Overall Aims: The students are beginning to appreciate and utilise some of the mechanics of writing and language to produce a variety of different writing forms including recounts, narratives, expositions and procedures. The Year 4 student shows an appreciation of, and the use of, a range of tools and strategies to create writing in different genres that appeal to a wider audience. Their stories are becoming more developed and the student is beginning to experiment with more advanced language with the objective of developing an individual writing style.

Specific Learning Outcomes – the child will;

·            Confidently identify and incorporate different parts of speech.

·            Become confident ‘risk takers’ continually extending their vocabulary and the range of language tools they incorporate into their writing.

·            Become confident readers, presenters and audience members in a variety of formal and semi-formal situations.

·            Show a greater appreciation of poetry and prose including couplets, Haikus, Tankas, Limericks, rhyme and rhythm.

·         Readily attempt to spell un-known words with increasing confidence and success.

·         Compose and write more complex stories incorporating a more descriptive language to engage the reader.

·         Strive to create greater meaning and persuasion through the selection of the most appropriate vocabulary and sentence structure.

Typical Activities

·            Weekly listening comprehension activity.

·            Weekly project work.

·            Monthly book reports.

·            Directed Reading / Independent Reading, [DR / IR].

·Structured & unstructured dialogue.

·News telling on a weekly basis.

·Class assemblies.

·Daily Silent Reading, DSR.

Formative assessment: Devising and grading daily homework, regular fluency tests, maintaining anecdotal records that comment on classroom participation and the compilation of regular writing tasks and conversation activities that promote an English Speaking Environment, [ESE].

Summative assessment: Weekly quizzes, mid-term test and an ‘End of Term’ examination.

MATHEMATICS

Overall Aims: The children in Year 4 are at a level where they can begin to realise that mathematics is not about memory and is about using the most appropriate tool/s to solve any given problem. The focus in this year is to develop a mathematical confidence and fluency in problem solving.

Specific Learning Outcomes – the child will;

·            Understanding of the relationship between the four base operations.

·            Develop their mental maths strategies and have a bank of known mathematical tables.

·            Understand the attributes of 2 and 3 dimensional shapes and be able to perform related calculations.

·            Develop a repertoire of skills and knowledge facts in order to be able to work mathematically to solve problems.

·            Be competent in recording data from an event in a variety of forms including pictorially, symbolically and numerically.

·            Be able to deal with standard and non-standard units of measurement in a variety of contexts.

Typical Activities

·            Developing calculator skills.

·            Puzzles.

·            Cooking.

·            Tackling mathematical stories such as treasure maps with standard and non-standard units of measure.

·            Using math skills to design classroom seating arrangements representing furniture etc using standard units of scale. [e.g. 1 cm = 1 m, 1:100 ratio].

·            Problem solving activities requiring multi equation operations using all 4 operations.

·            Beginning to master the multiplication tables.

Formative assessment: Devising and grading daily homework, regular fluency tests, maintaining anecdotal records that comment on classroom participation and the completion of a mathematics project showing the inter-relationship of mathematical operations.

Summative assessment: Weekly quizzes, mid-term test and an ‘End of Term’ examination.

SCIENCE

Overall Aims: Introduction to Scientific Inquiry, Biology, Chemistry and rudimentary Physics. In Earth Sciences the children will explore the life cycles of both organic and inorganic matter. There will be revision of the theories of adaption and introduction to theories of evolution. This study will be consolidated by an exploration into the various environments that support different life forms.

Specific Learning Outcomes – the child will;

·            Be able to differentiation between living and non-living things.

·            Use their understanding of the characteristic and differences between insects, mammals, birds and fish to make projections and predictions.

·            Be able to record more complex experiments through drawings and writing.

·            Develop labelling skills and examine simple life cycles.

Typical Activities

·            Experiments.

·            Vocabulary & scientific word building.

·            Completion of a simple scientific project covering the hypothesis, investigation, procedure and result.

Formative assessment: Devising and grading daily homework, maintaining anecdotal records that comment on classroom participation and the completion of a science project examining Adaptation, Camouflage and Survival.

Summative assessment: Weekly quizzes, mid-term test and an ‘End of Term’ examination.

ARTS

Overall Aim: Develop the children’s confidence in art and craft through the creation of a variety of art pieces including drawing, sculpture and modeling and painting. The children will also begin to appreciate the use of recycled and found materials being incorporated into their art works.

Specific Learning Outcomes – The child will;

·         Continue to develop their own artistic style and also be able to work collaboratively in groups.

·         Develop more precise fine motor skills and an appreciation of basic safety rules when using different tools in the Art Room.

·         Show an understanding of a variety of techniques such as washes and blending of water colours, dry and wet acquarell in the creation of their pieces of work.

Typical Activities

·         Creating sculptures using found material.

·         Drawing and painting.

·         Creating gifts and cards for family members.

·         Display of completed projects.

·         Working with recycled products.

Formative Assessment: The children’s work is monitored on an ongoing basis with anecdotal records kept that reflect the child’s application, work habits, creativity, interpretation and use of materials.

Summative Assessment: ‘End of Term’ examination

HEALTH & PE

Overall Aim: Children are beginning to understand that within communities there are different groups and functions. Further, children are beginning to understand that they will join different groups and form relationships within these.

Specific Learning Outcomes – The child will;

·         Participate in a variety of sporting activities and games.

·         Begin to understand the basic concepts of healthy living such as social and emotional health.

·         Understand the need for and attributes of a healthy diet.

·         Understand various body parts and their functions, such as kidneys, lungs and liver.

·         Gain an appreciation of the risks inherent with substance abuse such as alcohol and smoking.

Typical Activities

·         Playing a variety of games such as soccer, basketball and other games as may be introduced from time to time.

·         Health activities that look at concepts such as the body, my family, diets, friends, communities around the world.

·         Participation in social skills activities.

·         Participation in physical activities.

Formative Assessment: The children’s work is monitored on an ongoing basis with anecdotal records kept that reflect the child’s application, work habits, creativity, interpretation and use of materials.

Summative Assessment: ‘End of Term’ examination

HUMANITIES

Overall Aim: Children are beginning to discuss continents and countries of the world and their main attributes and features including language, flora and fauna, cultural diversity, government and trading partners.

Specific Learning Outcomes – The child will;

·         Be able to identify major countries and comment about general features.

·         Understand that different flora and fauna are present in different environments and countries according to needs and climate.

Typical Activities

·         Look at simple maps and learn about key features.

·         Look at differences and similarities between countries and regions such as the Kimberley region of Australia and the Kimberley region in Africa. Both have Boabab trees, diamonds and similar geophysical structures.

·         Map different resource areas of the world.

Formative Assessment: The children’s work is monitored on an ongoing basis with anecdotal records kept that reflect the child’s application, work habits, creativity, interpretation and use of materials.

Summative Assessment: ‘End of Term’ examination

COMPUTER STUDIES

Overall Aim: Apart from greater use of age-appropriate software, the children are beginning to use computers for a variety of purposes and audiences.

Specific Learning Outcomes – The child will;

·         Be adept at using the Internet to research ideas and topics.

·         Can proof and edit own work using software applications such as spell check, grammar checking, inserting tables and graphs and decorating their work with things like clip art and photoshop.

·         Begin to use more complex attributes of software packages such as clip art to enhance their written work.

Typical Activities

·         Work in the computer lab creating individual and partner work samples utilizing a variety of simple software applications.