Hello Everyone,

Thank you to all of our drivers/chaperones on last week's field trip to the Symphony. We appreciate your dedication to our classroom and the students. 

**Field Trips: Cabrillo College Friday, March 9 at 8:45-10:00. 
We need drivers and Chaperones for this event. Due to limited space, Cabrillo has asked that we have no more than 7 chaperones present with our class. If we have extra volunteers, we will need to have them drop off children and come back to pick them up at 10:00.

Mountain Science Fair- Wednesday, March 7th:

All students in grades 4-6 are required to complete science fair projects at home.  Clear guidelines and timeline are included in the information. Please follow the calendar to stay on track with deadlines.  

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/ and SC County Science Fair Link provide helpful resources for project planning.  Please contact me with any questions.

Santa Cruz County Science Fair: Saturday March 10th  (registration deadline: Fri., Feb. 9)

SC County Science Fair Link  We encourage students to enter their projects into the Santa Cruz County Science Fair. Please view the website with your child to consider whether she or he is interested in this opportunity.  The website includes helpful ideas as well as guidelines for projects. If your child is interested in participating, he/she is strongly encouraged to begin a project as soon as possible.

Upcoming Dates:

READ-A-THON-- February 18th-February 28th
Mountain Science Fair-- Wednesday, March 7th
Cabrillo College Field Trip-- Friday, March 9th 8:45-10:00

SC County Science Fair--Saturday, March 10th
Report Cards--Monday March 19th

SC Symphony: daily musical compositions are introduced and enjoyed every morning.

Mindfulness: best practices in mindfulness are incorporated in our classroom this year.

Harmony: best practices school-wide curriculum for building a strong social-emotional community within our classrooms.

AR Reading: Accelerated Reader continues to be an important part of our reading program.  Students are reading appropriate AR books found through the AR book find link and then quizzing on them within 24 hours of finishing their book.  It is critical to support your child in book selection (most books are in our school and classroom libraries) and to remind them to read, read, read whenever the opportunity arises--in the car, while waiting for an appt., to and from school, before bed time, on a Sunday in your jammies, etc.  These books should travel to and from the classroom in a daily fashion for classroom DEAR (drop everything and read) sessions as well as nightly reading homework and beyond.  Students have a goal of 14 points for the second trimester.  Each book has a certain amount of points it is worth.  This information is listed with reading level and appropriateness (grade school, middle school, high school, for example).  Points per book range from 3 to 5, generally, with longer books being worth more points.  On an average this is going to mean your child is reading anywhere from 3-5+ books a Trimester. That said, help your child select books that are on their reading level (their latest DRA2 level), and have high interest for them.  This will allow them to accomplish reading books from start to finish successfully.

Math: Measures. Please check your child's planner for specific page numbers. POM solving and presentations (problem of the month) continue. MARS tasks.

Science: Soils, Rocks and Landforms; science fair preparation. Please follow calendar timeline suggestions.

Social Studies: Civil War studies begin.

Writing and Grammar: summary writing, book reviews, science research report on extreme weather (expository), spelling, vocabulary, grammar and root word study.

Warmly,

Mrs. Young