Grade 4

A message from the grade 4 team

And just like that term 3 is done and dusted. What a great semester of learning being had. Students should be so proud of their efforts with their learning as well as their contributions with our annual concert and our Athletics community sports day. Term 4 promises to be filled with lots of fun and lots of meaningful learning.

English

Reading

This term, students will be learning about and reviewing reading strategies including  skimming and scanning, sequencing, questioning, determining importance, inferring,  visualizing, comparing and contrasting. Students will be reviewing strategies that have been covered throughout the year through independent activities and supported group work.

Reading conferences are completed with students on a regular basis and are communicated through students reading diaries. It is very important that students bring their reading diaries every day to school so that their teacher has an opportunity to communicate these reading goals and to write in their diaries when they have been read to. It is an expectation that grade 4 students read 5 days a week. 

Writing

Within writing this term. students will be focusing on explanations, procedures, persuasive, graphic novel and narrative writing. 

Spelling

Soundwaves is a whole school program that focuses on different phonemes and the accompanied graphemes to illustrate to students different spelling patterns. Each week, students from F-6 are introduced to a new phoneme and grapheme which then becomes a focus for the week.

Maths

In Maths this term students will be focusing on multiplication and division, solids, place value, fractions and decimals, addition and subtraction, measurement and statistics and probability. During the numeracy block students are immersed in a variety of rich mathematical tasks that promote problem solving, reasoning and higher order thinking.

Teachers 2019

4S - Vicki Schavoni
4L - Danielle Lamprell
4V - Samantha Vroom
​4T - Simon Turnbull

STEM

At Maiden Gully Primary School, student's take part in many STEM activities to provide rich and meaningful learning experiences that often compliment the current topic student's are learning or as an introductory activity. 

Geography 

In the Geography unit, Biomes of the World, students explore the features and the natural environment of the continents of Africa and South America and make comparisons to Australia. This includes researching biomes and developing an understanding that animals and plants are dependent on the habitat they live in.  Students will consolidate their knowledge by creating and presenting an information report on a chosen animal from a selected biome and describing how that biome sustains its existence. 

History

In the History unit, Early Exploration and the First Fleet, students ​engage in a range of concepts relating to the early explorers of the Age of Exploration and the ‘discovery’ of Australia. This unit also encompasses concepts relating to the First Fleet and British Colonization. Student's then get the opportunity to create a First Fleet ship and test its buoyancy.  

Integrated Studies

Grade 4's Integrated Studies unit is inspired by Caine’s Arcade which is a short film about a 9 year old boy’s cardboard arcade, and his dream of having customers. Tens-of-thousands of customers visited Caine’s Arcade to play, and kids around the world began making their own cardboard arcades. Shortly after posting the film, Nirvan founded a non-profit called Imagination.org which launched a Global Cardboard Challenge to foster kid creativity worldwide.  

Students work individually or with a partner where they are required to create an arcade game using junk art. During this process they need to document:

• A diagram of their arcade game
• A list of the materials needed
• A description of joining methods
• A description of how their arcade game will be played

They are then encouraged to follow their design where they are able to make changes along the way. 

Science

Students have investigated  three different science units. The first unit 'Material world' illustrated to students how materials have revolutionized modern life. This unit illustrated how plastics have been used instead of glass in bottles and windows, and even instead of metals in aeroplanes. As well, this unit explored how lighter, stronger, warmer fabrics have made extreme weather conditions more comfortable and how designers incorporate new materials in clothes and bags to better suit our needs.  

The second science unit students have  investigated is the Physical Science unit, Melting Moments, where students developed an understanding that a change of state between solid and liquid can be caused by adding and removing heat. Students worked in collaborative learning teams to investigate the effect of heat on substances. Students showed how they can conduct a fair test, make predictions, and compare results and suggested possible reasons.

The third science unit students investigated was a magnetic themed unit titled 'Push and Pull.' Students investigated how magnets play a more important and often unseen role in our daily lives. They discovered that many common household items have magnets in them and are part of what makes these items work. The 'Push and Pull' unit was an ideal way to link science with literacy in the classroom.

Through hands-on investigations with all of these units, students are able to investigate the different properties associated with materials, heat and magnets and how they impact daily life.