YEAR 4 NEWS

NIST

AUGUST 17, 2011

Who we are
Our first Unit of inquiry for the year comes under the transdisciplinary theme of Who we are. Our central idea is: How we perceive ourselves is reflected in what we show the world and how others respond. We will be inquiring into this through the concepts of CAUSATION, PERSPECTIVE and REFLECTION. Our Lines of Inquiry are:

Identity - me as a learner How I interact with others Self esteem

We think this unit is so important for our students and are looking forward to seeing the results as they become more aware of themselves as learners, and empowered in their interactions with others
OTHER REMINDERS: Back to School Night is on Tuesday August 23rd at 6pm Year 4 Camp Parent Information Evening will be on October 10th at 5pm.

Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you. -- Dr. Seuss.

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YEAR 4 NEWS: Who we are

TRANSDISCIPLINARY LEARNING

Language Arts: Using our concepts we will be learning about how people interpret messages according to their own experiences and ways of understanding. (Listening and speaking). We are hoping to help the students develop an awareness of the other messages they can send not only the spoken ones We will be looking into visual messages, and considering body language as a means of sending and receiving messages. (Viewing and presenting) As we establish our writing programs for the year we will also incorporate our central idea and concepts. We will look at different ways authors and the students (as authors) can express themselves, and communicate with their readers (Written Language - writing)

Mathematics: Conceptually we will be bringing perspective and reflection into our maths work too. We will begin with estimation - looking at why we use estimation. Are our estimates reasonable? (reflection) Did others estimate the same- how and why? (perspective) We will continue to use these concepts as we begin looking at measurement. For example we will look at how we perceive our height, and then what the actual is. Can the students suggest any other way of taking different measurements? Can we estimate measurements? Is our perspective accurate when judging distances?