Siskinites Weekly Post April 14th, 2017

Room 6 Headlines Reminder: Bike Rodeo is on April 27th. Please bring your bike and helmet to school. Cherry Blossom Festival! The April 15th performance is this Saturday! We hope to see many other WCA faces in the audience! Our performance time has been moved to 2:45. This means the drummers do not need to arrive as early as I said. Drummers should arrive by 1:30 at Peace Plaza in Japantown. The main stage where the kids will perform is there! We will meet at the Pagoda - The tall tower by the stage. Let the security guards know your children are performers! Spring Break Homework: The homework will not due until April 28th. Along with the standard assignments, there is a nonfiction reading passage with questions and a HUGE comprehensive math practice assessment for both grade levels to complete to help them prepare for the Smarter Balanced Assessments in May. (Test Schedule is below) These packets are optional, but highly suggested! Please have your child complete as much as possible by May 1. We will correct these practice tests together in class. Students will be practicing test taking strategies as well as reviewing content as they complete and correct the packets.

Smarter Balanced Assessments Dates and Preparation This week students will be bringing home homework that will help them review and prepare for the Smarter Balanced Assessment in May. Below is the link to practice and training tests online. The training tests give students a good example of the sorts of questions they might receive and practice with the technology! The practice tests contain examples of questions for students three through five so there may be questions that your child is unable to answer. The training tests have material just relevant to their grade level. We will also be taking some of the practice tests online when we return from Spring Break in class. We will primarily be working on the performance task (PT) assessments in writing and mathematics. Link:http://www.mesd.k12.or.us/cms/lib8/OR01915807/Centricity/Domain/35/Directions%20for%20Practice%20Test.pdf Testing Dates: please try not to schedule any doctor/dentist appointments during the scheduled testing times.

Monday 5/1 - Friday 5/5 8:40 - 10:00 ELA/ Math CAT

Monday 5/8 - Friday 5/12 8:40 - 10:00 MATH PT/ ELA PT

Monday 5/15, Tuesday 5/16, Friday 5/19 8:40 - 10:00 Continue ELA PT and Make-ups

Monday 5/22 - Friday 5/26 8:40 - 10:00 Make-ups

Tuesday 5/30, Wednesday 5/31

PARTY 'CAUSE WE'RE DONE!

2

Room 6 News Science Over break, Siskinites can begin to think about what they would like to do for their take home “Each One Teach One” physical science engineering project or science experiment. Below are the directions:

Each One Teach One Student Expert Project: Due: May 15th

Scientists study how nature works. Engineers create new things, such as products, websites, environments, and experiences. Because engineers and scientists have different objectives, they follow different processes in their work. Scientists perform experiments using the scientific method; whereas, engineers follow the creativity-based engineering design process. Both processes can be broken down into a series of steps. For this project you will each chose a physical science experiment or engineering project for a

“ Each One Teach One” Student Expert Project! Once the project is completed, you will each have an opportunity to become a science or engineering teacher and share what you have learned through your project with a lesson presented to the class! You will bring home and conduct an experiment or engineering project to explore and understand. Afterwards, you will prepare a presentation/demonstration to share what you discovered, learned, created with the class! It is fine for you to choose an alternative project to those I gave out in class as examples. You can create one of your own, or find one online or in a book! I will have a “lesson plan” for All Expert Teachers to complete as part of the project before it can be shared with the class! All students are encouraged to present their projects at Open House on May 17! You can choose how you want to teach and share. Below are some ideas: •Demonstration •Class challenge or activity •Video •Slideshow •Poster or display •Model •Your own idea There are no rules except for safety! Please let me know if your child needs and idea!!!

Math The third and fourth graders continue investigations exploring fraction concepts! Third graders have been playing a game that explores equivalent fractions and writing equations that reflect equivalencies. The game includes trading in fractional equivalent pieces! There is a basic, intermediate, and advanced version of this game on the Pearson Realize website in the game section. Fourth graders have been exploring equivalencies and also ordering fractions and mixed numbers on a number line. Next week, students will be working with decimal numbers and then adding and subtracting decimal numbers and fractions.

3

Reading Students continue to read fairy tales and compare and contrast characters and story elements. When we return from Spring Break, the entire class will form debate teams to prepare for the fairytale debates at the Paper Bag Princess event. You might want to start collecting some paper bags because your child will be making their outfit for the event out of paper bags! Writing Students continue to publish their Expert Books and plan and draft opinion pieces about why someone should purchase their Expert Books at a local bookstore. History TimeCast Projects As you know, Siskinites are very busy studying the history of the California, Sausalito, and Marin. This is an interdisciplinary study incorporating many reading, history, writing, and technology standards. In third grade, each student has chosen a specific historical person who lived during the mid 1800s and early 1900s.This week, third grade students began working with two artists, Debra and Mitchell, from the Artist Teaching Artists Program to paint portraits of the people they researched and the buildings that were significant to their work and lives. This week, students continued to dive into their history books to find specific factual information for their Imovie interviews, portrait, and setting to prepare for their art project. This week, 4th grade students selected a person to study from a list of famous and influential people from the 17th through the 21st century who have contributed to California’s history in important ways. They will write persuasive essays as part of their Timecast Portrait Projects. They will need to convince the class why the person they chose to study should be inducted into the "The California Dreamers Hall of Fame." Fourth graders have begun another CA Jigsaw Project and will prepare to teach their cohort about different important topics and concepts during the Gold Rush. They will pick the most important facts to share about their topic.

4

Field trips and special school and classroom events

April Depart/Return Destination Transportation Content

4/15/17 (Saturday)

TBA around 1:30-4:00

Japantown Center SF Pagoada Main Stage

Parents must attend

Sister City Drumming Performance at the Annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown

May Depart/Return Destination Transportation Content

5/1/17 9:00-1:00 Marinship History SHS Class Visit

At School Marinship WWII History

5/12/17 (Friday)

9:00-1:00 Marinship History SHS Trip

Walking Marinship WWII History

5/17/17 9:00-2:00 Marine Science Institute Kid’s Coastal Clean-up Ocean Beach by the Chalet

Bus Environmental Service Project

Friday

6/17/16

Sutter’s Fort State Capitol is located in the heart of Midtown Sacramento. Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park captures the pioneer spirit of families arriving in wagon trains at the dawn of the California Gold Rush. John Sutter built the Fort and his agricultural empire, was critical in the rescue of the tragic Donner Party and served as a diplomat with the Mexican

5

Homework Assignments • Assigned on Friday and due one week later! • Have your child choose an online math option at least three times a week!

Mandatory Homework •Please remind your child put their name on their work •Please have your child write in complete sentences including •Responses to Scholastic News activities •Encourage capitalization and end of sentence punctuation! •Have your child read their written work aloud when editing to listen for clarity and content

Family Project: Each One Teach One; Scholastic News; Smarter Balance Test Prep

Cursive: Capital Letters Rap and Rhyme Word Family of the Week: not this week

Reading log and discussion questions: Read 30 minutes nightly and choose three discussion questions to answer. Fourth graders: Choose at least two discussion questions to write and record in your “homework” Reading log

Scholastic News: Read and complete response sheets: assigned this week

Differentiated “Assign Myself” HW: online math at least 3 times a week

Optional Assignments

Spelling: Spelling Beat contest

Math: Prodigy https://prodigygame.com/Play/ XtraMath https://xtramath.org Khan Academy https://www.khanacademy.org/ TERC Investigation https://www.pearsonrealize.com Username: student Google address Password: third12345 OR fourth12345 Go to class; Go to assignments Or Explore!

Reading K-3rd grade:

Bookflix http://auth.grolier.com/login/bookflix/login.php Password: wcacademy Username: wcacademy Scholastic News online: 3siskin; 4siskin

Reading 3rd-8th grade:

Trueflix http://trueflix.scholastic.com Password: wcacademy Username: wcacademy

Keyboard skills:

Dance Mat Typing http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c6tfr

6

Reading Workshop What are students doing and learning?

• How to cite text as evidence in fiction and non-fiction Nonfiction Reading Strategies: boxes and bullets • Non-fiction text features • California Weekly (4th grade):Timecast Expert Jigsaw • Reading Willows Book Club Meetings: Al Capone Does My Shirts and The Good Dog, Winn Dixie • Fairytales: multicultural, classic, modern/fractured • Character analysis • Zia Book Club (4th grade historical fiction)

What are students doing and learning? •Stretching out facts with Power Partner sentences that adds supporting details • The Art of Opinion/Persuasive Writing • Revision and editing strategies • Non-fiction text features • Spelling Beat • Grammar Grid • Five Finger Main Idea and Supporting Details

Writer’s Workshop

Math Workshop What students doing and learning? Third Grade • Fraction Concepts • Geo Dream Home Project Fourth Grade • Fraction and decimal concepts • Geometry Town Project • Math literacy projects

A

7

Science What are students doing and learning?

• Physical Science • Engineering Process, Force and Motion • Watershed Environmental Projects: native plant restoration project at school, Trout In the Classroom Project •

Animals and their functions

• Biomimicry • Inherited traits and human selection

What are students doing and learning? The Driving Question: What voices from the past deserve to be heard again? •Sausalito and Marin city residents and business people during the 18th and 19th century (3rd) • CA Timecast Expert Jigsaw Project (4th) • 3rd grade historical diorama project •Timeline of California and local history that represents major events, influential people, and other important dates from the time of the first Californians, the Native American tribes, through the 21st century.

Social Studies

Farm to the table with Barbara

What are students doing and learning? See you after Spring Break for spring planting!!!!