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?
