Special Announcements: 

Congratulation: to Kadin Riggs for placing and doing so well in the spelling bee. Way to go, Kadin! We're so proud of you.

Play: "13 Colonies" Performance Dates: Thursday December 10 at 7 p.m. for parents and friends and Friday December 11 at 11 a.m. for the school. Mark your calendars! You don't want to miss this wonderful event! Please be sure that your child is at the school on Thursday evening at 6:30 sharp so that they can get ready for the 7 p.m. performance. 

Parent help and volunteers: Thank you to Marika Riggs, Julie Thornton, Julie Madagan, Claudia Galbo, Mary Kelly, Linda Swan and all those who have helped with play costumes, the stage, signs, organization, practices, etc. We really appreciate the support! The kids are very excited about the play.

Shared Music and Scripts: I have shared the music with and without lyrics along with a script of the play through google drive. Please help your child rehearse lines and songs so that they will be confident for the performances this week. 

ELA/Social Sciences: Students have added beautiful language to their Native American essays in the third revision process of this essay. We are also working on colony research, posters and presentations.

Art: Students have created the set decorations for the play and the stage is set for our play!

Read Aloud: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech.

Math: We are developing mental math strategies for division with 10's, 100's and 1000's as well as work with 1-digit and 2-digit divisors. We have a geometry POM (Problem of the Month) in progress with problem solving and status posters for group presentations. 

Writing and Grammar: The latest revision of the Native American essays is due. Essays should now include beautiful language: sizzling vocabulary, strong verbs, and juicy color words. An instruction sheet has been shared with your child through their drive, and we have gone over it in class. If they have not completed this assignment, they should do so as homework.

Spelling: Spelling homework/packet/test is due every Friday. Homework for Monday night is on Google Classroom.

Nightly Reading: Please remind your child to read their lines and go over their script for nightly reading this month. This will help students reinforce and build confidence with their parts. If they do not have lines, and know all the songs, they may read something else of their choice.

Thank you for supporting both our classroom and your wonderful child!

Have a great week and see you on opening night this Thursday!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Week of November 23 - November 27, 2015

Dear Families and Friends,

Thanksgiving Break: Wednesday November 25-November 29

Jupiter Grades. Most of you and your children have logged in and changed your pass codes. If you have not had a chance to do this, please do so now. This will help you and your child monitor grades and assignments together as a team. This tool should be utilized to help your child develop as a life-long learner teaching them the value of responsibility and expectation as they grow as scholars. Jupiter Grades

Play: "13 Colonies."  Roles have been selected, and we are practicing our play daily as we have a relatively short time to prepare given the Thanksgiving Holiday. Please be sure that your child practices his/her lines over the break. It would be great if the kids could have their lines memorized when they come back.

Play performance dates: Thursday December 10 at 7 p.m. for parents and friends and Friday December 11 at 11 a.m. for the school. Mark your calendars! You don't want to miss this wonderful event!

Parent help and volunteers needed: costumes (talk to Marika) rehearsing lines, practicing dances and songs, assisting with the set and back stage, etc. I have put together a sign up sheet on google docs for those who would like to sign up to help. Thank you in advance! Your participation is greatly appreciated!

Shared Music and Scripts: I have shared the music with lyrics and the instrumental version along with a script of the play. Your child also brought home a script today which is to stay home and be used to read and practice from nightly. 

ELA/Social Sciences: We will read and do various activities that support our theme of learning about the colonies. Students will continue to work on their Native American essays and their colony research and posters.

Art: Students will complete their tribal shadow boxes this week, and we will start to create set designs for our play with the help of Mary Beth in the Art department!

Read Aloud: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech.

Math: Despite our commitment to the play, we will continue to weave our math curriculum into our days. We took our multiplication pretest on 10's, 100's and 1000's on Thursday. I hope to build a solid foundation with these skills. We have been working diligently toward this goal. We will review division with a single digit divisor and introduce the 5th graders to 2-digit divisors. Then, we dive into fractions in the coming weeks.

Writing and Grammar: There is no grammar homework this week.

Spelling: There is no spelling homework/packet this week due to the holiday.

Nightly Reading: Please remind your child to read their lines and go over their script for nightly reading this month. This will help students reinforce and build confidence with their parts. 

Thank you for supporting both our classroom and your wonderful child!

Have a great Thanksgiving with family and friends!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Week of November 16 - November 20, 2015

Dear Families and Friends,

Report cards and parent conferences are complete and went very well. Including students in their conferences marks and important transition in ownership and accountability for most scholars. Congratulations to all students! Well done.

Jupiter Grades. Most of you and your children have logged in and changed your pass codes. If you have not had a chance to do this, please do so now. This will help you and your child monitor grades and assignments together as a team. This tool should be utilized to help your child develop as a life-long learner teaching them the value of responsibility and expectation as they grow as scholars. Jupiter Grades

Play: "13 Colonies."  We read through our play today for the first time and listened to all of the songs.  We will watch a kid's production of the play on video tomorrow to give students a complete sense of the play. Students will be asked to consider 3 different parts and 3 different songs/dances that they would most like to perform. Then, I will use fair sticks to select students for parts knowing that all students within our class are completely capable of doing a marvelous job in whichever role they may get. 

Play performance dates: Thursday December 10 at 7 p.m. for parents and friends and Friday December 11 at 11 a.m. for the school. Mark your calendars! You don't want to miss this wonderful event!

Parent help and volunteers needed: for filling in missing items for costumes, rehearsing lines, practicing dances and songs, assisting with the set and back stage, etc. I will put together a sign up sheet on google docs for those who would like to sign up to help. Thank you in advance! Your participation is greatly appreciated!

Shared Music and Scripts: I have shared the music with lyrics and the instrumental version along with a script of the play. Your child also brought home a script today which is to stay home and be used to read and practice from nightly. 

ELA/Social Sciences: We will read and do various activities that support our theme of learning about the colonies. Students will continue to work on their Native American Reports.

Art: Students will complete their tribal shadow boxes this week, and we will start to create set designs for our play with the help of Mary Beth in the Art department!

Read Aloud: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech.

Math: Despite our commitment to the play, we will continue to weave our math curriculum into our days. We are working on the multiplication algorithm, multiplication using mental math strategies with 10's, 100's and 1000's as well as the operations and properties. I hope to build a solid foundation with these skills. We have been working diligently toward this goal. A review of former concepts will continue as we dive into fractions in the next few weeks.

Writing and Grammar: We will continue to study subjects and predicates and use them in our essays and daily writing assignments.

Spelling: We have started our spelling packets and tests on Fridays. Please support your child with this new addition to our nightly home work. There is a place that requires a parent signature. Our words come from student papers and authentic pieces of their writing. The spelling packet this week is geared toward our play and the study of the colonies.

Nightly Reading: Please remind your child to read their lines and go over their script for nightly reading this month. This will help students reinforce and build confidence with their parts. 
Thank you for supporting both our classroom and your wonderful child!

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Week of November 2 - November 6, 2015

Dear Families and Friends,

Report cards and parent conferences are coming up quickly--November 4-10. If you haven't done so, please click on the SignUpGenius link below to select a slot for our conference. 

SignUpGenius

**Please remember, your child is to come with you to the parent conference so that they can be directly involved in their progress thus far. 

ELA: Now that assessments for report cards are complete, we will continue with our literature circle book--The Birchbark House.

Read Aloud: We are putting the finishing touches on the Kit Carson report we did as an assessment on the computer. We are reading Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, currently, which is a novel loaded with figurative language. This will be a rich experience for language enrichment.

Math: I am please to say that students overall really knocked the ball out of the park on their first trimester math assessment. They should be very proud of themselves. They have worked very diligently on the subject. For those who still need to do so, math facts should be practiced each night for 5 minutes. Please check your child's planner for specific math practice assignments. We are beginning order of operations this week.

Science: Building circuits begins very soon. Remember those Christmas tree lights when you were a kid? The ones in series that made your parents very testy? Well, we'll be creating some of those very soon. Hopefully, we'll all still get along when it's over....

Social Studies: We're ready to start our writing on our tribes and will start that now that assessments are complete.

Writing and Grammar: We will continue to study grammar and use it in our essays. 

Spelling: Starting this trimester, spelling tests on Fridays! More on that soon.

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Week of October 26- October 30, 2015

Dear Families and Friends,

Special Announcements: Halloween is being celebrated at school this Friday morning with the annual Halloween parade. Your child can come to school in his/her costume in the morning. We will have the parade first thing in the morning as usual and then resume our Friday schedule with P.E. at 9:20. Please be sure your child has regular/comfortable clothes and tennis shoes to change into for the rest of the day. 

Head Phones: We had a special delivery from Amazon courtesy of Julie Thornton (Tom's mom)! Julie donated new head phones to our classroom for our computers. Wow! We use them all the time, and they are terrific. Thank you, Julie, you rock!

Report cards and parent conferences are coming up quickly--November 4-10. If you haven't done so, please click on the SignUpGenius link below as soon as you are able so that you can get a slot that works for your schedule. Thank you to those who have signed up thus far. The emails come straight into my in box, and I can see that it is working just fine. 

SignUpGenius

**Please remember, your child is to come with you to the parent conference so that they can be directly involved in their progress thus far. 

I will be conducting the remaining assessments in math (Thursday) and writing (Mon., Tues., Wed.). Please Make sure your child is on time, well rested and fed. 

ELA: We will continue with our literature circle book--The Birchbark House as time allows around assessments.

Read Aloud: We have finished Kit Carson and will be writing a book review on it.  Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech in our next novel! 

Math: Math facts should be practiced each night for 5 minutes. Please check your child's planner for specific math practice assignments. We are reviewing concepts in place value, rounding. estimating, factors and multiples in preparation for our math assessment Thursday.

Science: Now that Mrs. Dudley is back from Science Camp, 5th graders will continue with her, and the 4th will turn back to their study of magnets and circuits in the Foss Science Program. 

Social Studies: We are researching our tribes for our narrative essays about Native Americans. Your child has homework to research his/her tribe this week. This could include a home library book or a bit of supervised web browsing on a particular tribe. They are welcome to bring in any information that they would like to share as they collect it. We will do this in class as well. 

Writing and Grammar: We are reviewing prepositions, types of sentences, similes, and simple, compound and complex sentences in preparation for our writing assessment.

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Week of October 19- October 23, 2015

Hello Families and Friends,

We had a magical and truly great experience on the water today on the O'Neill Sea Odyssey trip! Thank you to all those who drove and chaperoned. There was a lot to see and a great deal to learn about marine biology, ecology, and navigation. The water was calm and the day perfect for a sail. As homework tonight your child should get online and walk you through what they learned. Go to www.oneillseaodyssey.org. Select "Educators" on the top of the page and scroll down to the bottom of the orange drop menu. Select "View your Class Data." This will take you to the page where you can select the group your child was in--Great White Shark or Harbor Porpoise under Mountain School at the top of the page. Enjoy looking this over together. In addition, your child also took home a folder with a picture of them on the boat at the helm! 

Special Announcement: there is no school on Friday Oct. 23!

Head Phones: We had a special delivery today from Amazon courtesy of Julie Thornton (Tom's mom)! Julie donated new head phones to our classroom for our computers. Wow! We used them today in the afternoon, and they were terrific. Thank you, Julie, you rock!

Report cards and parent conferences are coming up quickly--November 4-10. Please click on the SignUpGenius link below as soon as you are able so that you can get a slot that works for your schedule. Thank you to those who have signed up thus far. The emails come straight into my in box, and I can see that it is working just fine. 

SignUpGenius

I will be conducting assessments over the next few weeks as we wind down the first trimester. Making sure your child is on time, well rested and fed is especially important.

ELA: We will continue with our literature circle book--The Birchbark House. 

Read Aloud: We are finished Kit Carson today and will be writing a book review on it. Tomorrow we'll be starting Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech! 

Math: We took our factors and multiples pretest on Friday. Monday we had our official test on this material.  It is important for students to continue to review the divisibility rules which will help with division by a single digit. We will move into multi-digit multiplication and division in the coming weeks.  Math facts should be practiced each night for 5 minutes. Please check your child's planner for specific math practice assignments. 

Science: Now that Mrs. Dudley is back from Science Camp, 5th graders will continue with her, and the 4th will turn back to their study of magnets and circuits in the Foss Science Program. 

Social Studies: We are researching our tribes for our narrative essays about Native Americans. Your child has homework to research his/her tribe this week. This could include a home library book or a bit of supervised web browsing on a particular tribe. They are welcome to bring in any information that they would like to share as they collect it. We will do this in class as well. 

Writing and Grammar: We are reviewing transitions and will work on learning the process of organizing our ideas for our narratives.

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Monday October 19, 2015

Hello Parents and Friends,

The time has arrived! We are departing tomorrow morning from the school at 7:45 a.m. sharp for our much anticipated O'Neill Sea Odyssey trip. Please have your child here by 7:30 to avoid any delays. We will have to leave the school on time to get to our destination at the harbor, park and meet our instructor downstairs at the west end of the building on the Plaza sidewalk across from the parking lot and the Crow's Nest Restaurant. I will give all drivers their maps and student forms in the morning here at the school.

Specifics:

Location: O'Neill Sea Odyssey 

2222 East Cliff Drive, Suite 222

Santa Cruz, CA 95062

831-475-1561

(East side of Santa Cruz Harbor next to the Crow's Nest. A map will be provided to each driver with permission slips for each student traveler.)

Go to the link below to see a preview of what we will see and do, maps, and more info.:

O'Neill Sea Odyssey link

Parking: Cars and vans go to the metered parking in the launch ramp area OR the visitor's parking for up to $5.00 per hour (we are there approximately 3 hours).

Arrival/Departure: We must arrive no later than 8:15. Late arrivals result in an abbreviated program. We will wrap up at 11:30 and head back to school for recess and lunch.

Food: Please make sure your child has eaten a very good breakfast. During the 3 hour program, there is no break.

Clothing: Dress comfortably and bring a jacket, sun screen, a hat, and sunglasses.

Shoes: Sneakers or soft-soled, non-skid shoes are required!!! You will be asked to remove dress shoes, platforms, sandals, heels or thick-soled shoes.

Weather: The program is modified to accommodate all weather conditions. Therefore, rain or shine, we will plan to go.

Drivers/chaperones and carpools:

Kelley: Taylor, Mikayla, Owen, Jace

Marika: Kadin, Madi, Jon, Hannah F.

Dwayne: Anika, Maia, Micah, Isaiah

Julie: Sophie, Claire, Jack, Tom

Linda: Ruby, Hannah M., Tyler, Noah

Mary: Adrian, Hunter, Mrs. Young

Thank you for all of the support and see you tomorrow bright and early everyone! Otters, dolphins and whales await.

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Newsletter for Week of 10/12 - 10/16

Hello Families and Friends of the 4/5 Classroom,

We had a great time on the field trip to see Micha and company dance last Friday. Our class was very well behaved and enjoyed the show. Many of our students were up on stage participating. It was wonderful to be a part of the dance.

Reminders:
Field Trip: O'Neill Sea Odyssey. Tuesday October 20th from 7:45 -12:00. Please be sure you are here at the school with your child promptly at 7:45. Space is limited. We are allowed no more than 8 parent volunteers/ chaperones. Your child should eat a good breakfast. There are no breaks once on board. Dress comfortably, wear soft-soled sneakers only (no sandals, platforms, heels, or thick-soled shoes allowed) and a jacket (gloves and hats as necessary). This is a free event and promises to be a great adventure!

ELA: We will continue with our literature circle book--The Birchbark House.  

Math: We have started learning about squares of a number and will continue that this week. It is important for students to still review the divisibility rules.  Math facts should be practiced each night for 5 minutes, too. Please check your child's planner for specific math practice assignments. 

Science: We are working on a STEM project about Curiosity the Mars space rover. This unit focuses on engineering. It will combine computer work, prototype/model building, literacy connections and team work/collaboration.

Social Studies: We are researching our tribes for our narrative essays about Native Americans. Your child has homework to research his/her tribe this week. This could include a home library book or a bit of supervised web browsing on a particular tribe. We will do this in class as well. 

Writing and Grammar: We are continuing simile practice and did an informal drama yesterday in groups! This was very engaging and the students enjoyed it. We will work on word roots this week for vocabulary building and spelling. This will help students develop their writing as we begin writing projects like personal narrative, opinion, and expository pieces. 

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young

Newsletter for Week of 10/5 -10/9

Hello Families and Friends of the 4/5 Classroom,

I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful fall weather that is beginning in our area. We have a great week planned which will wrap up with our field trip on Friday to see Micha Dance. Details follow.

Field Trip Announcement: The "Micha Scott Dances" show at the Mello Center is Friday October 9. The show is from 10-11. Your child should come to school at the usual time. We will leave the school at 9:00. We do need 1 more driver. If you are able to help us out, please let me know today, if possible, so that I can get all the drivers and passengers arranged. The cost is $2.00 ea. for every child and parent driver.  You must have all paperwork signed in the office to be a driver.  

Reminders:
Field Trip: O'Neill Sea Odyssey. Tuesday October 20th from 7:45 -12:00. Please be sure you are here at the school with your child promptly at 7:45. Space is limited. We are allowed no more than 8 parent volunteers/ chaperones. Your child should eat a good breakfast. There are no breaks once on board. Dress comfortably, wear soft-soled sneakers only (no sandals, platforms, heels, or thick-soled shoes allowed) and a jacket (gloves and hats as necessary). This is a free event and promises to be a great adventure!

ELA: We will continue with our literature circle book--The Birchbark House.  

Math: Our test on factors and multiples went well for most students last Friday. We will continue to practice divisibility rules and concepts this week. Your child should review the divisibility rules each night this week in his/her Blue Binder. Math facts should be practiced each night for 5 minutes, too. Please check your child's planner for specific math practice assignments.  

Science: Magnets and circuits continue.

Social Studies: We will finish highlighting chapter 3--The Tribes of North America in our History Alive texts and make notes in the margins on Tuesday and Thursday. We are creating and coloring our totem projects. Students can pick out additional texts today as we will write a brief essay on a tribe of their choice to practice our writing skills. This will be a research project that can, for the most part, be done in class. This is an example of expository text with the purpose of informing the reader.

Writing and Grammar: We will continue sentence variety this week in grammar and use the strategies we learn in our journal writing over the coming weeks. Yesterday, we added similes to the mix. This will help students develop their writing as we begin writing projects like personal narratives, opinion, and expository pieces. 

Have a great week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Young