Grade 4 Information Handout - 2018 A warm welcome back to all Parkdale Primary families! We sincerely hope you had a relaxing break and are ready for a productive year ahead in Grade 4. Class Teachers Dillon Hendricks (Coordinator) Casey Blacklaw Audrey Ulrich Emily Hibberd 2018 TERM DATES TERM 1: 30 th January to 29th March TERM 2: 16th April to 29th June TERM 3: 16th July to 21st September TERM 4: 8th October to 21st December Super 6 Values Respect Responsibility Resilience Integrity Co-operation Excellence SCHOOL TIMES 9am 11:30am 12:00 1:40pm 1:50pm 1:50pm 2:40pm 3:30pm SCHOOL STARTS RECESS EAT LUNCH (in classroom) LUNCH BREAK SCHOOL FINISHES Curriculum: The Grade 4 curriculum is covered in Victorian Curriculum Level 4. All students will be working towards proficiency in all curriculum areas against these standards. English: The Grade 4 English program is made up of Reading, Writing and Speaking and Listening, and is in accordance with the Victorian Curriculum. Our English program also incorporates the explicit teaching of spelling, punctuation and grammar. Grade 4 Teachers will plan and deliver a range of engaging, meaningful and differentiated literacy sessions covering these areas. CAFÉ Reading: CAFÉ Reading continues to be the whole school program that echoes throughout reading in Grade 4. Through explicit teaching of a range of strategies and individual conferencing sessions, students are able to further develop their comprehension, accuracy, and fluency as well as work towards expanding their own vocabulary. CAFÉ strategies and focuses will be noted in the Grade 4 What s Happening on a weekly basis and we encourage families to reinforce these at home when reading with your child. AR Reading The AR Reading Program allows children to read at their own pace and at their own level. Students borrow and read books from within a range established by their online assessment task. When a student finishes a book, they complete an online multiple choice quiz to assess their reading comprehension and are awarded points which they accumulate towards an individual target that is set at the beginning of each term. It is our expectation that students read a minimum of 15 minutes per day at home. We also ask students to record their reading within their diary each night, documenting the title of the book and page numbers read. Parents are asked to sign diaries at the end of the week. Teachers will then check and sign diaries in order to ensure students are maintaining good reading habits at home. If your child is reading books from home, you can check to see if they are on the A.R. list at www.arbookfind.com.au
ROAR Reading: ROAR reading will continue this year every second Monday morning, beginning in Week 4 on thte 19th of February between 9:00-9:30 (4B ROAR Reading will be on Monday from 9:00 9:30). For new families, during ROAR Reading we invite parents into the classroom to read with small student groups. Students are able to develop their oral reading and enjoy sharing their own ideas and insights about their book. All parent helpers are required to sign in when commencing ROAR Reading within the classroom, and will need a current Working with Children Check. Please show this to the office staff AND your child s teacher. The Grade 4 Team thanks you in advance. Camp: Monday 23rd Wednesday 25th July This year we will be attending Phillip Island Adventure Resort. The camp is set in a beach side environment. The children will be participating in a range of exciting and challenging activities. These will include archery, rock wall climbing, rock pooling and the giant swing to name a few. Camp is a fantastic opportunity for the children to mix and get to know all the children in their year level in a more relaxed and fun environment, as well as the teachers. It provides challenges and new experiences that build confidence, resilience, cooperation, team building and persistence. Parent Helpers We will require a number of parent helpers for this camp. If you are interested in attending, you must have a current Working with Children Check. Parent helpers will be determined based on the needs of the camp. More information regarding parent helpers will be released in Term 2. Homework: In Grade 4, homework allows students to consolidate their understanding of concepts covered within class and also provide them with an opportunity to develop their organisation, time management and responsibility. Compulsory homework for Grade 4 students during the year will consist of: - Minimum 15 minutes of reading per night (recorded in diary) - Studying the spelling AND meanings of their list words. - One of the following: - Inquiry based task - Mathletics task - Handwriting task - Maths activity - Research task All homework tasks are written into students diaries on a weekly basis and requirements are published in the Grade 4 What s Happening. Tasks will usually be explained and distributed on the Monday of each week. Neatness is encouraged. Grade 4 Sport: Students will participate in Grade 4 Sport every Friday between 12:00pm and 12:50pm. Through a variety of games and sports, students will be given the opportunity to build on fundamental skills taught in PE and also develop a deeper understanding of the rules and tactics of sports they may encounter in Gr 5/6 inter-school Sports.
Specialists: Grade 4 Japanese Grade 4 students will extend their language skills in reading and writing hiragana as well as some kanji characters. They will practise writing sentences and further develop their Japanese word bank. Students will also learn to write with the correct stroke order. They will create a short story utilising their language skills on an ipad and experience sharing it with peers. Performing Arts (Music, Dance and Drama) 50 mins per week Music: Students are encouraged to sing a variety of songs in class. The recorder is introduced in Yr 3 and continues in Yr 4 classes to encourage students to learn instrumental skills. Dance: Students structure movements into dance sequences and use elements of dance and choreographic devices to communicate ideas and intentions. They describe and discuss the elements of dances they make, perform and view. Drama: Students use relationships, tension, time and place and a narrative structure when improvising and performing devised and scripted drama. They use performance to communicate ideas and create a sense of time and place in drama. They discuss differences and similarities in drama they make, perform and view and how they use elements to communicate ideas to an audience. Choir : All are welcome and it is best if students can commit to a whole term and then if they wish to have a break to ask. It is important that choir is seen as a team effort and that you need to go to the training sessions not just perform!!! Digital Technologies Digital Technologies at this level concentrates on applying skills developed in the younger grades to more sustained projects and units of work. They use the internet for research activities and focus on selected suitable sites and cyber safety. Students use game making software and a variety of applications to develop an understanding of simple computer programming. Students continue to utilise Microsoft Office, including Word, Powerpoint and Excel. PE Health and Physical Education each week consists of one 50 minute P.E. lesson with Mr. Anderson and Grade 3 / 4 Sport which will focus on improving children s fundamental motor skills and fitness level. Please ensure your child has appropriate footwear, a hat and drink bottle on sport days. Visual Arts The PPS Art & Craft Exhibition will be in Term 4! See attached sheet for further information about Art.
Diaries Diaries are an effective means of communication between the school and home. Children will write down homework requirements and any important dates into their diaries and will be encouraged to keep them safe in their bags. The diary is there for parents to write in too so please feel free to use it. Children will also use their diaries to record their daily reading (book title & pages read) and parents are asked to sign it each week. Diaries will be checked and signed by the class teacher on the Friday or Monday of every week. SeeSaw For new families, SeeSaw is one of the ways we share what the Grade 4 students are learning at school. Our classroom Seesaw blogs gives the students a place and opportunity to document their own learning, be creative and develop the skills necessary to use technology effectively and safely. Each child gets their own journal and classroom teachers, specialist teachers and the students themselves will add things to it such as photos, videos, drawings, voice recordings and published writing pieces. We will also endeavour to upload Spelling lists, project rubrics and handouts and other important notices. Parent sign up and login details will be distributed shortly. Once you ve already downloaded the SeeSaw app and are connected to your child s classroom SeeSaw, you ll be notified as soon as a new item is added. All student content is safe and secure. Mathematics Mathematics has three dimensions: Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability. The children are placed in like ability groups. They attend these sessions four times a week. To assist us in determining these groups, children are pre-tested on each specific topic being covered. This allows for some movement across the groups and enables us to plan lessons that best suit each student s learning needs. At the end of each unit, the students complete a post-test to determine learning growth. In Maths, we will utilise the 4 teachers across the Grade 4 area, and Mrs Free and Mrs Lundy will share the 5th group. Having 5 groups will enable us to fully extend and support the students at their individual point of need. Our math s program has commenced, so do ask your child who their Mathematics teacher is for this Semester. Please see the Maths newsletter for information on concepts we will be covering this Term. Rotations Every Monday afternoon, the children work in mixed groupings with different Grade 4 teachers. These sessions aim to build students team work and social skills as well as enable us to cover a broader range of the curriculum. This Term, rotation topics include Civics and Citizenship, Resilience Project, SMART Games and a Cooperation Challenge.
Inquiry Themes In order to ensure the Grade 4 teachers are able to cover as much of the curriculum as possible, we have decided to revamp our Inquiry Topics. The themes for this year are as follows: Term 1 Learning how to Learn / Why? Why? Why? (Science) Term 2 Looking Backward and Looking Forward (History) Term 3 Our Island Nation (Geography) Term 4 Game of Life (Health) Absence Notes, Early Leaving and Late Passes If your child is absent from school for any reason please notify the school via your COMPASS portal. If your child is late to school or is leaving early, you must go to the main office to receive a late or early leaver s pass prior to collecting or delivering your child to their classroom. Newsletter Each week the school publishes a Newsletter on COMPASS. Please ensure you login using your unique code. It not only contains the Grade 4 What s Happening? section, but important information and dates. School Rules These are the school rules from our School Welfare and Discipline Policy. We are constantly reinforcing these and would appreciate a uniform approach from parents. Be kind, friendly & fair Act safely Stay in the correct areas Show respect for others and property Follow instructions Take responsibility for your own actions Super Six Values The Super Six Values will continue to be embedded into our learning culture throughout the year and will beautifully integrate with The Resilience Project, which we will again be using to develop the gratitude, empathy and mindfulness of all students. Punctuality It is imperative to students wellbeing that they are punctual to school. Our learning begins at 9:00 and students may miss important instruction time if they are consistently late. Punctuality also sets good learning behaviours and is an expectation in working life. Please support us and your child by ensuing that punctuality is a priority in your daily morning routine.
Photos and social media Parents are reminded that you are not permitted to take photographs of other people s children without explicit permission from that child s parent. Under no circumstances can photos of children other than your own be uploaded to social media or published otherwise. First Aid Issues Please remember to inform your child s teacher a.s.a.p. of any medical issues that they may have to enable us to best care for your child while they are at school. We are currently in the process of updating the anaphylaxis, allergy and asthma management plans of students at Parkdale Primary School as per Department of Education and Training guidelines. If your child has an anaphylaxis, allergy or asthma management plan that has not been given to the school and/or updated since February 2016, could you please make arrangements for the plan to be updated, including a recent colour photo of your child, and handed in to the school office as soon as possible. If your child s medical management plan requires them to have some form of medication at school, e.g. EpiPen, Ventolin, Claratyne or Zyrtec, please ensure this is given to the school office and take note of the expiry date. If your child has an anaphylaxis management plan, their class teacher and other staff will be creating an Individual Management plan for your child relating to both school and extra-curricular activities. This plan will be developed in consultation with the child s parents/guardian. Should you have any queries regarding the above information, please contact Casey Blacklaw (Grade 4B). Teacher Appointments For quick information sharing, a brief unscheduled chat is fine, but if more time is needed, we recommend that you schedule a longer appointment time so we can address your concerns adequately. This meeting time can be arranged via email, telephone or in person. Please be respectful of our teaching time. Bell time is never an ideal time to discuss concerns as we are ready for instruction. All staff are also in scheduled meetings on Monday and Tuesday afternoons and at 8:30am every morning. The Grade 4 Team feel extremely fortunate to be able to get to know your children and look forward to supporting them in their learning journey this year. Dillon Hendricks (Coordinator) - Grade 4H hendricks.dillon.d@edumail.vic.gov.au Casey Blacklaw - Grade 4B blacklaw.casey.b@edumail.vic.gov.au Audrey Ulrich - Grade 4U ulrich.audrey.a@edumail.vic.gov.au Emily Hibberd - Grade 4E hibberd.emily.e@edumail.vic.gov.au