Wednesday, March 16, 2011

~ March News ~

Upcoming Dates:
• 3/18: Report Cards Sent Home
• 3/21: Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio Tour
• 3/21: Spring Arts Fiesta 6:30 p.m.
• 3/28 – 4/1: Spring Break – School resumes on Monday, April 4


Reminders/Notes:
• Custom Typing: We are continuing formal keyboarding lessons and students will routinely go to the computer lab for Custom Typing. This offers the opportunity for your child to become familiar with “home row” and allows for an increase in words per minute. This program can also be accessed at home through our school’s homepage. In order to access a child’s particular screen, that can be accomplished by typing “d97username” (i.e. = d97melsmith). The password is your child’s student ID #. Students should be familiar with this process and can access the program at home for more practice.
• Take Home Folder/Assignment Books: Your child should be bringing home their assignment book and a take home (homework) folder everyday. Please check both for assignments, notes, and other information.
• District Referendum Information: Referendum information can be found at: http://www.op97.org/referendum/index.html
• Digital Backpack: Access the school’s digital backpack, to get papers from the school and district. If you need paper copies, please let us know. You can simply go to the district’s website and access it that way.
• Special Education Parent Nights: Please save the dates for upcoming K-5 Special Education Parent Nights. There was a change in some of the dates, so please take note of these new dates: March 22nd, April 26th, and May 24th. All parent nights occur at Whittier from 6:30-8 in the library. In March, parents of middle school and high school students with special education needs will be sharing their experiences at parent night. Hope to see you there.
• PBIS: PBIS program is still accepting donations from families and community partners. You can visit the PBIS blog at http://longfellowpbis.blogspot.com/ for a wish list on the right side menu; it is titled “Bears’s Den Wish List.”


Curriculum Notes:

Reading:
Next week we continue Open Court Unit 3: “From Mystery to Medicine.” Next week’s story, titled “Sewed Up His Heart,” is a biography text piece that focuses on the decisions Dr. Daniel Hale Williams faced and the surgery he ultimately performed to save the life of his patient, James Cornish. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams pioneered heart surgery in this country and saved the lives of untold numbers of patients because of his courage to perform an operation that had never been performed before. We will be focusing on the comprehension skills of Drawing Conclusions and Author’s Purpose while reading the passage this week.

Writing: In writer’s workshop our authors have finished drafting their biographies from Black History Month. Students will now begin publishing their work in the form of word processing. We will be spending time in the computer lab typing these pieces throughout the next two weeks. A scored rubric will be coming home regarding your child’s progress in each of the following areas: word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions. This biography will also count as a portion of the research grade on the upcoming report card. This grade, along with the state report in social studies, will be combined for their final score.

Math: Students are now working on Unit 7 (Fractions and Their Uses; Chance and Probability), which focuses on three main objectives:
1. To provide reminders, review, and practice of fraction ideas introduced earlier
2. To develop a good understanding of equivalent fractions
3. To provide informal activities related to chance and probability
The probability lessons illustrated a new use of fractions for most students. Fractions, along with decimals and percents, may be used to express probabilities. In the lessons probabilities are expressed most often using fraction notation.

Science: Students will begin the study of Ecosystems starting next week. No organism on earth lives isolated and independent from all others. All living things, including microorganisms, exist in a community of living organisms call an ecosystem. An ecosystem includes nonliving elements too, such as soil, water, air, and sunlight. A stable ecosystem is virtually self-sustaining in the absence of human interference.

Over the next two weeks, students will be busy building ecosystems in class. First, they will set up aquariums with duckweed, algae, and elodea for the mosquito fish and pond snails. Next, they will grow alfalfa, mustard, and rye grass in terrariums, so there would be a food supply for the crickets. They will also provide leaf matter, twigs and a rock for the isopods.

No comments: