Year 4

Reading

Digital  Non Digital
Get your child to tell you about what they are reading:

  • Who is their favourite character and why?
  • Is there anyone like that in your family?
  • What do they think is going to happen?
  • What have they learnt from their reading?
  • Does it remind them of any of their own experiences?
  • Help your child with any words they don’t understand – look them up together in the dictionary if you need to.
  • Read recipes, instructions, manuals, maps, diagrams, signs and emails. It will help your child to understand that words can be organised in different ways on a page, depending on what it’s for.
  • Read junk mail – your child could compare costs, make their own ‘advertisements’ by cutting up junk mail or come up with clever sentences for a product they like.
  • If your child has chosen something to read that is too hard at the moment, take turns and read it together.
  • Reading to younger brothers or sisters, whänau, or grandparents will give your child an opportunity to practise reading out loud.
  • Encourage other family members to read to and with your child – Aunty, Grandma, Koro. 
  • Playing board games and card games is important, too. Choose games that everyone wants to play – make them challenging, not too hard.

Music

  • invent clapping games with different rhythms
  • find a bottle (plastic, glass) and try and create different tones blowing into them
  • sing a song together
  • collect sticks and create drum beats on hard surfaces (upside down bins, outdoor seats, old boxes)
  • turn on the radio and invent movements to go with different songs
  • kitchen band – make instruments and music with pots and pans.

Writing

Digital  Non Digital

Kennesbits poetry for kids – Poetry lessons for kids

  • Write a shopping list
  • Write in a journal
  • Write a gratitude list
  • Write instructions for something
  • write an alternate ending to favourite story or movie
  • keep a book of facts
  • Write a letter on how to advocate for positive change in the world
  • Writing about their heroes, sports events, tïpuna (ancestors), hobbies and interests helps your child to stay interested in what they are writing about.
  • leave messages around the house 
  • send a message in a bottle
  • do code crackers, word puzzles, crosswords,
  • word finds – these are all fun to do together.
  • Make up a story or think of a pakiwaitara (legend) and act it out with costumes and music.
  • Write down the names of the characters or tïpuna (ancestors).
  • If you or someone in your family has a computer, encourage your child to use it to write, email and publish or print for pleasure (emails, birthday cards, poems, jokes, letters, pictures with captions). 
  • Write messages in two languages 
  • Get your child to talk about their writing and share it.
  • Cut out words and letters to make stories, codes, poems, puzzles and more
  • Play word games together. Play with words. Thinking of interesting words and discussing new ones can help increase the words your child uses when they write 
  • Look words up in the dictionary or on the Internet or talk with family/whänau to find out more about where the words come from.
  • Get your child to help write the shopping list, invitation lists for family events, menus for special dinners, thank-you cards when someone does something nice.
  • Postcards are a good size for a sentence or two and they are cheap to post, too.
  • Have a special place to keep your child’s writing at home (notice board, fridge, folder). You might frame a piece of writing and hang it up, too.

Maths

Digital  Non Digital
  • find and connect numbers around your home and neighbourhood – phone numbers, clocks, letterboxes, road signs, signs showing distance 
  • count forwards and backwards (starting with numbers like 998, 999, 1,000, 1,001, 1,002 then back again)
  • make patterns when counting – forwards and backwards, starting with different numbers (73, 83, 93, 103, 113, 123 or 128, 118, 108, 98, 88, 78…) 
  • explore patterns through drumming, clapping, stamping, dancing
  • find out the ages and birth dates of family and whänau
  • see patterns in the numbers in their times tables.
  • making lunch or a meal for a party or a hui – make sandwiches in different shapes. Can they cut their sandwich in half? Can they cut the other sandwich in half a different way?
  • helping at home – choose items to weigh – how many apples/bananas weigh a kilo? Look for the best buy between different makes of the same items (e.g., blocks of cheese
  • check on the amount of sugar or salt per serving
  • telling the time – o’clock, ½ , ¼ past 
  • thinking about how many telephone numbers they can remember – talk about what they do to help them remember the series of numbers reading together 
  • help them look for numbers and mathematics ideas looking for shapes and numbers in newspapers, magazines, junk mail, art (like carvings and sculpture).
  • play card and board games that use guessing and checking
  • look at junk mail – which is the best value?
  • Ask your child what they would buy if they had $10/$100/$1,000 to spend 
  • do complicated jigsaw puzzles
  • cook or bake – use measuring cups, spoons (½ and ¼ teaspoon) and scales 
  • collect boxes – undo and see if you can make them up again or make it into something else
  • make paper darts and change the weight so that they fly differently, work out which is the best design
  • create a repeating pattern (e.g., köwhaiwhai patterns) to fill up a page or decorate a card
  •  play mathematics “I Spy” – something that is ½ a km away, something that has 5 parts
  •  hide something from each other and draw a map or hide several clues – can you follow the map or the clues and find it?
  •  do skipping ropes/elastics – how long will it take to jump to 20?

Real Life Learning & Other

Ideas
  • Have them research things they’re interested in 

A place they’d like to visit, a career they might like, a hobby they’d like to learn

  • Learn to Type

https://www.typingclub.com/

  • Learn about their health 

Kidshealth 

 

  • Key competencies 

How parents can help at home develop key competencies 

Help your child to:

  • Bake and cook 
  • Wash the dishes 
  • Clean the house 
  • Hang out the washing 
  • Play board games
  • Make different kinds of  games
  • Create a dance routine
  • Write and sing songs
  • Make an instrument and play music
  • Create a play to perform for the family 
  • Start a hobby 
  • Create and practice a daily fitness routine they can work on
  • Redesign rooms in the house 
  • Do some gardening 
  • Build something using materials around the house 
  • Spend time together practising yoga, meditation or another form of exercise and or relaxation
  • Spend time together learning about your faith 
  • Learn how to use the phone and make orders 
  • Learn another language 
  • Establish routines for the morning afternoon and night
  • Follow a daily  routine for learning  
  • Develop a deeper understanding of their health (food, drink, sleep, hygiene and emotional health) )