s needs.
As part of this inquiry, students were given a design brief: to create their own city that caters for the needs of its citizens while also considering sustainability, liveability, and future growth. Working collaboratively, they investigated essential services such as housing, transport, health, education, recreation, and energy use.
This project encouraged critical thinking, teamwork, and innovation, while also helping students see how organisation and planning shape the way communities function. We can’t wait to share their city designs with you soon-each one a unique vision for the future!
Reminders:
Camp Deposit
A non-refundable deposit of $150 is required by 15th September to secure a spot for camp. The remaining balance will be due at a later date.
Students Mac Books need to be fully charged.
Warm regards,
The Year Four Team