Grade 4
Welcome to grade 4!
On this page you can find information about our units of inquiry.
- UOI 1 How we express ourselves
- UOI 3 Where we are in place and time
- UOI 4 How we organize ourselves
- UOI 5 How the world works
- UOI 6 Sharing the planet
Contact:
Shelly D’Souza
Unit of inquiry 1
Interdisciplinary theme
How we express ourselves
An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.
Central idea
Religious beliefs and values are expressed through artefacts and rituals.
Lines of inquiry
What beliefs and values are important to me
How rituals and artefacts symbolize beliefs and values
Key concepts
Perspective
Reflection
Learner profile attributes
Open-minded
Balanced
Reflective
Attitudes
Respect
Tolerance
Creativity
During our current unit of inquiry we have had opportunities to learn about world religions, their beliefs and values, their differences and similarities. We went on a field trip to the Gandan Monastery and the Russian Orthodox church. This enabled us to observe rituals and artefacts at the two places of worship. We were privileged to have six speakers from the community to come to our class and talk to us about different faiths. We also watched DVDs from the library and used a rich resource of books on different faiths to deepen our understanding. For our final task different groups will plan a short skit to demonstrate their understanding of the central idea.
We have been able to integrate some areas of language with our unit of inquiry. We have read the story of Gandhi, and read a play called: Fair Shares. These readings have added meaning to our understanding of the differences and similarities of the different faiths and helped us focus on some of the attributes of the learner profile. For our writing component, we have worked on paragraph writing and descriptive writing.
In Math we integrated some areas of data handling: We did a Venn diagram to show the differences and similarities of any two religions. In measurement we did our personal time lines with photos and a short description to demonstrate our understanding of a time line. In addition we are doing number; reading and writing 6 digit numbers, comparing, ordering and rounding numbers.
In Mongolian A the students are improving their reading and oral communication skills by reading story books and discussing the characters, the main ideas, and cause and effect. They are also learning the poem “Ger” by T.Ochirhuu and made a little book showing the description of the poem. They are practicing to write their own stories with a beginning, middle and end. While writing it they are focusing on spelling grammar.
The students in Mongolian B are currently writing about themselves. They are building their vocabulary through matching and sorting activities. They have read the Mongolian poem called ‘I wonder why’ and they are reading booklets written by Mongolian B students last year. The students are aiming to learn 5 new words with each Mongolian letter and are recording these in their vocabulary notebooks.
In PE the students have been inquiring into a unit about body control and spatial awareness. They have learnt how to move in space by using several skills. This was achieved through team games and through individual practice.
During music the students are working on the musical ‘Alice in Wonderland’ as most of the lead cast members are in grade 4 and 5. The students are working on choreography and breaking it all down into rhythm activities. In small groups, the students work on the various dances, helping each other, experimenting and coming up with combinations of dances for two of the songs in the musical. This allows them to be risk-takers, as they work to choreograph the musical. Along with working on the musical, the students are also learning five songs to be performed throughout the year. The songs are all based on their units of inquiry into theory and rhythm & rhyme and allow them to develop the vocal skill needed to prepare for concerts.
In art, the students have been working on their ‘What do you value?’ project as the final assessment of their unit ‘Religious beliefs and values are expressed through artefacts and rituals’. They identified their top personal values and represented them through symbols they created in clay. The students applied modeling and imprinting skills and techniques such as pinching, coiling, slabbing and joining.
Unit of inquiry 3
Interdisciplinary theme
Where we are in place and time
An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives.
Central idea
Throughout history people have been on the move for different reasons.
Lines of inquiry
why people move
where they move to
the impact of moving on themselves
Key concepts
Causation
reflection
Learner profile attributes
Caring
Reflective
Attitudes
Empathy
Respect
During this unit the students looked into migratory routes of the earliest Homo sapiens and how they spread across the world. They read stories of modern day migrants and interviewed people who have migrated to learn about the different reasons why people move.
To experience some of the challenges migrants face, the children ‘migrated’ to other parts of the school and experienced a refugee run staged by the grade 8 humanities students.
The language for this unit was integrated and focused on report writing. The students learned the structure of a report and systematically organized their facts. They developed their proof reading, revising and editing skills before they published their final copy.
Mathematics was party integrated with the unit as the students learned about time zones and measured time differences, distances and elapsed time.
In number they are continuing to develop their multiplication facts and using this knowledge in division problems.
The arrival of rebel soldiers during our refugee run simulation.
Unit of inquiry 4
Interdisciplinary theme
How we organize ourselves
An inquiry into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities; the structure and function of organizations; societal decision-making; economic activities and their impact on humankind and the environment.
Central idea
Markets exist to satisfy the needs and wants of society
Lines of inquiry
What a market is and how it works
The difference between needs and wants
A successful business
Key concepts
Form
Function
Connection
Learner profile attributes
Risk-taker
Communicator
Principled
Attitudes
Integrity
Independence
During this unit we are looking at the market place. Bringing in the understandings of how a market place works, what makes a business successful and being able to differentiate between needs and wants.
To experience this we have looked at currencies, listened to speakers and arranged field trips. We are going to the Bayanzurkh market and the Sky Supermarket to experience two different market places and possibly other field trips.
The language for this unit is based around the market place including writing recounts of speakers and persuasive advertising. The students will continue to develop their proof reading, revising and editing skills along with spelling and vocabulary building.
The students in Mongolian A are improving their reading and oral communication skills by reading story books and discussing the character and main events. They are practicing to summarize the stories in a paragraph. In writing they are also focusing on phonetic spelling and how to use the suffixes ‘-ы’ and ‘-ий’.
The main focus in Mongolian B is on oral communication skills. Currently, the students are practicing to communicate using a wide range of vocabulary to build sentence structure. In reading, most of our students are able to decode and recognize all the alphabet letters and sounds.
Mathematics is integrated with the inquiry as the students will be looking at units of money, addition and subtraction of money including different world currencies. We will continue to develop data handling skills including the construction of appropriate graphs.
Students are encouraged to read each night and the language homework will be based on the unit on an as need basis. In mathematics we will continue to revise basic facts and look at graphing and diagrams.
Unit of inquiry 5
Interdisciplinary theme
How the world works
An inquiry into the natural world and its laws; the interaction between the natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society and on the environment.
Central idea
Different types of energy are important for everyday use.
Lines of inquiry
Different forms of energy
The use of energy
How energy is transferred
Key concepts
Form
function
Learner profile attributes
Inquirers
Thinkers
Attitudes
Enthusiasm
Curiosity
During this unit students have looked at different forms energy, how we use energy and the fact that energy is nether created nor destroyed but transformed from one form to another. Students have opportunities to make observations during activities which should help them make conclusions and connections.
For the summative assessment task students will decide on a form of energy and what experiments are needed to prove its existence. They will also show how energy is transformed from one form to another.
In language we have focused on Procedural writing which is the form used for scientific report writing. For math we have focused on division, fractions, decimals and percentage.
Unit of inquiry 6
Interdisciplinary theme
Sharing the planet
An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.
Central idea
Water is vital for living things and our behaviour affects this finite resource.
Lines of inquiry
The water cycle
How water is used
The effect water has on people and places
Key concepts
Connection
Responsibility
Learner profile attributes
Caring
Knowledgeable
Principled
Attitudes
Appreciation
Independence
During this unit the students will look into real life issues surrounding the human use of water and how it affects other living things on the planet.
The language for this unit is focused on narrative writing as well as different styles of poetry based on water, including haiku, cinquain, lantern poetry, riddles, onomatopoeia, acrostics and alliterative. Spelling and vocabulary building will be based around the water unit.
Mathematics for the unit includes Fractional numbers (bigger-smaller, mixed and improper, equivalent and simplifying, the relationship between fractions, decimals and percentages), symmetry (mirror and rotational), capacity and properties of 3 dimensional shapes.