Yr4 Curriculum Update – 09/11/18
Working together to achieve success for every child
Transdisciplinary Learning – It’s all connected!
Living things survive and thrive in specific ecosystems.
UOI & Literacy
What a fun time we have had beginning our inquiries with numerous opportunities to tune in to all of our prior knowledge and understanding of ecosystems and animals and their adaptations. If you had walked into our shared area you would have entered an environment buzzing with the enthusiasm of Year 4 students who were: unpacking their central idea and understanding key words, watching videos explaining ecosystems and the parts within it, such as the producer, consumer and decomposer, observing a man made ecosystem in a bottle, independently inquiring into student made questions related to one of our concepts of ‘Form’ (What is an ecosystem? What are adaptations?), visiting the ‘Secret Garden’ to find out how we can help and encourage the ecosystems there, exploring the parts and purposes of an ecosystem and finding out which different ecosystems exist. Phew! An exhaustive list of learning engagements to whet the appetite of Year 4 inquirers.
As our learning is as connected as possible and transdisciplinary, these learning engagements are designed with several layers. Not only are students inquiring into this content and tapping into their prior understandings, but they are also focussing on identifying specific literacy and ‘Approaches to Learning’ skills. Whilst reading Information report examples about ecosystems, students are learning the variety of ways they might comprehend what they read, by learning about the reading strategy ‘determining importance’. They are also beginning to create an understanding of what researchers do when they ‘observe’ and what thinkers do when they ‘comprehend’ new understandings. We have also been lucky enough to invite in some expert guest speakers. Mr Melsom has introduced some Hong Kong ecosystems to us and what we might do to help them thrive. Ms Hadley and some Year 2s have taught us about how we can nurture and respect our environment by making our own soil, for the ‘Secret Garden’ which happens to also be an ecosystem in itself! We learnt that we can bring in cardboard egg cartons and place in our brown waste bins, to help us make compost.
Here are some question stems you might like to try using with your children to find out more about their day.
Keywords: ecosystem, adaptation, survive, thrive, producer, consumer, decomposer, specific, impact.
Consider exploring these keywords in your children’s mother tongue to help comprehension.
Maths
Our mathematical inquiries have seen us start a new unit about ‘Number.’
Our Central idea is:
The four operations are connected to each other and are used to solve problems.
With our focus being on addition and subtraction, we are beginning our inquiries with what we already understand about these number operations. The students have been sharing the different strategies they are comfortable using for addition and subtraction of 2 digit and 3 digit numbers. Students have been sharing their strategies with others and teaching others. This shows we really understand a concept if we can teach it to another person. We have shared many strategies including the ‘jump strategy’, ‘partitioning’, ‘bridge to ten’, ‘rounding and adjusting’. Throughout all of our reflection of strategies, we are problem solving using known and new strategies. We are continuing to reflect on the Jo Boaler Mathematical Mindsets we revisit throughout the year.
Number talks, sharing our strategies
Key maths vocabulary:
Visualise – can you create an image in your head which shows the problem?
Connections – how does the problem/situation connect to other things?
Questions – what questions can you ask to deepen your understanding?
Key maths vocabulary
add, sum, total, subtract, take away, decrease, increase, difference, addition
Mandarin
In the Chinese classrooms, we continue to focus on the concept of wellbeing and providing different learning opportunities for children to explore their own interests and promote agentic learning.
Here is a glimpse of some of our classrooms:
Reminders
- None at the moment
Important Dates
Thursday 8 November Y1 Mandarin Consultation and Y4 Trip to Wetland Park
Friday 9 November Diwali Assembly 1:30pm (auditions after mid term break)
15 and 16 November School Musical
Thursday 22 November Y4 – 4D, 4C and 4F Trip to Wetland Park
Friday 23 November Quiz Night / Bingo Night (Updated)
27 to 30 November Y5 Camp
3 to 7 December Y6 Camp
Friday 14 December Last day of term – half day
17 December to 4 January Term Break – No school
Monday 7 January First day of Term 2
