Yr4 Weekly Update – 02/9/16

General

It was great to meet so many parents this week – all the information you gave us proves very useful for knowing how your child can be successful at school. Please be reminded that email is the best form of communication with us, and that we will endeavour to reply within 24 hours.

Several parents have asked for information about curriculum outcomes and these will be made available for each unit of inquiry through the curriculum statements. The first will be issued very soon! Other curriculum detail can be found in this weekly update.

We have started our unit “Who We Are” this week and children have been reflecting on their strengths as well as those of others. They have considered what it might be to be an “everyday hero” and who might be their heroes. The language of character strengths is very important for understanding the concepts so we have been ‘tuning in’ to what the words mean.

 

Literacy

We have continued to work on “monitoring comprehension” through listening to our inner voices when we read. We studied “Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse” by Kevin Henkes this week which also linked nicely to our Unit of Inquiry so the children were able to make some good connections.

We have begun to write in our personal journals and focus on “Voice” as one one the ‘Six Traits of Writing’.

 

Maths

This week we have been doing some ‘messy maths’ investigations, learning how to use the inquiry cycle to help us solve problems as well as continuing to consolidate and extend understanding in place value, ordering and rounding of numbers up to 5 digits.

 

Home Learning

Most students are now firmly back in the routine of home reading and changing books each morning. Please could you make sure this is embedded in their home/school organisation routines. Children should be writing their book choice into their diaries each day and writing a comment on their reading – ask them about their theories, connections and questions to help them develop deeper comprehension of the text.

New Sumdog passwords should have been issued as the school has now paid for full subscriptions for all students. Please note the school code for log in is now kjs2. Students will find Sumdog a great way to maintain and develop their number fact fluency.

Finally, we have asked students to ‘interview’ a family member about who their role-models are and why. They can make mental or written notes and bring them to share in class later in the week.

 

Year 4