Prep | Year 4 News

English

This term, Year 4 has been learning about poetry, language features, poetic devices and predicting. The boys have explored many different types of poetry and identified their different text features. They have studied different poetic devices used within poems to help engage the audience. Students have developed the skills to produce different types of poetry and incorporate a range of poetic devices to support their writing. These learning experiences have enabled the boys to develop their skill of making predictions and using inferencing to support their predictions.

Maths

This term the boys in Year 4 have been learning about two dimensional shapes, three dimensional shapes, angles, lines, chance and money. They have developed their understanding of the key attributes of 2D and 3D shapes, angles and lines by identifying and drawing shapes. The boys have experienced a range of learning experiences which have given them a greater understanding of how chance exists in everyday situations. Students will continue to experience a range of real life problems which incorporate numerous mathematical concepts such as division, multiplication, addition, subtraction, fractions, percentages and decimals.

UOI

This term, Year 4 have been engaging in our unit, Where We Are in Place and Time. In Year 3, this saw the boys learn about the discovery and colonisation of Australia which has been a brilliant springboard into our central idea of, ‘Exploration leads to discovery and new understandings’. By taking a more global approach to our inquiry this term, we have been able to delve into significant discoveries and explorations that have impacted society. Over the last few weeks the boys have been inquiring into a chosen explorer and sharing their research with

their peers. Throughout this task, the boys have been focussing on developing their time-management and self-management skills.

STEAM

The Earth has been hit by a meteorite, so humans have relocated to a new planet, CityX! Faced with the many challenges of starting a new planet, Year 4 have been working on solving the problems of their citizens. Attempting to use nothing but the land like the Indigenous people must have when Earth was being established, we were delighted to have Alien visitors. These Aliens brought with them new and improved technologies allowing for the boys to modify their designs and think outside the box. The boys then built prototypes of their ideas on Minecraft.

Next week in STEAM, boys interested in becoming part of the 2023 RoboCup co-curricular team will complete a series of challenges. There will be only 5 places available on the Year 5 2023 RoboCup team. The success criteria for selection will be boys that show principled behaviour at all times, are able to work collaboratively and are willing to learn block based coding.

Music

This term in Music, Year 4 is inquiring into the Stand Alone Unit of Inquiry Percussion and Groove with Key Concepts of Form, Change and Connection as well as singing and preparing carols for the Christmas Service at the end of the year. They have begun the unit by experimenting and composing with beats, drum patterns and loops on Garageband. By the end of the term, the students will create a small, individual Garageband composition that demonstrates their understanding of the functionality of the program as well as rhythm, form, texture and dynamics. The boys are also currently learning to sing the carols of ‘The First Noel’ and ‘Sing We Now of Christmas’ making sure they address vocal technique, follow conductor’s cues, and blend with their class to create a rounded and clear tone.

Mandarin

There are two main parts in learning this term.

The first part is language learning and development on Education Perfect. Beginning Learners learned about the classroom core words while Heritage Learners learned about both core and extra classroom words. Students practised and consolidated the focused vocabularies in reading, listening, writing and dictation, with the support of the word lists.

The second part is a project related to the UOI “Where We Are in Place and Time”. Students interviewed their peers, the places they would like to explore and created a bilingual table to collect and record the data. Then they followed the sentence scaffolds to describe the table in full Chinese sentences before introducing the information in Chinese speaking.

In terms of Approaches to Learning (ATLs), students continued to develop their Communication Skills, Thinking Skills and Social Skills throughout the term.

Christian Studies

This term, the boys are investigating how exploration leads to discovery and shapes new understandings. They will be researching the purpose of sharing the gospel in native cultures, some of the long term impacts to the native culture – positive and negative and what this looks like today with some local case studies. They will be using their communication and group skills to present their findings at the end of the term and share their own personal perspective. In Chapel, we will be investigating how we celebrate Christmas – do we have the story correct and what place does food, feasting and fellowship have? How can all these wonderful aspects enhance our experience of Christmas without taking away from the central message of Jesus’ birth.