Weekly Reminders 3/22/10

Dear Room 20 & 21 parents and students,

We have only 10 more days until our exciting performance of "U.S. Presidents"- it's going to be a VERY special evening! Before this fateful date, we will be rehearsing diligently at school, seeing you for conferences, and trying to fit all the rest of our social and academic work in.......WOW! We're happy to be meeting with you all, we're enjoying the beautiful spring weather, we're excited to have a couple more hours of daylight, and we're glad to be teaching and learning at Portal.

Just a quick reminder that our blogsite addresses are:

Room 20 (Scourkes) http://rockhopperroom20.blogspot.com
Room 21 (Roels) http://gtfroom22.blogspot.com


IMPORTANT! Our Performance:
Thank you again to the parents who have been helping so diligently with our backdrop, props, and costumes! As a parent, YOU can be a great help by providing some costume items for your child this week. We have begun asking children to bring in costumes. Your child has been told a general idea of what they're wearing and knows that there are more details to come very soon! Reecha Tandon has been working on creating a data base of costumes for all 60 kids and it is almost complete. In the data base there are items listed and links to pictures. We are hoping to have as many of the costumes in by the end of the week as possible. We understand the timeline is tight. If your child isn't aware of what they will be wearing or hasn't heard us say that "we're working on it" please hang on for now. We will get you the information as soon as possible! Watch for the email with the data base. Thank you for your support and patience.

Parent Teacher Conferences
Our parent teacher conferences continue this week. There will be 12:30 dismissal every day through Friday, March 26. Please make sure that you've made arrangements for your child to be picked up on time.

We do schedule our conferences tightly, so please do your best to be on time for your conference. The students must be at their own conference so that they are learning the responsibility of being in charge of their own learning and goals. We look forward to seeing you and discussing your child's progress!


Outdoor School
Cabin Leader Applications:
If you know of someone who is interested in being a cabin leader at Outdoor School (an older sibling, Portal alumni, etc.), then please contact Sophia (831)332-0798 as soon as possible to let her know. Allowing more time to make preparations in advance is always greatly appreciated! For additional information about this opportunity, please refer to the dark green flier that was available at the Outdoor School presentation, or visit the website.

Curriculum:

Language Arts

We will be finishing the reading and activities that accompany our novel, Dear Mr. Henshaw, this week. Our next book will be the touching story of a young woman growing up in Japan at the time of the atomic bomb, entitled Sadako. This novel provides us with an interesting historical perspecitve, as well as an opportunity to participate in an eye-opening cultural study. The projects and work that accompany the book are really fun as well!

As always, students continue working on in class writing projects; these final versions end up in our personal anthologies at the end of the year. And, of course, our fine arts performance is the huge oral language component of our program at this time of year!

Math

In 4th grade math, we are working on data and graphing for the next couple of weeks. We are working on statistical analysis of data presently (bar graphs, line graphs, and mean, median, mode, range, and outliers.) We will have a Chapter 23 test on these ideas on Wednesday or Thursday of this week, depending on the pace of our work in the next few days.

In 5th grade math we've worked with nets, and surface area and reviewed decimals, fractions, and percentages and their relationship to one another. We will then move on to solid figures and integers.

Social Studies

Students are working on their final copies of their Explorer Essays this week. We will begin reading our History of US, Book 2 this week.

Science

We are making progress on our technology project that was introduced two weeks ago. The topic is plants, and the work is being done primarily at school with a partner. We are using Apple's iPhoto software to put together a visually informative presentation that could also be shared in BOOK form! Students this week will be expected to complete their information gathering, including photographs, from books, Internet sites, and individual exploration (picture taking!) Next steps include writing paper drafts of the written sections of the project, choosing appropriate background music to save on iTunes, and formatting our project. Final due dates for the project remain flexible due to the influence of the conference schedule and our performance rehearsals on our available class time.

Calendar of Events:

Thur., 3/25 Middle School Parent Information Night - Lawson at 6:30
Fri., 3/26 Spirit Day: Crazy Socks Day!
Mon. 3/29 SSC Meeting 3:00
Thur. 4/1 Musical Performance: U.S. Presidents: Washington to Lincoln 6:30
Fri. 4/2 Report Cards go home
Mon. 4/5 - Fri. 4/16 Spring Recess : NO SCHOOL
Wed. 4/21 Earth Day! Lunch on the Lawn
Mon. 4/26 STAR Testing Begins
Mon. 4/26 SSC Meeting 3:00
Mon 4/26 PSCO Meeting 6:30

Mystery State

A sculpture of two whale tails sticking up out of the ground can be seen in this state, which shares no borders with an ocean.
Before joining the union, this state was an independent republic from 1777 to 1791.
This state is the top producer of maple syrup in the United States.
The Green Mountains dominate the landscape in this state.
Which state is it?

Sincerely,

Mr. Roels and Miss Scourkes
Rooms 20 & 21
Rockhopper Village
Portal School