Monday, May 3, 2010

"Can You Believe It's May?" Reminders

Dear Room 20 & 21 parents and students,

We have completed our STAR testing for the year, and now move on to exciting research and hands-on projects this week. We are getting ready for outdoor school, and beginning to prepare for our Open House presentations. In addition to our Weekly Reminders, please be sure to read the Portal Press each Thursday, as it contains valuable information about upcoming school and classroom events.

*Just a Reminder about visiting our school campus:
PLEASE REMEMBER everyone needs to sign in at the office every time you are on campus. (This is a safety protocol and State law.) If you are dropping off a lunch, you still need to sign in. Also, older students may not meet you at the parking lot. For lunch drop off, we will also have a bin in the office where you may leave the lunch for your child to pick up.

Just a quick reminder that our blogsite addresses are:


Room 20 (Scourkes) http://rockhopperroom20.blogspot.com
Room 21 (Roels) http://gtfroom22.blogspot.com

Curriculum:

Language Arts

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is our featured literature. We are continuing our reading and discussion of the text this week. This story lends itself to poetic study and practice, as well as careful reflection on cultural traditions and family situations. We are practicing the haiku style of poetry presently, and we'll be getting into some origami work along with our conversations and writing related to the text.

Math

In 4th grade math, we are continuing our study of measurement in all its forms- metric and customary. The beginning of the week's focus concerns perimeter; we are working on a project called Perimeter Park to apply the ideas of perimeter and scale (along with some personal creativity!) Our studies later this week on will lead up to our "Measurement Extravaganza" on Friday- it will be entertaining and educational! If you have any CLEAN, empty containers (milk/juice cartons, gallon plastic milk jugs, large soda bottles), please send one or two with your 4th grade math student for our upcoming event. At present, we are still in need of containers!

In 5th grade math this week, we will begin our interactive business unit, "Biz World". Students will have an opportunity to work in teams to develop their own business. They will create their businesses from the ground up, forming a corporation, creating a product to be sold, buying stock and managing their business for a profit! This project emphasizes team work and cooperation along with math skills.

Social Studies

In social studies, the students are doing a research project on one of our fifty states. They have been given and we have discussed the expectations for the complete project. Students have begun their research and will be working on this project over the next several weeks. In addition to this project, we continue to memorize our states and capitals, and read about the founding of the first thirteen colonies. This week, students will be given the list of the mountain region states, and will be tested on them Friday, May 14.

Science

This week, we will our research paper to accompany our completed tech project. Students have outlined their essays with their partners, and today we peer edited our work with a classmate (or prepared to do so on Wednesday.) When our final draft paper is completed at the end of the week, we will start our final science unit of the year, Mixtures and Solutions, on May 10.

Calendar of Events:

Tues. 5/4 Lunch on the Lawn

Thur. 5/6 History of Us Quiz: Chapters 13-16

Thur. 5/6 T-shirts and $2.00 due for social studies project

Fri. 5/7 4th Grade Math "Measurement Extravaganza"

Fri. 5/14 5th Grade Bedroom Projects Due

Fri. 5/14 States Quiz: Mountain Region

Mon. 5/17 Social Studies Research Due


Mystery State:


  • This place was named after Christopher Columbus.
  • This place is divided into four quadrants: northwest, southwest, northeast, and southeast.
  • Its local government functions as a state, county, and city government.
  • British troops burned parts of this place in 1814.

Sincerely,

Mr. Roels and Miss Scourkes
Rooms 20 & 21
Rockhopper Village
Portal School

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