For our final product, students presented to the SELS PTC, requesting funds to provide two interpretive signs for our school. Information on the signs would include the chosen nonfiction narratives students vote as exemplars within our Crew, as well as the scientific drawing and taxonomy of the species.

Questions to Ask Your Child:
What did you learn about the behavioral adaptations of your Sierra Nevada Species?
What about the physical adaptations of your species?
What was the most difficult piece to your nonfiction narrative?
What was the most difficult piece to your scientific drawing?
Why are scientific drawings so important?
What are some of the criteria that scientific drawings should include?

Crew News
Celebration of Learning was a huge success! Students worked so hard to get their work turned in on time and made sure the craftsmanship was of high quality. Our final product was a nonfiction narrative about a native bill or gill. We would like to highlight a few sentences from those amazing writing pieces:

“Dawn, just before sunrise. The ski, painted with dark navy grey colors, illuminates a desolate tree on which Red Tailed Hawk alights, silently observing it all.” -Marion Snideman, 5th grade

“….Drip, drip, drip, The last rain droplets from a recent spell of stormy weather fall to the ground through the sturdy pine tree branches. Cool breezes send their refreshing whiffs through the forest as blue, gold, and pink sunset fades away into black darkness.” -Keira Scott, 5th grade

“It is midnight in Silver King Creek, and the clouds vigorous breath causes the moonlit water to swirl female Paiute Cutthroat Trout believes a storm is on the way, so she checks on her eggs.” -Maeve Kristian, 4th grade

“The frigid evening wind ruffles the female Clark’s Nutcracker’s wings as she soars side by side with her mate looking for the perfect spacious branch in a conifer to hold their young.” -Kaya Hainsworth, 4th grade

“It is a hawkish morning, in a conifer forest that bridges all the way to the amethyst mountains. Male White Headed Woodpecker is going to find insects while female White Headed Woodpecker guards the nest and its offspring inhabitants.” -Ayden Davern, 4th grade

“The dewy morning slowly arises as the sun begins to peek up from behind the high and mighty Sierra Nevada Mountains. The air was brisk and the sky a foggy grey. Reflecting off Silver King Creek, the sun wakes Paiute Cutthroat Trout from its rest.” -Sarvinoz Hasanova, 4th Grade

“Darkness fades to dawn. The eternal squall of Mountain Chickadee echoes off the monstrous alpine trees. “Chick-a-dee!” Her song welcomes the first light of spring. Mountain Chickadee’s hatchlings emerge for their first taste of the breeze; their song warning the prey of the Sierra.” -Riley Omar, 5th grade

“The rocky banks rush by while Golden Trout is sucked into a calm, small backwater. Golden Trout passes underneath a gathering of water striders, then expertly swirls around and cleaves through the mob. Catching many of the insects in his mouth, Golden Trout sluices the water out through his gills midway through his small leap.” -Kellen Gallagher, 5th Grade

Bridges 4th Grade Math: We completed our year with a geometry unit. The 4th graders were excited to work on their math project called Design a Town Map. This project highlighted their geometry skills as they had to have specific quadrilaterals, angles, and lines incorporated into their town map. They also worked on double digit multiplication. I would encourage all math students to keep up their math skills this summer by continuing their quick math multiplication and division skills, using fractions, and doing some addition and subtraction problems with carrying and borrowing. It as been a successful 4th grade math year and I have truly loved working with this math crew!

Bridges 5th Grade Math: Students wrapped up their knowledge of multiplying and dividing of decimals, Unit 7 this past week. Hooray for all of their hard work with the Bridges Math Program this year!

Our 5th Grade Community Service Project was an overwhelming success! Students presented their proposals to their peers, pitching their ideas for a sustainable structure that would help a chosen community in need. For this project, students were expected to create a budget with precise calculations, aerial architectural sketches, a model, and a proposal.

ELA: Students completed their Newbery Challenge masterpieces this past week, and assembled their folders for Celebration of Learning. Students wrote Book Reviews on their title of choice, and demonstrated proficiency in responding to literature. Students also worked diligently on completing their Book Club matchbook summaries as another example of RTL.

Expedition: Bills and Gills
Case Study One was a success! The students commendably created two main projects, which highlighted their new knowledge. First, with a partner, they researched a biome, and then created a slideshow, which concluded with a presentation. These slideshows will be on display for Celebration of Learning. The second project was to create a game that emphasized the Sierra Nevada Biome food chains and pyramids of our native plants and animals. They fashioned high quality food chain/pyramid games such as a card game of war, cup pyramid and memory games. Craftsmanship of work was demonstrated as well as understanding of our case study.

We move into our second case study this week with the arrival of our Lahontan Cutthroat Trout Eggs. We kicked off this case study with a Science Talk Protocol using an overall guiding question, “What makes a fish, a fish?” While the students shared their observations about fish in general, they had a lot of questions about fish. I look forward to the students becoming Ichthyologists as they study all about the world of fish, their ecosystems, life cycles, food chains and adaptations. We will specifically learn about our local Sierra Nevada Fish.

Questions to ask:
What observations have you made about the lifecycle of the Lahontan Cutthroat trout?
How and why is the tank set up in the classroom?
How long will it take for an egg to hatch?
Can you identify and name all the parts of a trout’s life cycle?
What is an alevin?
What is a fry?
What is the difference between a structural and behavioral adaption?
What are some structural adaptations of Lahontan Cutthroat Trout?
What are some behavioral adaptations of Lahontan Cutthroat Trout?
What is the food web of the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout??

ELA:
April is national poetry month and we are excited to participate within our ELA time. Our crew began this with mastering figurative language and will now analyze how figurative language can be inserted into poems to reflect sound, meaning and feelings. We will create a variety of poems that connect with our expedition, Bills and Gills. Book clubs have been going strong with both crews as they begin to finish books, write reviews and create a matchbook folder. Our books revolve and tie into our expedition. The mature discussions and reflections that occur after each chapter are animated and all inclusive.

We are excited to introduce the second annual Newbery Literary Crew Challenge. This is an excellent way to introduce students to amazing books. They are working hard to gain as many points as possible by the end of the school year. Newbery chapter books are worth three points, honor books are two points and picture Caldecott Medal books are one point. This challenge has sparked a new found excitement for reading in our crew!

Math:
4th Grade: The students are wrapping up unit four (addition, subtraction and measurement) with an upcoming post assessment. I feel that they have good comprehension on standard algorithms for both addition and subtraction. Our next unit will be a unit on Geometry exploration. Students will be analyzing shapes and how they relate to each other through symmetry and congruence. Students will also be building their fluency in measuring angles, classifying shapes, and working with grids. Please make sure to review their homework with them on a regular basis to check in with current learning. The students will begin a build your own town project where they will practice all their new geometry skill while creating their towns.

5th Grade: Students completed their 4th grade Post Assessment, and are moving on to working the multiplying and dividing fractions in Unit 5. In Unit 5, students extend their understandings of multiplication and division to working with fractions. During the first module, students review and extend skills and concepts first introduced in Grade 4 to solidify their understandings of whole number-by-fraction multiplication. In Modules 2 and 3, they use rectangular arrays to model and solve fraction-by-fraction multiplication problems. Module 4 features an introduction to division of whole numbers by unit fractions, and unit fractions by whole numbers. There is a strong emphasis throughout the unit on sense-making and understanding, as students tackle material that is conceptually challenging.

Also, students have been assigned a Community Building project in which they research and design an 800 square foot structure for a community in need. They are extremely excited about this endeavor, and are working to complete all of the components.

Spring brings a busy fieldwork calendar and I would like to thank parents in advance for your help and volunteer hours. Without your dedication, we could not immerse the students into these hands on activities! Thank you!

How is all life supported? What does the sun do to help create systems of life, and what are the systems in which animals and plants have adapted that support ecosystems’ health? Students participate in two case studies in this expedition. The first, titled “Forces of Nature” examines growth and development of organisms, interdependent relationships in ecosystems, cycles of matter and energy transfer, ecosystem dynamics, and form and pattern in nature. Students will design Google Slides presentations on biomes of the earth, learn to nature journal from expert John Muir Laws, create diagrams of energy transfer and cycling, write an informational piece on ecosystem dynamics. Our second case study, titled “ Whooo’s Out There? From Molecules to Organisms- Structures and Processes,” Students will focus on flora and fauna of the Sierra Nevada, with a specific focus on the Great Horned Owl and Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. Students continue drafts of their owl and trout drawings, and participate in service learning projects that will later be revealed (hint: we will work on beautifying our campus! Think interpretive trail!). Working as Ornithologists and Ichthyologists, students will examine habitats, traits, life cycles, conservation, and relevance of local bird and fish species. Students will dissect owl pellets, learn about dichotomous keys and identification of macroinvertebrates in local streams, and write opinion and narrative pieces regarding these topics.

Questions to Ask Your Child:
How do animals’ body structures help them grow, survive, and reproduce?
How are all the parts of an ecosystem dependent on one another?
What is an ecosystem?
What kinds of energy exist in an ecosystem?
Who is John Muir Laws? What does he do for a living?
What are some of the key components to nature sketching
What is an Ornothologist? An Ickthyologist?
What are concepts in nature mapping?
Who is Rachel Carson? What did she do in the world of conservation?

Crew News
5th Math: Students use units of computer memory—bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, and gigabytes—to explore conversions within a given system of measurement, and then extend the strategies they develop to making metric conversions. Students also continue their work adding and subtracting decimals in a vertical format and solving story problems that involve decimal amounts. In Unit 4, students return to the study of multiplication and division strategies, including the standard multiplication algorithm. In the first two modules, students investigate a number of strategies that capitalize on their estimation and mental math skills and help them continue to develop strong number sense. These include strategies that leverage the relationship between multiplication and division; the fact that 5 is half of 10; the relationships between fractions, decimals, and whole numbers; and the process of doubling and halving. In Module 3, the teacher formally introduces the standard multiplication algorithm after reviewing the area model and partial products. Module 4 reinforces the connection between multiplication and division, using the area model and ratio tables to help students develop a degree of comfort with long division.

4th Math: The 4th graders are finishing up the unit on fractions and decimals. Look for the assessment next week and test coming home to sign the following week. The next unit will focus on place value to 1,000,000, multi-digit addition/subtraction strategies, rounding, and place value to the millions. Students will use what they know about place value to investigate strategies as well as use standard algorithms. This is a true number sense unit and finding the best strategy to fluently add and subtract numbers.

*Make sure to sign planners every night. Front Row practice will be applauded at home and will be used when applicable at school.

ELA: In book club, students are reading various books related to our new expedition. We have had a fun time learning which new award-winning contenders will fit into our studies! Students fill out a daily reading log, follow a specific focus of study for the week, and then turn in their work on Fridays. They plan out their week and discuss topics as well on Fridays. Our Writer’s Workshop block is focusing on Non Fiction Narratives and Non Fiction Teaching Books (5th Grade). Specifically studying reading and writing for information, students practice summarizing, comparing and contrasting, and other non fiction text styles. We also complete on demand writing assignments after learning and exploring different text styles.

Character: The Brisbin Crew and Akers Crews have begun learning about our current design principle “The Having of Wonderful Ideas,” and recently completed an amazing Electric Inventors expedition with teacher Brooke Landis (thanks, Brooke!). Students developed incredible inventions that they cannot wait to show you at Celebration of Learning. Ask them about it their games! Students also continue to work together in games day on Thursdays, and collaboration during Morning Meeting and Debrief sessions. Each Crew is also reading text based on Scientists (Rachel Carson!) who, with their amazing and wonderful ideas, helped save the world in the name of conservation.

ELA:
Our one school day, Friday (January 6th) we spent the day doing a week’s worth of lessons for our annual Letters about Literature Contest. It was an exciting day of writing as the students showed perseverance to write for a long period or periods of time. The letters have been mailed and we made the contest postmarked deadline! Letters About Literature is a reading and writing contest for students in grades 4-12. Students are asked to read a book and write to the author (living or dead) about how the book affected them personally. Letters are judged on state and national levels. Tens of thousands of students from across the country enter Letters About Literature each year. Next comes the fun part, waiting to hear responses from either the contest or the individual authors!

ELA and Expedition:
Based on our successful Socratic Seminar and Simulation, the students will write an opinion piece from their side based on research Their piece will be based on their fictional character and with the guiding question: Was the Revolutionary War necessary or unnecessary for America to gain Independence?

Expedition:
Brooke Landis will start a mini case study Electric Inventors. This connects to our Ben Franklin case study from Rebels and Redcoats and is a suitable way to lead into our spring science expedition. We will explore Ben Franklin, electricity, energy and engineering. She will be in twice a week for the month of January to work with our crew. On the other days, we will wrap up our third case study, Power of Words. The students will learn about about the Three Charters of Freedom with using these learning targets: (1) I can describe the people and events involved in the creation and implementation of the Declaration of Independence. (2) I can analyze the historical significance of early documents and how they relate to the 1st Amendment. (3) I can articulate the reasons why the early citizens chose democracy.

Questions to ask your child:
What are the three documents that make up the Charters of Freedom?
Name some of the Founding Fathers of the different charters and what did they contribute.
What forms of energy are present when a light bulb lights up?
What is energy?
How is energy transferred?

Math:
4th- This crew will take an assessment as soon as we have consecutive days in the class and can review the concepts learned in December. Then they will move on to Unit 3 which will cover fractions in depth using clocks, egg cartons, and rulers to demonstrate the many ways fractions can be presented with the use of everyday items. We will continue hitting fluency of 1 through 12 multiplication facts hard for the rest of the year. Please practice with your child these facts, as it is hard to build upon math concepts without a strong base. Most kids have the easy ones; it is time to hit those hard 6,7,8 and 9 facts until fast memorization is met.

5th – We will be in Unit 3 as well. The students will analyze concepts related to place value, from reading, writing, and comparing decimals to rounding and examining the decimal patterns of multiplying and dividing numbers by 10. Students use their place value understandings to convert within a measurement system, and they use both whole number strategies and place value understanding to add and subtract decimals to hundredths. Division is the focus of Module 4, in which students model, solve, and pose long division problems. Students are excited to launch the in-school project “100,000 Dollar Bedroom.” Student will receive the project proposal and criteria, and create deadlines for themselves to meet their learning targets. Please do not expect students to work on this project at home- this is strictly in school work, and students may take home only if they choose to work on it there.

Our crew was in National news with CNN.money highlighting our stand up desks! Very exciting to be recognized nationally for a crew room being active in promoting a healthy lifestyle and movement with learning! Here is the link:http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/10/smallbusiness/jaswig-standing-desk-schools/ Standing desks are a simple and elegant way to create a movement rich environment where children are more engaged and perform better academically, burn more calories, eliminate or minimize orthopedic problems and disease, feel happier, and just plain move more. (From Standupkids.org)

Fieldwork:
Keep a look out for emails about our upcoming fieldwork. We are trying to schedule dates for possible visits to Reno’s Discovery Museum, Truckee Round House, Shady Creek, NASA Space program and a Winter Survival Program.

Our big Fieldwork will be May 10-12th to Monterey for our Bills and Gils expedition. Please put that your calendar.

More details to come about above fieldworks!

Our final project for our second case study was a Socratic Seminar. The students engaged in rich discourse, answering the question “How and why did the colonists identify with the various opinions dictating how early America should be run?” The learning targets for the seminar were: (1) I can participate in a Socratic Seminar that analyzes the position of colonists in early America. (2) I can defend my position as a Patriot, Loyalist, or Naturalist in a Socratic Seminar Fishbowl, and work with my partner to develop strong arguments.

Students were assessed on a rubric individually by their peers and teacher. Overall, the arguments were intelligent, thoughtful, and energetic!

Our final product for our expedition is a George Washington Minuet, complete with public speaking and information from the Revolutionary time period. Students will be in full costume and excited to present!

Questions to Ask Your Child:
Describe the artist’s style who painted the portraits at the Museum of Art, Boston.
What did you learn from your Minuteman Skype?
What side did you identify with while you were in character during your Socratic Seminar? What were some of your arguments? What did you learn?
How did you do on your On Demand Write following the Socratic Seminar? What did you argue since it was a persuasive piece?

Crew News
Celebration of Learning: We loved sharing our final product performance at Celebration of Learning!

Bridges 4th Grade Math: Students will be kicking off Unit 3 when we return from break by studying equivalent fractions. Unit 3 utilizes a variety of tools to model, read, write, compare, order, compose and decompose fractions and decimals.

Bridges 5th Grade Math: Students kick off Unit 3 when we arrive back from school in January. In this unit, students study skills and concepts related to place value, from reading, writing, and comparing decimals to rounding and examining the decimal patterns of multiplying and dividing numbers by 10. Students use their place value understandings to convert within a measurement system, and they use both whole number strategies and place value understanding to add and subtract decimals to hundredths. Division is the focus of Module 4, in which students model, solve, and pose long division problems.

ELA:
Reading – We finished Chains! Please hold tight for information on our Book Talk in January. Next, students will continue conferencing with me and practicing reading strategies. We will start another anchor text in February.

Grammar / Conventions / Spelling – We continue to work on our Daily Oral Language, Hard and Fast rules for punctuation/grammar, and spelling rules. The Brisbin Crew is kicking off the second spelling rule: vowel- consonant-e. We will have Friday assessments that alternate between Language Study and Spelling. Please see your child’s planner for spelling word practice and assessment calendaring. *Our schedule has been off due to final product practice and preparation for the Socratic Seminar.

Writing – Students took an opinion / persuasive on demand write based on their ideas on the American Revolution. Looking at our rubric, we isolated one piece of the criteria and focused on the construction of the piece, making sure the three paragraph piece had a developed claim and evidence to support it. Overall the students’ scores were fantastic!

Students have also been responding to their reading of our anchor text Chains in their active reading response journal.

Parent Volunteer Highlight
Harvest of the Month – Thank you to Jenna Shropshire and Yvette Durant-Bender for sharing their culinary genius with our crew – this month we tasted sweet potatoes!

Currently, students are realizing the implications of the Stamp Act, in which they must pay for stamps to place on each assignment/ paper they turn in. They are also charged one pound for internet usage, as I am sure King George would have required back in the late 1700’s. Next week students will be taxed on much more as we get into the various acts imposed upon early Americans. Students are really enjoying this simulation!

We kick off our new writing assignment this week, as students have finished their Three Colonial Regions informational piece. Also, we continue to practice our George Washington Minuets, and are beginning to piece together our final product performance with song, dance, and lines! Head’s up that our performance will be at the Truckee High School Gym on Celebration of Learning evening…. more info soon!

Questions to Ask Your Child:
What was the Boston Massacre? Was it a massacre at all?
Who was Crispus Attucks and why was his fate in the Boston Massacre so ironic?
When did Paul Revere make his midnight ride? What are the details leading up to the ride?
Where did the first Continental Congress meet? How was John Adams elected to represent the colonists at the Continental Congress?
Why did King George impose acts and taxes on the colonists? What were they?

Crew News
Goal Setting Conferences: Thank you to all students and parents for attending our Goal Setting Conferences! I am so impressed with the conversations that were shared between families at the meeting. Be sure to post those goals in a place where your child can see them regularly.

Bridges 4th Grade Math: The students successfully completed Unit one and we are covering a mini unit on measurement. They will explore linear measurement, mass, weight, and liquid volume and review definitions and units of measurement for each category. We will then go into a unit where we will build the great wall of base ten and use base ten pieces to investigate base ten value patterns. We will use strategies to explore multi digit multiplication. We will also make generalizations about multiplying with 100, 1,000, and 10,000. We will continue to solve multiplication problems with arrays as well as practice the standard algorithm.

Bridges 5th Grade Math: 5th grade students are currently working on adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators. With the underlying theme of fluency with equivalence, students learn that there are two models to understand equal fractions: clocks, and money. Students should understand that fractions can have many meanings: ¼ can equal a quarter, 15 minutes, half of ½, 25%, etc. Denominators that are factors of 100 or 60 will aide students in choosing the right model for the problem (clocks or money). Denominators that are NOT factors or 100 or 60 are presented in two different models. The first of these models is a double number line, presented in the context of a running track. The second is the ratio table, which students have already encountered in third and fourth grade, as well as in the previous unit. We are also exploring multiplying whole numbers by fractions and the connection between division and fractions.

ELA:
Reading – Book Clubs are centered around the amazing novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, Chains. Students are so intrigued by the content of this book that we cannot get them to put it down! Students are responding to their reading in their Active Reading Response Journals, and will produce a Book Review when the book is complete. We will also have a Book Talk celebration at the completion of the book, where students can bring in healthy baked goods to share as they chat about events that happened in the book. Talking points will include the plot, character motives, themes, etc.

Grammar / Conventions / Spelling – We continue to work on our Daily Oral Language, Hard and Fast rules for punctuation/grammar, and spelling rules. The Akers Crew is kicking off the first spelling rule – closed syllable rule. We will have Friday assessments that alternate between Language Study and Spelling. Please see your child’s planner for spelling word practice and assessment calendaring.

Writing – Writer’s Workshop is in full swing! Students are writing about small moments, learning about the ideas writing trait, and how to narrow down the focus of their pieces. We are practicing the art of peer critique by filling out post-its during revision, and learning that the more we write, the more we feel comfortable getting our ideas out. Students always follow the structured hamburger paragraph for organization and drafting, then word process the final draft for completion. Our new creative writing project is a Time Capsule Personal Narrative. Ask your child about it!

Harvest of the Month- Thank you to Jenna Shropshire and Yvette Durant-Bender for sharing her culinary genius with our crew – this month we tasted pears!

SELS News
This month our school hosted a Site Seminar for EL Education. It was very successful, and we really are impressed with our students’ overall behavior and enthusiasm. What an honor to be chosen to host!

As we close up our first case study, the students are assimilating all they learned about the thirteen colonies and the three colonial regions. They now know interesting facts as to who and why colonies were founded, what kind of land/resources/trade occurred, and religious and political background of the thirteen colonies. They are in the process of creating a five paragraph informational pieces. This is a big assignment and they are putting forth great effort to complete it. The above explains how we embed our ELA into our expedition through writing, reading and poetry. This informative piece includes structures of the standards such as: write an informative text to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly, introduce a topic clearly and group related information in paragraphs and sections and use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic. In addition, the students made inferences about colonial life supported by details from a text and determinations about the meaning of content words or phrases in an informational text in a close read of colonial times inventory.

“Taxation without representation is tyranny”
These words are usually attributed to James Otis, a leader in the independence movement in Boston as trouble rose with England in the 1760s and 1770s. They spread far and wide in the colonies as calls for independence grew louder.

Our second case study titled “The Boston Tea Party” will be about the many Acts and Laws that were imposed on the colonist and their reactions/consequences. We will create a class chant about the Sugar, Navigation, Quartering, Townshend and Stamp Act. We plan to scour our reading resources about the Revolutionary War and each student will chose an article that appeals to them. Then we will create our own Found Poems from these readings. This process is a great way to perform a Getting the Gist protocol to understand the complex text that we read. A key individual that we will focus on is Paul Revere and that he is most famous for alerting the Colonial militia to the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride”. The students have danced weekly and have a few colonial minuets memorized. We are hard at work getting our final product together for celebration of learning.

Math
4th graders are coming up on their first big assessment as they finish unit one. They have a great grasp on multiplies, factors, composite and prime numbers. We will close unit one with a mini unit about making comparisons with measurement such as height, weight, liquids and distances. Then in unit two, the students will continue to build multiplicative reasoning as they work with multi-digit multiplication and beginning division. We will learn with building arrays and ratio tables. The students will create the great wall of base ten as they investigate place value patterns.

5th graders are currently wrapping up their first unit of study on multiplication strategies. By understanding the doubling and halving, 5 is half of 10, partial products, and over strategies, students can decipher which strategy is most appropriate for them to use in different situations. Students can apply this knowledge of strategies to their fluency with volume. In this rst unit, students use the study of volume to review and extend a host of skills and concepts related to multiplication. We have taken a deep look at the associative and commutative properties of multiplication as students use expressions with parentheses to represent different rectangular prism. Over the course of the unit, students are introduced to four WorkPlace games to build multiplicative thinking—a key component for success with division and fractions throughout the rest of the year. Make sure to review the anchor chart with your child and ask them to explain to you how to use each one! Our Problem of the Week this past week really stumped our students and caused them to use their grappling skills. Students should put you to the test- give it a try!

Goal Setting Conferences
Our goal setting conferences are just around the corner. The students have their packet to fill out with their parents. Please sit down with your child and go over the brainstorming packet and set some goals. It is most helpful to come to goal setting conferences with goals already in mind! One of the most powerful learning tools for children is modeling. This year, we are asking our parents to become goal setting models and set their own parent support goal during our goal setting conferences. Please consider a goal that will support your child in the academic or character realm. It can, but does not need to be, directly linked to your child’s goals. We just ask that it be an attainable goal that your child can see you actively working towards.

Thanks again to all our wonderful parents!
Happy Fall,
Julie and Lynn

We are off to a great start to our 2016-17 school year! The crew is merging together beautifully and we have enjoyed team-building games, created our own crew constitution (see above), learned about Ben Franklin’s Maxims and how they relate to our SIERRA NORMS. That was just in the first two days!

Expedition:
Our first case study is Colony Vs. King and the students will learn about the establishment of the 13 colonies. Learning targets include: The students can describe the similarities and differences of the 13 original colonies and students can investigate the political, social, religious, and economic motivations that lead to the revolutionary war. We will dance every Friday with the Brisbin Crew as we learn about social dancing during the colonial times. George Washington loved to dance minuets and we will learn some of those minuet dances! Our first overnight will take us to Independence Lake where we will draw colors to create a red (Redcoats) and blue (Rebel) team. We will have team building games to simulate battles between the rebels and redcoats. It will be great fun as we play games and learn about the Colonies. We will have a service-learning component to this overnight as well. Thank you to parent volunteers, who have already started to plan for this fieldwork!

We will also have two fieldwork days to the Verdi Stables to experience how the colonist traveled back in the colonial days-by horseback! We will have one date in September and in October.

Questions to ask your child:
1. Who are and what is the difference between the Redcoats and Rebels?
2. Who is King George and why did the British decide to leave to start a new life?
3. Sing the 13 Colonies song!
4. Why is Ben Franklin such an important leader in our studies of the American Revolution?
5. Why are you reading Ben and Me as the kick off to your Redcoats and Rebels expedition?
6. Describe the 4 Mystery primary documents you analyzed. What were they, and why are they important?
7. Who was John Allan, and why was he important in your studies?
8. What would you do if you were faced with the issues the British faced when under King George’s rule?

Reading:
We’ve been reading Ben and Me. I can say students are all so surprised by Benjamin Franklin’s words, experiments and inventions! We have used the learning targets: I can create a personal collection of maxims based on reflection and goal setting. And I can compare and contrast the SIERRA norms and Ben Franklin’s 13 virtues to determine the importance of fostering character. Maxims are starting to cover our walls in our room!

Writing:
This week we started our Writer’s Workshop time – I have had so many request to have writing time during the first week of school! They can’t wait to dive back into their stories. We will have writing mini lessons every week to cover the many aspects of writing as well as ELA time where we will cover the writing conventions such as spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar. Our first writing piece tied to our expedition will be a historical fiction narrative and the students will be guided through the writing piece with graphic organizers, informational text and hands on learning activities. Today we started building background knowledge and practicing inferring with an activity that used four mystery documents about the colonial times. The students worked both independently and collaborate as they took notes through an “I notice and I wonder” graphic organizer. It is activities like these that will help them understand and create an original informational writing piece.

Math:
Both math groups are already into the first unit of Bridges. The 4th graders will work on methods and models for multiplication and division, learn about composite and prime numbers, build arrays for multiplication and division problems and use perseverance to solve math problems. They are trying to beat their own time in daily mad minutes as well as use a spiral math practice sheet, which covers many standards, then on Fridays, they will have a short quiz over what was covered on the daily pages. We will also get the students set up of Front Row to take a math assessment and start practicing at their own math levels.

5th grade students are learning about multiplication through factor pairs 1-100, and multiplicative relationships. In Unit 1, an exploration of volume serves as a bridge between fourth and 5th grade. Working with volume provides the context in which students review and extend skills and concepts from fourth grade, while introducing skills and concepts that are central to this year’s studies. In this unit, students are exposed many strategies for multiplication. In repeating these strategies through spiraling throughout the year student will become proficient in volume concepts.

Thank You!
Thank you to all the parents who attended Back to School Night, I truly appreciate you coming in and helping your child have a great kick off to their school year. Our crew is so amazing; they are kind, polite, funny and inquisitive. I am so looking forward to an incredible school year!

Kindly,
Lynn

Dear Crew,

Our Sierra Scientists have been working hard and learning a great deal about matter, molecules, atoms and water! After a series of science labs experimenting with water and it’s properties,
learning about periodic tables and creating water molecule models, we are getting ready to transition into our second case study with our learning targets:

I can explain how water and ice can change the Earth’s surface.

I can use maps to describe patterns of Earth’s major features.

We have many experts and field work set up to help with this Spring  such as: The League to Save Lake Tahoe, TERC, Snow Scientists, UNR Scientists, Geologists, Sierra Nevada Journeys, and Trout in The Classroom. It is going to be a busy, fun-filled, engaging learning period!

We kicked off with expert Don Triplat, Executive Director of the Sierra Avalanche Center come in and talk snow science and avalanche awareness with us.  We also had the League to Save Lake Tahoe come in for the afternoon to discuss the quality of Lake Tahoe’s water and impacts pollutants have on our watershed.

Math:

The 4^th graders have successfully completed our unit on fractions. The rocked this unit and have a great grasp on fractions and decimals. Currently, we are working on standard algorithms for multiple digit addition/subtraction as well as rounding and place value to the millions.This is a true number sense unit and finding the best strategy to fluently add and subtract numbers.

The 5^th graders are sharing strategies for multiplying whole numbers by fractions, fractions by fractions and solve related story problems. They will represent the product of two fractions as an array whose dimensions are the two fractions being multiplied. They will solve story problems involving division unit fractions by whole numbers and whole numbers by unit fractions. This unit will also include making sense of problems and perseverance in solving them.

We also celebrated Pi Day on March 14, with a great big cheer at 1:59pm (3.14159) and had a Pi memorizing contest. The kids all took a try at correctly reciting the most digits from memory and then we all enjoyed some berry pie! Congratulations to all the participants. Our winner recited 66 digits- Wow!

ELA:

We have been plugging away with our grammar work and currently can mark parts of speech in sentences, including subjects, verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and articles. The kids love Writer’s Workshop and cheer when that time comes along during the week. The stories are flowing and getting longer with more complex structures/plots.

We are also doing a mini expedition on Walt Disney. We are reading some biographies to gather information and  the students will write their own informative biography about Walt Disney. The creativity, hard work and positive outlook Walt had on life is inspiring!

Spring Goal Conferences:

Thank you for attending our student lead goal setting conferences. It was great to see the growth of our students and watch as they led their parents through a reflection of their fall goals and where their new goals may take them. Students were confident and thoughtful. The parents were wonderful with their support. Thanks again!

Mrs. Akers

First, we want to send a BIG THANK YOU to TTCTV for such an exceptional experience with filming our Charlie Chaplin Movies! Everyone enjoyed our big premiere at Celebration of Learning! Thank you to Rory, Dan and Katelyn for all your hard work!

Our new expedition this year is called Sierra Scientist, Go with the Flow! We have started with science protocols learning about matter and will transition into science labs, which will include: states of matter, molecules, atomic structure, chemistry lab, water and how bonding with other substances makes new materials. We started with a lab called “Draw a Scientist” and moved into explaining with evidence an unknown diagram. The kids had a blast with writing clear lab procedures as they tried to give directions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to me as I pretended to be an alien who needed very specific directions. It was a hoot and I made a mess! We have some great field work lined up for this spring so look for set up/driver emails to follow.

Math:

Students in both grades are wrapping up chapter 2 in the Bridges curriculum.  Also, Mrs. Brisbin and I have really been working hard in delivering extra attention to the standard algorithms.   4^th graders have been working on 2 to 3 digit times 1 digit standard algorithms and feel pretty successful with them. We will continue hitting fluency of 1 through 12 multiplication facts hard for the rest of the year. Please practice with your child these facts, as it is hard to build upon math concepts without a strong base. Most kids have the easy ones; it is time to hit those hard 6,7,8 and 9 facts until fast memorization is met. Our next chapter will be on fractions- we will use clocks, egg cartons, and rulers to demonstrate the many ways fractions can be presented with the use of everyday items.

5th graders have been working really hard on learning double by triple digit multiplication, and have multiple quizzes.  Once every student masters this, we will move into long division.  It is our goal to have 100% of 5th grade students mastering borrowing, carrying, multi-digit multiplication, and long division before they hit 6th grade.  We can do it!  As far as Bridges goes, students are learning how to produce ratio tables and double number lines when dealing with fractions.  Difficult concepts, but the students are practicing their grappling skills as they work through these ideas every day.  Their assessment will be at the end of this week or early next.

ELA:

It was an exciting week of writing as the students jumped right back into ELA with Letters about Literature. Letters About Literature is a reading and writing contest for students in grades 4-12. Students are asked to read a book and write to the author (living or dead) about how the book affected them personally. Letters are judged on state and national levels. Tens of thousands of students from across the country enter Letters About Literature each year. The student wrote thought provoking letters to authors and letters have been mailed out to both the contest and the authors. Next comes the fun part, waiting to hear responses from either!

States Exploration:

Students are learning about individual states as they hand write reports. These reports also present a new/old school idea of using only books, pamphlets, or other written pieces of work to gather information. They are not allowed to simply Google for information, in fact, they are not allowed to touch a computer for this activity. Yes, we are breaking out good old fashion encyclopedias! Students are also exploring our great country and embarking on a quest to send our SELS mascot, the American Black Bear, on a tour!  Our goal is to collectively receive a postcard from every state our bear visits in the US.  We will then map out the postcards and then add them to our research we are collecting on our states study.  Students have sent and are in the midst of sending out their letters this week and next week.  Thank you for your participation!

I want to THANK our wonderful crew families for the thoughtful words and gifts I received before our break. I feel so appreciated and it heart warmed. I truly enjoy working with your child and look forward to an amazing 2016!