Year 4 Update Week 2
Wednesday 28th September – Meet the Teacher Evening – please come along at 6:40pm in the school hall then we will head up to our classrooms
Monday 9th September – BHS staff training day….school closed
Friday 13th September – Diversity House Day….please wear green if you are in Diversity House
Friday 13th September – Mid Autumn Festival Market…please bring some coins to spend at our market today
Thursday 26th September – Parent/Teacher Consultations...more information to follow
Monday 30th September – BHS staff training day…school closed
Tuesday 1st October – Public Holiday…school closed
Wednesday 2nd October – Parent/Teacher Consultation...more information to follow
Student Council 2019/20 – it is the time of year when each class needs to elect one student to represent them on the Student Council. Any child who wishes to be considered for the role should prepare a short one minute talk (they may have cue cards, Google Slide presentation but NOT essential) that they will present to their classmates on Monday 26th August. Following all of the presentations, the students vote for the person who they feel will represent them most effectively at Student Council meetings (teachers do not take part in the elections).
The theme of the one-minute talk should be… “Why I would be an effective Student Council representation for 4A/4F/4J”
Hot Weather – bring a hat every day! Also, can the girls please ensure their hair is tied back so it stays off their back, neck, and face – it’s just so much cooler and comfy for them. Thanks.
4A – Monday and Thursday
Punchline Comedy Show
What a great way to start the week! Year 4 students (along with Year 3, 5 and 6 students) were entertained by 3 visiting comedians who had us all thoroughly entertained and laughing like hyenas on Monday morning! This was a great opportunity to develop our vocabularies, deepen our understanding of language and have lots of fun.
English
We have started our work on developing our word choice skills with Ms Jeves by exploring poetry, in particular, “Secret” by Pie Corbett. All the students have also been poets themselves by writing about a secret with a strong focus on using vocabulary to create powerful images in the reader’s head.
Maths
Following on from our pre-assessment, the students have enjoyed playing a range of games and participating in some rich tasks to develop their knowledge of the base 10 place value system. In addition, the children also enjoyed developing their estimation skills after reading a great mathematical text called “Math Potatoes.”
U.O.I.
After hearing about some of their teachers’ beliefs last week, this week the students have been hearing from Mr Thompson about his beliefs and beginning to explore their own beliefs and values in more depth. Mr Thompson brought a great big bag of objects into our classrooms (see photo below!) and we had to consider what these things taught us about his beliefs.
Transdipinary Theme : Who We Are
Central Idea:
Experiences and beliefs shape a person’s actions.
Lines of Inquiry:
An inquiry into…
- how our actions affect our lives (Causation)
- people’ many and varied beliefs (Perspective)
- the interconnectedness of beliefs, experiences and actions (Connection)
This is our very first unit of Year 4 but this year it is a two-part UOI. The first half we will work on for this first four weeks of school and we will come back to it at the end of the year. We will be spending lots of time thinking about our own values and beliefs and things that are important to us and our family. It would be great if you could follow up these discussions with your child at home. What do you value as a family?
Central Idea : Base 10 place value system can be extended to represent size.
Lines of Inquiry :
An inquiry into….
- the patterns of 5 digit numbers and how they are represented
- representing number patterns using words, symbols, numbers and tables
We will be exploring the answers to these types of questions throughout this Place Value unit….
- How is place value a pattern?
- How can 5 digit numbers be partitioned?
- How can 5 digit numbers be renamed?
- What are the different ways 5 digit numbers can be represented?
- How can 5 digit numbers be ordered?
- How are 5 digit numbers rounded to the nearest 10, 100, 1000?
- When are 5 digit numbers rounded to the nearest 10, 100, 1000?
Writing – during this UOI we will be focussing on using fabulous vocabulary choices in our personal writing! We would love to see the children using fantastic words and interesting and creative sentence structures. We will be continuing to analyse poetry and word choices poets make in order to create strong imagery.
Throughout this UOI we are very lucky to have Ms Jeves, our Teaching and Learning Coach, continuing to come in to work with us on improving our writing through extending our vocabulary.
Reading – we will be focussing on the comprehension strategy of Visualising throughout this UOI. Good readers construct mental images as they read a text. By using prior knowledge and background experiences, readers connect the author’s writing with a personal picture. Through guided visualisation, students learn how to create mental pictures as they read.
Throughout the year we will focus on all of the comprehension strategies to help with our understanding, fluency and comprehension.
All class home learning activities will start up slowly in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime can you please start your children on their nightly reading routines by not only listening to them read a book from home but have them listen to you read a story to them! At this age, reading to your child is still such an important strategy to help your child with their own reading comprehension.
