Welcome Back! Term 1 Week 4

Hello everyone,

Welcome back to another busy term in 4D...I absolutely can't believe it is our last term together...I am devastated! I have loved watching our little loves develop and mature as the year has progressed and I am so very proud of all of their hard work. I will be sad to say goodbye to them at the end of the year for sure! 

I hope that you enjoyed your holidays and had some down time as well as some adventures...mine were great with loads of poochie snuggles, walks, whale watching, rugby carnivals, books read, movies watched and a fair bit of 'Marie Kondo'ing.

Next week we welcome Miss Ashley Carter, a second year prac student from ECU who will be joining us for 4 weeks. She will be gradually increasing her teaching load through small group work and whole class teaching as the weeks progress under my supervision and this is a great opportunity for her to work with students and develop her teaching skills. Please come in and say hi! 

REMINDERS - WEEK 1

SMMC Visit - This Friday 18th October, we will be heading off to St Mary MacKillop for our Orientation Day visit. Please make sure that you have RSVP'd directly to SMMC if you wish to attend the tour later in the afternoon. Please let me know if your child will be staying with you.

Change to Assembly Time for Term 4 - Just a reminder that we are trialing a new time for Assembly this term, beginning at 2.15pm. 

There is no assembly this week as the Year 6 students will have just returned from their Camp and many students will be making an early start off to Family Camp for the weekend!

Wheelie, Walkie, Waste Free Wednesday's - These kick off next week and will run for Week's 2 through to 5. There is a class challenge and I would love for 4D to continue its run as the BEST CLASS IN THE SCHOOL  and see how many students we can get wheeling or walking. If you are unable to wheel or walk, please make sure your child is coming with as much nude food (no packaging) as possible. 

Crunch n Sip - As the year continues I am finding that many of the students LOVE Crunch n Sip. We normally have this in class around 10am depending on our specialist schedule.

I would also like to open this idea up if your child would like to bring some fruit/veg to snack on in the afternoon. There is no pressure to send in extra food but please feel free to do so if your child would like?

Interschool Athletics Carnival - This is on next week, the 24th October. Please see Mrs Sinclair if you have any questions.

Opening of the New Building - Bishop Gerard will be coming to formally open and bless the new buildings on Friday 25th October. 

Confirmation - All Year 4 students and their families are warmly invited to attend the Confirmation Mass on Saturday 26th October beginning at 6pm. All students are invited to come and support the Year 6's at this special time and join in the choir.

Grandparents Day - One of our favourite days of the year! All grandparents are warmly invited to come and visit on Monday 28th October, please let them know if you haven't already! Further details will follow in the newsletter.

OUR LEARNING - TERM 4

In Maths this term we will be looking at time and how to use an analogue clock to calculate elapsed time. If your child doesn't have an analogue clock at home, it might be handy to dig one out for them as it is a very concrete concept that is helped along with lots of practice. It might also be a good time to get the kids working hard for their pocket money as we will also be looking at financial maths with a particular emphasis on calculating change. Having a pile of cash to practice playing shopkeeper with is highly motivating and helpful!

In our writing this term, we will be looking at writing Information Reports. The students will be learning about the purpose, structure and language features of an information report. We will be heading off on excursion to Eagle's Heritage on Thursday 7th November in which the students will be looking at the characteristics of a bird of prey and then writing their report on this bird.

We will continue with our reading groups this term and as a new activity we are getting the students to work on their creative writing as one of their rotations, as well as looking at the reading comprehension strategies of making connections, summarising and visualising. 

The students will also be choosing a familiar book to write a book review on. They will need to have completely finished reading their book by the end of Week 2 to begin work in Week 3.

We will also be trialing a new spelling program in Year 4 called Sound Waves. It will still be differentiated spelling lists and activities and will continue to expose students to a range of words appropriate to their level.

In History we will be looking at Early Explorers and how this has impacted the location and names of places around our region. Students will be given a research project to work on at home and in class later in the term.

In Art this term we will be connecting with our writing by creating Birds of Prey sculptures after a visit to Eagle's Heritage and local artist Alan Meyburgh's studio. We will be making our own sculptures of a bird of prey...wish me luck!

HOMEWORK - WEEK 1

1. Reading - As part of our reading group rotations, the students will be writing a book review on a familiar book of their choice. Students are to read for 10 minutes each night. Please encourage them to read out loud to you at least twice a week.

2. Mental Maths- Complete Unit 28, p 58& 59. All sections are to be completed by Friday. These are marked in class every morning.

3. Spelling - There is no spelling homework this week. 

4. Champion Life Challenges - If you can encourage your child to complete at least one video challenge a week. This is a fantastic initiative which whilst increasing levels of physical activity also aims to inspire students through valuable life learning.

Mrs Delane