Grade 4 Teaching and Learning News 2022


 

What's been happening in Grade 4 in 2022?

 

Literacy 

 

Grade 4 have been busy polishing up on their powerful persuasive writing skills to reflect on their learning and to impress their future grade 5 teacher. They were required to write a convincing letter responding to the topic, ‘I Am Ready For Grade 5.’ Audrey Milicevic’s letter is an example of one of the letter’s written. Over the last couple of weeks students have also enjoyed and embraced the introduction of ‘Literacy Circles.’ Each student has a particular role to share with the group when analysing their group’s text.

 

 

4A

Dear Mrs Roach,

It is very obvious that I’m ready for grade 5. It is exciting knowing that I’m going up a grade. It’s true that I am one of those students that will be successful next year.

 

I am OUTSTANDING at decimals and fractions, I feel BLESSED at coping with emotions and ASTONISHINGLY GREAT with joining writing.

 

Firstly, I am efficient at decimals and fractions. I can convert fractions into decimals. E.g. 37/100 = 0.37. I am also in one of the highest maths groups in my class. I think I am pretty ready for grade 5 maths.

 

Secondly, I can get back to the green zone in a whizz! For example, when people are loud in my class, I can almost flip my lid! But then I start to breathe in and out. It helps alot. When we are in a community circle, Mrs Roach asks me questions and almost every time I get them right. To conclude this paragraph, I think I’m great with my emotions.

 

Lastly, I am CERTAIN that I am awesome at joining writing. When I do handwriting, I see Mrs Roach say ‘excellent effort!’ I have also received my pen licence. How? You may ask, well, I’ve been practising for almost two years now. I actually started connecting my letters in my work in term one this year. IN TERM ONE! To conclude this paragraph, I think I’m outstanding at joining writing.

 

Overall, I feel pretty confident about heading into grade 5. My joining writing is beautiful, I can do fractions and decimals and I have great strategies to cope with my emotions.

 

Do you think I’m ready Mrs Roach?

 

Kind regards Audrey Milicevic

 

4B has been completing many great writing tasks. We are very proud of our amazing historical fiction published books. We put in a huge effort to draft, edit and eventually publish our stories, ready for our classmates to enjoy. Our persuasive writing topic was all about why we should move to grade 5 in 2023. We all came up with some strong arguments and had plenty of evidence to prove we are ready to make that jump next year. Way back in February, we all chose a topic that we wanted to know more about and we were passionate about. Our job throughout the year has been to put together one page of research each month and to eventually publish a non-fiction book. On December 1st we were able to share our books with our classmates and hope they can use them to learn something new as well!

 

 

4C students have been learning about how to participate in a Literature Circles. Students have been given an individual role, such as the Summariser, and need to read several pages or chapters each day in reading and take notes according to their role for the week. At the end of the week students meet with their book club and a Discussion Director facilitates the group discussion. Students in 4C are learning how to prepare for their Literature Circles throughout the week so that they can have rich discussions about the group text at the end of the week.

 

 

Numeracy

 

Grade 4B has been working through our Footy Maths competition all year and we are approaching the finals! The activity involves many mathematical concepts including chance, multiplication and addition as well as using a calculator to work out %. The students look forward to playing against each other and to see where they might end up on the ladder!

 

 

In 4C we have been learning about fractions and decimals. We had to accurately scale the decimals in a number line from 0 to 10. We all worked as a team to make sure we got everything correct. It came out well By Mason and Arren :)

 

 

Student Voice and Agency

 

4C: Avondale Fashions on the Field :)

In 4C we did fashions on the field, to celebrate the Melbourne Cup! We learnt about the history of the Melbourne Cup and found out that Phar Lap and his jockey were the first pair to win the Melbourne Cup and won 37 races. We also found out that there were around 4000 people that attended the first Melbourne Cup. All the people who went to the Melbourne Cup wear different outfits to celebrate it, this is called Fashion on the Fields. We were given newspapers and masking tape to design and make our own outfit, we also had to be creative and work together to construct the most amazing outfit ever. In the end, group two won! Written by Lam and Aleen :)

 

 

Grade 3/4 Bendigo Camp

 

Grades Three and Four campers have had an amazing time at our Bendigo Goldfields camp this week! Highlights included tours of the Great Stupa, the Central Deborah Gold Mine, Bendigo Art Gallery and the Golden Dragon Museum. We have been demonstrating our ability to problem solve in a variety of situations by spending time with students from other classes and year levels. It was great to see all our students confidently demonstrating the values we have been working on, respect, responsibility and learning, in a range of environments.

 

 

 

Personal and Social Learning

 

Grade 3 and Grade 4 students explored the Zones of Regulation during Week One. They created posters to show what emotions they feel in each of the zones.

 

 

Numeracy highlights 

 

4A have been learning about the attributes of 2D shapes and how you can split and combine them to make new shapes.

 

 

4B have been investigating the properties of 2 dimensional shapes and where we might see these shapes out in the community. The task we completed involved using our imagination and drawing a scene that featured all of the 2D shapes listed on the page. We certainly came up with some great designs!

 

 

In 4C we have been learning about two dimensional shapes. Last week, we used a tangram (an old Chinese shape puzzle made of different shapes) to make different shapes. We all enjoyed using the tangram. We also tried to make the biggest shape using the whole class’s shapes.

Lam - I liked making new shapes with several other ones. Henry - I liked making a giant shape with all the class’s tangrams. Special thanks to Mr. Gordon, Haris S & Luna S.

 

 

Book Week 

 

Wow! What a fun and engaging Book Week it has been for 4A. This week we invited our buddies to read ‘The Walk of the Whales’ with us in class and worked together to write our own book reviews, discussing the characters and parts we enjoyed the most. We also had the opportunity to share some of our favourite picture books with 1B and show how rewarding reading can be.

 

 

Grade 4B worked with the grade 1 students during Book Week, preparing a small reading activity for the students to work through after they read a picture story book together. Once the activity was complete, the grade 1 students chose a book to share with the grade fours. During the week we were also lucky to visit Essendon Keilor College and enjoy their presentation of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” This was enjoyed by everyone.

 

 

 

 

In 4C all the seniors went to Essendon Keilor College (EKC) to watch an amazing performance of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. A congrats to Shaylee a 4C student who won an award for book week. Seeing our buddies all dressed for Book Week was so CUTE! And doing a book review on a story was very interesting. A very exciting week 7 for 4C.

-written by Lola and Lam

 

 

Science Week and Numeracy Highlights

 

4A

Science Week: This week we had lots of wonderful community circle discussions. Students responded to the question, ‘Tell us about the bin system that you have at your house?’ Students then took on the challenge to reduce the amount of packaging going into our classroom bin. Their Nude Food lunch boxes were also healthy and delicious. We will continue to learn more about choosing the right bin to sustain our future.

 

Measurement: We had great fun learning about area. Students used the surface area of 10 rows of 100 MAB blocks to make their own 1 square metre. They then explored finding out the area of a quadrilateral in the school yard.

 

 

4B

Our focus in 4B has been looking at surface area. We investigated what one square metre looked like and calculated the area of our classroom. Then we posed the question, If we removed all of the furniture, how many people could we fit into the room standing up? Once we had that in mind, we then estimated and calculated the number of people we could fit on one bat tennis court and the basketball court. We were amazed by our discoveries!

 

 

4C

In Maths, we have been learning about area. We went into our second classroom with no tables in it and our teacher taught us a little bit of revision before we got into groups to make 1 metre square. We were trying to make exactly 1 metre square using a cardboard box. We had to use tape and scissors. There was another box so we had to cut 20 centimetres because the width was only 80 centimetres. We used tape to connect it to the 1 metre square and then tested it.                                               Written by Henry

 

 

Inquiry Learning and Zones of Regulation

 

4A

We have been learning about our first people’s traditional cultures and lifestyles so that we will be ready to understand how their lives changed when European people arrived.

 

 

4B

During the first few weeks of the term, we have been concentrating on the First Australians and learning about their journey to Australia. We have also investigated their culture and traditions, researching what life was like in Australia and Moonee Valley for the indigenous people, before the arrival of the European settlers.

 

 

4C

In 4C we have been learning about the ‘Zones of Regulation. We showed what zones Disney characters were feeling by holding up different coloured items that matched the 4 zones.

We made our own chart of the feelings in each zone and played a game of Zones Emotions bingo. We did an activity where we stuck emotions on different pieces of paper as the colours of the zones!

 

Written by Salina M, Sienna P and Thomas B. 

NAIDOC Week Literacy and Numeracy Highlights

 

For NAIDOC Week, 4A celebrated Aboriginal art by working together as a community to create a class mural. We also learnt about the difference between Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement of Country. As a class we then created our own Acknowledgement of Country after researching who were the original inhabitants of Avondale Heights.

Our Inquiry unit focus question: Who were the First Australians and where did they come from?

 

 

 

As a celebration of NAIDOC Week, 4B has worked collaboratively on a Rainbow Serpent Mural and also wrote our own individual Acknowledgement of Country. This has fit into our Inquiry unit which has a focus on First Contact. We are learning lots about Indigenous Australians and their way of life before European settlement.

 

 

In 4C we have been learning about First Contact and celebrating NAIDOC week by working as a class to put together a mural of Aboriginal art. We found out that the Aboriginals could've been the first people in the world. By India L Arren P

 

 

For the past couple of weeks 4A have continued to learn about persuasive techniques and text structures when reading and writing. Here are just a few samples of our students' great work using topics of their own choice.

For numeracy we have focused on improving our subtraction problem solving skills and learning about how to calculate units of time. Students explored the open ended tasks of finding out how old they are in years, months, weeks and days.

 

 

 

During this semester, 4B has worked on a measurement task that involved length. We designed a house and had to put in length measurements, demonstrating our knowledge of the most appropriate units of measurement. We have also conducted a survey, looking at the technology devices we have regular access to at home. We then had to construct a graph that displayed our grade information, as well as data from all the grade 4 classes.

 

 

In 4C Numeracy we have been practising converting units of time. We learnt about how many days and weeks are in one year, how many years make up one decade and so on.

Using this information we then had a go at finding our age to years, months and days.

In Literacy we have been focusing on Question Answer Relationships and learning about the four types of questions good readers construct and answer. The students in 4C are becoming much more confident when identifying the type of question presented to them, such as, right there questions, think and search, author and me or on my own.

 

 

National Reconciliation Week and Inquiry Learning

 

This term in reading, 4A have been analysing how authors use persuasive techniques to change the opinion of the reader. We then explored these techniques by creating our own cereal boxes. We have also linked this to learning how to use the TEEL approach to improve our persuasive writing skills. We chose the ‘Nude Food’ topic to learn about ways that we can sustain our planet.

 

 

As this week has been Reconciliation Week, Grade 4B watched a video on what  reconciliation means for Australia and in particular, Indigenous Australians. We decided to design a Reconciliation Footy Guernsey to celebrate Indigenous culture and to incorporate many of the symbols seen in indigenous artwork.

 

 

This week in Grade 4C inquiry we have been learning about reconciliation week. We were making aboriginal drawings on our football guernseys for the lesson, for example, footprints, emus and other types of aboriginal symbols.

By Jackie and Mason from 4C.

 

 

School Wide Positive Behaviours (SWPBS) 

 

This week 4A discussed how positive behaviours make us feel respected and treating others the way we like to be treated. We made a recipe story about making a bowl of RESPECT.

 

This week 4B looked at a variety of school wide positive behaviours and came up with recipes that might help us to develop these qualities ourselves. The ingredients are what make Avondale a great place to be and learn.

 

 

In 4C, we have been learning about respect. We took a vote and decided that we would do our recipe on Chicken Curry of Respect. 4C had a lot of fun with this secret recipe. We hope you enjoy it!

By Arren P and Zach 4C            Pictures by Ali and Olivia

 

 

Commemorating ANZAC Day

 

Students in 4A learnt about why ANZAC Day is a special commemorative day for Australia. Mrs Roach shared her grandfather’s letters about his experiences of being at Gallipoli in World War One. We then researched lots of words to write our diamante poems.

 

 

Students in 4B completed a diamante poem which followed the recipe of:

                         Noun

              Adjective       Adjective

       Verb           Verb             Verb

Noun       Noun            Noun        Noun

        Verb           Verb            Verb

              Adjective        Adjective

                          Noun

We used information we had gathered through our reading and short videos from the week.  

 

 

In 4C, we have been learning about ANZAC day! We have been writing Diamante poems. We have also been reading a variety of ANZAC books and writing connections; text to self, text to world, text to text.

By Olivia B and Alexandra M

 

A Spotlight on Literacy and Numeracy

 

For writing, Grade 4A have been busy learning about the writing process to publish our own narratives. To reinforce this, students have been focusing on using grammar, such as possessive apostrophes correctly. In numeracy this week we have learnt about rounding large numbers to the nearest 10/100/1000.

 

 

Grade 4B has been working feverishly to write, revise, edit and publish a narrative as a major writing task for the term. We carefully followed the Seven Steps to Writing Success procedures and have produced some amazingly imaginative stories, as well as honing our formatting skills on the computer.

 

 

Grade 4C

In 4C we are learning about measurements. We had to design our dream or future houses. We first sketched our house then we measured the house using centimetres. Then after we used fine liner on the lines we finally coloured it in with all types of colours. They were all so amazing! In 4C we always try our best, we can agree with whoever we work with and in 4C we treat everyone as equals no matter what.

 

By Olivia B and India L

 

 

National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence

Harmony Day

 

4A connected National Bullying Day with how we can help our Foundation buddies. They visited our big room for the first time and we talked about ways we can make them feel at ease with acts of kindness. Students came up with ideas such as, doing something that they like to do, reading a story that is just right for them, and building something together. Students wrote acts of kindness on a class chain that is now on display in our classroom. We believe kindness will stamp out bullying.

 

 

 

 

Grade 4B came up with many many kindness statements that we wrote on coloured pieces of paper and made into a long chain. We also had a visit from our Foundation buddies and completed some drawings and sentences about kindness. We celebrated Harmony Day by playing a dice game where each number represented a question about family celebrations. We shared some great answers within our small groups.

 

 

 

4C were so lucky to be able to complete two kindness chains for National Day Against Bullying and Violence. We watched a video about bullying and then made links to paper chains that demonstrated acts of kindness we could put into action at home, at school and online. We then had a visit from our Foundation buddies and made a kindness chain together explaining ways we could be kind to our buddies. It was very exciting having our buddies visit and join us for this special activity. On Harmony Day, 4C used a range of prompts on a dice to facilitate students to share about their families and cultural celebrations. We learn many fascinating things about different cultures and celebrations and also had a discussion about the following quote, ‘In a world where you can be anything, BE KIND’.

 

 

 

Respectful Relationships: Emotional Literacy

In Grade 4B we discussed and brainstormed lots of great emotion words and went through whether some were visual emotions, some were body emotions and some were both. We talked about the importance of reading facial expressions as well as body language. Can you guess the emotions of these students?

 

 

 

 

In Grade 4C, we have been learning about what causes our emotions to change. We had to make a freeze frame in small groups to show each emotion and then we got to create our own emojis to show an emotion that people can feel. “My emotion was ‘hot’ and people can feel this when they are under the sun,” (Shaylee). “My emotion was shy and people can feel this emotion when they meet someone new and they are nervous,” (Ethan). We do these activities so we can learn how people’s emotions are triggered. “I felt happy when we did the freeze frame because I could show people my emotion,” (Shaylee). “I felt a little frustrated because it was tricky to plan our freeze frame,” (Ethan).

By Ethan H and Shaylee B 4C

 

 

 

Inquiry Learning: Someone Else's Shoes

 

Grade 4A: We are learning about the habit of listening with empathy and understanding. We have been guided by ‘Listening like a triangle.’

Role playing listening  like a brick wall, not moving or speaking, with a blank expressionless face and listening like a mirror, demonstrated to us how it feels not to be understood. We have also been focusing on an important word, independence.

 

 

Grade 4B: Our inquiry sessions this week looked at flexible thinking. We discussed all of the amazing thinking, ideas and inventions that people with flexible minds have come up with to help both disabled and able-bodied people achieve amazing things. We watched a video that advertised the 2016 Paralympic Games titled, “The Superhumans,” and realised the song, “Yes I Can!” means with some flexible thinking, humans can do incredible things!  We put a page together with the flexible thinking that blew our minds!

 

Grade 4C: During our Social Justice unit, Grade 4C have started exploring what it is like to walk in someone else’s shoes. Together we watched several stories about a boy named Riley, also known as the ‘Bionic Boy’, who is 13 and was born with cerebral palsy. 4C found out about the everyday things that Riley needed assistance with and the amazing technology that is being developed to help Riley be more in control of simple things, like for example, turning on a light switch. After viewing, students then developed an anchor chart which demonstrated thoughtful and reflective thinking and listening.

 

Routines for Success

4A have been learning about how our positive behaviours achieve success.

Our class motto supports everything we do in our classroom.

Our class mural is evidence of how we have focused and put in effort by working together collaboratively to achieve success. We are all very proud of our colourful display.

 

 

In Grade 4B, one of our learning tasks was looking at our outer self as well as our inner self. We illustrated a poster, halving our face with one half being our physical appearance, whilst the other half looked into our inner self, where we expressed our character traits and the many activities that make us who we are.

 

 

4C have been hard workers this week setting up our classroom library. They worked together to sort through all of the books in the classroom into categories that they believed best described them. This involved students discussing genres and authors of their books before matching them up. Once this step was complete, they began organising them into our classroom library and placing a sticky note on each tub. The sticky notes on the tubs demonstrate our first attempt to categorise the books we have while understanding that as our knowledge of genres increases, the sticky notes can change into more permanent labels for our library.  This is a work in progress but gives students full ownership of their library and a strong understanding of where things belong.