Year 4 Update – Wk 11
Monday 6th – Wednesday 8th November – Year 4 Camp (see more info. below)
Wednesday, Thursday and Monday 8th, 9th and 13th November – Mandarin Consultations (Appointments via Gateway)
Tuesday 14th, 21st, 28th November and 5th December – Year 4 Pitch – Please note the change in date from the e-notice
Tuesday 28th November -Mandarin Consultations
Friday 1st December – PTA Disco (Year 4-6)
Friday 8th December – 4W Class Assembly at 9am
Thursday 14th December – Christmas Concert
Friday 15th December – End of Term (noon)
Monday 8th January – Start of School
4L Assembly
We were treated to the most fabulous assembly today, courtesy of 4L. What brilliant messages they shared with us about the impact our words have on other people. It was really interesting and thought-provoking to hear about the things people say that students do not like, but then to hear about the things that have a really positive impact on them, too. We loved the fact that there were so many useful suggestions for using our words positively – shared through song, dance, science, data handling and drama. Thank you to Ms Fisher, Mr Lee, Ms Kannis and the 4F students for entertaining us so well and educating us, too!
Maybe you will enjoy watching this Kid President video again, which reminds us about the things we SHOULD be saying more often…
Inappropriate youtube videos
Unfortunately, we have had some issues with students using really unkind words towards one another on the playground recently. It has come to our attention that the “inspiration” that was behind this behaviour was a channel on Youtube that some children have been accessing at home. We have had a look at it ourselves and it is definitely NOT something that is appropriate for 8-9 year old children.
Please talk to your children about appropriate internet content, and wherever possible, monitor what they are accessing online. Later in Year 4, we go into Digital Citizenship in great detail, but in the meantime you may find this website useful as a guide to appropriate apps, movies, website and games for children, organised by age range.
CAMP
Counting Down!
Camp is next Monday! We hope you are all getting excited!
Here are a few reminders before we leave on Monday:
- Please remember to pack your beach shoes/sandals in your day bag.
2. Make sure that you wear trainers/shoes to walk in for the rest of camp. Crocs will not be suitable for walking around Cheung Chau!
3. Wear light/waterproof clothes on Monday. Although, you will only be paddling up to your ankles, there is a chance you might slip and get your bottoms wet!
4. Don’t forget your packed lunch and snack for Monday and make sure they are in a disposable bag.
5. Remember to bring a raincoat to keep warm and dry in the mornings and evenings.
Peter Sullivan is Professor of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, at Monash University in Australia. He is the immediate past President of the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers and was the lead writer of the Australian Mathematics curriculum.
Professor Sullivan is one of the world’s leading authorities in Mathematics, and will be making his a visit to Beacon Hill School this November. During his visit, Professor Sullivan will work alongside the teachers to challenge all our students to reach their full potential in Mathematics through the use of open-ended, rich learning tasks and problems.
We are thrilled to announce that Professor Sullivan will run a workshop for parents in order to enhance your understanding of how you may help your children in the development of Mathematical thinking. This is for parents only, there is no need for children to attend.
An e-notice should have been sent to all parents, please let us know if you are attending.
We look forward to seeing you at the workshop.
SUNSHINE ACTION FUND RAISING
I am very pleased to announce, thanks to your generosity and the hard work of our students, we raised $150 000. This is a tremendous sum and I think it shows what a special community we belong to. We can now start to purchase the food so on 8th December our students can work with Sunshine Action at school to make the food parcels for the different charities.
To help our students with the food parcels we need parent volunteers, approximately 30. These parents will be working with groups of students to help them make the food parcels. If you are interested please click here.
ESF Christmas Card Competition
Christmas is fast approaching! ESF wish to prepare an e-card for Christmas and are inviting ESF students to come up with a design. The Christmas artwork could be a painting or drawing on A4 or A3 paper with any media such as water color, pastel, photography or digital. Please send the original artwork to Ms Yu by 13, November if you would like to enter this exciting competition. Please refer to this link if you wish to see the cards in previous years: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B1e1HGWSZqL0clF3MlF2aWk3OEE?usp=shar
Camp preparations
There has been lots of discussion and opportunities for question and answer sessions about our upcoming Camp. This is am important element of camp preparation which can really help to put the children’s minds at rest.
Improving sentences and Information reports
Students continued using FANBOYS (for, and, but, or, yet and so) as connectives to transform two simple sentences into one compound sentence.
Students worked with Ms Jeves and the class teachers to understand how to create three really interesting questions about their living thing of choice. We have been emphasising the importance of creating questions that stretch (challenge) us, rather than going for the easy option or focus on things we already know.
Engage: The children have engaged with this inquiry by first choosing their animal of interest to research. Using background knowledge as a basis to generate questions, the children have stretched themselves to think of even more that they can find out about.
Explore: The children have begun to locate and select more information about their chosen animal using Britannica (via the Beacon), the Learning Centre, including our range of National Geographic magazines, Big Universe and our class libraries.
Sharing the Planet:
Central Idea
The Interdependence of living things can affect their survival.
Lines of Inquiry
An inquiry into…
- Different types of livings things (Form)
- What living things need to survive (Connection)
- Human responsibility to the survival of living things (Responsibility)
Next week, the children will have a little bit of time to continue wit their research by using their determining importance skills to differentiate between important and interesting information.
Number Maths: Addition and Subtraction
Central Idea
The operations of addition and subtraction are related to each other and used to process information to solve problems
Lines of Inquiry
An inquiry into:
- The different ways to model/show addition and subtraction
- Mental strategies that can be used to solve addition and subtraction
- Written strategies that can be used to solve addition and subtraction
Next week the children will be working with different subtraction strategies, such as jump strategy and partitioning.
Strand Maths: Data Handling
Central Idea : Different graph forms highlight different aspects of data more efficiently
Lines of Inquiry
- How people collect and display data.
- How data is interpreted
Next week the children will be looking at different animal statistics and thinking about how different graphs and charts can be used to present this data.
Next week we will begin our information report writing by looking at introductions and will begin writing our first drafts.
Handwriting: The students will also continue their joined handwriting practice.
Comprehension Strategy: Determining Importance
The students have been looking at strategies for finding important information in a text. They first need to have purpose, or a question in mind.
Next week they will continue to practise such strategies as predicting and finding key words and using nonfiction features – titles, subtitles, contents and index and topic sentences to locate information.
To support their reading development, please make sure of the following:
- Home reading should be fun not a chore.
- Keep the timing short, find a comfy, quiet space and have a chat about what your child is reading. This really helps to develop their comprehension skills.
- There is information about comprehension at the beginning of the journal, which you can use to help guide your discussion with your child. Please also refer to information your class teacher has sent out to you about how to help your child at home.
Mathematics
All children should aim to spend 30 minutes per week completing their assigned Mathletics tasks and/or practising their times tables.
Mandarin (All children are encouraged to take a reading book home on the days when they have Mandarin lessons.)
Ms Lynn (Home learning #6) – Please check your google classroom for details.
Ms Xu – 朗读学过的课文，记得有时间读中文书，写读书报告，继续准备读后感分享，读书比赛。
