Rockhopper Weekly Reminders
September 10th-14th, 2012


Mark Your Calendars:
• Tuesday, September 11th- Zun Zun Watershed Assembly
• September 12th-20th - Parent Teacher Conferences & Book Fair, 12:30 dismissal
• Friday, September 21st- Learning Day (No School)
• Tuesday, September 25 - Room 21 to NASA
• Thursday, September 27 - Room 20 to NASA
• Friday, September 28th- Spirit Day: Hawaiian Day
• Saturday, September 29th: Family Fun Night!

Conferences:
Conferences start this Wednesday; please plan accordingly for 12:30 dismissal time during conferences. We’d like to remind all families to arrive promptly for their conference- most teachers will have as many as six conferences in a row on the scheduled dates! Also, students MUST attend the conference with their parents; no conferences will be conducted without the student in attendance. We are looking forward to meeting with each family!

Book Fair Help Needed!
The Book Fair will be open from September 12th-20th. If you are interested in helping run the Book Fair, then please sign up with Kajal Mehta Arora kajalm@hotmail.com


Curriculum Flash!
Language Arts
This week we begin our reading of Island of the Blue Dolphins. Students will be refining their reading comprehension skills of prediction, summary, and responding to literature with their own experiences and points of view. In our Language Arts Centers, we continue to focus on the upcoming presidential election, prefixes of “pre” and “sub”, and using our social studies and science curriculum to reinforce our non-fiction comprehension.

Math
4th grade: Unit Two, Chapter Three began with an introduction to the Associative, Commutative and Zero Properties of Addition last Friday, and the unit continues this week with a review of adding whole numbers by regrouping and estimating sums and differences. We so enjoyed our games rotation last week that we have decided to try and make it a regular Friday occurrence. The kids really enjoy putting their week’s learning to the test in game format and we teachers really enjoy the opportunity to teach to all three classes!


5th grade:
In math, students will continue their exponent and place value work. We’ll also read the story One Grain of Rice by Demi, and will do an exponents project related to the story. We’ll also continue to look for patterns in a variety of situations and our daily lives.

Social Studies:
We began note-taking last week from our textbook as we ventured into our study of the four regions of California: the coast, the valley, the mountains, and the desert. Note-taking requires that students read one paragraph at a time to determine the main idea. Identifying the main idea, theme, or author’s purpose is a very difficult concept in both fiction and non-fiction text. Students are learning that, while the first sentence does introduce us to the main idea, it may not actually be the “topic” sentence of the paragraph. We are also modeling how to differentiate the more important details to include in “notes.” We are excited today to introduce a region collage project that students will be completing as homework this week. Thank you to those parents who volunteered to make the dough for our salt maps! We have one parent who has volunteered to help us in the class with the maps. Is there anyone else who can help? Please email Miss Scourkes if you are available.

Science:
We will be continuing the first investigation which deals with finding out what rocks are made of and distinguishing between a rock versus a mineral. Students will usually have response questions to check their understanding of the material at various points in the investigations. At the end of each investigation, there is an assessment called an I-Check that will cover all class experiments and the related reading assignments. Students are to keep all science information in their yellow folders.

Project Cornerstone: Notice It! Name It! Celebrate It! ABC Corner
This month your student will hear a book titled Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon in class as part of the ABC program. Please watch for a letter from your classroom parent volunteer(s) for more information about this lesson. The goals of this lesson for our students are to identify caring adults in their lives, develop their personal power and belief that they have control over their lives, and increase self-esteem. Here are some activities that you can do at home to help achieve these goals:
1. Boost Each Other Up: Celebrate each family member's special talents and abilities. Go around the dinner table and have each family member say one thing they like about each of the other members.
2. Wall of Fame - create a special place in your house to display items that family members are proud of. Assign a space for each family member. Post items in this space that they are proud of (special drawings, an assignment they worked hard on, photos, etc.). Make sure there is a space for mom and dad, too!
3. Have your student "expert" explain the concept of "mud thoughts and clear thoughts" to the family. Have the family practice changing "mud thoughts into clear thoughts."
4. Encourage adults at home to have frequent conversations about the caring adults in the lives of youth. Identify who they are at school, in the neighborhood, in the family. Who are the caring adults for the adults?

CA Trivia:

What three crops beginning with “A” are grown almost exclusively in CA?

Students- when you find the answer to this question, please send an e-mail response to your teacher. We’ll be waiting for you!