Year 4 Term 3 Overview

Nǐ hǎo (hello) Year 4 Families,

Womenjeka (Welcome) back to school for Term 3! The Year 4 students have transitioned respectfully by showing great resilience skills by settling back into learning routines quickly. 

This term we will continue our specialist focus areas which are: PE, Mandarin and Art. 

Curriculum:

Literacy 

During Literacy this term, we will immerse ourselves in Information Report writing and we will continue to develop our understanding within both fiction and non-fiction texts, and as well, endeavour to build your child’s vocabulary. 

This term in Reading, we will continue investigating fiction and non-fiction texts and their purposes, sub genres, text structures and text features. We will use a variety of texts to allow your child ample opportunities to compare and contrast the themes and big ideas within a text. This will build on your child's ability to analyse why authors make specific choices and the effect this has on the reader. Through regular modelling and practise of comprehension strategies such as summarising, inferring, synthesising and critiquing, students will gain a deeper understanding of the texts they are reading. Within reading lessons, we will develop our understanding of how texts are structured and the effect this has on the reader, identifying the purpose and audience of these texts and also analysing how the author includes language and text features to keep us interested in the text. 

This term in writing, Year 4 students will be exploring how to write poetry and information reports as we continue to develop our knowledge around the 6+1 writing traits, with a particular focus on Ideas, Word Choice, Sentence Fluency and Organisation. Students will discover the text structure to help support the creation of their own information reports through the plan, draft, edit, revise and publish stage. There will be a constant focus on conventions (spelling, grammar, punctuation) and presentation throughout this term. Throughout the term, students will have the opportunity to complete a free-write with the aim to build up writing stamina and apply the skills they have learned each week. Each week, students will continue to engage in SMART Spelling as well as handwriting practice to help improve their understanding of spelling patterns and letter formation as we continue to give out pen licences.

Numeracy

Year 4 students will continue to make connections to maths in their everyday lives across all learning areas this term, with a focus on problem solving where students can use a range of problem solving strategies. We will continue with our Big Ideas of Multiplicative Thinking as a focus this term. Through this, students will be continuously developing a bank of multiplication solving strategies in order to improve their multiplication fluency. This term we will be learning about financial maths and location, in particular calculating change and rounding numbers for purchases. We will also be exploring common fractions and how they can be connected to decimals. This will develop their knowledge in understanding that the place value system can be extended to tenths and hundredths. Following this, we will investigate additive thinking and place value and how these can be applied to the real world. Then we will move on to developing our understanding of the connection between financial maths, decimal place value and additive thinking.

SEL 

Our SEL program consists of the PATHS program, Respectful Relationships and teaching to your child’s social and emotional needs as they arise. As part of the PATHS program, we will continue to do PATHS Kid this year with a new PATHS Kid each day and students will be given the opportunity to give and receive compliments from their classmates. We will continue to explore what makes a good learning partner, the wheel of choice and control signals (which provide strategies to settle disagreements), and how to uphold the school expectations of striving for excellence, respect and being safe as well as the school values (teamwork, integrity, respect, kindness, learning). We will also be teaching students about stress by developing their understanding of what stress is, individual stress triggers, what it looks and feels like both within self and other and how we can manage stress. Above all, students will focus on the concepts of resilience and perseverance and develop strategies to de-escalate. Finally, we will begin exploring the concept of gender stereotypes in our everyday life.

Inquiry 

This term, Inquiry is a fantastic time for all students to become critical thinkers and develop character. Year 4 students will be exploring Geography and the driving question is, There are actions we can take to create sustainable communities. Through this inquiry,  your child will research and explore the Biomes of South Africa and South America and compare these to those of Australia. They will learn about their roles and responsibilities as citizens and what they can do to help sustain these environments. Through student voice and agency, students will develop a plan as to how to take action in supporting these environments.

Ways to Help Your Child At Home:

Home Reading - We have started our Home Reading program. The expectation is for your child to read their take home book 5 nights a week, answer some comprehension questions that a family member asks them and record the title, date and a comment in the green reading journal themselves. Take home books are for enjoyment and for your child to practise their reading strategies, and are not meant to be a challenging task for your child. In addition to the Home Reading program, Wushka and Reading Eggs are extremely valuable resources to help your child practise their reading.

Learning Goals - Your child’s individualised learning goals are listed on Compass (starting at the end of Week 5). There is a reading goal, a maths goal, a writing goal and an Inquiry or SEL (social and emotional learning) goal for your child. Please read these and support your child by going through the suggested strategies to help at home. These goals are changed every five weeks (twice a term), and you will also be informed of your child’s achievement of these goals.

Home Learning Seesaw: To support home learning this year, we will be using Seesaw. Seesaw will become a portfolio of your child’s work towards meeting their goals. Every week activities will be posted for your child to complete. Please encourage your child to log on to access the home learning and engage with their learning process at home.

We look forward to continuing working and building relationships with both you and your child this year. Please contact your child’s teacher if you have any questions or concerns. After school is best for a quick chat, otherwise send your child’s teacher an email to set up an appointment time for a longer chat.

Xièxiè (Thank you) from the Grade 4 Teachers,Year 4 Team