3
YEAR 4 NEWS How we express ourselves FEBRUARY 21, 2012 Our fourth unit of inquiry comes under the transdisciplinary theme of How we express ourselves. Our central idea is: Voice can be found in creativity and innovation. We will be inquiring into this through the concepts of CHANGE and REFLECTION. Our Lines of Inquiry are: voice and how it is used in the Arts  how we can be critically reflective  how we revise to make voice stronger As teachers we were very lucky this unit to have our professional development days with Kathy Short, an educational ex pert on inquiry. She assisted us with ways that we can help the students to connect personally to th e conceptual ideas of this unit. We began b y asking the students when they feel heard, or noticed and what is really important to them. With this underlying connection to their own life experiences and developing understanding the students curiosity and interest is very high already! We have Music, Art and Drama all working on this same unit along with homerooms, so the students are being exposed to a wide variety of experiences that will help them to expand their knowledge, experiences and perspectives, to build upon their current understandings. We already have a lot of interesting i nquiries developing and are looking forward to seeing what creative and innovative things happen as a result of these.

Year 4 How We Express Ourselves Newsletter

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Year 4 How We Express Ourselves Newsletter

8/3/2019 Year 4 How We Express Ourselves Newsletter

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/year-4-how-we-express-ourselves-newsletter 1/2

YEAR 4 NEWSHow we express ourselves 

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Our fourth unit of inquiry comes under the transdisciplinary

theme of How we express ourselves. Our central idea is:

Voice can be found in creativity and innovation.We will be inquiring into this through the concepts of CHANGE

and REFLECTION.

Our Lines of Inquiry are: voice and how it is used in the Arts  

how we can be critically reflective 

how we revise to make voice stronger 

As teachers we were very lucky this unit to have our professional

development days with Kathy Short, an educational expert on inquiry.

She assisted us with ways that we can help the students to connect

personally to the conceptual ideas of this unit. We began by asking

the students when they feel heard, or noticed and what is reallyimportant to them.

With this underlying connection to their own life experiences and

developing understanding the students curiosity and interest is very

high already!

We have Music, Art and Drama all working on this same unit along

with homerooms, so the students are being exposed to a wide variety

of experiences that will help them to expand their knowledge,

experiences and perspectives, to build upon their currentunderstandings.

We already have a lot of interesting inquiries developing and are

looking forward to seeing what creative and innovative things happen

as a result of these.

Page 2: Year 4 How We Express Ourselves Newsletter

8/3/2019 Year 4 How We Express Ourselves Newsletter

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/year-4-how-we-express-ourselves-newsletter 2/2

Page 2

YEAR 4 NEWS: How we express ourselves

TRANSDISCIPLINARY LEARNING Language Arts:Written Language - Reading and

Writing When writing, the words we choose and how we

chose to use them enable us to share our 

imaginings and ideas.

Throughout this unit we will be looking

at the revising process of writing -

how do we ensure our personal

voice is ‘heard’ in our writing. We will

be using a variety of genres to look 

into this such as poetry, cartoons and

reviews.

Viewing and Presenting Visual texts provide alternative means to

develop new levels of understanding.

Selecting the most suitable forms of visual

presentation enhances our ability to express

ideas and images 

With the varying art works we’ll be

viewing we’ll be considering the

creator’s intent and aims and thechoices they’ve made to achieve

certain results.

Reading Wondering about texts and asking questions

help us to understand meaning. 

Year 4 will be using Literature Circles

to encourage discussion amongst

the students regarding what they arereading, and the meaning of it. They

will discuss the physical aspects of

the book - such as illustrations, as well

as the creative aspects of the story.

Listening and Speaking Wondering about texts and asking questions

help us to understand meaning. 

The idea of being an active

participant will come through in thisunit, both as a member of a

reflective discussion, as well as an

audience. 

Mathematics:Shape and Space - We will also be

looking at the real life application of

shape and space through creative

and innovative expressions - such as

architecture, and cubism.

We’ll be looking into the language to

sort and classify shapes - both 2D and

3D, as well as developing our 

understanding of the different

properties of these.