Signpost Maths Year 4 Term 1

Click on the picture to make it bigger. The pink colour is taught to my own class, the black colour is taught to the streamed class.

Make your own map

Create a map of a "new" state in Australia.

- Draw an outline for it then decide on a name for the new state.
- Draw in the landforms (mountains, deserts etc.) and bodies of water (lakes, rivers, oceans).
- Creatively name them, e.g. Shark Bay.
- Design 10 different symbols to use in a key.
- Include the capital city.
- Remember to put in a compass!

Examples of landforms:

caves, volcanos, monolith rocks, gold, minerals, tree,grass, jungles, coal, canyons, mountians, fruit.

Examples of bodies of water:

gulf, swamp, dam, bay, reef, river, ocean, sea, cape, billabong, beach, strait, sound, lake, waterfall, bight, channel, marsh.

Extension activity:

- Draw your own treasure map.

Valuable writing tips

Can be found in the professional readings How To Write Yourself Sane.

Tips include the following models:

- Write to release pain or express joy.
- Set aside time to write.
- Resist the urge to be afraid of your feelings.
- Find focus in your writing.
- Decide what you will do with your writing.

Your poems, recipes, anecdotes, journal entries or stories can be self published into a hard bound book with blurb.com. I have made 16 so far. My best is a trip report with photos and journaling.

Year 4 writing - adjectives

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more scrumptious and delectable...

Your task today is use descriptive and creative adjectives to describe chocolate!

2010 Year 4 Writing

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2010 Year 4 Listening and Speaking

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Listening activities:

Listening is making sense of oral language. Teachers should engage students in listening with a purpose, and support and encourage them to do this. Many opportunities for teaching listening skills and strategies can be incorporated into daily classroom language experiences.

The following activities enhance students' listening skills and strategies (as well as supporting the other language strands): reading along, choral reading, tape recordings, and sing-alongs.

It is important to give students guidance and explicit instruction that develop active listening skills and strategies. Balance direct instruction, guided listening, and independent listening.


- Reading Aloud: Read aloud every day to students. It is an important means of teaching listening and a powerful means of developing and expanding students' language repertoire and vocabulary. It is also important for modeling reading strategies

- Establish a practice of reading to the class from a variety of fiction and nonfiction books at least once a day.

- Read interesting articles from newspapers, magazines, and resources relevant to studies in other subject areas. Students, as a follow-up, should summarize what they have heard, put events in order, dramatize the story, answer questions about who did what, or participate in other activities to support their learning.

- Read aloud a poem each day (i.e., poetry pauses) to help students develop an awareness of the language, rhythms, and imagery of poetry.

- Provide many opportunities for students to hear a range of oral texts including: announcements, apologies, awards, concerts, conversations, dialogues, directions, discussions, dramas, explanations, speeches, songs, illustrated talks, improvisations, instructions, interviews, introductions, invitations, jokes, meetings, monologues, newscasts, oral interpretations, proverbs, problem-solving groups, puns, radio plays, reader's theatre, rebuttals, riddles, rules, slogans, songs, speeches, storytelling, sports casts, talking circles, testimonials, tributes, voice mail messages, weather forecasts, and others.

- In Talking and Sharing Circles during SRC meeting time: Give students, in small groups or as a class, an opportunity to share and discuss their ideas, stories, puppet plays, and written work. In turn, they give their peers an opportunity to practise listening behaviours and to provide helpful feedback.

- Use Listening and Media Centres (DVD sets, Hairy MacLary): The Smartboard can be used in addition to reading aloud to students. It gives students opportunities to experience a text a number of times. Using a Smartboard, students can use DVDs to listen for enjoyment, to listen as they "read along" with the text.

- Use Listening Games: Listening games can help students focus their listening, concentrate, and learn a number of listening skills and strategies

Our class listening includes:

Before Listening

What is the speaker's purpose?
What is my purpose for listening?
Will I need to make notes?
Which strategies could I use?
Which one would work best?

During Listening

Is my strategy still working?
Am I putting information into categories?
Is the speaker giving me clues about the organization of the message?
Is the speaker giving me non-verbal cues such as gesture and facial expressions?
Is the speaker's voice giving me other cues?

After Listening

Do I have questions for the speaker?
Was any part of the message unclear?
Are my notes complete?
Did I make a good choice of strategies? Why or why not?

Speaking Activities:

- speeches, can include: Demonstrate a science experiment, magic trick, hobby,
sport, or favorite recipe.
- book reports
- debates
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In evaluation speaking/communication skills, consider the capacity to learn and understand new ideas and ways of working quickly by:

- expressing ideas succinctly

- ustifying, qualifying and explaining what they say

- using language in ways that reflect an appreciation of the knowledge and interests of specific audiences;

- ability to take on demanding tasks – researching, comparing and synthesising information from a range of different sources, including ICT;

- ability to argue and reason.

In Year 4:

2010 Year 4 Reading and Viewing

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Grammar 2010 Year 4

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Maths extension work

Can be found on my Maths extension work site.

Challenge

Topics for 2010 include the following:

Spirit Bear
The Dead Sea
Dragons
Owls

Physical Fitness Skills

Groupings for student work

Maths groups are streamed across Year 4, between the three classes according to individual student needs.

Reading groups are formed to address the shift in emphasis from learning to read in the lower primary school, to reading to learn in the upper primary years, coupled with the need for an increased reading load across content areas.

Children work individually, in pairs or in cooperative groups.

Class Enrichment Activities and Special Needs

"There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people."

We will focus on cross-curricular enrichment activities that can work with an extended-day program. Children's creativity will be enhanced with a wide variety of crafts, puzzles, games, and outdoor activities that will help extend many classroom topics. We build skills in critical thinking, listening, memory, visualization, and concentration through singing, hands-on science experiments, physical education games, word puzzles, art projects, challenges, Science experiments and more.

Further activities:

- Class scrabble games
- Class chess games and class puzzles, for appropriate levels of interest
- Digital scrapbooking for those who work at an advanced level at Adobe Photoshop elements 6.
- Class research challenges on topics of relevance/interest to the students.

Special needs programs will be set in place in the following ways:

- Student assessment for special needs with Special Needs team with ILPs written where necessary.
- Streamed Mathematics.
- Working to appropriate level in classroom and homework tasks.

Timetables 2010

All purpose court:



Computer Lab:



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Professional Pathways 2010

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Class Timetable 2010

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To write a Science procedure

1. Heading
2. Equipment
3. Procedure
4. Prediction
5. Conclusion
6. Word bank
7. Diagram

We work on a double page spread with the diagram on the blank page of the botany book.
The Science experiment website is called My Science Program.

Class Meetings

Teach Children the Language of Encouragement

List the following ideas on a large piece of paper in language appropriate for the grade level being taught.

Encouragement is positive.
Encouragement is noticing improvement.
Encouragement is noticing when someone is trying hard.
Encouragement is noticing when someone is good at something.
Encouragements can begin with "I notice...", "I think...", "I like how..."

Class Meetings foster the following in students:

- they build leadership, problem-solving and decision-making skills in the classroom.

Our goal is to improve self-concept, encourage open discussion and to improve cooperation among students.

Important meeting notes:

- Everyone gets a chance to be the leader for at least one meeting during the year.
- Meetings are included in our weekly plans and are not "bumped" because of other commitments.
- Expectations as to respect and proper behavior are discussed and taught so that meetings run smoothly and duties of the participants are given.
- Brainstorming of possible solutions is a major part of the meeting, and suggestions are given as to how to do this.

Our class meeting time is Wednesday, after assembly.