Weekly Reminders- Dec. 17-21

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders

December 17-21  2012

Mark Your Calendars:

• Tuesday, December 18- Thursday, December 20: Oral Presentations
• Thursday, December 20th- 4th grade math test- Chapter 7
• Thursday, December 20th: Tribe Report Final Copy Due
• December 24th-January 4th:  Winter break!
• January 7th, 2013:  School resumes

Curriculum Flash!

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

Last week, we finished our Literature Circles. Thank you to our volunteer parents who worked with us throughout this valuable reading comprehension program - your help contributed greatly to the success of this activity.  Ask your child if they enjoyed their first “book club” experience!

Oral presentations of 1st Trimester Reading Contract book favorites will be done in class this Tuesday, Dec. 18- Thursday, Dec. 20.  Guidelines and expectations for student performances have already gone home with all classes.  Your student should be well-prepared (ask them to perform their 2-3 minute presentation for you!), have a costume to wear, and be enthusiastic about their presentation book choice.  


Math
4th grade: We’re starting our week by finishing up our written descriptions of mathematical scenarios and “translating” those situations into expressions that can produce an answer to the question being asked in the scenario.  The end product is a three problem booklet to share and solve with other students in class.  As the week goes on, we will review the order of operations in class on Wednesday and assess our understanding of the Chapter 7 concepts on Thursday.  Then, we will begin our work with fractions on Friday by creating our own fraction calculation tool!

5th grade:  
This week we embark on the fractions unit starting with fractions we encounter in the real world, and discussing the big idea behind the words denominator and equivalent. We will use outside resources as well as technology to meet the new common core standards.

Social Studies:
Students have been working hard on their California Native American research essays; we hope that they have learned some helpful writing tips when it comes to expository essay writing.  At home, students should continue to write their essays and edit carefully.  The final typed copy of the research report will be due this Thursday!

After we have “wrapped up” our Native American unit, we will begin our unit on Explorers. We will concentrate on explorers who ventured along the Pacific coast and “discovered” California.  Students will learn about the motivation and forces that brought these adventurers to the California coast!

Science:
This week we continue working on Investigation 4: Making Connections.  The highlight of our activities will most likely be Part 3: Making a Motor Run.  It’s just plain FUN to work with electricity and motors!  We’ll also have an assessed Response Sheet after Part 3 (our opening activity on Wednesday), along with the rest of the afternoon and Thursday afternoon devoted to Part 4 of the investigation. We hope that you’ve had a chance to help your child experience static electricity using the “Your Admirer is a Balloon” worksheet.

CA Trivia:
Which Native American tribe lived along the Sacramento River 200 years ago and still exists in Tuolumne today?

Weekly Reminders: Dec. 10-14

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders

December 10-14  2012

Mark Your Calendars:

• December 11th & 13th:  Literature Circle Discussions #3 & #4
• Wednesday, December 12: Science I-Check for Investigation 1
• Thursday, December 13- Wednesday, December 19 - auditioning for play
• Friday, December 14: 5th Grade Math Unit 12 Test
• Tuesday, December 18- Thursday, December 20: Oral Presentations
• Thursday, December 20th: Tribe Report Final Copy Due
• December 24th-January 4th:  Winter break!
• January 7th, 2013:  School resumes

Curriculum Flash!

A Quick Note:
As we all know, this is a very busy time of year, both in and out of our classes. As adults we all have different techniques for handling stress and our busy schedules, but we sometimes forget that children are also susceptible to the same stress that we experience as adults - even noticing stress in others can raise anxiety levels in children. As teachers, we find  that when students are well rested and relaxed they are able to learn so much more effectively.

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

The highlight of the week is the conclusion of our first official Literature Circle meetings. Thank you to our volunteer parents who have worked with us throughout this valuable reading comprehension program.  Ask your child if they enjoyed their first “book club” experience!

Also, this week in Language Arts, we will be practicing the organization of our writing, as all good writers do!  First, we’re composing Occasion-Position statements and Proposed Plan (list) sentences.  These formatted topic sentences are often used when introducing expository essays. Secondly, we will using the structure of accordion paragraphs to help us to “stretch”, or add, more detailed information into an outline and draft for our social studies multi-paragraph essay.  Finally, we will have language arts centers focusing on our weekly vocabulary (Greek and Latin prefixes), grammar topics (subject/verb agreement and pronouns), technology (Type to Learn, iPad apps, AR quizzes), and reading-writing extensions (O/P statement practice.)

Oral presentations of 1st Trimester Reading Contract book favorites will be done in class next Tuesday, Dec. 18- Thursday, Dec. 20.  Guidelines and expectations for student performances have already gone home with all classes.  Your student should be well-prepared (ask them to perform their 2-3 minute presentation for you!), have a costume to wear, and be enthusiastic about their presentation book choice.  

Math
4th grade: We revisit equations in more detail this week in math.  Specifically, we will be presenting the order of operations to be performed in expressions and equations, we will be solving expressions, inequalities, and equations containing all four operations, and we’ll examine the effect of multiplying equal quantities by equal quantities.  Our classes will wrap up the week by taking written descriptions of scenarios and “translating” those situations into expressions that can produce an answer to the question being asked in the scenario.  It’s certainly a thought-provoking week!

5th grade:  
This week we “tie together” several concepts we’ve learned. Students will solve linear equations that include negative numbers, and plot the points on a coordinate grid.  This is the final step of our algebra unit, and will conclude on Friday. Throughout the week, students will also continue to work on explaining the process for solving equations. For additional practice with integers, students may use the following websites: www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol5/challenge_vol5.html
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:
This Wednesday we have our first I-Check (Investigation Check.) 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. The challenging aspect of these assessments is that a student must UNDERSTAND what the purpose of our investigation was and what concepts have been demonstrated by our activities.  Then, a student must use appropriate terminology in their written answers to make their scientific responses clear to the reader- their teacher!  The rest of the week will be devoted to review for the I-Check (on Monday) and beginning our next investigation, Investigation 4: Making Connections.  This is our introduction to electricity and its connection to magnetic properties.

CA Trivia:
What was the main source of water for the Mojave Indians?

December's First Weekly Reminders!

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
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 California’s deepest lake?

End of November Reminders

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders

November 26-30, 2012

Mark Your Calendars:
•Monday, November 26th:  2nd trimester begins
•Thursday, November 29th:  Island of the Blue Dolphins test
•Friday, November 30th:  Spirit Day- Hat Day!
•Friday, December 7th:  Report cards go home

Curriculum Flash!

Language Arts
It’s almost Literature Circle time in the Rockhopper Village!  We’ll be demonstrating how to properly prepare and respond to literature in advance of our group meetings, we’ll introduce possible book selections to our kids, and our classes will select their literature circle books and meet with their groups to plan reading sections for their book.  Our centers this week will feature ongoing vocabulary development, nonfiction work with Time for Kids, computer or iPad use/exploration, and sentence review and practice.  Finally, we’ll be wrapping up Island of the Blue Dolphins with a cumulative test on Thursday.

Math
4th grade: Division takes center stage during this week’s math time.  We’ll be applying our basic multiplication facts when dividing larger numbers and regrouping in division, we’ll use our mathematical reasoning skills to interpret remainders, and we’ll learn some divisibility rules that are just plain fun to know!  Finally, our holiday-themed “art project” will be well done by Friday- Divisibility Turkeys will be on display!

5th grade:  
This week students continue practicing the adding and subtracting of integers using a number line, manipulatives, and the integer apps we have on our  i-Pads.  Of course, we’ll also be teaching the vocabulary that accompanies these mathematical concepts!

Social Studies:
We are about to begin 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 begin their study of Electricity and Magnetism this week.  We’ll start off on Monday with a quick conversation to guage our background knowledge in our new subject area, then we’ll dive into our exploration of magnetic properties.  Assessing magnetic properties of various supplied materials, exploring our classroom environment for magnetic materials, and observing the effect of polarity on other magnets will be principal topics for the week.  Any assessment this week will be limited to an Investigation Response question that is given immediately following a classroom exploration; the focus of this assessment is to determine the student’s ability to apply their hands-on experience to a closely related scenario.

CA Trivia:
The largest of California’s carnivorous plants is known as what?

The Reminders for Nov. 5-9

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders

November 5th-9th, 2012

Mark Your Calendars:
•Wednesday, November 7th: Field Trip -“Time Machine” play in Sunnyvale
•Wednesday, November 7th:  Barnes & Noble Night- the store on Stevens Creek (Rockhopper teachers will be reading from 6:00-7:00 p.m.)
•Monday, November 12th:  Veteran’s Day - NO SCHOOL
•Friday, November 16th: Reading contract due!
•Friday, November 16th: End of 1st trimester

Curriculum Flash!

Language Arts
       It’s Election Week in the Rockhopper Village here at Portal!  After a great deal of study about the election history and process, this term’s candidates and the issues at hand, Rockhoppers will be casting their votes on Tuesday with the rest of the nation!  Students will visit the “polls”  according to their “precincts,”  be checked off class rosters, privately submit their ballots and proudly sport their “I Voted” stickers.  Our centers this week are dedicated to celebrating the culmination of the campaigns along with the continued active reading and summarizing of Island of the Blue Dolphins.

Math
  4th grade: Our work this week is all about relationships- number relationships!  We’re working with arrays to fully comprehend the relationship between multiplication and division operations, we’re breaking down expressions into smaller factors, we’re learning the multiplication properties that deepen our understanding of what is actually happening in certain situations, and we’re finishing off the week with some dramatic artistic representations of multiple factor equations.  It’s going to be lively!  

5th grade:  
This week students will plot points on a coordinate plane using the function tables. They will use positive and negative numbers and make shapes using all four quadrants. Later in the week, we will begin lessons in integers, finding their properties, plotting them on a number line, and doing operations using manipulatives.

Social Studies:
Students have been using teamwork and collaboration in social studies to learn about the following tribes:  Cahuilla, Chumash, Hupa, Miwok, Mojave, and Yurok.  Each group researched facts about their tribe in detail and became a “tribal expert.”  This week, representatives from all six tribes will meet in small groups to participate in a jigsaw activity, which entails sharing and teaching others about their particular tribe.

Science:
All three science teachers are focused on completing our Solid Earth unit through Investigation Four- “Take It for Granite” during the next  two weeks.  This unit has so many great hands-on experiments that it is often difficult to complete every single one!  We’ll also be using some combination of the various forms of assessments available (Responses, I-Checks, and Post Test) to get an accurate picture of our students’ understanding of the unit.  Finally, classroom participation as reflected in their science notebook work is also evaluated to determine student performance in Science.   

CA Trivia:
Which U.S. Air Force base is located in the Mojave Desert?

Oct. 22-26 Weekly Reminders

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders

October 22nd-26th, 2012

Mark Your Calendars:
• Monday, October 22nd- Author Assembly:  Danica Dinsmore
• October 22nd-26th- Red Ribbon Week
• Friday, October 26th:  Wear RED day!
• Monday, 29th- Learning Day (No School)
• Tuesday, October 30th- Lunch on the Lawn @11:30
• Tuesday, October 30th- Halloween Parade @1:00

Curriculum Flash!

Language Arts
Our classes are reading through Chapter Twelve of Island of the Blue Dolphins this week.  We have supporting activities that give each student the opportunity to express and demonstrate their comprehension of the story.  For example, exploring the moods created by the author in their descriptions or the motives of the main character based on their actions are areas that each reader should be attempting to understand in this novel.  We will continue to have literacy centers this week as well, including Red Ribbon Week activities that emphasize our communication skills.  Finally, we will have a quiz on some of our early vocabulary work sometime early next week; we’ll have opportunities to review these words prior to the quiz.

Here are our Rockhopper class blogsite addresses:

Room 19 (Vogel/Dominguez): http://room19Vogel.blogspot.com/
Room 20 (Scourkes):  http://rockhopperroom20.blogspot.com/
Room 21 (Roels):  http://gtfroom22.blogspot.com/
Room 24 (Regosin):  http://www.rockhopper24.blogspot.com/



Math
4th grade: We begin working on deepening our understanding of multiplication and practicing its application this week.  During this segment, we’ll focus on concrete representations of multiplication, estimating products, multiplying larger numbers (including 2-digit by 3-digit figures), and multiplying accurately when there are zeros in the factors.  As always, our goal is to attain proficiency in our problem-solving technique while also improving our ability to recognize when multiplication is a suitable strategy for calculating an answer to a real world situation.

5th grade:  
We will continue teaching algebra concepts, reinforcing pattern finding, displaying data in a function table, writing and evaluating algebraic expressions, and writing and solving equations. Students will also record related vocabulary in their notebooks with examples to represent the words. They will also receive a POW this week that will be due next week. We continue to develop the ongoing progress of how students communicate mathematical thinking through the writing process.

Social Studies:
Right before the break, students took their California geography test. Students worked intently throughout the period, demonstrating the effort they had put into preparing for the test.  Well done!   We now move on to study the “First Americans” who inhabited our state.  All classes will meet in the multi-use room on Wednesday, to be introduced to the unit and learn about the team research activity on which they’ll be working for the next week.

Science:
This week, our focus is on healthy lifestyles and good decision-making in conjunction with Red Ribbon Week.  We cover topics central to our futures as middle school and high school students:  the ability to refuse unwelcome advances from our peers, avoiding the temptation to use tobacco, and the dangers of alcohol use for teens.
While many adults do not realize this fact, the truth is that many children get their initial exposure to these substances and issues while in middle school.  The time to gain background knowledge on these subjects is NOW!


CA Trivia:

How many peaks in the Sierra Nevada are more than fourteen thousand feet high?

1st Week of October Reminders

Rockhopper Weekly Reminders

October 1st-5th, 2012

Mark Your Calendars:
• Tuesday, October 2nd- Lunch on the Lawn
• Wednesday, October 3rd - 4th grade math quiz
• Thursday, October 4th- Unit 1 Test in Social Studies
• Thursday, October 4th- Destination Imagination parent information meeting 6:30-8:00 p.m.
• October 8th-19th-  Fall break/P.E.P
• Monday, October 22nd- School resumes
• October 22nd-26th- Red Ribbon Week
• Monday, 29th- Learning Day (No School)
• Tuesday, October 30th- Lunch on the Lawn @11:30 & Halloween Parade @1:00

Curriculum Flash!

Language Arts
Island of the Blue Dolphins remains our #1 topic for the week.  We’ll continue reading together to cement our understanding of the story events, and we will use one of our chapter readings to begin our independent summary writing (after a couple of sessions of guided instruction in the writing genre, that is!).  We will also dabble in a bit of research about the wildlife that surround the Island of the Blue Dolphins for some nonfiction reading and note-taking practice.  In addition, now that we know our AR reading levels, we can be more selective about the fiction and nonfiction material we choose over the break for our Reading Contracts. Finally, our blogging schedule will be  established for the year.   Here are our Rockhopper class blogsite addresses:

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

Math:
4th grade: This week we delve deeper into identifying and evaluating expressions, equations, and inequalities. By the end of the week, our goal is to be able to take real world situations and describe them mathematically using either an expression, equation, or inequality to show the number relationships in the word problem.  Also, our Unit One test is ready to be passed back to students.  You will see that there is a STRONG emphasis on showing your thinking to fully demonstrate mathematical problem-solving.  Last, we will have game rotations on Friday to reinforce skills learned during the past two weeks- this was postponed last week in order to make sure our classes had enough time to really grasp the math concepts being presented!

5th grade:  We are now deriving rules and generalizations based on patterns we see.  Students continue to look at a variety of patterns, complete afunction tables, and look for the relationships between numbers. They are then able to come to a generalization or “rule”. We will also introduce vocabulary so that students can effectively write about what they have discovered.

Social Studies:
Students will be taking their first unit test in social studies on Thursday, October 4th. Last week, students were given a significant amount of class time to study and prepare both individually and with their table group.  On Wednesday, we will be playing Jeopardy as a final chance to review for the exam.

Science:
After beginning the week with our Investigation Two: Scratch Test I-Check today, we move on to other identifying properties of rocks. Investigation Three: Calcite Quest is this week’s main topic.  We will use a safe chemical test to detect the presence of the mineral calcite in our rock samples.  Students will be adding new vocabulary to their science notebooks to allow themselves to express their science thinking clearly on future response questions,I-Checks, and notebook work in our field of study.   

CA Trivia:

What CA island is derived from the Spanish phrase for “The Island of the Pelicans”?