Weekly Reminders 12/10/12

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders
December 10-14 2012


Mark Your Calendars:

December 11th & 13th: Literature Circle Discussions #3 & #4
Wednesday, December 12: Science I-Check for Investigation 1
Thursday, December 13- Wednesday, December 19 - auditioning for play
Friday, December 14: 5th Grade Math Unit 12 Test
Tuesday, December 18- Thursday, December 20: Oral Presentations
Thursday, December 20th: Tribe Report Final Copy Due
December 24th-January 4th: Winter break!
January 7th, 2013: School resumes


Curriculum Flash!

A Quick Note:
As we all know, this is a very busy time of year, both in and out of our classes. As adults we all have different techniques for handling stress and our busy schedules, but we sometimes forget that children are also susceptible to the same stress that we experience as adults - even noticing stress in others can raise anxiety levels in children. As teachers, we find that when students are well rested and relaxed they are able to learn so much more effectively.

Language Arts It’s another busy week in the Rockhopper classrooms!

The highlight of the week is the conclusion of our first official Literature Circle meetings. Thank you to our volunteer parents who have worked with us throughout this valuable reading comprehension program. Ask your child if they enjoyed their first “book club” experience!

Also, this week in Language Arts, we will be practicing the organization of our writing, as all good writers do! First, we’re composing Occasion-Position statements and Proposed Plan (list) sentences. These formatted topic sentences are often used when introducing expository essays. Secondly, we will using the structure of accordion paragraphs to help us to “stretch”, or add, more detailed information into an outline and draft for our social studies multi-paragraph essay. Finally, we will have language arts centers focusing on our weekly vocabulary (Greek and Latin prefixes), grammar topics (subject/verb agreement and pronouns), technology (Type to Learn, iPad apps, AR quizzes), and reading-writing extensions (O/P statement practice.)

Oral presentations of 1st Trimester Reading Contract book favorites will be done in class next Tuesday, Dec. 18- Thursday, Dec. 20. Guidelines and expectations for student performances have already gone home with all classes. Your student should be well-prepared (ask them to perform their 2-3 minute presentation for you!), have a costume to wear, and be enthusiastic about their presentation book choice.

Math
4th grade: We revisit equations in more detail this week in math. Specifically, we will be presenting the order of operations to be performed in expressions and equations, we will be solving expressions, inequalities, and equations containing all four operations, and we’ll examine the effect of multiplying equal quantities by equal quantities. Our classes will wrap up the week by taking written descriptions of scenarios and “translating” those situations into expressions that can produce an answer to the question being asked in the scenario. It’s certainly a thought-provoking week!

5th grade:
This week we “tie together” several concepts we’ve learned. Students will solve linear equations that include negative numbers, and plot the points on a coordinate grid. This is the final step of our algebra unit, and will conclude on Friday. Throughout the week, students will also continue to work on explaining the process for solving equations. For additional practice with integers, students may use the following websites: www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol5/challenge_vol5.html
www.ezschool.com/EZsheets/numbersense/integers


Social Studies:
We are continuing to work on our first official research report of the school year. Students will be researching in pairs to learn more about different Native American tribes living in California. Since this will be the first expository research report of the year, there will be a lot of scaffolding to ensure student success. Each pair will cooperatively study a tribe in detail and gather as much information as possible. Students will then be responsible for individual written reports.

Some of the work for this report will be done at school, and other parts will be done at home. Students will use class time to do research and take notes with their partners. They will then use their notes to construct an outline on a special form. At home, students will follow the outline and put their ideas into separate paragraphs for a rough draft. Students will then write a final copy with a bibliography.

Science:
This Wednesday we have our first I-Check (Investigation Check.) This assessment will be open textbook/open notebook; students will need to apply their knowledge from their hands-on investigations and supporting reading to magnetic scenarios. The challenging aspect of these assessments is that a student must UNDERSTAND what the purpose of our investigation was and what concepts have been demonstrated by our activities. Then, a student must use appropriate terminology in their written answers to make their scientific responses clear to the reader- their teacher! The rest of the week will be devoted to review for the I-Check (on Monday) and beginning our next investigation, Investigation 4: Making Connections. This is our introduction to electricity and its connection to magnetic properties.

CA Trivia:
What was the main source of water for the Mojave Indians?