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!