Room 5 Update
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Dear Parents,
We will be going on our fourth
field trip of the year on Wednesday,
April 21st. We will be going to the
Wells Fargo History Museum in
Downtown LA. This is a good field trip
giving the students a teaser about the
Gold Rush. We will be leaving at 9:00
a.m. We should return back by
lunchtime. Students will need a sack
lunch just in case we are not back in
time for them to buy lunch. We will be
taking a school bus and therefore will
not need any drivers.
Spring is such a busy time of
year! I hope you all enjoyed a restful
Spring Break! Olympics Day was a
huge success! Coach Joey did a great
job training our kids & we raised lots of
money to keep the wonderful
programs we have here at Canyon!
We are gearing up for the
California Standards Test (CST) during
the middle two weeks of May;
reviewing concepts and skills taught
this year. Your child will be bringing
home Test Ready practice booklets.
Parent Conferences were last
week. It is always great to see all of
you and get a chance to discuss your
child’s strengths.
Thank you to all the families who
donated books from the Book Fair. We
appreciate your generosity in adding
to our class library!
We are looking forward to Fiesta
on Sunday, April 25th from 10am-4pm.
Our Silent Auction is one of our larger
fundraisers for the year. Please
donate to the class basket. Please
1
time for Fiesta. Parent participation is
what makes a successful day! See you
on the 25th!
Dates to Remember
• Tuesday, April 13th Monthly
Assembly
• Wednesday, April 21st Wells
Fargo Field Trip
• Sunday, April 25th 10am-4pm
Fiesta
• May 10th -28nd CST Testing
In Social Studies, we
completed a short unit on
Mexican California, which
included ranchos and pueblos.
Students learned about
California’s change of
government from Spanish to
Mexican rule.
Soon students will be
participating in a simulation of
the Gold Rush. In groups, they
form mining companies. They
will be learning how to note
take/outline information, 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.
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
2
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
square. Next, they verbally
had to tell the teacher that
they had four equal sides (&
prove it by measuring with
their bodies) and four right
angles (& prove that it was a
90° angle).
If your child still does not
know his or her facts quickly and
by rote, please practice DAILY!
Writing
We continue to work on
Summary Writing with the goal being
stating the main idea.
 Although survival was originally
thought to mean surviving on a
Our current unit in Open Court deserted island, children are
is on survival. Students will be reading discovering other types of survival,
a literature story related to the theme. such as mental survival & emotional
Students will work in literature circle survival! They are investigating
groups to investigate and read the meaningful topics such as surviving
story. One group will read Island of illnesses, surviving the effects of
the Blue Dolphins about a young girl divorce, surviving a death in the
We have only 11 more weeks of 4th grade and we want to be sure our students are
who
preparedmustforsurvive
5th grade! onMrs.
a deserted
TerVeer & I have included family.
some suggestions how to increase our
island. Astudy
students’ second group
habits. willage,
At this read
theArctic
children still need someGrammar
parentalskills continue
guidance to to be
Explorer: study.
effectively The Story
(Goodof Matthew
study habits also entail payingan area of focus.
attention duringProofreading is
class; not relying
Henson about the African American
solely on a review sheet.) Some suggestions for practiced daily. Students are learning
helping your child improve:
•explorer
Limit to TVgo viewing to weekends
to the North Pole. about conjunctions, interjections,
•Another group will read Dear Mr.
For Reading Fluency: comparative & superlative adjectives
o Read 30 minutes per
Henshaw about a young boy surviving day, including weekends! At least half
and adverbs! Wethat
aretime should
also be to
learning
the divorcespentof reading ALOUD
his parents andto the
a parent. Encouragelocatetheprepositional
reading of unfamiliar words
phrases by
within
looking at the context (what makes sense here), phonics (what word begins with
absence thatof his father. While another sentences.
letter) and syntax (what part of speech is being used).
group will read
• For Math facts:Stone Fox about a
youngoboy 10 surviving
minutes perthe illness
day: of triangular
practice his flash cards with fact family
grandfather
o In the and car,the possible
around loss table,
the dinner of walking to school, etc. Find 5-10 minutes a day
his farm.to orally practice math facts!
• For Vocabulary
o Your child brings vocabulary words home every Monday. Make flash cards for the
words. Play games with flashcards, testing him/her.
How to Study!
o Have your child use the new vocabulary in meaningful sentences
• For Spelling:
o Have your child sort words according to the spelling pattern of the week.
o Have your child add to the spelling categories all week: words that he/she notices
in books, on billboards, in the newspaper, etc. Words surround us everyday!
• For Reading Comprehension:
o Read together with your child nightly. Stop every couple of pages to discuss main
ideas & details with your child.
o Your child should be rereading their OCR story Tuesday-Thursday nights. Ask
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
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.)
3