A Sunny Week in Grade 4

Hello everyone,

What lovely weather we have had this week! It has been wonderful to have the opportunity to meet with many of you during our parent-teacher interviews. I strongly believe that communication and collaboration between parents and teachers creates the best learning outcomes for students, and I always appreciate the chance to discuss each child’s progress together.

This week, we continued working on our information booklets about a local animal of each student’s choice. We are now reaching the stage where we can begin checking our work against our success criteria together. Some students may not have had much experience using checklists before, but learning to use tools such as checklists to proofread and improve their own work is an important skill. Over time, we will work towards creating our own checklists as part of taking greater responsibility for our learning.

In English, students have been creating their own animal characters and are preparing to write seasonal diary entries from the perspective of those characters. They will use what they have learned during our Unit of Inquiry about seasonal adaptations, habitats, and diary writing skills. For homework, all students have received a graphic organiser/template to help them plan and write their diary entries.

Diary writing is a wonderful opportunity for students to express themselves, use vocabulary connected to their own interests and experiences, and develop their writing fluency. It also gives me a chance to get to know them better through their ideas and creativity. I would like to encourage students to write longer and more detailed diary entries while following a diary format. Please ensure your child has some time over the long weekend to plan and complete their diary entry.

We have also spent some time strengthening foundational English skills by reviewing word classes and grammar concepts to support students in becoming more confident writers.

Looking ahead, I am hoping to begin a construction project with the class: building a large bug hotel (or several medium-sized ones, depending on student preference) in the school yard to encourage local wildlife and biodiversity. I know the students will be very excited about this project, but before introducing it fully next week, I would like to make sure it is feasible. We would greatly appreciate support with materials and possibly parent volunteers to help us safely construct the bug hotel(s).

I have written a separate email with more details about the project and possible materials needed, which I will send via Okrenger, so please keep an eye out for it. I want the project to be student lead, but they will need our support.

Thank you as always for your continued support, and have a wonderful long weekend!