Weekly Reminders 12/3/12

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders
December 3-7, 2012


Mark Your Calendars:
December 4th, 6th, 11th, & 13th: Literature Circle Discussions
Thursday, December 6: Fifth grade math test in unit 11 on Integers
Friday, December 7th: Report cards go home
Monday, December 10th: Fourth grade Ch. 12/13 Division Test
Wednesday, December 12: Science I-Check for Investigation 1
Thursday, December 20th: Tribe Report Final Copy Due


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

The highlight of the week is definitely our first official Literature Circle meetings with a new book, new friends, new skills... Thank you to our volunteer parents who will be working with us throughout this valuable reading comprehension program.

Also, this week as we begin our Social Studies Tribe Reports in Language Arts, we will be planning for the organization of our writing, as all good writers do! Firstly, we will be practicing “OPPP,” Occasion-Position Proposed Plan topic sentences. This formatted topic sentence is often used when introducing expository essays. The “OP” or Occasion Position, states the author’s purpose or “occasion” for writing and includes the author’s “position” or what will be explained or proven in the essay. The “PP” is the Proposed Plan that outlines the sub-topics of the body paragraphs of the essay. Be sure to ask your child later in the week to share with you what they’ve learned about this sophisticated format! Secondly, we will be discussing the structure of accordion paragraphs as a guideline to help us organize our notes and “stretch” more detailed information into an outline for our multi-paragraph report.

Math
4th grade: Division continues during this week’s math time. We’ll be modeling and practicing 3-digit division, placing the first digit of the quotient, and evaluating what to do when there are zeros in the quotient. We’ll end the week with a couple of game activities that review multiplication and division skills- a great way to experience math! Last, we will have a relatively short division test on Chapter 12 and 13 ideas on Monday, December 10; all students should review textbook lessons to prepare to show accurate work on the test.

5th grade:
We will conclude the unit on integers by giving students additional practice in adding and subtracting of integers and applying these operations in word problems.They will be assessed on Thursday in this unit. For additional practice with integers, students may use the following websites: www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol5/challenge_vol5.html or
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:
Our three science classes have begun their study of Electricity and Magnetism. This week our classrooms will be working on Parts 3 and 4 of Investigation 1- Breaking the Force and Detecting Magnetic Fields. These activities are very beneficial to students in understanding magnetic concepts; they are not to be missed! We will have reading assignments that will complement the investigations as well. Our first I-Check (Investigation Check) will be on Wednesday, December 12. 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.

CA Trivia:
What is CA’s deepest lake?