Our 2020 Year 4 book list!

I would recommend these books regardless of where or how schooling happens, so if you do not homeschool, or are unschooling or however education is happening in your home, I recommend that you give these a go as part of expanding your child’s knowledge and love for the world they live in. This Book List has been inspired by the Charlotte Mason approach to education and have specifically chosen each book based on specific learning outcomes for the fourth grade. The idea behind the Charlotte Mason approach is to choose books that have been well researched by the author and the narrative must be well written and engaging for the reader in mind. This not only encourages the love for literature but also expands the readers mind around important topics in the narrative.

Requirements under the Australian Curriculum is that every 4th grader learns about Africa, South America and the Australian First Fleet as part of Geography, History and Civic Education.. To learn about these 3 Continents in an engaging way I have put together the books below as well as supplementing with art.

1 A Long Walk To Water - Award Winning true story on 2 Sudanese children and the challenges they faced growing and surviving in Sudan.

( Abby read this in two days and LOVED it, revised to me about the political and environmental dangers in Sudan )

2 Nanberry - One book of a series of novels written around the First Fleet, the perspectives of the lives around Australian white settlement, impacts on aboriginal families and colonies and also the convicts.

3 The Silver Brumby - An Australian classic that I loved as a child. A story that encapsulates the beauty of the australian landscape how the rangers lived in the south while honouring the spirit of the wild Brumby.

4 Journey To The River Sea - Set in 1910 about a london girl who finds herself living in Brazil adjusting to new culture, customs and environment in a self fulfilling prophecy.

5 The Vanishing Rainforest - Environmental destruction usually involves a narrative around animal habitat and impact. This book considers the destruction of human habitat such as food and medicinal plants that are relied on by the Yanomami tribe in the Amazon.

6 The Who Was Series - Humanising great geniuses with biographical narratives and their achievements. Books I am hoping to inspire why and how maths and science are important.

7 Young Black Emu - Contrasting recounts with varied observations on Indigenous settlement with diary entries during early settlement. The lack of documentation or even lies to support the claims of 'Terra Nullius'. Ive loved reading this with the kids and really addresses the injustice that was served on the First Nations People, the remarkable technology they had and their love and nurture of the land.