CLOZE for Grade 4 - The Golden Wishing Ring

Meanwhile the farmer reached home and showed his ring to his wife. "Now we cannot fail to make a fortune," he said.

"We must think very carefully how we shall use our _ _ _ _ ."

"Why don't we wish for the land next _ _ _ _ so that our farm can be twice as big?" _ _ _ _ _ his wife.

"Well that would be all right," said the _ _ _ _ _ _ , "but I'd rather _ _ _ _ really hard and see if we can save the money for the land, and in that way we will still have our wish."

And that's what happened. They worked so hard that they were able to buy the land next door. " Let's wish for a horse and a cow,"said the wife.
"No, we don't want to waste our wish'" said the farmer. "If we work hard it will not take long to buy the cow."

Sure enough, they were soon able to buy a beautiful horse and cow.



Answers:

wish, door, asked, farmer, work, money, wish, happened, were, buy, horse, waste, work, animals

CLOZE for Grade 4 - Ali Baba

The men stayed inside the rock for some time but Ali Baba didn't move. At last the door opened and forty men came out. The door closed and the rock looked like an ordinary _ _ _ _ again. Then the men galloped away. As soon _ _ they were gone, Ali Baba climbed _ _ _ _ and stared at the rock for a _ _ _ _ time. Then he cried, "Open Sesame!"

The door opened. Ali Baba _ _ _ _ _ _ inside and couldn't believe
his _ _ _ _ . There was _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ everywhere. Gold and _ _ _ _ _ _ laying heaps on the floor and jars were filled to the brim _ _ _ _ gleaming jewels. Costly silks _ _ _ _ thrown everywhere. Rare carpets were heaped in the _ _ _ _ _ _ . Money _ _ _ _ lay in piles.

When Ali Baba _ _ _ this, he was sure the forty _ _ _ had been robbers, and that this was their treasure . "Thank _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ they didn't see me, " he thought.


Answers:

rock, as, down, long, looked, eyes, treasure, silver, with, were, corners, bags,
saw, men, goodness

Canberra Mapping Treasure Hunt

Using a post from Pyewacket's Party, we worked in teams to decipher the clue beneath each picture of a Canberra tourist site. We needed to name the tourist spot and to discover its location.

We marked the locations on a map of Canberra we printed from Google Maps. We listed the 11 places and locations in our SOSE books and discussed each place with our team members.

Teams worked on two Smartboards, 5 classroom computers and a student's personal laptop.

Word bank:

fish, lake, location, flowers, green, tourists, aquarium, map, museum, earth, interesting, national, land marks, water, park, fountain, buildings, area, library, places, mountain, zoo, trees, travel, animals, parliament, capital, tower, educational, road

Africa

During our studies of who we are, and where we have come from in Australia, we discovered that some of our students are from Africa.

We made an African unit of work with the following:

• Write a haiku about Africa
• It's Great to be a Cheetah
• Choose a country in Africa to focus on
• Watch an IMAX Africa DVD
• Draw an African animal and the flag from your country you chose
• List of facts about the country we chose
• Word bank list
• African Grasslands foodweb
• Study the Big Five

Word bank list:

Africa, cheetah, big five, safari, giraffe, hippopotamus, captivity, deserts, savanna, continent, desert, flag

Discuss the Big Five:

- lion, leopard, buffalo, rhinoceros, elephant

Flags of Africa

Cooperative reading

Reading engagement and successful reading are linked and research supports this view, so Cooperative Reading in our classroom focuses on specific processes that facilitate reading engagement and motivation to read.

Engaged readers are motivated to make choices about what they read, how they read and what they take from the reading.

Engaged readers:

- are motivated to read by personal goals
- use a range of effective reading strategies to understand what they read
- are knowledgeable in the way they built new understanding from text
- are socially interactive in their approach to literacy

In our classroom:

- students choose from a range of books
- the teacher explicitly teaches social skills necessary for partner and group discussions and cooperative learning
- students interact around a text
- teacher reads aloud with pauses from time to time to model explicitly what readers do as they read
- students read aloud and use peer support to scaffold reading of difficult texts
- students read exciting and interesting novels, poems, short stories and specifically - blog entries such as Daisy's Designs and Jessica Watson's solo voyage around the world.

We will also read aloud the works of Beatrix Potter, namely Peter Rabbit and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle.

Children Learn What They Live

If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find love in the world.

- Dorothy Law Nolte 1972

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

Word List:
anchor, fathom, engine, port, starboard, dinghy, chart, mast, sail, porthole,