Year 4 Curriculum Guide

Throughout the year, students will be guided through six Units of Inquiry of global significance, providing opportunities to broaden their learning by developing their conceptual understandings, strengthening their knowledge and skills across, between and beyond subject areas.

The following six Units of Inquiry will be explored throughout the year. Each unit is developed around a concept, a Central Idea and Lines of Inquiry.

An inquiry into:

• Myself: My health and wellbeing
• Interactions: My relationships with others and my sense of belonging
• Growth: The impact on my learning and development

Unit timing: Weekly

An inquiry into:

• Issues in our community (case study) 我們社區的問題（個案研究）
  
• How empathy can help us to understand and define problems 同理心如何幫助我們理解和定義問題
  
• The design thinking process 設計思維的過程
  

Unit timing: Term Two

An inquiry into:

• inspiration, imagination and creativity
• personal, social and cultural modes and practices of communication
• intentions, perceptions, interpretations and responses

Unit timing: Term One

An inquiry into:

• Forms of energy 能量的形式
  
• How energy can be transferred, transformed & stored 能量如何轉移、轉化和儲存
• How energy can be used to make our lives simpler 如何利用能源讓我們的生活更簡單
  

Unit timing: Term Two

An inquiry into:

• Hong Kong case study - how artefacts can help us understand our history 香港個案研究- 文物如何幫助我們了解我們的歷史
• How heritage helps us learn from the past
• Our responsibility to our heritage

Unit timing: Term One

An inquiry into:

• How the Earth provides us with a range of resources 地球如何為我們提供一系列資源
  
• How the choices we make have an impact on the Earth's resources 我們所做的選擇如何影響地球資源
• Making sustainable choices can help preserve the Earth's resources 做出可持續的選擇有助於保護地球資源

Unit timing: Term Three

The development of language is fundamental to all areas of our learning programs. Language helps us communicate our thinking and understanding.

Language is socially constructed - it is dependent on social interactions and relationships. It permeates all subject areas. As such, we view all of our teachers and assistants to be language teachers.

English is our main language of instruction, with Chinese (Mandarin) taught as an additional language.

In Year 4, our reading program focuses on developing strategies needed to be an independent reader. Students are taught different comprehension strategies to understand what is written beyond the literal text. These are developed through a mixture of guiding reading, shared reading, read aloud and independent reading sessions.

Students will explore a range of text types: to entertain, to inform and to persuade. Specific writing skills will be developed around how to create a range of informative texts.

Chinese Foundation focuses on speaking, listening and social Chinese. Students read texts and environmental print and learn to write the most commonly occurring characters.

Chinese Language focuses on Chinese speaking, listening and the reading of longer texts. Students write their own longer pieces of writing.

Chinese Language and Literature focuses on extended reading and writing tasks, using more complex language.

Mathematics is a global language of concepts and symbols through which we make sense of the world around us.

Mathematics is taught through three main stages:

1. Constructing meaning and ideas about a mathematical concept through interactions with objects, discussions, experimentation and play;
2. Transferring these ideas and understandings into symbols;
3. Applying these ideas and understanding in real-life and hands-on problem solving activities.

Mathematics is taught through the strands of number, data, shape and space, measure and problem solving.

In Year 4 students will explore numbers to 10,000 and decimals to tenths. They will learn their times tables and apply the column method to solve addition and subtraction problems. They will continue to learn to recognise, represent and order halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, eighths and tenths.

Students will explore the concept of space by using and creating maps. They will measure the perimeter and area of simple 2D shapes. They will explore the properties of symmetry and angles. They will use AM and PM when dealing with time.

In Year 4, students will explore a range of land-based, freshwater and coastal environments. They will learn how to identify a range of native birds. Students will also investigate properties of soil and the process of composting.

Wellbeing is a central pillar of our school and is taught on a weekly basis. Students learn through Relationships and Sexuality Education, Social and Emotional Learning, PE & Health and Digital Wellbeing. There is a focus on self-management, relationship skills and fundamental movement skills.

In Year 4, students will learn out to use teacher-curated online resources to gather information. Students will explore the steps in designing a product, including generating ideas, testing ideas and evaluating products.

• Use strategies to regulate own emotions and display an awareness of others’ emotions.
• Recognise that the reaction or expected response must match the size of the problem.

• Demonstrate increasing resilience and perseverance.
• Respond to learning goals set by teachers.
• Manage belongings and carry out independent learning when required.

• Identify and follow shared classroom, playground and school norms.
• Understand what is meant by manners and identify what these look like in a variety of settings.
• Demonstrate empathy towards others.
• Demonstrate active participation and listen to others’ perspectives when working in a group.
• Know how and where to get support if needed.

• Comprehend information presented by teachers, peers and guest speakers.
• Follow multi-step instructions.
• Express thoughts, ideas, questions and opinions.

• Recognise that grammatical structures can be irregular and begin to use them appropriately and consistently.

• Read and comprehend narrative texts with a reading age that corresponds to chronological age or higher.
• Answer various types of comprehension questions, including literal, reorganisation, inferential, evaluative, and reaction questions.
• Find relevant information from pre-selected research texts, with teacher support.
• Make choices about reading material when reading independently; choosing novels, picture books, information texts, and/or graphic novels.

• Begin to adapt writing to suit different purposes.
• Use the complication or problem to drive plot when writing narrative.
• Develop the description of characters and settings.
• Sort and categorise information when writing information texts, using paragraphs and sub-titles.
• Use most basic punctuation correctly, including speech marks, although reminders may be needed to proofread and edit writing.
• Begin to use academic language and figurative language in writing.
• Spell more complex words accurately and recognize how prefixes and suffixes can change the meanings of root words.
• Develop a fluent handwriting style.

• Recognise, write and compare numbers up to and beyond 10,000.
• Use multiplication and division facts for times tables up to 12 x 12.
• Use appropriate written methods for recording calculations.
• Begin to make connections between fractions and decimals.
• Investigate, describe and represent patterns using numbers, symbols and tables.
• Find and interpret information from tables, charts and graphs.

• Distinguish between regular and irregular polygons based on reasoning about equal sides and angles.
• Calculate the area and perimeter of squares and rectangles.
• Use compass points when describing position and direction.
• Convert between units of measure, using whole numbers.
• Measure area by counting squares.

• Use problem-solving skills, such as visualising and trial and improvement, when solving problems relating to real-life situations. Many of these problems require students to pose questions, think laterally and to record their thinking.

To see the Subject Guidance for all subjects from Nursery to Year 6 please click on this link

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