Welcome to Week 8 of Home Learning

The Grade 4 team would like to once again thank parents for their support during home learning! We would also like to say congratulations to parents and children, on making it to your last week of home learning - only 5 days left!

Please read the following overview of the learning tasks for Week 8. These tasks will continue to be posted on Google Classroom with additional instructions and resources the night before each day of learning.

We would also like to inform you that on Friday, teachers in Grade 3 to Grade 6 will use one of their termly Professional Practice Days for report writing. On this day, teachers will be writing personalised comments and mapping out learning goals for the Semester. We will set some learning tasks that the students can complete. Teachers will not be hosting Google Meet sessions or providing feedback on the learning tasks during the day. We are looking forward to welcoming students back to the classrooms on Tuesday morning, June 9th.

If your child has completed the day's tasks, they may be interested in completing one of these optional tasks. These tasks are open-ended, inquiry based and hands-on.

English

An overview of tasks for reading and writing this week are as follows:

READING

Students should be completing at least 20 minutes of independent reading a day as well as completing the tasks set by the teacher. Tasks this week include:

Exploring and making inferences
Inferring using pictures that add meaning to text
Inferring using fiction and non-fiction text
Reading for enjoyment - own choice

WRITING

Tasks this week include:

Creating another primary source diary entry about life in lockdown
Identify the technical vocabulary in an information text
Using adjectives and adverbs when writing an information text
Identify the groups or categories in an information text
Writing a personal letter to create a reminder of time in lockdown

Writing this week continues to develop students' ability to construct information texts. While writing information texts, we encourage students to use the writing cycle to ensure they are continuously developing and improving their writing.

The writing cycle consists of five stages:

1. Plan

2. Draft

3. Revise

4. Edit

5. Publish

Note: Not all pieces need to be published. We encourage the students to write many different writing pieces which they revise and edit. At the end of a unit of work we ask students to choose their best piece to publish.

Word Study

Students will continue to practice 30 "codes" of the English language through watching videos uploaded by their class teacher. They will also continue to "bootcamp" a reading rule which will help them when they decode words. 4A, 4B, 4C and 4D will connect their knowledge of when the vowels a, e, o, u ususally say their second sound at the end of a syllable. 4E will learn about jobs 1 - 5 of Secret Agent Silent 'e'. The "bootcamp" process allows students to practice the new skill until it becomes "automatic" in their brains.

Mathematics

In Mathematics, students will begin learning about division. They are also encouraged to play number games or use Mathletics to continue practicing basic number skills. Tasks for the week include:

Understanding the concept of division
Solving word problems using division
Playing maths games such as Leftovers, Capture the Array and Race to 100
Completing Mathletics tasks

Unit of Inquiry

This week, we continue our unit inquiring into how events shape societies. Students will engage in the following tasks:

Formulating research questions
Recording of information in an efficient and effective way
Summarising information and making conclusions
Reflecting on learning at home - creating a piece of art work to bring in and discuss on Tuesday, June 9th

Wellbeing

This week the wellbeing challenge is for the students to create a visual reflection to represent their remote learning experience. They will be invited to reflect on the positive and challenging aspects of their experience, new skills they have learned plus any new appreciations or surprises. Recording your thoughts and feelings can be a great way of supporting mental wellbeing and it is hoped that this reflection helps the students with a smooth and positive transition back to school.

Here are some additional ideas and resources to support wellbeing during home learning:

Cosmic Kids Yoga (YouTube channel)
Smiling Mind (mindfulness app)
Art Hub for kids (YouTube channel)
Go Noodle
Mindfulness Challenge Cards (on Google Classroom)
Yoga cards on Google Classroom

Reminders

Make sure to check the Specialists Snapshot for learning tasks from the Specialist team.

Grade 4 Team

4A Melanie Davis

4B Andrew Yeaman

4C Phoebe James

4D Nicole Klaassen

4E Heather Jenkins & Zoe Picton

Hearing unit - Amy Chadwick

Grade Four Snapshot 2021 - Term 2

Welcome to Week 8 of Remote Learning

Issue 11 · 29 May 2020

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