Year Four Newsletter

Human communities depend on natural environments to sustain life.

An inquiry into:

• How natural environments provide resources to sustain life (Connection).

• Ways communities use natural resources (Function).

• How communities sustain natural environments (Responsibility).

Inquiry questions:

• What natural resources do different environments provide?

• How do communities make use of natural resources?

• How can we sustain the natural environments that we have?

Students will gain a deep understanding of how humans use natural resources and the importance of looking after our natural environments for future generations. We will consider the meaning of sustainability in Hong Kong and the choices we can make in our lives to be sustainable. Students are now focusing on different natural environments and discussing what natural resources can be found there.

We will investigate how land is cleared and the impact this has on natural environments as well as the animals and people who rely on it to sustain life. This will lead us to discussions about climate change and pollution.

Students will have opportunities for outdoor learning such as visits to the school garden to plant seeds and investigate conditions for optimal growth. We will go on an Eco-Walk to Lantau Island to plant trees with Paul Melsom, a local horticulturist.

As well as plants, water is also another precious natural resource. We will investigate why freshwater is so limited to many people around the world. Students will learn in-depth about The Water Cycle and write fascinating stories about the journey of a water droplet. On the East Wing Roof, students will also have the opportunity to explore and consider ways in which water can be cleaned and purified.

Camp activities also support the unit as we learn survival skills through critical thinking activities such as building weatherproof shelters and working as a team to efficiently transport water. We also practise first aid skills which might be needed while out hiking in Hong Kong!

If you have any expertise on sustainability or natural resources - we would love to hear from you!

Scientists and environmentalists need to be skilled mathematicians as they often have to explain the human impact on the environment in terms of the area of forest loss or the amount of fresh water available. Our hands-on investigations in measurement, namely capacity, length, mass, area and perimeter enable us to be better scientists and environmentalists.

We will explore different patterns; such as growing, shrinking or repeating patterns. These can be represented through numbers, colours and shapes. We also have an opportunity to investigate patterns in the natural world. Exploring patterns in depth is good preparation for when we come to explore multiplication, division and fractions.

Our focus with language this unit is looking at visualising and inferring when reading. We are working on creating images in the reader's mind to help us understand a text better. We are thinking about what descriptive language authors use to help paint a picture. We will transfer this skill into our story writing to create narratives with detailed descriptions of characters and settings.

We are also looking at the skill of making connections while reading to create a deeper understanding of a text. Students will use their background knowledge and text clues to make connections between text to text, text to self and text to the world.

We are continuing to work on our research, note-taking and summarising when inquiring into various natural environments, natural resources and human impact on natural environments and resources.

Year 3 & 4 - Junior Fiction (At Kennedy we call these Starbooks)

Dragon masters series

Tracey West

The super miraculous journey of Freddie Yates

Jenny Pearson

Mulan

Isadora Moon series

Harriet Muncaster

The unicorn in the barn

Jacqueline K. Ogburn

Dragon keepers series

Kate Klimo

Flat Stanley series

Jeff Brown

The dinosaur detectives series

Stephanie Baudet

Frankie’s magic football series

Frank Lampard

Trouble with Daisy series

Kes Gray

Planet Omar series

Zanib Mian

Mr. Penguin series

Alex T. Smith

Students will have fun experimenting with line, pattern and colour to create some very colourful landscapes.

Much thought will be given to incorporating a foreground, middle ground and background, as well as which mixed media to use for the desired effect.

Ms Sofan will support this unit and help the students to create some 3D 'rooftop' gardens.

Please make sure your child is wearing the correct uniform on the correct days. There are quite a few children wearing sports shoes with their Kennedy uniform.

Please could jumpers and coats also be named.

Sports shoes should only be worn with PE uniform on days when your child has PE, Games, yoga or dance.

Thank you very much!

We would be very grateful if you could spend some time over the holiday checking the items in your child's pencil. Please buy multiple pencils and whiteboard pens as we use these the most.

Stationery items needed:

- Pencils (lead and coloured)

- Whiteboard marker pens x 4

- Eraser and sharpener

- Glue sticks x 2

- Scissors

- 30cm ruler

- Red pen x2

- Sun hat

- Earbud headphones (to fit in tray)

Thank you to those of you who were able to attend the amazing Year 4 mini-exhibition. The children really enjoyed sharing their learning with family members.

If you would like to revisit the mini-exhibition, your child has posted annotated photographs of the work they are most proud of on SeeSaw.