We hope you’ve enjoyed the long weekend! The teacher Learning Day on Monday was very productive and we were even able to take some time to talk about fine tuning our program for both this and next year. On another note, parent teacher conferences begin this week. Please be sure that both the child and parent come to the conference, that you bring the school survey receipt with you (information below), and that you are on time as the schedule is very tight. We’re looking forward to seeing you!
A note from Mrs. Ales:
Dear Parents,
It’s Survey Time!! We would like to invite you to take part in our annual School Survey. Your feedback on the survey is critical to the school as the survey results are used by the School Site Council to create the school goals. The survey will be “live” on Monday, March 16, 2009 and will close on Tuesday, March 31, 2009.
To complete the survey follow these steps (during the dates listed above):
1) Go to the school website, www.portalpenguins.org
2) Click on the link to the survey.
3) Complete one survey for each child attending Murdock-Portal.
4) After you have completed the survey, print the last page of the survey.
5) Bring your receipt to your parent-teacher conference.
Thank you for your participation in making our school a wonderful place! Again, your feedback for the survey is so important and we value your input.
Sincerely, Julie Ales
Portal Enrichment Program
We will be offering our Portal Enrichment Program (PEP) during our April 2009 Spring Recess break; April 6 – 10, 2009 and April 13 - 17, 2009.
PEP is a wonderful, multi-age enrichment program for Murdock-Portal students only. You can choose to have your child in the program for one week or both weeks with an option of half-day or full day.
Possible enrichment activities include: Manners with Old Fashion Games, Cooking, Paper Mache, Dramatic Game/Play, Multi-Cultural Activities, Painting, Drawing, Spring Arts and Crafts, Science Related Activities and Computer Related Activities.
Please remember that staffing is dependent on the number of student enrollment.
Math Speaker Series Opportunity!
Below are the details for a math class for parents and students. The actual flyer is attached.
“Announcing the final presentation in our 2008-2009 Speaker Series
for students and parents to promote Thinking Mathematics,
sponsored by the Cupertino Educational Endowment Foundation”
Joshua Zucker
Beside the Book!
What else can students do to meet their yearning for learning more mathematics?
Thursday,
March 19, 2009
7 - 8:30 p.m.
Collins Elementary School GLC
Target Audience: Fourth, fifth and sixth grade students
(& their parents) who love math
Current Academics:
Language Arts:
The finish of Island of the Blue Dolphins draws near! We'll be finishing
our reading of this great book in the next two weeks, and we'll continue to assess our understanding of the text through vocabulary work, comprehension checks, and writing responses to the literature. When we bring this book study to a close, we'll be starting our last core literature book of the year, the realistic fiction novel entitled Bridge to Terabithia. We have copies of this book at school, but we are short a few books for our students. If you have a copy of this great book at home (maybe an older brother or sister had one), please send it to school with your son or
daughter as soon as possible; this will allow us to see if any additional
books will be needed from local libraries or other sources. Thank you!
Oral Presentations:
On March 17-18, students will be presenting their favorite book
from the past trimester’s Reading Contract. As you probably know, this is a very fun way for Rockhoppers to gain more experience in the public speaking realm! Kids will come as the main character (complete with costume and props), and they will share either a brief summary or a specific scene from the book, acting as if they were this character. Students are limited to 2-3 minutes for these presentations, and at this point in the year, they are encouraged to have their dialogue memorized (although effective note card use is still an option.) Ask your son or daughter to give you a “preview” of their book- it will be good practice for them, and an enjoyable experience for you!
Math:
4th grade students will start work on Geometry and Measurement this week. We will be studying both customary and metric forms of measurement covering length, capacity, mass, and temperature.
5th graders continue to study fractions, percentages, and decimals. We are learning how all of these concepts are related and how to move easily between the three.
The math placement test for middle school, Level 1 will be on March 19. This is a test of general knowledge and skills that 5th graders should know. All schools in the district will be taking the test this week, and no middle school expects any school to have covered the entire curriculum for the year, since there are still three months left in school. The students received a review package today, that they will be working on in class over the next couple of weeks. The Level 2 test will be given to students on March 31. This test is basically used to determine if a student is ready to skip all of sixth grade math , which VERY few are. Students should not get overly stressed about the assessments. The placements that are determined are usually just right for the child to be successful in their math class in middle school. The middle schools will notify students in the mail. If a parent feels that their child has been incorrectly placed, they may discuss the placement with the middle school. Also, students are reassessed every year to determine correct placement.
Social Studies:
In social studies, we are moving into the “Mexican California” era of our history. During this unit, students will be making a diseno, which is a land grant map of the time. Thank you for the donations of grocery bags!
Science:
Our Environments unit is being completed. Our assessments for this unit have consisted of formal responses to investigation situations that our integrated into our studies. I will also be checking science notebooks for organization (dated work) and level of participation in our activities. Our next unit will be Electricity & Magnetism. Our Science Fair project continues on as well, with our second half of the scientific method write-up due on March 18. This portion of the formal write-up will contain the results of their experiment and their interpretation of these results, otherwise known as the conclusion! Please check with your student to make sure they have shared their results in a clear format (chart, graph, detailed notes), and that they have thought about how their results relate to their original question and hypothesis.
Important Dates to Remember:
March 17 -18 Oral Presentations
March 17 - Miller Middle School New parent orientation 7:00-8:30
March 18 - Science Fair Project Conclusions and Results due
March 18 - Middle School Counselors coming to talk to 5th graders
March 19 - Math Placement Test - 5th grade. Level 1.
March 19 - March 27 Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences -
EARLY DISMISSAL -12:30. Students must attend conferences with parents.
March 24- Parent Principal Exchange 8:15 am
March 25- PSCO Meeting 6:30
March 27- Sprit Day - Crazy Sock Day
March 31- Math Placement Test - 5th grade. Level 2.
CALIFORNIA TRIVIA!
Q: Which famous amphibian was grand marshal of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade?
Good luck!
Mr. Roels & Miss Scourkes
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