Room 5 Update

your generosity in adding to our

class library!
Dear Parents, We are looking forward to
We will be going on our Fiesta on Sunday, April 25th from
fourth field trip of the year on 10am-4pm. Our Silent Auction is
Wednesday, April 21st. We will one of our larger fundraisers
be going to the Wells Fargo for the year. Please donate to
History Museum in Downtown LA. the class basket. Please sign
This is a good field trip giving up for a 2-hour block of
the students a teaser about the volunteer time for Fiesta.
Gold Rush. We will be leaving Parent participation is what
at 9:00 a.m. We should return makes a successful day! See you
back by lunchtime. Students on the 25th!
will need a sack lunch just in
case we are not back in time for Dates to Remember
them to buy lunch. We will be • Tuesday, April 13th Monthly
taking a school bus and Assembly
therefore will not need any
drivers.
• Wednesday, April 21st Wells
Spring is such a busy time Fargo Field Trip
of year! I hope you all enjoyed • Sunday, April 25th 10am-4pm
a restful Spring Break! Olympics Fiesta
Day was a huge success! Coach • May 10th -28nd CST Testing
Joey did a great job training
our kids & we raised lots of
money to keep the wonderful In Social Studies, we
programs we have here at Canyon!
completed a short unit on
We are gearing up for the
California Standards Test (CST) Mexican California, which
during the middle two weeks of included ranchos and
May; reviewing concepts and pueblos. Students learned
skills taught this year. Your about California’s change of
child will be bringing home Test government from Spanish to
Ready practice booklets.
Mexican rule.
Parent Conferences were
last week. It is always great to Soon students will be
see all of you and get a chance participating in a
to discuss your child’s simulation of the Gold Rush.
strengths. In groups, they form mining
Thank you to all the companies. They will be
families who donated books from learning how to note
the Book Fair. We appreciate
take/outline information,
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write in a Miner’s Log and
make tough decisions just
like the miners did. In the
computer lab, students will
be working on making
postcards from the gold
fields. They will be making
a Power Point presentation,
which lets the children add
graphics and buttons as well
as sounds.
On Wednesday, April 21st
we will be taking a field
trip to the Wells Fargo
History Museum in Downtown
LA. This is a great field
trip where students will
have the opportunity to
learn about the gold rush
time period and
communication during this
time. Students will see
what it was like to live
during that time period. We
always enjoy this field
trip.
We will begin our last
unit on Environments. They
will be introduced to the
basic concepts in
environmental biology while
they investigate living
things depending on the
conditions of their
environment.
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We will completed
our unit on data
analysis before Spring
Break. Students made
observations about
graphs and data. They
plotted coordinate
points on a graph and
learned the different
types of graphs (stem &
leaf, line plot, line
graph, bar graph, etc.).
We will be taking our
third District quarterly
assessment after Spring
Break.
We will begin our
geometry unit soon. The
children will be using
geoboards to build
polygons and to figure
out area & perimeter. We
will use reflectas to
help teach symmetry and
congruent figures.
Stretchy elastic bands
help to reinforce verbal
geometric proofs by
making children prove
why the shape their
group forms is accurate.
For example, three
children will use the
elastic band to form a Explorer: The Story of Matthew
square. Next, they Henson about the African American
verbally had to tell the explorer to go to the North Pole.
Another group will read Dear Mr.
teacher that they had Henshaw about a young boy surviving
four equal sides (& the divorce of his parents and the
prove it by measuring absence of his father. While another
with their bodies) and group will read Stone Fox about a
fourWerighthave onlyangles (& of 4th grade andyoung
11 more weeks
boy surviving the illness of his
we want to be sure our students are
prove forthat
prepared itMrs.
5th grade! was a 90°
TerVeer & I have includedgrandfather and thehow
some suggestions possible lossour
to increase of
students’ his farm.
study habits. At this age, the children still need some parental guidance to
angle). Although survival was originally
effectively study. (Good study habits also entail paying attention during class; not relying
If your
solely on child
a review stillSome
sheet.) doessuggestions
not thought
for helping your to mean
child surviving on a
improve:
know hisTV
• Limit orviewing
her factstoquickly and
weekends deserted island, children are
by rote,
• For please
Reading practice DAILY!
Fluency: discovering other types of survival,
o Read 30 minutes per day, including weekends! such At asleast half survival
mental that time should be
& emotional
Writing
spent reading ALOUD to a parent. Encourage the reading
survival! They ofareunfamiliar words by
investigating
looking at the context (what makes sense here), phonics (what word begins with
meaningful topics such as surviving
that letter) and syntax (what part of speech is being used).
• ForWe Mathcontinue
facts: to work on illnesses, surviving the effects of
Summaryo 10Writing
minuteswithper day:
the practice divorce,
triangular flash
goal being surviving
cards with a death in the
fact family
In the
statingo the main car,idea.
around the dinner table, walking family.
to school, etc. Find 5-10 minutes a day
to orally practice math facts! Grammar skills continue to be
• For Vocabulary an area of focus. Proofreading is
o Your child brings vocabulary words homepracticed every Monday.daily.Make flash cards
Students for the
are learning
words. Play games with flashcards, testing him/her.
about conjunctions, interjections,
Our
o Havecurrent
your unit
child in Open
use Court
the new vocabulary in meaningful sentences
is comparative & superlative adjectives
• onForsurvival.
Spelling: Students will be reading
a literature story and adverbs! We are also learning to
o Have yourrelated to words
child sort the theme.
according to the spelling pattern of the week.
Students will work
o Have in literature
your child add to thecircle locate
spelling categories all prepositional
week: words that phrases within
he/she notices
groups toininvestigate and read
books, on billboards, the newspaper,sentences.
in the etc. Words surround us everyday!
•story. One group
For Reading will read Island of
Comprehension:
o Read
the Blue together
Dolphins aboutwitha your childgirl
young nightly. Stop every couple of pages to discuss main
ideas & details with
who must survive on a deserted your child.
island.oAYour child should be rereading their OCR story Tuesday-Thursday nights. Ask
second group will read Arctic
him/her questions about the reading & have him/her write their answers on paper.
• For Social Studies:
o Bring home the note taking outlines completed during class! Using the outlines, ask
How to Study!
your child questions. Try to ask in more than one way so your child understands
the concepts, not simply memorize one right response.
o We have many discussions during class to gain understanding of concepts. MUST
PAY ATTENTION to these discussions!!
o Have your child reread the Social Studies chapters or sections, noting the key
words in the side box, bold print & colored section headings. These are all
important. (Sometimes children understand better if they read expository text
aloud, since it is filled with information.)
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