Rockhopper Weekly Reminders May 14th - 18th Mark Your Calendars: Monday- Friday, May 14 - 16: STAR testing makeup Wednesday, May 16: Sadako Final Test Thursday, May 17: Family Science Night 6:00 p.m. (ticket required) Friday, May 18 Spirit Day: “Black and White” Day Tuesday, May 22: Literature Circles 1 Tuesday, May 22 - 24 Book Fair (Buy One, Get One) Wednesday, May 23: PSCO 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 24 Literature Circles 2 Friday, May 25: Staff Learning Day - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS Monday, May 28: Memorial Day - NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS Monday, May 29: Literature Circles 3 Friday, June 1: Literature Circles 4 (12:30 pm) 10th Annual Portal Field Day!!! Field Day Help Needed! On Friday, June 22nd, 2012, Portal will participate in our 10th Annual Field Day! This is a very fun and exciting day that our students look forward to all year. We need at least 20 parents and lots of responsible and energetic alumni to help with games from 7:45 am until 12 noon. We have two shifts: 7:45 – 10:00 and 9:45 – 12:00, or BOTH!! Most schools are out for the summer on this date, so this is a wonderful opportunity for alumni to do community service. Alumni must sign up in advance. Alumni students who have not signed up will not be allowed to stay on campus. Please, for the safety and enjoyment of the students, no cell phone use or texting during field events. They need your full attention, encouragement, and enthusiasm. Please sign up using our online form available at the link below. We need you to make this fun-filled day happen for our students! Volunteer HERE! Spots are first-come, first-served. We are only taking a limited number of volunteers, so please sign-up soon before all spots are filled! Curriculum Flash! Language Arts: We’ve finished our reading of the novel Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, and we are going to work on creative connections like our bio-poem poetry compositions, poetry comparisons, vocabulary cards, hirakana character words, and Hiroshima landmark watercolors. Students will have their AR Quiz on Tuesday and their written test on Wednesday. We will begin our last set of literature circle activities this week. Group literature circles will be held Tuesday, May 22, Thursday, May 24, Tuesday May 29, (all at 8:00) and Friday, June 1 at 12:30. Volunteers Still Needed! We still need volunteers for our literature circles. This is an approximately one hour commitment two times a week for two weeks (a total of 4 times). As a volunteer, you are asked to sit with a group of students and listen to them discuss what they’ve read. You’ll record how they listen and respond to each other. Parents who volunteer for this job have expressed how fun it is to hear the students discuss what they’ve read. Please consider helping us with this activity. We really need about 6 adults in the room for the best results. Please email Miss Scourkes or Mr. Roels if you can help out! Thank you- and thank you to those parents who have already responded! Math 4th grade: We are now in progress on our various Game Factory game evaluations. Each time we try a new game, we make predictions about its fairness, we play the game, and then we discuss the probability of each player’s success and the overall fairness of the game. In this manner, we’ll be able to really understand what it will take to make a fair game of our own. We’ll have an evaluation of our final game project at the conclusion of the unit. 5th grade: This week we finish our study geometry and will have a unit test toward the end of the week. We will also work on wrapping-up some unfinished graphing projects and extensions. Science: In Rooms 20 & 21, we are working on Investigation 3, Part 3 in the Water Planet unit. The investigation piece focuses our attention on surface area and its effect on evaporation. Half of our time this week will continue to be used to get Water Planet tech projects ready for our May 21 due date (most of our groups are already pretty far along in their work.) Finally, we’ll have our first Investigation Checks (I-Checks) on May 21 as well. These two I-Checks will be conducted as open book/open note asssessments, but review of reading assignments and investigation details is recommended prior to this date. Social Studies: We have started our Open House “Wax Museum” preparation. Students have been researching, taking notes, and organizing their information. This week they will begin writing their essays. This end of the year project requires researching, writing an expository essay, an oral presentation, a costume, and a backboard, which will be presented to you at Open House! Please be sure to ask your child if you have any questions about the project or their progress. Name that State! The world's largest silver nugget was found in this state in 1894. The highest suspension bridge in the world is in this state. Members of the Utes, a Native American tribe, have lived in this state continuously since the 1500s. On average, this state has the highest altitude in the United States. U.S. Air Force Academy cadets attend school in this state. Which state is it?