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Oral language#

Ideas to support oral language at home

With your child, you could:

  • retell favourite stories or parts of stories using interesting words and phrases
  • talk about a recent family event or holiday, taking turns to describe what happened and share your favourite moment
  • do activities together – for example, cooking, gardening, or bushwalking – and talk about what you did
  • watch videos, read books, and listen to audiobooks about interesting topics and discuss the meaning of new words
  • talk about their learning goals, progress, and emotions.

The teacher will focus on expanding your child’s oral language skills. For example, by the end of the year your child will be able to:

  • describe objects, experiences, and events, and retell stories, including specific details aimed at keeping listeners interested
  • plan and share a presentation that communicates their ideas clearly and keeps their audience’s needs in mind, using what they know about the world to support their point of view
  • participate in discussions and conversations by:
    • noticing and giving natural prompts for taking turns to listen and speak (for example, asking: "what do you think about that?" or "how about you?")
    • making comments and asking questions that encourage further discussion, thinking carefully about how they express their ideas and considering how their words support what they want to achieve (for example, to persuade or entertain) and how they could impact others
  • set learning goals, and select and adapt strategies to improve their learning (for example, breaking an unknown word into word parts to work out its meaning)
  • describe their emotions and use discussion and self-reflection to work through challenges.

Reading#

Ideas to support reading at home

With your child, you could expand on what they are reading. For example:

  • chat about their favourite character
  • who is like that in your family or school
  • work out what you have learned from this book
  • think about their own experiences.

Help them understand difficult words – look for smaller words or word parts in longer words. Look up meanings in a dictionary if you need to.

You could:

  • read recipes, instructions, maps, diagrams, signs, junk mail, and text messages
  • visit the library and let them choose books related to their interests and things they are learning about at school
  • encourage them to read books aloud to family members (siblings, aunties, grandma and cousins)
  • read to them no matter how old they are – they can understand more challenging information than they can read.

The teacher will focus on expanding your child’s reading skills. For example, by the end of the year your child will be able to:

  • use their knowledge of letters, sounds, and word parts to read words with 2 or more syllables
  • read longer texts independently, as well as those that are related to their interests
  • use information in the text, knowledge of word parts that have a meaning, and knowledge from other learning areas and topics to work out the meaning of new words and phrases in Year 4 level texts
  • work out the audience and purpose of Year 4 level texts that entertain, inform, or persuade
  • identify the main message or idea in a text and provide the key details in order, explaining how the details support this
  • use the information that is clearly stated and the information that is hinted at to make predictions and connections within the text
  • make connections between what they are reading and their own knowledge, experiences, and cultural understandings
  • share opinions and feelings about ideas in texts and respond respectfully to those shared by others.

Texts for Year 4#

Books used during Year 4 will be a mixture of print and electronic oral, written, and visual fiction and non-fiction texts of different lengths. They will include poems, stories, plays, comics, articles, and instructions. These texts could include Level 2 School Journals.

There are example books on the page below.

Reading books at home in Year 4

Your child may bring books like this home. Many will be books they have chosen from the school library.

Writing#

Ideas to support writing at home

With your child, you could:

  • encourage them to write for pleasure – for example, emails to friends and family, postcards, poems, jokes, and comic strips
  • write shopping lists, birthday and thank you cards, invitation lists for family events, and menus for special dinners
  • help them to check what they have written, suggest ideas for improving their writing, and encourage them to share their work with family members
  • do code crackers, word puzzles, and crosswords
  • talk about what you are writing, let them help you to make lists, type messages, and fill in forms.

If your child misses sounds in words, praise them for trying and encourage them to have another look at their writing.

The teacher will focus on expanding your child’s writing skills.  For example, by the end of the year your child will be able to:

  • build up their handwriting stamina so they can clearly handwrite several paragraphs at a time
  • add an apostrophe correctly to show possession of something – for example, 'the dog’s bowl'
  • spell common homophones correctly – for example, 'their, there, they’re'; 'your, you’re'; 'we’re, where'
  • identify why they are writing and who their audience is, and understand that different audiences may have different responses to the same piece of writing
  • make notes, writing down key words and phrases, to plan their writing
  • use a range of sentence types and structures to suit the writing purpose and increase its impact
  • use punctuation at the beginning and ending of sentences correctly and consistently
  • write a range of texts including:
    • stories with a problem and resolution, paragraphs to organise events, and dialogue between characters
    • information reports with ideas grouped together in paragraphs with linking words and phrases – for example, also, another, together with
    • persuasive arguments that are organised into 1 or more paragraphs, with linking words connecting their opinions with supporting reasons (such as 'because', 'for example', 'also')
  • reread as they write, checking each sentence and each paragraph and then the whole text, to make improvements, which could include replacing words or adding sentences
  • give and receive feedback about writing with their classmates.

Resource#

pdf thumbnailReading and writing at home - Year 4 NZ Curriculum
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