Rockhopper Weekly Reminders
March 25-March 29


Mark Your Calendars:


Monday, March 25th-Friday, March 29th: Parent Conferences: Dismissal at 12:30 each day!
Monday, March 25 : Rooms 20 & 21 Literature Circles #1
Wednesday, March 27 : Rooms 20 & 21 Literature Circles #2
Thursday, March 28: Vocabulary Test: By the Great Horn Spoon
Thursday, March 28th: Miller Middle School Parent Info. Night @ 6:00 p.m.
Friday, March 29th: Spirit Day: Ribbons or Pins Day
Monday, April 1: Rooms 20 & 21 Literature Circles #3
Wednesday, April 3: Rooms 20 & 21 Literature Circles #4
Wednesday, April 3: 5th grade “Dream Bedroom” project due
Thursday, April 4th: Family Science Night
Friday, April 5th: Report cards go home
April 8th-19th: Spring Break!
Monday, April 22nd: School resumes


Do You Love Science?

On Thursday, April 4, our school will be holding our annual Family Science Night! This is a terrific way to spend an evening with family and friends doing something you really love - SCIENCE! Please check the Portal website, or the attached .pdf document if you’re reading this Reminder in your e-mail, for all the details.


Curriculum Flash!
Language Arts
This week our focus is on literature. Students have been given new literature circle books to review and study. Over the next two weeks, students will gather four times to share thoughts, ask questions and make connections to what they’ve read. They made a great start today- be prepared for Wednesday, students! On Thursday, students will take a brief 10 word vocabulary test of selected words from By the Great Horn Spoon. As time allows, we’ll continue revising and editing our finished drafts of other writing.

Math:
4th grade:
Geometry Rules! Our classes continue this week with plane geometry concepts of bilateral symmetry, rotational symmetry, and congruence. We’ve created geometry posters over the last week with key ideas to display proudly at home, and we’ll attempt to add even more information this week! The two-dimensional world is really taking shape. For our Friday session, we’ll get some initial practice with the measurement of angles using appropriate tools, and we’ll also spend some time exploring triangle construction and the Triangle Inequality Theorem.

5th grade:
In the coming week, our focus will be on division, using two-digit divisors, larger dividends, and decimals in divisors and dividends. We will also see the relationship between fractions, decimals, and percentages. We’ll also have Decimal Math Menu activities for students to work on throughout the week.

Social Studies:
We are moving on to our next unit, which focuses on Mexican California; the transition from missions to life on a rancho. Students will create a diseno, reata, and type up a narrative of rancho life experiences in the next couple of weeks.

Science:
Our Environments unit begins this week with Investigation 1: Terrestrial Environments. Our classes will be setting up terrariums with a variety of living and nonliving components. We’ll record our setup using a map and key, observe and record changes to the environment over time, and measure volume and length of certain components in the environment using metric tools. While our sessions are limited during conferences, we still plan on making the most of our science time together!

CA Trivia:
Who turned from unsuccessful gold mining to candy making during the Gold Rush?