Yr4 Curriculum Update – 24/08/18
Working together to achieve success for every child
Welcome to our 1st edition!
In each update, the Year 4 Team will share pictures with you showing the learning engagements they have been participating in. You will also read about what we are currently learning about and what is coming up, including important reminders and dates. We hope you will use this newsletter as a tool to help you discuss the rich learning that is happening with your child.
Year 4 Teachers and Educational Assistants
We are all thrilled to be your child’s class teachers this year and look forward to the great learning we will be doing!
Transdisciplinary Learning – It’s all connected!
Central Idea: Making choices that develop respectful relationships with ourselves, others and the environment define who we are as individuals and as a community.
Unit of Inquiry
Year 4 students have been hard at work understanding the central idea for Who We Are, which has a well being focus across KJS. These first few weeks of school are vital to establishing safe and positive classroom communities where students can go into depth with their learning.
This is a unit that will continue throughout the entire school year; we will look at what wellbeing means, how our choices affect ourselves and others and how we can work to maintain positive wellbeing. Within wellbeing, we will focus on the areas of physical, social/emotional and environmental. As a Year 4 team, we have started doing Morning Fitness 3 days a week together. Classes have been rotating to different teachers for 15 minutes and doing fun warm up activities like dancing, yoga and skipping. This has been a great way to build our Y4 community, as well as waking up our bodies and brains with movement.
Check out some of our learning engagements from these past 2 weeks:
Students in 4M have been strengthening their classroom community by completing a rich maths task together and doing some yoga to start off their day.
4K has been building community through sharing meals, working with partners, creating art and jumping rope together.
In 4F, students built their social well being to work cooperatively using non-verbal communication skills.
In 4C, students worked on Operation Own It, which was all about taking a space in the classroom and using it to teach others about themselves.
Students in 4D created some beautiful self-portraits for the classroom by starting off with half a picture of themselves and then drawing in the missing half.
Literacy
We have been exploring a variety of stories and videos that have strong messages connected to wellbeing, like what it means to be a friend, how our choices affect others and what strategies you can use to solve problems that come up with other people. All the students have a wellbeing journal that they will use for reflecting and goal setting throughout the year.
In the upcoming weeks, we will be reviewing the structure of how to write a narrative, as well as key reading strategies to continue developing the reader in all of us.
Maths
As we build upon the importance of nurturing our wellbeing, students have been answering big questions like “What makes a successful learner/mathematician?” through rich maths tasks. Throughout KJS, we are using the Week of Inspirational Maths that comes from Stanford University. Click on the link above to see some examples the rich maths tasks we have been using in class. They also provide excellent parent resources on how to best support your child at home!
We will begin exploring the base-10 place value system in the next few weeks through games, rich tasks and the use of manipulatives.
Music
Year four warmed up their bodies for singing and took part in tongue twister exercises to work on their diction and enunciation in songs, these fun activities created a lot of hilarity and were energizing. They learned a new part song and sung songs to prepare for assembly (pitch) . We discussed the new opportunities this year in music co-curricular program and we formed a band in the class playing together, listening and analyzing and discussing how instruments are played and the way they are grouped in different families. ( Timbre)
PE
Our Year 4 students have had a fun and positive start to the year where they have been engaging in short challenges that emphasise the need to respect ourselves, others and our PE environment. Carrying out all tasks with positive actions has been our focus and continually reflecting on our own actions and the effect they can have on others has helped the students engage with a fun and respectful outlook.
Reminders
- Students are reminded to only use the central staircase in the morning and to wait until 8:15 before coming upstairs to ensure there is supervision in all the classrooms
- Sun safety is very important to us! Students need to bring their hats every day, as children who do not bring their hat will not be allowed to take part in snack or lunch play
- Students also need to bring a reusable water bottle every day, labeled clearly with their name
- Due to a high number of damaged and lost books last year, students are now required to bring a book bag in order to borrow books when it is their library day. Students can reuse book folders from previous years or purchase a new from PTA for $22. Folders can also be purchased at any stationary store
Important Dates
August 28 – PTA meeting at 5 pm
August 30 – Parent Workshop with Dr. Helen Street
August 31– Staff CPD (no school for students)
September 3 – Parent/Teacher Welcome Meetings (no school for students)
