Cloze Exercise - Grade 4

Review on Matilda. A book by Roald Dahl

Matilda is a great book for ______ in Grade 3-5. It tell the story of a 5 year old girl ______ Matilda. Matilda is a very bright girl. She started talking ________ when she was one year old and could read _______ when she was five. All her parents thought of her was a noisy little _________.

At Matilda's school there is a very mean Headmistress called Miss Trunchbull. She is very ________ and doesn't seem to like children. Then there is Matilda's teacher called Miss Honey who is nice to everyone. This ________ book tells about the wonderful adventures of Matilda what type of special powers she _______.

If you like the ______ of this book go down to your local or school library to read it and be amazed by Matilda.

fluently
readers
violent
gets
named
perfectly
wonderful
chatterbox
sound

Cloze Exercise - Grade 4

The Swimming Carnival

On the 4th of May our school went to the swimming _______ and had a really good time. Jack V. was the Junior Boy's Champion ________ all his races and the Junior Girls _________ was Freda S. who swam really well in ______ of her races. The races at the carnival included freestyle, breaststroke, ___________, backstroke and the girls and boys medley. All the children at Howards Primary School got on the _____at 9:30 in the morning and got at the pool at 9:45. The first race ________ off at 9:50 and was the girls and boys medley. This was just one of the _______ that Freda and Jack won. Altogether the ___________ carnival was the best ever one I have been to.

bus
pool
winning
Champion
most
races
kicked
carnival
swimming
butterfly

Speech - Weird and Wacky Facts and Figures

Everyone knows that paper is made from trees and that log houses are made from logs but personally I think that it the boring stuff. Some people might know that the mathematical pi never ends and that Thomas Edison was afraid of the dark but this still seems average to me. I want to know unusual things like 200 000 000 M&M’s are sold in the US each day or that, an average person would spend 14 days of their lifetime waiting for the traffic lights to change! That’s 20 160 minutes. These are just some of the weird and wacky facts and figures.

For someone who has a fear of numbers they would have numerophobia. If you have numerophobia please block your ears for you are in for your worst nightmare. For every person in the world there is a chicken or two. There are around 6 billion people in the world and about 10 billion chickens. That would give an endless amount of eggs and a lot of omelettes. I was dreaming of an egg one night. A pure round flawless egg. Then I woke up. I had wondered how many dreams would I have each year and the answer came to me like that, from a book that is. If you are an average person you would have 1 460 dreams a year! This year I have only had about 365 of them. Have you ever felt short of something? Maybe short of eggs or maybe you have felt short of height. Then you would be happy to know that after 2.66543 minutes of searching I have found that an average human being is 14 mm higher when they wake up in the morning so remember to measure your height when you wake up. After all these weird figures let’s move on to wacky facts.

If you are afraid of words then you would have logophobia. I am guessing that if you had logophobia then you would have already fainted by now but if you are afraid of long words then you have a phobia called hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Don’t worry. That is the longest word I am using in these three minutes. That is about the biggest word my vocab I can handle but maybe yours is different. A person’s vocabulary can consist of 5 000 to 8 000 words. Try counting them someday. After that you can try rhyming words with month, orange, silver and purple. Actually don’t try because there isn’t a word in the English language that can rhyme with those words. Some strange words in the English language can include lulliloo which means to sing a joyful welcome, liripoop which means a silly person and gongoozler which is someone who stares at something for a long time.

I now hope that everyone knows how many dreams you have in a year and the phobia of really long words oh, and if you ever find a word that rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple please come tell me. I like knowing unusual things.

Albert Namtjira Facts - 1

General

• He was a famous Indigenous painter
• His medium was watercolours Born 28th July 1902
• Mother Arrernte woman called Ljukuta. Father Arrernte man named Namatjira

Inspiration

• Inspiration included Rex Battarbee and John Gardner. Rex a Australian, John unknown.
• In 1934 Rex and John held an exhibition (2 days) at the Hermannsberg. Albert's missionary close to the exhibition.
• About 300 Aborigines came to see the paintings. Albert was 32 when he got to see this inspiring exhibit.

Early Life

• Arrernte customs say that the boy's name would not be given to him until he had been initiated.
• This changed when Albert's parents became Christians in 1905.
• Both were renamed and remarried to Jonathan and Emelia.
• Son was baptised Albert
• Grew up in a mission
• Although in a mission and attended church and school, mum and dad still taught him Arrernte.
• Taught him his country, his language, palce in Arrernte society, who he could marry, how to survive on land and other things to live responsibly as an Arrernte man.

Pearls

What do we use pearls for? Mostly for jewellery but we can also use them in other ways. In the world we have lots of pearls but what are they? When you think of pearls you usually think of white, glossy small balls used for making necklaces and earrings but did you know that there is a black pearl and sometimes they can be used in medicines? Did you know that a pearl is made from a grain of sand? Many, many things we don’t know but we can find out now.

Black and pink pearls are true but the most common ones we find are the white ones. We also have peach and lavender pearls but out of all of these, natural round ones are very rare to find. All of which, are beautiful but are made of the same substance and from the same place except the ones made by humans. There are two different types of pearls which are freshwater pearls and seawater pearls. The process of making a pearl begins with an oyster or a mussel. Let’s just call them molluscs. When a mollusc opens, sometimes an intruder will come inside it. This could be a grain of sand or a parasite. Over the years, this intruder becomes covered with layers of calcium carbonate and conchiol which eventually makes a pearl.

These things above I have researched from the trustworthy site, Wikipedia. From the things above I have learnt that a pearl is not always perfectly round and that it can form from anything small. I hope you have learnt something too.

An Unforgetable Dream - Writing Topics 9 - 12

We all have dreams ever since we were little but are there dreams we could never forget? It could be a happy dream or a sad dream, angry or peaceful. Whatever they are I have this one dream that I can never forget so let's rewind 9 years ago and I'll bring into my dream that I can never forget.

I was lying in my bed and was falling asleep. The details of sleep are sometimes hard to explain but here is what I think. A sleepy trance falls over your body and makes you think of things that you never think during the day. Those who have trouble count sheep or count backwards from 100. As I fell under this spell, I lay on my pillow and went entered a world only I know.

The dream that I always think of was a lady that looked like a clown. Only her face for that matter. The scene kept on rotating in a fast motion. Here is the scary bit. Instead of a body like a human, it had lots of hairy legs that stuck out like a straw out of a glass of lemonade. I woke up. I stopped, had a gasp and went back to sleep. I had that dream again and it took another two times to get it out of my head.

From that moment on, I could never remember my dreams but the ones that are scary are the only ones I can remember.

Poem - The Owl and the Pussy Cat

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat:
They took some honey, and plenty of money
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing!
Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the bong-tree grows;
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

By Edward Lear

Edward Lear is a renowned poet but is also know for his skill in being an English artist, an illustrator and writer. Most of his literacy is nonsense but nevertheless, it still enchants readers today.

Born on the 12th of May, 1812, he was the 20th child in his family and was raised by older sister Ann. They left the family home together and set up a new one together as well. He started work as a serious illustrator and published his first work at the age of 19. From my sources, he had 22 works throughout his lifetime.

Lear was not a healthy person. He suffered from seizures which is when the body sort of moves in a sharp way. To add to the list was asthma, bronchitis and when he was older, partial blindness. Yet, from all this, he still had one of the most famous poems in the world. Neither did this stop him from teaching Queen Victoria for a time!

He died on the 29th of January, 1888, but he would be happy to know that his work still lives on and is being read by generations of children.





The Edward Lear and the Owl and the Pussy Cat

Extension Work - Transport Part 2

- Write about the advantages and disadvantages of public transport.

Today, there are many different types of transport. You have public or private. The individual and the group. But now that I think about it, what are the advantages an disadvantages of the public transport?

Using public transport is helpful for the environment. With the ozone layer disappearing, having more people on a piece of machinery. This is an advantage for old people to because it can prevent them from driving again in a good way. They can rely on the new bus driver as well as the comfort of knowing that they are in good hands. Another point is the cost of petrol and food prices. A bus or train ticket can cost $56 for a student per term. If you think about it long enough, that it about the price for a full tank of petrol and think how many times you have to fill you tank up each term. An extra bonus is that buses are always put first for traffic. These are the good reasons for using the public system of transportation.

The disadvantages now. Can you really trust the timetable? Some have found that the public transport can arrive late and think of a tight schedule. You have to be at a meeting by 2:00 and it takes 15 minutes to get there. You decide to take a bus but it arrives 10 minutes late. You miss the meeting and you are probably going to get a big shouting from your boss. This is a good thing for using a private use of transport. Also, it doesn't stop right next to your house which is sometimes inconvenient. When you have a big family it is hard to get them all to the bus stop especially when the bus stop is far away. When inside the bus you have things which are uncomfortable. You have bubble gum on the seats everywhere. Under and on top. I find quite disgusting.

From my point of view would take the bus if it was necessary. It is cheap and usually efficient. Now with new buses, bubble gum is now not that visible and can save the environment more.

Extension Work - Transport Part 1

- How many means of transport can you name? Write a list.

1. car
2. bus
3. train
4. coach aka the really big bus
5. horse carriges
6. bike
7. scooter
8. your own invention such as your feet
9. airplane
10. monorail
11. trams
12. ferry
13. boats like speed boat and yatch
14. motorbike
15. rickshaw

- What are the different parts of a car called?

These are just some of the many parts of a car.

• wheels like steering and the road ones
• brakes
• battery
• bumper
• choke
• gearbox
• tail pipe/ exhuast pipe
• fuel tank
• headlight muffler
• speedometer
• mirrors

Cloze Exercise on the Monarch Butterfly

The Monarch butterfly is a very ________________ creature. Its colours are amazing with black and orange and its ability to eat milkweed is unbelievable. These are just some of the many ___________ of the Monarch butterfly.

When it ___________it can cover 128 km and it can reach up to speeds of 18 km an hour. These insects migrate to warmer places over the ­­­­­­­­­­__________ because it is more comfortable.

When flying it travels 5 - 6 metres above the Earth’s ground. This is about the height of 2 and a half _________________. Although it can’t go above the ground when it is a caterpillar, it truly is a magnificent sight.

interesting
things
migrates
winter
Mr Mcs

P.L. Travers

Pamela Lyndon Travers is best known for writing the Mary Poppins series. She wrote 11 books about her and has written another 4 novels. Travers was born in Maryborough, Queensland on the 9th of August 1899 and died on the 23rd of April 1996. Although her father died when she was seven, this didn’t stop her from pursuing her career. Though she has gone, her works still live on delighting the hearts of young children.

While still a teenager, she wrote poems for The Bulletin and Traid and while doing this she gained a reputation an actress. She toured Australia and New Zealand with a company that did Shakespeare’s plays. After this, she moved to England and started her writing. In 1934 she published Mary Poppins and it was an instant success. This is how another Mary Poppins book followed.

Old copies of Mary Poppins can be found in odd places but one of which is a normal school classroom. P.L. Travers has contributed to English literature by writing great books by using just a wonderful imagination.

Spelling Word Sentences

My great grandma was buried in the cemetery near the waterhole.

At the hotel, they had to accommodate us with a bedroom and a bathroom.

I hope that no one will embarrass me at the school fair.

On the weekend I went to the miniature railway station in New South Wales.

I occasionally eat chips but they are not good for me.

I committed myself to the Breast Cancer Foundation by helping raise money for it.

I personally think that the poinsettia flowers are quite beautiful.

The robot impressed us by saying, "Delighted to meet your acquaintance."

He was feeling nauseous on the plane and felt like vomiting.

The pharaoh of Egypt was always placed in a pyramid when he died.

A septuagenarian is a person who is aged between 70 and 79.

He had an ingenious idea to make the to enemies become friends.

The old way to measure temperature was not in degrees Celsius but in Fahrenheit.

How the Centaurs Entered the World

Long, long ago, in a village far south of the world, there lived a young boy. He had no parents but had friends that were kind enough to look after him. His best friend was like a sister to him. His best friend loved him like a brother and nothing would hurt them as long as they were together. This boy loved horses. The village had horses in the nearby paddocks. He looked after them very dearly and sometimes was able to play with them. He had a very dear wish. This wish was unbelievable to all the people he told. He told them that sometimes, he wished to become a horse. Days went by as normal and he never abandoned this wish. Little would he imagine that one day he would become a very unique horse. The first horse to have a human torso. The first human to have a horse legs. He would become the first centaur.

The boy was sitting in the paddocks when a big brown mare walked up to him. The horse's eyes looked as if they were saying,

“You can come with us and live like us. Just come.”

The boy was thinking hard. He thought what it would be like to be a horse. Freedom, no school, to live with the horses. His thoughts were disturbed by the village witch. Most people were afraid of her but not this boy. He had helped her in some hard situations and in return, the witch gave him what he wanted. She could see what he was thinking.

“To be a horse,” she began, “you must have a tail hair from a horse, a handful of still creek water and a hair of your own. With this a potion can be made and a horse you shall become. Be warned that you can never change back to a human and if you wish to it can not be undone by the most powerful magic in the world.”

The boy was excited. The only problem was that the closest still water was a mile away but he was so determined to get it that he asked a pelican to help him. The pelican brought back some water in his bill and the boy took a handful out of the bill and put it in a pot. After taking the water, he asked a horse for a tail hair. Soon enough, he had the tail hair. The last thing he needed was a hair of his own. Just as he was about to pull the hair, he had a thought. He remembered that he couldn’t change back to a normal person and hated to think what his best friend would feel. They wouldn’t be able to understand each other and they both would not be happy.

“What if I could talk to the village witch and see what she could do?” thought the boy.

So he asked the village woman and she said it was possible. All he had to do was get a hair of the person he loved most dearly. The next day the boy took a hair from his best friends' bed and soon enough, the potion was ready. Though hesitante, the boy drank it all in one gulp and the witch and the boy were both blinded by a bright light. When the light cleared, there stood a handsome horse except where the head and neck would be, there was a human torso.

“I look brilliant,” thought the boy.

After the amazing tranformation, people in the villiage disliked the boys' looks and made him live in the paddock with the horses. For this reason, he broke away from the paddock and ran off to a nearby forest with all of the other horses and his best friend. With his best friend, they had a child which was the also a centaur like his father. The boy never forgot the human's unkindness and that is why those centaurs prefer to live alone. They are hard to see in the forests but if you see them galloping past, you can feel their freedom, how they are happy that there is no school and you can feel their love as they live with one another.

The Pioneer Woman

Dear Diary,

Got up at quarter to 5 this morning. Living on the outside of the city can be surprising. The work we do is unbelievable compared to the town life. Mum told us that city people can’t drive cars til their 16! Look at my little brother. He’s five and driving a great big orange truck. Well, to consider he’s only driving at 3 miles an hour and under dad’s eyes, it is a bit safer. After feeding those queer pigs and having a look at the mustangs flying by, it was breakfast.

Yesterday I wrote saying I was going to have a shot at annual rodeo. Can you believe I was the only girl? I guess it is easy to understand why not many girls enter. On a vicious bucking burro is quite frightening. As I was about to go on, I was sick as if I was on a rocking boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Not to mention all the butterflies in my stomach fluttering as if their doing the jitterbug. Finally I was on and what a bucking ride! The burro seemed to say buck while saying,

“Get off me! Do you know how uncomfortable this is?”

After those three really intimidating seconds, I was bucked off and rolled away like a speeding bullet. When being bucked off all you can think about is how to get away from this bad – tempered beast. Next door’s child got four seconds. Then again, it was a boy.


It's been a brilliant and exciting day. I think I'll have another turn for next year's rodeo. What do you think?

With love,

Rosy

The Pioneer Woman

Word Bank

stetson
pioneer
annual
deliriously
burro
apprehension
leather
chaps
donkey
nervousness



The Pioneer Woman's Website

Sorry Day

Sorry Day was made to say sorry to the Aboriginal people that were taken away from their parents when they were young. These children were known as the Stolen Generations. They were brought up in a different culture, religion and grew up with foster parents. Sorry Day is when Australia honours those who went through this treatment and celebrates ways forward for Indigenous and non- Indigenous people.

Events around the country are held to support Sorry Day. One of these events was in 2000 on Sunday, 28th of May. This event was called the Corroboree 2000 Bridge Walk. More than 250,000 people participated to show their support for the Indigenous people of Australia.

On the 13th of February, the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made an official apology to the Aboriginal people from the government of Australia. This was a very important day for all Australians, white or Indigenous. Below is a copy of the main part of his speech.

-I move:

That today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment.
We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations—this blemished chapter in our nation's history.
The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.
We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.
We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.
For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.
To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.
We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.
For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.
A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed. A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

When thinking of Sorry Day, it reminds me of the Stolen Generations and I am glad that an apology is made and now we can move on.

Sorry Day Challenge

It's history, what happened

Aboriginal story to read out to class

This is homework/ challenge for Friday, Saturday, Sunday

For class on Monday

Shakespeare Challenge

William Shakespeare is renowned as a playwright but was also a poet and actor. He is regarded by many people, as the greatest English writer in the English language He was born 444 years ago in Stratford-upon-Avon in England, sometime in April, 1564 while the exact date of his birth is not known he was baptised on the 26th of April and died 52 years later on the 23 of April, 1616. Though he is dead, his famous works including Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew, still live on.

He was most famous for his 38 plays but he wrote sonnets and poems too. One of his sonnets is called Sonnet 18.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimmed,

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,

Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Here is a version of Sonnet 18 describing the poem in modern English:

Shall I compare you to a summer's day?

You are more lovely, pleasant and more even tempered,

Rough winds do shake the little buds of May:(Spring in Australia)

Summer doesn't last long,

Sometimes the sun is too hot,

Often it's cloudy,

Everything that is pretty becomes less prettier,

Becomes less prettier by chance or the changing of the seasons,

But you will stay like a summer's day forever,

You won't lose your prettiness,

You won't die,

You will live forever,

As long as people can live and read,

As long as there are people existing they will be able to read this poem which is about you and so you will stay alive.

His plays are categorised in tragedies, comedies and histories. The Taming of the Shrew is known as a comedy. It is about how a rich noblewoman, named Katherine, who is a very bad tempered scold who meets a fortune hunter man named Petruchio. He decides to 'tame' Katherine by embarrassing her in a number of ways and makes her an obedient wife. The story ends happily as Katherine is no longer rude and as always, they lived happily ever after. This is one of the many great stories written by William Shakespeare.

In his plays, Shakespeare has made some famous quotes. Here are a few:

'To be or not to be - that is the question...' Hamlet

'I have done nothing but care for thee,
Of thee, my dear one, thee my daughter...' The Tempest

'A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!' Richard III

'What's done is done' Macbeth

'All the world's a stage' As You Like It

'O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?' Romeo and Juliet


Whether it is tomorrow, decades or centuries, William Shakespeare's work will live on forever.





Painting of William Shakespeare from the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Shakespeare Challange

Date of when he lived

Poems and plays

Types of plays:
tragedies comedies histories
List some of the famous plays and poems
-Romeo and Juliet
-Sonnet 18

Quotes
Photo of Shakespeare

Cloze Exercise

As I was walking along the dusty _ _ _ _ _ of the River Nile, I saw the great pyramids of Egypt. I walked beside them and thought how the
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ pharaohs would feel that they were used as a tourist attraction and what they would think the pyramids would be in the future.

I leave the pyramids and find the Great Sphinx of Egypt. Its body looked so magnificent while crouching like a _ _ _ _. No nose. Napoleon blew it off and it has been the same flat, rough nose ever since. No beard. It
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ off and is now shown in a nearby museum. The Cairo Museum.

I keep on walking. I see the vast _ _ _ _ _ plains of the desert and wish I had brought a scarf with me for the strong winds of the desert are too much for me.


lion
awesome
dropped
banks
dusty