Weekly Reminders 4/1/13

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders
April 1-April 5


Mark Your Calendars:


Monday, April 1: Rooms 20 & 21 Literature Circles #3


Wednesday, April 3: Rooms 20 & 21 Literature Circles #4
Wednesday, April 3: Field Trip to see “Pocahontas” 10:15 -12:00. Lunch from home needed.
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
Our classes are wrapping up our second group of Literature Circle sessions this week. The discussions have been lively, thought-provoking, and often humorous! Students have been able to work on their oral language skills and respond to literature at the same time; it’s been a great use of our time. A new oral component of our curriculum comes into play this week as well- our Room 20 & 21 fine arts performance entitled “Gold Dust or Bust!” We are conducting auditions during every spare language art class moment, along with some lunch sessions thrown in for good measure. Every student will end up with an important role in our play, whether it be a lead character, small group ensemble member, or masters of ceremony for the evening. Strong voices, singing ability, and acting are what we’re looking for- ask your son or daughter for their impressions of their audition!

Math:
4th grade:
Geometry Takes Shape! Our classes our immersed in plane geometry concepts this week. We’re wrapping up any questions our classes have about geometric shapes, symmetry, and congruence, and we’re moving along into the calculation of area and perimeter as the week draws to a close. As always, we’ll be using our Problem of the Day work to revisit concepts, check for understanding of current ideas, and examine expressions of mathematical reasoning.

5th grade:
This week we will strengthen students’ understanding of the relationship between fractions, decimals and percents. Students will continue to work on their math menu projects and we have the Level 2 Placement Test on Thursday. We will also be providing an optional packet of 5th grade math skills for students work on over the next several weeks.

Social Studies:
Students are continuing to work on their project of creating a diseno, reata, and typing up a narrative of rancho life experiences. Please have your child tell you more about the three parts of the project!

Science:
Our Environments unit continues with additional observation of our terrariums, including data acquisition related to plant growth. We will also debate and implement any changes necessary to our terrarium environment like more/less water, removal of the sealed lid, additional lighting, etc. As the week goes on, our classes will also test variations in conditions that would impact our other living organisms- beetles and isopods. Soil condition (wet v. dry) and lighting are factors that may influence beetle and isopod behavior. Finally, some of us have already introduced our third type of environment- aquariums. Ask your student about their class; we’re all covering the same material, but our schedules are a bit different at this moment!

CA Trivia:
In addition to the panning and hydraulic mining methods, what was another gold-mining technique?