Weekly Reminder 3/14/11

Weekly Reminders: Rooms 20 & 21

Dear Room 20 & 21 Parents,

Conferences begin on Thursday, and we're excited to sit down with all our students to review their goals, set new goals if appropriate, and compliment them on the good work they're doing here at Portal! It is also a great time for parents to share information, concerns, and achievements pertaining to their child with their teacher. Please be sure to check your conference schedule time and plan on arriving promptly for this 20 minute meeting with us; the majority of our conference times have another conference immediately before or after your scheduled time. We know that these spring conferences are a valuable experience for all of us!

Our blogsite addresses are:

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

Interested in helping out?

Yes, it is now roughly a month until Rooms 20 and 21 will perform the incredible play entitled "Geology Rocks!" If you've ever wondered if learning about rocks, minerals, fossil fuels, geologic time, and tectonic plates could be funny, then you won't want to miss our upcoming fine arts performance on Thursday, April 7th at 6:30pm in our multipurpose room at Portal.

We are looking for additional interested parents to help support us with the following jobs:

Painting Art Coordinator – Organize the installation and repair of backdrops.
Painting Art Assistants – Help the coordinator repair and repaint backdrops.
Prop Art Coordinator – Organize and inventory of props.
Prop Art Assistants – Help the coordinator with props.
Costume Designers – Help to design and make costume pieces.
Food Coordinator – Organize snack donations for potluck on the night of the show.
Organize parents to help with set up and clean up on the night of the show.
Food Donators – Donate food for the potluck.
Performance Crew – Help transport, set up, and take down sets.
I’m flexible - Let me know what I can do to help.

THANK YOU to all who has already signed up! If you are interested in ANY of these volunteer opportunities related to our play and haven't already notified us, please sign up below on the Google Doc we've created for this purpose called "Parent Sign Up". Click on the link below and then list your name in the column under the job with which you would like to help. We will be meeting this Wednesday, March 16 at 11:45am in Room 20 with those interested parents who can attend.

Parent Sign Up

Curriculum Notes:

Language Arts- In the Year of the Boar core literature book is now completely read, and we plan on testing our comprehension of the text on Wednesday of this week. Our writing practice in the persuasive and response to literature genres is well under way; we're now polishing up drafts of several assignments for insertion into our writing anthologies. "Geology Rocks" has already begun to showcase our oral language abilities in a scientific context- we've got a talented group of performers this year!
Math- 4th grade is using restaurant menus during our extended Friday math time to learn effective use of algebraic expressions, and we are moving into our huge unit on geometry beginning tomorrow!
Math - 5th grade has developed and strengthened our algebra skills over the last couple of weeks. We created generalizations for patterns and learned to graph basic equations on coordinate planes. Our quiz on generalizations, patterns, and coordinate graphing will be tomorrow. We'll be working on integers beginning Wednesday..
Science- Currently, we are doing the first electromagnetism investigations to reinforce the connection between electricity and magnetism.
Social Studies- We're currently working on our Missions Activities Menu, reinforcing concepts we have learned and will test our knowledge of this unit on this Thursday, March 17.

Calendar of Events:


Wed. 3/16 Year of the Boar Comprehension Test
Wed. 3/16 PSCO Meeting 6:30
Wed. 3/16 Parent Volunteer Meeting @11:45 in Rm. 20 for "Geology Rocks"
Thur. 3/17 Social Studies Missions Test
Thur.3/17 Parent Teacher Conferences begin (early dismissal @12:30 schedule)
Fri. 3/25 Parent Teacher Conferences end (last day of early dismissal @12:30 schedule)
Wed. 3/30 Family Science Night
Fri. 4/1 Report Cards go home
Wed. 4/6 5th Grade Math Placement Test - Level 1 (notice the date change)
Thur. 5/12 5th Grade Math Placement Test - Level 2 (notice the date change)


California Trivia Clue (student responses are REQUIRED):

What U.S. city led the country in gold production until the Gold Rush in CA?


Sincerely,

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