Year 4 Term 2 2021

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We hope you had a relaxing break with your family and that our learners are as excited as us to begin Term 2.  Working collaboratively with you to ensure your children are reaching their full potential has been a joy so far and we look forward to continuing this into Term 2. Seesaw has been a fantastic platform to communicate with families and share student learning. Please continue to engage with these posts.

Seesaw will continue to be our main form of sharing your children’s learning. Remember to engage with their learning by commenting and giving feedback.  We will also share assessments for you to view which allows you to see the standard of their work.

Homework

Homework will continue to be set each week with the expectation that students will complete it Monday to Thursday, to hand in each Friday. This will look similar to last term with the core homework tasks of reading each night, spelling contract activities, IXL and times tables. Homework is posted on Seesaw at the beginning of each week so you are clear with expectations for the week.

Class incursion, excursion and camp
In Week 3 on Monday 10 May we have an incursion called Start Smart. Start Smart teaches students about financial literacy, empowering them to make wise financial decisions for themselves. The Year 4 workshop reinforces and expands on the concepts of credit cards/keycards, earning money, spending habits, comparative shopping and maximising savings, further enhancing students’ money management skills. This aligns with our unit on money.

In Week 3 on Tuesday 11 May, we are going on an excursion to the South Australian Maritime Museum in Port Adelaide. This engaging experience will grow and deepen students’ knowledge and learnings explored in our HASS Inquiry Unit.

In Week 9 (Wednesday 23 - Friday 25 June) we will travel to Woodhouse Activity Centre, Piccadilly, with the Year 3 and Year 5 classes for a 3-day, 2-night camp. Detailed information was sent home late last term. This is an opportunity for your children to learn in a different environment and develop confidence. If they are nervous please reassure them that it will be a fun experience. If you have not filled in and returned consent and medical forms, please do so as soon as possible.  A reminder that payment for the camp is due by Friday 11 June (Week 7).  Students and staff are looking forward to the exciting activities planned, in particular crawling, climbing, swinging and splashing around the obstacles on Challenge Hill.  

We look forward supporting students to grow their Learning Dispositions as curious, resilient, thoughtful, responsible, and collaborative learners in an exciting learning environment as part of the St Raphael’s School community.

Kind Regards,
Sarah Edson and Deborah Hansen
Year 4 Class Teachers

For Term 2, we have planned rich learning experiences in the following curriculum areas.

English
Writing Genre: Recounts and Reports.
As part of our HASS Inquiry unit (further information below), students will read, view and listen to a variety of texts relating to the early colonisation of Australia. Through this, students will identify the differences between the language of fact and opinion texts. They use their research to write a historical recount exploring the point of view of an explorer or convict.
Handwriting: Students are supported to develop a link script handwriting style with correct letter shapes, size and formation.
Spelling and Grammar: Students follow the scope and sequence of Sound Waves. Students use accurate spelling and punctuations and edit their own writing. With support they will use correct grammar, including simple and compound sentences.
Reading Novel: ‘Birrung the Secret Friend’ by Jackie French. Students will make connections to the HASS inquiry unit and how this narrative relates to the unit. Students continue to build on their comprehension strategies.
Listening and Speaking: Students will continue to develop their listening skills during class discussions. They will give an oral presentation on their chosen convict or explorer using topic specific language.

Students will continue to borrow books each Friday from The Loft.

Mathematics
Time: Students will use ‘am’ and ‘pm’ notation and solve simple time problems and converting between units of time.
Chance: Students will describe possible everyday events and order their chances of occurring, identify everyday events where one cannot happen if the other happens as well as events where the chance of one will not be affected by the occurrence of the other.
Fractions and Decimals: Students will count by quarters, halves, including with mixed numerals and locate and represent fractions on a number line. They will recognise that the place value system can be extended to tenths and hundredths and make connections between fractions and decimal notation.
Number and Place Value: continuing on from Term 1, students will solve word problems by using number sentences involving multiplication or division where there is no remainder. They will find unknown quantities in number sentences involving addition and subtraction and Identify equivalent number sentences involving addition and subtraction.
Money: Students will solve problems involving purchases and the calculation of change to the nearest five cents with and without digital technologies.
Investigation: In an ‘iFlicks movie marathon’ Maths investigation, students will use data, timetables and timelines to make decisions about how to spend a day at the movies.
Data Representation and Interpretation: Students will learn these concepts as part of Digital Technology (see below).

Religious Education
This term, students will learn about encountering and celebrating the sacred through sacramentality and prayer. Specifically, we will look at the Sacrament of Confirmation and how the Holy Spirit strengthens people to live Christian lives. Students will also learn about the saints and models for Christian discipleship and the Christian calling for the Reign of God. We will look at how God reveals love to the world and that the Holy Spirit enables people to live good and loving lives. Linking in with our HASS Inquiry unit (information below), students will learn historical aspects including that God continued a faithful relationship with people throughout history and that the early Church began as a community of believers who came together in response to the death and resurrection of Jesus.

HASS Inquiry
Our inquiry unit for this term is ‘A view of Invasion or Colonisation’. Students will understand that people explore our world which leads to discoveries and new understandings. It incorporates the outlined student learnings in the curriculum areas of History, English, Religious Education, Design and Technology, Art, and Health.

History
As part of the HASS Inquiry unit, students will develop their knowledge of early world explorers and navigators.

Design and Technology
Linking to our HASS Inquiry units on explorers and The First Fleet, students will develop and expand their design ideas using models and drawings including annotations and symbols. They will design a model of ships used by Early World Explorers, using limited materials and joining techniques.

Art
As part of the HASS Inquiry unit, students will explore the diversity and depth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. This will include identifying and understanding symbols, exploring links between artworks and Dreamtime Stories, and observing the range of visual conventions such as line colour and texture.

Digital Technology - Data
Students will learn how to use digital technologies to explore Data Representation and Interpretation. Students will Select and trial methods for data collection, including survey questions and recording sheets, construct suitable data displays including tables, column graphs and picture graphs where one picture can represent many data values. They will evaluate the effectiveness of different displays in illustrating data features including variability.

Health
Continuing on from Term 1, students will focus on two main areas of the Keeping Safe Child Protection Curriculum. The first being how information and messages in the media affect us, and the other on recognising and reporting abuse.

In Week 3, students will have their first of 4 ‘Growing With Gratitude’ sessions. Growing With Gratitude is a resilience program that builds and protects young people’s mental wellbeing.

Science
This term students explore Earth and Space Sciences. Through the context of exploring rocks, soil and landscapes, students will understand that the Earth’s surface changes over time as a result of natural processes and human activity. Through hands-on activities, students will explore, describe and represent the components of different soils, examine the features of rocks and draw conclusions about what this might mean for their use, investigate and model of how weather may change rocks over time, and investigate how weather may change landscapes over time. Students will apply these learnings by planning and conducting an investigation into the factors that affect water erosion of soils.

Japanese
Students will learn greetings, phrases around ‘My School’, Japanese Children’s Day, Hiragana Reading and Writing, and Kanji Symbols.

Performing Arts
Students will develop their understanding of pitch, rhythm and aural patterns within Latino music. They will explore through singing and playing tuned percussion as well as the ukulele.

Physical Education
Students will engage in kicking skills through playing soccer. They will practice their catching, throwing, running and dodging skills while playing lacrosse. Students will also practice their running skills through long distance cross-country running as well as short and long-distance athletics running.