Year 4

English

Reading

During term two the grade four students focused on summarising their texts. This unit required students to understand and summarise a fictional story including the key events and details and sequencing information in a logical order when reading non-fiction. They learnt the skills and importance of paraphrasing an author’s words while maintaining the author’s view of the text. During the summarising unit students built the skills in determining important information, inferring, and identifying and understanding text structures and features of both fiction and non-fiction genres using textual evidence to support their thinking.

Writing

Term two saw the students continue to build their skills in the craft of writing with a key focus on Persuasive writing. They learnt the correct textual structure and the persuasive language techniques and devices within a persuasive text to engage and persuade their reader. This included features such as emotive language, exaggeration, rhetorical questions, adjectives, and modal verbs. They are able to identify how to hook their reader through well-constructed introductions and use evidence to support their views or opinions through facts and statistics that reflect on universal issues.

During this focus, students continued to learn the writing craft of paragraphing, sentence structure and word choice using both digital and print forms of presentation.

Mathematics

Throughout term 2, the grade 4’s covered several units. We started the term by focusing on angles where students created a measuring tool to compare angles that are greater than, smaller than, or similar to a right angle. 

We then moved into our main focus of addition and subtraction where students learnt to identify unknown quantities in number sentences and using strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems of up to four digits. They learnt how to describe these strategies while developing a preferred method to solve addition and subtraction using a place value method e.g., jump strategy (number line), split strategy, vertical method and mental strategies. 

Students finished off the term with patterns and algebra where they were able to review and extend their understanding of skip counting, growing patterns and looking at odd and even number patterns.

Science

This term Grade 4 had the opportunity to investigate how rocks are formed and how human activity can cause changes to the Earth’s surface. Students tested different soil and rock samples from the local area and investigated the way heat and pressure can create different rock types (igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic). Additionally, students learnt about the different types of weathering, how they break down larger rocks to create soil and why erosion is detrimental to the environment. After a successful term 2, it’s time for a well-deserved break. Enjoy the holidays!

LOTE = Chinese

Congratulations Grade 4 learners by finishing your term 2 Chinese learning so successfully. In this term, we started by reviewing what we have learned in term 1. Then we learned about two different festivals that are celebrated in China during this term, which are QingMing festival (Tomb-sweeping day) and Dragon Boat Festival. In the meantime, we also learned the days of the week and months of the year in Chinese. While we were learning about the QingMing festival, we made cloud playdough to make an art project that related to the Qing Ming festival. Also, we compared and contrasted Easter and the Qing Ming festival. For the Dragon Boat Festival, we made paper ZongZi (one of the foods Chinese people eat during the Dragon boat festival).

Art

Term two has been all about colour theory, and we have had a great term getting messy in the art room! 

We started the semester using warm and cool colours. The students used the colour wheel; mixing and separating to understand how and why colours work together. The students built on their warm and cool learnings and re-created an Autumn design. They experimented with paint, using q-tips: creating dots and lines, to make a bright and beautiful autumn leaves design. In this case ‘warm colours’, played a vital role in their design particularly to create a sense of time and mood.

The students have now started working with crayon and paint, this time to replicate a painting of one of the great artists, Vincent Van Gogh, and re-creating his famous ‘sunflowers’. Creating the sunflowers will build on their knowledge of using Monochromatic colours using hues and tones of yellow.

This semester the students have worked with mediums, such as acrylic paint, water colour, glue, chalk and pastel, and will learn new techniques and methods.

It has been a fun time in the art room this Term with the grade 3 and 4 students.

P.E.

The grade 4 students have had a fantastic term in in Physical Education! They have worked extremely hard on developing the fundamental skills on the sport of basketball and being able to apply these skills required for basketball in a games-based approach. During this unit of work the year 4’s participated in small-sided games of 3 v 3 basketball and applied all the relevant skills linked to the sport of basketball. 

Students were able to use some prior learning to help them with this and achieve successful outcomes. At the end of this unit on basketball, all grade 3 students have had the opportunity to show their ability to bounce, pass and shoot a basketball and were all able to play small-sided games. They were able to further improve their ability to work collaboratively, demonstrating their ability to understand the importance of problem solving as a team and support each other through the many ups and downs of the competitive nature of the sport of basketball. They were also to have extra support from their high school student teachers who were able to provide them with extra support with how to further improve their game strategies. 

During term 2 students in grade 4 also worked on the fundamental skill of running as it a part of their athletics learning. Students were taught to use correct running form, conduct a relay running race and partake in a hurdles athletic event. The last part of the term saw students introduced to shot-put and discus throwing, how to correctly throw each of them with correct technique. The year 4’s thoroughly enjoyed participating in the many activities designed to allow them to practise and further improve on the important techniques taught! I thoroughly enjoyed teaching the year 4’s this term and look forward to having more fun with them next semester! Congratulations on all your hard work and effort grade 4’s!