Rockhopper Reminders November 2013

Rockhopper Reminders
November 2013


Mark Your Calendars:
Wednesday, November 6th: Chabot Field Trip (Rooms 19 & 22)
Friday, November 8th: Show your spirit- Hat Day!
Monday, November 11th: No School- Veteran’s Day
Wednesday, November 13th: I-Check in Science
Friday, November 15th: Reading contracts due
Friday, November 15th: End of 1st Trimester
November 25th-29th: Thanksgiving Break
Monday, December 2nd: School resumes

Curriculum Flash!
Language Arts
Rockhoppers are busily preparing writing pieces for our newest Tech/Language Arts project we are calling, “The Stone Fox Newsletter.” Within Pages or through an App in our Google Accounts, students will be using templates to design a magazine or newspaper issue reflecting the novel’s important scenes, themes and character development. Student “Newsletters” will host a variety of writing formats and voices including a news report of the final race between Little Willy and Stone Fox, an interview with a character, a book review, and a short expository. As we prepare to write each component, we are using the primary reading strategies of “looking back” as we re-read important events, “inferencing” to imagine the emotions and perspectives of various characters, and “synthesizing” to illuminate themes. Be on the lookout for publication as we near the Thanksgiving holiday ( :

Math:
4th grade:
We have been working hard on understanding base ten concepts. Students have been working with both whole numbers and decimals calculating, estimating and rounding. Our Shopping Spree project was a chance for students to “show what they know” while having fun shopping and selling products in our virtual “real world” stores. Throughout the month students have been strengthening their understanding of the Eight Mathematical Practices. We are currently working on both team and individual problem solving with an emphasis on communication and collaboration. Our next unit of study will cover multi-digit arithmetic using the order of operations including multiplication and division.

5th grade:
We are moving forward learning algebra concepts. We have thus far reached an understanding of large whole numbers, prime factorizations, exponents, and order of operations. We have also looked for patterns in nature and for patterns in real life experiences, and tried to find a rule for a given situation. Students have deepened their understanding of expressions, equations and variables, are able to create a function table, and graph an equation. We now proceed to learning operations with positive and negative integers. Students will learn to add and subtract integers using three different methods, and finally graph functions that use negative integers. Intermittently students will be given a formative test to inform us of their understanding and misunderstandings of concepts. We know that all students are enjoying learning math and look forward to new challenges every day.


Social Studies
The students created Google Sites for Native American tribes. The Google Site project was multi-faceted and it really integrated all subjects into a single assignment. This project of reading, researching information, writing, typing and learning technology was a huge accomplishment for the students. In the beginning of the assignment, students read texts and collaborated together to share ideas and facts. Once they retrieved the necessary information, they wrote about the Native Americans and posted this information online. Using the various tools and functions, we were also able to input photos, videos and put in tabs that enhanced the learning even more.

We are now learning about the explorers and how they shaped our country today. Students are asked to create a voyage brochure for an explorer. The learning outcomes are for students to learn the reasons for exploration, how people travelled in the past, why they explored, the routes they took and the difficulties they experienced during travel. Students wrote persuasive paragraphs in their brochures to convince people to come on the voyage. There was a lot of creativity that went into this project.

In the next few weeks, we will conclude the unit in explorers by learning about the Atlantic Trade, European Land Claims Map, the New World Exploration timeline and the conflicts between Native Americans and the Europeans. We will also start learning the geographical terms and state/capitals.




Science:
We have wrapped up our unit on the various body systems; students will be taking an I-check on November 13th to demonstrate their understanding of what they’ve learned. A blue study guide was sent home last week. We also discussed and shared strategies of how to prepare for a test over time by re-reading chapters in the textbook, reviewing notes, having friends or family members quiz you, and writing down answers to the study guide.

In class, our focus has moved to vascular plants and the process of photosynthesis. This week, we are conducting a hands-on celery experiment using the scientific method to observe a plant’s transport system. Please ask your child to share more details with you!


Mystery State Clues:
The first baseball stadium was built in this state in 1909.
This state is the only one of the 13 original colonies not bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.
Punxsutawney Phil, a famous groundhog who checks for his shadow every Groundhog Day, lives in this state.
A town in this state is considered the Chocolate Capital of the United States.
The Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia in this state in 1776.

Which state is it?