Welcome to 2016

Welcome back to school. We hope that you and your families have enjoyed the holiday season and are ready to begin the school year. We extend a special welcome to the new families that are joining our St Bernardine’s school community. Following is an overview of what to expect in Term One.

Curriculum focus

In Religion, we begin by constructing our class vision statement around the theme of ‘compassion’. Building a class vision together is a critical part of setting up our classroom expectations and this gives the students an opportunity to contribute their ideas about how our class will work together throughout the year. During this time we will also revisit the school wide behaviour management policy and our school rules. As part of our Health unit, students will learn how to ‘recognise, react and report’ when they are unsafe. In Science, students will investigate push/pull and contact/non-contact forces. Students will engage in a variety of hands on investigations to explore how and where force occurs in everyday life. In English, students will examine the structure and features of informative texts and explore traits of good writing including organisation, word choice, conventions and sentence fluency. Comprehension of texts is a continued focus as students develop greater fluency and accuracy with reading. Strategies for explicit teaching this term include making connections, questioning, finding the main idea, summarising and visualising. These strategies are used school-wide and are further consolidated during library lessons and literacy support sessions. When reading with your child each night, we encourage you to ask them about these strategies to help them make meaning from the texts they read. In Maths, we will continue to explore concepts under the three strands, Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability. The Maths program includes diagnostic tests in week 4 and week 8 that inform students and teachers of areas of strength as well as areas in need of revision.  Students will set goals from the feedback that these diagnostic tests provide and then they will work on these goals with their teachers and peers before the term test in week 8. Following is a list of areas to be explored throughout the term.

 

Number and Algebra •       Read, write and order numbers up to 99 999 •       Identify and compare fractions •       Use the SPLIT strategy to solve addition problems •       Describe number patterns •       Recall multiplication number facts (0x, 1x, 5x, 10 x, 2x, 4x, 8x)

Measurement and Geometry •       Solve time problems •       Investigate 2D and 3D shapes •       Classify angles •       Read calendars Measure length using cm and mm

Statistics and Probability •       Describe the probability of every day events •       Construct bar graphs •       Organise and interpret data in tables

 

Specialist lessons Music: Monday
Library: Tuesday
Digital Literacy: Tuesday
P.E: Friday

Please note that students will be required to wear their sports uniform on Mondays and Fridays. All students must have a library bag in order to borrow books from the Library each week.

Homework Homework will be made available on the blog each Monday, to be completed by students each day throughout the week and returned to school on the designated return date. Homework will consist of daily spelling and number facts practice. We emphasise that homework should be short (10 – 15 minutes per day), simple tasks that consolidate learning in the classroom. In addition, we strongly encourage daily reading of texts selected by the students themselves (e.g. from the Library), with lots of discussion after reading to support comprehension. Daily number facts practice is also a must. Students will be working on 2x, 4x and 8x tables this term and it is our aim to develop fluency and automaticity with all times tables 1 x – 10x by the end of the year.

Class blog and Twitter Information regarding classroom routines and events as well as student goals and achievements will be communicated via classroom blogs and Twitter pages.

4 White – blog: 4white2016.blogspot.com.au

Twitter @mrsrjansen

Class Dojo Students in Year 4 use ClassDojo to encourage important skills like working hard and participating and to monitor behaviour. You can sign up as a parent; it’s a simple, free mobile app for iOS and Android and can also be accessed from a computer at www.classdojo.com. It’s the easiest way for you to see how your child is doing at school. Notes with parent codes have already been distributed. If you are having trouble signing up, please let me know.

If you would like to assist in the classroom with reading or during literacy rotations, please contact your child’s classroom teacher. Likewise, if you have any questions or concerns, please email or call to arrange a meeting before or after school. Thank you for your support and we look forward to working with you and your child this year.