Hello Everyone,
**Important Announcements:
Mountain Science Fair- Wednesday, March 6th:
All students in grades 4-6 are required to complete science fair projects at home. Clear guidelines and timelines are included in the information. Wonderful proposals have been turned in and students are ready to conduct their experiments beginning this week. Please follow the calendar in the packet to be sure that you and your child stay on track. 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 2nd @ Plantronics
(registration deadline: Fri., Feb. 8)
(registration deadline: Fri., Feb. 8)
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 4th-February 28th
SC County Science Fair--Saturday, March 2nd
Mountain Science Fair-- Wednesday, March 6th
Cabrillo Field Trip--Friday, March 8, 11:45 - 1:00
Sea Odyssey Field Trip--Tuesday March 19, 8:30 - 11:30
Upcoming field trips: Volunteers Needed
**Cabrillo field trip-- Friday, March 8, 11:45-1:00. We will need to leave school at 11:00. We will return to school by 1:30 to have lunch here in the classroom.
Event Information A brief guided tour through a portion of campus, where students observe college life A high‐energy presentation introducing college, delivered by Cabrillo Staff A short demonstration, delivered by Cabrillo Faculty A farewell to guests, including receiving a drawstring bag, and escort to buses and cars Please note that this year Cabrillo is unable to provide a lunch site on campus. We will return to school and eat out lunches in the classroom.
Parking: Lot L adjacent to Cabrillo's Crocker Theater. No permit required. I will check us in, and we will wait in our cars or in a designated area for further instructions.
Please check in with your child, we will be sending the Cabrillo Field Trip Permission Form and Photo Release Form home this week in the blue binder for you to sign and return. If you can help us by chaperoning and driving, we would greatly appreciate it. You may also sign up on the field trip page of the blog and submit your request to drive that way.
**Sea Odyssey field trip-- Tuesday March 19 from 8:30 to 11:30 AM.
Departure from school is at 7:45; return to school by 12:00 for recess and lunch. Information regarding this trip will be put out after the Cabrillo paperwork has been collected. Thank you for your patience. These trips are rather close together, due to the availability within each program.
Cabrillo Field Trip--Friday, March 8, 11:45 - 1:00
Sea Odyssey Field Trip--Tuesday March 19, 8:30 - 11:30
Upcoming field trips: Volunteers Needed
**Cabrillo field trip-- Friday, March 8, 11:45-1:00. We will need to leave school at 11:00. We will return to school by 1:30 to have lunch here in the classroom.
Event Information A brief guided tour through a portion of campus, where students observe college life A high‐energy presentation introducing college, delivered by Cabrillo Staff A short demonstration, delivered by Cabrillo Faculty A farewell to guests, including receiving a drawstring bag, and escort to buses and cars Please note that this year Cabrillo is unable to provide a lunch site on campus. We will return to school and eat out lunches in the classroom.
Parking: Lot L adjacent to Cabrillo's Crocker Theater. No permit required. I will check us in, and we will wait in our cars or in a designated area for further instructions.
Please check in with your child, we will be sending the Cabrillo Field Trip Permission Form and Photo Release Form home this week in the blue binder for you to sign and return. If you can help us by chaperoning and driving, we would greatly appreciate it. You may also sign up on the field trip page of the blog and submit your request to drive that way.
**Sea Odyssey field trip-- Tuesday March 19 from 8:30 to 11:30 AM.
Departure from school is at 7:45; return to school by 12:00 for recess and lunch. Information regarding this trip will be put out after the Cabrillo paperwork has been collected. Thank you for your patience. These trips are rather close together, due to the availability within each program.
Typing Club
Typing practice!! typingclub.com
We will be typing in class each week. Please let me know if computer access is a problem.
Curriculum Updates: January
ELA: Lucy Calkins, The Witch of Blackbird Pond
SC Symphony: daily musical compositions are introduced and enjoyed every morning.
Mindfulness: best practices in mindfulness are being 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 14.5 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 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: we will continue measures in 4th grade and division and fractions in 5th. Please check your child's planner for specific page numbers. We will continue to review these concepts. POM solving and presentations (problem of the month) continue. Silicon Valley Math Initiative (SVMI) MARS tasks continue all year.
**Keep Practicing: times tables should be rehearsed and memorized.
Science: Foss module "Energy." This includes magnets, electricity, and circuits.
Social Studies: American Colonies projects--posters/brochures and presentations, research papers.
Writing: summary, narrative and informational essays are currently being worked on.
Grammar: Study of various grammar: prepositions, nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives and adjective clauses. Shades of meaning vocabulary, capitalization, quotation marks, citing evidence within texts. Figurative language: simile, personification, hyperbole, alliteration, onomatopoeia, metaphor.
Warmly,
Mrs. Young
