Thank You and Merry Christmas

Dear Parents,

Once again I need to thank you for the wonderful contribution you made towards making our Christmas Lunch another wonderful memory.

To all the parents who were involved, I know I speak on behalf of the students too, when I say THANK YOU!

I need to make a correction to my previous blog, and apologise for incorrectly awarding Simon the first position in the Violin Competition, when he had been awarded the fifth position. I apologise for any embarrassment caused by this misunderstanding.

Students will have only one activity for the vacation, other tha doing as much reading as they can. For Science they need to make a model of a fossil. Instructions will follow, and we have spoken about this in class too.

I would like to wish you all a very pleasant time over the Winter Break, and if you are traveling,

have a safe journey. Merry Christmas and a year of smiles for 2010!

A Proud Moment

Dear Parents,

This has been a week filled with some very proud moments for me, as Grade 4 “Mother”.

A HUGE thank you to all the students for their WONDERFUL performance at the Christmas Show. You all looked lovely and performed so well! To Angel Huang, Angel Su, Sydney, Lucent, Simon, and Jenny, who performed in our class orchestra and also made up the biggest part of the school orchestra, a special word of thanks, for the extra hours of practice. To every parent, who made sure that the students were here on time and smartly dressed, thank you. To those parents who contributed to the lovely party following the show, thank you! In all, to you all THANK YOU!

This week has also seen some individual performances that have made me proud! The Grade 4s were complimented by Ms. Kelly on their excellent behavior in the Library on Monday, and it made me proud, hearing what a great example they are. We have been concentrating on “Being a good example to others”, and all of these achievements reflect that the students are accepting some responsibility.

Furthermore, Simon, Lucent and Jenny, have participated in both Violin and Piano Competitions this week. Simon and Lucent did extremely well, both finishing in the top 10 of the competition. Jenny reached the top 5 in her Piano Competition, which is also a truly fantastic achievement.

I see the students grow more and more every day, and as their School “Mother”, it makes me proud to be their “Parent”. I am certain that you all share in this pride.

I look forward to seeing many of you on Monday at our Christmas Lunch. In advance, thank you to everyone who is involved.

Have a restful weekend!

Ms. Barry

Up...Dates!

Dear Parents,

As this is a very busy time for us, I do not want to add extra pressure to the students, and so all the tests to be written over the next two weeks will be Open-book, Homework Tests. In other words, students will do the tests for homework and may use their textbooks to complete them. I do not want to leave out any tests, but do not want to push them to study at such a busy time. I hope you understand.

Please see the School's Newsletter regarding the Christmas Show. There are important arrangements, regarding the time and also a request regarding treats. Reply slips need to be returned to school by Friday (4/12).

A special word of thanks to Sydney's mother, Judy, for making our costumes for the Christmas Show. Once you see the costumes, I am sure you will agree that a lot of effort has gone into making the students look lovely for this special occasion. Judy has also offered to help with organizing the Christmas Lunch for our class. Thank you for your continued support in this regard.

Friday 4/12 Math Chapter 8
Tuesday 8/12 Science Chapter 6
Thursday 10/12 Christmas Show (Be at school 18:30 for 19:00 start)
Monday 14/12 Christmas Lunch (11:30)
Thursday 17/12 Class Party and Half-day of School

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Ms. Barry

Christmas Show is Coming

Dear Parents,

With the Christmas Show fast approaching, I would like to make the following arrangements:

For the performance I have asked all the students to please wear black pants and shoes, with a white shirt. Please could these be sent to school as soon as possible, as this coming Friday (12/4) we will have our dress rehearsal.

It is easier for me to keep these items in class, so that I can make certain that everyone has what they need in advance of the show.

I will be sending home a letter regarding our Christmas Lunch. I hope to welcome as many of you as possible to share the day with us.

Regards,
Ms. Barry

Week 12 Update

Dear Parents,

We have passed the middle of November again, and is unbelievable how time seems to run away with us.

As many of you may know, Grant Franceschina and his family will be leaving Taiwan at the end of this week. It will be a sad time for many of us. I would like to make use of this opportunity to thank Mrs. Jennifer Franceschina, for the time she has spent being involved in so many of the activities we have had at school. We will certainly miss you, Jen, especially when there is baking to be done. We wish you all well, and hope that Grant will stay in contact with us and tell us about his experiences back in the U.S.A.

As Friday will be Jack (grade 5) and Grant's last day at school, the grade 4 and 5 classes will use some time during the afternoon to combine and have a farewell party for the boys. If there is anything you would like to contribute towards this, feel free to send some snacks.

Next week Thursday will be Thanksgiving, but we will not be celebrating this as a class, I would rather that we have a lovely Christmas lunch together, as we did, so successfully last year. More about this next time.

Important Dates:

19/11 Thursday: Social Studies Test: Chapter 3 (Open Book) (Text Book: p.52-70)

24/11 Tuesday: Math Tests: Chapter 7 and Unit 3 (Chapters 6 and 7) (Class Test)

27/11 Friday: Science Test: Unit B: Chapter 5 (Open Book)

2/12 Tuesday: English Test : Unit 3 (Homework)

I hope you are all enjoying the cooler weather!

Regards,

Miss Barry

Spelling and Vocabulary

1. colony
2. cash crop
3. slave
4. plantation
5. invention
6. growing season
7. precipitation
8. agriculture
9. industry
10. indentured servants

Class Picture and Individual Pictures

Dear Parents,

Please note that our Grade 4 Class Picture and Individual Pictures will be taken this coming Monday, 16 November. Please assist me in making sure that your child is neatly dressed.

As a result of the pictures being taken, our Library lesson will move to Wednesday for next week. There are a number of outstanding books, so please remind your child to return their books next week.

Regards,
Miss Barry

Spelling

Sorry for the late post. Please copy the following words into your Spelling books:

1. hull
2. iceberg
3. shipwrecks
4. survivors
5. unsinkable
6. voyage
7. plaques
8. steward
9. third-class
10 second-class
11. distress
12. stern
13. drenched
14. funnels
15. loomed
16. portholes
17. crow's nest
18. monument
19. museum
20. treasure

Upcoming Dates

Dear Parents,

I hope you all had an enjoyable Mid-Semester break and an enjoyable weekend.

I look forward to seeing you at our Parent-Teacher Meetings this week.

Here are some important upcoming dates.

Tuesday 10 November: Social Studies: Chapter 2: Homework Test (Use Landforms worksheets and Textbook to prepare.)
Thursday 12 November: Math Test: Open-book Test (Chapter 6)

We will start our usual Spelling Tests again next week and we will also be doing some Division and Multiplication Drill Tests.

Have a good week!

Miss Barry

Week 9: Dressing Up!

Dear Parents,

It will be a short and busy week for us this week. We will start off with our Math Chapter 5 test on Monday and the Math Unit 2 test on Tuesday. Both these tests will be class tests.

As you would have read in the school's weekly newsletter, our Fancy Dress Day will take place on Thursday, October 29th. You are more than welcome to come and join us for the parade, which will start at 9.00 am. I would also like to request that, if you would like to send some treats for the students, if you could please send 21 of the item, so students can make up their own treat bags. Any snacks are welcome, as it is a special day, I will not put a restriction on “sugared” treats.

As you know we have an English Unit 2 test scheduled for Thursday, and even though this is a fun day, we will still be writing the test.

Due to the fact that it is our Mid-Semester Break from Friday, October 30th - Monday, November 2nd, there will be no spelling test this week.

Students are currently working on a group project, making a travel brochure. This activity will continue for a couple of weeks. I have asked Mr. Harris to help us in the Computer class, by looking at the correct layout for brochures and have students use the Publisher program to make the brochure. After that he will also help the students to make a Power Point Presentation, which each group will use in an Oral Presentation to introduce their country of choice to the rest of the class. More about this in a next blog.

A reminder please, about the Parent-Teacher Evenings on Wednesday, November 4th and Thursday, November 5th. Please send the appointment form to school, in order for me to try and accommodate you at an appropriate time.


Regards,
Miss Barry

Social Studies Test

The Social Studies Test on Thursday 22, October will be an open-book test. Although it says the test is based on Chapter 1, students know that we are jumoping around in the textbook and the test is not a complete chapter but parts of two chapters, however we refer to it as chapter one to make it easier when working. Students will be expected to use the following pages for the test.
p. 4-7, p.15, p.45, p.32-44 and the information in the notebook about the Statue of Liberty.

Spelling and Vocabulary Week 8

1. expression
2. parentheses
3. variable
4. evaluate
5. equal
6. equation
7. inequality
8. function table
9. region
10. border
11. geography
12. continent
13. climate
14. desert
15. hemisphere

Oral Presentation Reminder

A reminder that, as previously mentioned, all presentations should be a minimum of three minutes and a maximum of 5 minutes! No posters or illustrations are required. Students may prepare any part of a book they are reading, paying careful attention to points previously mentioned.

Liberty and Justice for All

Dear Parents,

We have completed our first Unit of Science and have started with Social Studies this week. We would like to incorporate the many cultures we have in our classroom, therefore we will not only be using the textbook, but I will also be including other resources. We have started by looking at the USA and took a tour of The Statue of Liberty.

Our first Unit is entitled: Many Lands, Many Faces and topics will cover: Regions and Borders, Major Landforms, Natural and Human Resources, Working the Land – Early Farming, Slavery and Indentured Servants, Pioneers and the Movement of People.

As you would have noticed, we will not have a spelling test this week, but instead we are having a multiplication and division test. I have noticed that a number of students still take a while to do calculations in Math, as they do not know their multiplication tables well enough. This week's test will only be from 1-10 times tables. All future tests will be up to and including the 12 times table.

We have completed our oral presentations, which means we need to prepare for our second round of orals, to start on Monday, October 19th. Our second oral will be a Prepared Reading Oral. Students are expected to prepare a passage to read in front of the rest of the class. As this is prepared reading they have the opportunity to prepare really well and work on aspects such as eye contact with the audience, tone and use of voice.

Students will be graded according to these criteria:
1. Preparation - (Audience contact, phrasing and correct pronunciation)
2. Content and Duration – (Is the content suitable for grade 4 students? Is it long enough?)
3. Expression – (intonation and use of voice)
4. Clarity – (clear, audible pronunciation)

Each presentation will count a total of 20 points, 5 points per criterion.

Upcoming tests:
Friday 16/10 Math Test: (Chapter 4) (Homework)
Thursday 22/10 Social Studies Test: (Chapter 1) (Open-book)
Monday 26/10 Math Test (Chapter 5) (Class Test)
Tuesday 27/10 Math Test (Unit 2) (Chapters 3, 4 and 5) (Class Test)
Thursday 29/10 English Test (Unit 2) (Homework Test)

Halloween is two weeks away and I hope everyone has started planning their costumes for our fancy dress day!

Spelling and Vocabulary Week 5-6

As both this week and next week are short weeks, our spelling test will be carried over to Friday, 9 October.

Please copy and define the following words in your Spelling and Dictation books.

1. bewildered
2. surrounded
3. reminded
4. homeland
5. longed
6. marveled
7. homesick
8.environment
9. stimulus
10. internal
11. external
12. response
13. behavior
14. instinct
15. learned behavior

Tests:

Please note that the Math test scheduled for Tuesday 28/9 Math Test (Chapter 3) (Class Test), will be carried over to a later date. Please see below.

Thursday 1/10 Math Test (Chapter 3) (Class Test)

Tuesday 6/10 Science Test (Chapter 4) (Homework)

Thursday 8/10 Science Test (Unit A) (Open-book)

PLEASE NOTE!

A reminder that students may NOT use text books to complete homework tests. This is for parents to see how students are doing and see how students perform in a less stressful environment, than the classroom.

Vocabulary and Spelling: Week 4

1. embryo
2. germinate
3. life cycle
4. life span
5. larva
6. metamorphosis
7. nymph
8. inherit
9. trait
10. seed
11. egg
12.pollen
13. stamen
14. pistil
15. petal

Week 3 Updates

Dear Parents,

Thank you to those of you who were able to attend our Introductory Evening, last Thursday. It was wonderful seeing some familiar faces and meeting others for the first time.

Tests:
Please note the following important information about tests:

1. Tests can take on one of three possible formats.
a.) Class Test: Students are expected to study content at home and produce answers from memory. This will be a timed test (40 Minutes per test).
b.) Open-book Test: Students may use the relevant text book to complete the test, in class. This will be a timed test (40 minutes per tests).
c.) Homework Test: The test is given to students to complete at home, under parents supervision.

2. We will have a Spelling/Vocabulary/Dictation test weekly on a Friday.

3. Other tests and important dates will be published on the blog, with as much notice as is possible.

Upcoming Tests:
Friday 18/9 Math Test: (Chapter 2) and Math Test: Unit 1 (Chapter 1 + 2) (Homework)
Monday 21/9 Science Test (Chapter 2) (Homework)
Thursday 24/9 English Test (Unit 1) (Class Test)
Friday 25/9 Science Test (Chapter 3) (Open-book Test)
Tuesday 28/9 Math Test (Chapter 3) (Class Test)

Oral Presentations:
Students will have their first oral presentation on Monday, September 21st. This presentation is based on one of two possible topics:
1. Any self chosen topic from Chapter 1 of Science.
2. Any book students may have read during the summer break.

The presentation may be supported with a poster. However, this is not a must for the first presentation. The duration for the first presentation is 2 to 4 minutes. In the future, presentations should be a minimum of 3 minutes and no longer than 5 minutes at a time.

Students will be graded according to these criteria:
1. Preparation – (The use of notes or cue cards)
2. Content – (Is the content suitable for grade 4 students? is it relevant and appropriate?)
3. Expression – (intonation)
4. Clarity – (clear, audible pronunciation)

Each presentation will count a total of 20 points, 5 points per criterion.

Take care!

Miss Barry

Vocabulary and Spelling: Week 3

Please copy and then define the following words in your spelling and dictation books.

1. photosynthesis
2. artery
3. large intestine
4. blood
5. muscular system
6. capillary
7. respiratory system
8. circulatory system
9. skeletal system
10. digestive system
11. small intestine
12. esophagus
13. stomach
14. heart
15. vein

Important Dates

Please note there will be three tests this week. Note there are some changes to what was originally published.

Tuesday 8 September - Math - Unit 1: Chapter 1: Lessons 1 - 5
Thursday 10 September - Science - Unit A: Chapter 1: Lessons 1 and 2
Friday 11 September - Vocabulary - Science Vocabulary (Students will be given the definition with a blank space to fill in the appropriate word)

Science Vocabulary

Please copy, and then define, the following words in your spelling/ dictation books.

1. cell
2. vacuole
3. cell wall
4. chloroplast
5. nucleus
6. chromosomes
7. mitochondria
8. cell membrane
9. cytoplasm
10. life process
11. organ
12. organism
13. organ system
14. reproduce
15. tissue

Welcome to Grade 4!

Dear Parents and 4th Graders,

A warm and familiar welcome to all the parents and students in the Grade 4 class! I trust that you have all had a wonderful summer and that you are looking forward to the new school year. With many new exciting challenges and experiences ahead, I know that we will have another fruitful year. Teamwork is a great way to learn and I am confident that this Grade 4 class is one that will work happily together.

Please find my email address below, and do not hesitate to contact me if there are any queries. All students will have a homework/assignment book which needs to be signed on a daily basis. If you need to communicate with me, you are more than welcome to write a note in this book. All homework will be indicated in the assignment book, making it easier for you as a parent to assist in making certain that homework is done.

I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible at our Parent – Teacher Introductory Evening, which will be held soon.

Please consult this blog on a regular basis, to see what your child has been doing in class. The blog will be updated as often as possible. All vocabulary or spelling words will be placed on the blog, to save on paper and to allow students easy access to it at all times.

I wish you all a pleasant weekend.

Miss Erma Barry
Email: barry.his@gmail.com