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!