Term One Evaluation: Monkey

ENGLISH:

Reading ~

* You can see from my weekly reviews that we read LOTS of books, aloud and independent.

* A book list is included in Monkey's portfolio with a list of all books read each term.

Writing ~

We still use, and LOVE, our Institute for Excellence in Writing Program

Teaching Writing: Structure and Style

In Term One, Monkey wrote eight paragraphs on the following topics: Vulture Bees, Dance Flies, The Philippine Tarsier, The Philippines, Aboriginal Homes, Forces, The Cycad, and Sending Smoke Signals.

Spelling ~ 

We continue with Ozspeller lists that I source online.

Monkey is working through the Year 4 lists.

He has an oral quiz Monday through Thursday and a written test on Friday.

Handwriting ~

Foundation Handwriting Yr 3

Grammar ~

This year we are working through a new program.

Junior Analytical Grammar

We worked through the first four units together, which were: nouns, articles and adjectives, pronouns, and prepositions.

We are excited to learn how to diagram sentences as we work through this program.

MATHS:

Maths Plus Yr 4 Textbook

Term One units covered the following topics:

Extending addition facts, multiplication facts (4s), Revision of three dimensional objects, centimetres, 2 and 3 digit subtraction, place value, symmetry, the square centimetre, 2 and 3 digit addition, terms in number patterns, describing position, column graphs, subtraction strategies, revising multiplication facts, describing and making objects, choosing length units, rounding to 10 and 100, polygons, time units, expanding and ordering numbers, multiplication facts (6s), compass points, column graphs, division facts, jump strategies, parallelograms and trapeziums, litres, multiplication facts (7s), revising fifths and tenths, drawing three dimensional objects, the square centimetre, split strategy for addition, multiplication strategies, picture graphs, am and pm time and Diagnostic Review 1

SCIENCE:

Our main unit study for this term was about water, followed by another unit study on forces.
We read books to do with water, the water cycle, and water management:
"Water" by Martha Rustad
"The Water Cycle" by Izzi Howell
"Water in the Atmosphere" by Isaac Ladeau
"Water in Rivers and Lakes"
"Water in Plants and Animals"
"Water in Glaciers"
"Earth's Cycles: The Water Cycle" by Cheryl Jakab
Water For Australia Series by Bruce McClish
"Our Water Sources"
"Caring For Waterways"
"How is Water Used"
"Getting Water to People"
"Safe and Healthy Water"
"Being Waterwise"

We watched the following about water, the water cycle and water management:
"Wet All Over"
"Kicks Up a Storm"
Magic School Bus Episodes

We read the following books to do with Forces:
"Exerting Forces" by Australian Geographic
"Magnets and Springs" by Carol Ballard

We watched the following about Forces:
"Gains Weight" (about gravity)
"Plays Ball" (about forces)
Magic School Bus Episodes

We will be learning more about forces in Term Two.

HISTORY:

Monkey began and in-depth and intense Australian history unit.

This should take us two years to complete.

We read the following books as part of the unit study:

"Dingo - The Dog Who Conquered a Continent" by Jackie French

"The Aboriginal Peoples of Australia" by Anne Bartlett

"Digger" by Mike Dumbleton

We also read aloud the following Aboriginal Dreamtime stories:

"Mad Magpie" by Gregg Dreise

"Silly Birds" by Gregg Dreise

"Kookoo Kookaburra" by Gregg Dreise

GEOGRAPHY:

For geography this term we did a unit study on Australia's closest neighbours ~ essentially the countries of South-East Asia. We scoured the library for books about several of the different countries, did lots of reading, put together some notebooking pages, and tried some food from some of the countries. We haven't quite finished, so we'll complete this unit study in term two.

We read the following books as part of the unit study:

"Life from Indonesia"

"Letters From Around the World ~ Indonesia"

"The Philippines" by Andrew Einspruch

"All About the Philippines" by Gidget Roceles Jimenez

"Laos" by Robert Gott

CREATIVE ARTS:

We read a couple of GREAT picture books about artists this term.

"The Secret of the Mona Lisa" by Rosie Smith

"Frida Kahlo and the Bravest Girl in the World" by Laurence Anholt

Monkey also spent LOTS of his free time during the term sketching and drawing.

PDHPE:

We focused on healthy eating, moving our body, and some discussions about healthy management of our emotions.