Buddy Day!

Homework:
4th Grade Math: Finish classwork estimation sheet
5th Grade Math: Math packet page

Wordly Wise: Students should be working on catching up through lesson 8 by next week. Please work on Wordly Wise for 15-20 minutes tonight to reach this goal.

State Map: Fill in the states with the correct abbreviations.

Please take note of the following dates:

No School Friday, January 18th-- Teacher Report Writing Day
No School Monday, January 21st-- Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Upcoming Field Trip Dates:  Here are dates to put on your calendar - please note the April 11 late return.  Also, more details will be emailed soon about the overnight in June.  Driving trips will be placed on the wiki very soon as well. If you would like to be a chaperone for the non-driving trips on 1/29 or 4/11, please contact Jeff directly.

Tuesday, January 29,  S.F. MoMA  (8:30-3:00, BART)
 Date TBD soon - Hike and activities based on Lewis & Clark (likely the 1st week of Feb. , drivers needed)
Thursday, February 14 (Valentine's Day), Tree Planting with EBMUD (8:30 - 2:00, drivers needed)
Thursday, April 11,  Amtrak to Sac. Train Museum (8:30-5:00) pick up at 5:00pm at the Berkeley Train Station, or back on campus at 5:30pm.
Thursday-Friday, June 6-7, Overnight in the Sierra Nevada at the Clair Tappan Lodge near Donner Pass (a rustic Sierra Club lodge).  Driver/chaperones will be needed - more details coming soon.

Writer's Workshop: Today we focused on putting our thoughts onto paper in a stream of consciousness type style. After listening to an excerpt from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, students used various types of word and memory associations to write continuously for 10 minutes. Using the words "birthday" and "pizza" we ended up with associations from Hawaii, Christmas, slime, carnivals, and broken fingers! It was definitely and interesting and creative writing activity!

Buddy Day: We helped out our younger buddies with measuring today! Using unifix cubes, buddy pairs measured various parts of their body.

Homework:
4th Grade Math: Option 1 Multiplication Practice or Option 2 Extended Multiplication

5th Grade Math: Math Packet

Wordly Wise: Next week we will begin reviewing lesson 7 and 8 of Wordly Wise. Some students are working on catching up, so please spend 15-20 minutes working on lesson 6, 7, or 8 in order to catch up.

Math Club: Our focus in Math Club was on geometry today.  Students used tangram puzzles to do the Tangram Polygon Super Challenge, making 5 different polygons from 1-7 tangram shapes.  They also did different levels of the Polly Gone problem, building the biggest pen possible from 40 cubes, or figuring out the area of polygons and creating different parallelograms from them.  Other students spent time figuring out an Alphametrics problem (substituting letters for numbers) to do some algebraic thinking in our Math Club Puzzles.  No math club next Tuesday because Sima will be out for Professional Development.

Science Opportunities for Girls 5th-8th Grade: ...a great science/mentoring STEM event for grade 5-8 girls, held at Cal. The event is called "Expanding Your Horizons." It's a hands-on event for girls grades 5 - 8 about the sciences, led by "engaging, inspiring female researchers."  It will be held on Saturday March 2nd, but the times have not yet been posted.

Book Clubs: Our last three book clubs finished up their presentations today. We saw scenes from Sarah Bishop, Under the Blood Red Sun, and My Heart is on the Ground. 

Cultural Studies: Today we began our study of Lewis and Clark and the westward expansion of the United States. We learned about Thomas Jefferson's secret message and his quest for knowledge of nature and the Native American people. We'll continue to focus on Lewis and Clark for the next couple of months.

Assembly Success

4th Grade Math Homework:  Talk It Over activity & practice your multiplication fact cards (use the table on the backside of the sheet if you do not have your cards).

5th Grade Math Homework:  Weekly packet.

Words Their Way:   Some students have work from class to complete for word study.

Reminder:  No school on Friday, January18 or Monday, January 21.

Showcase of Learning Assembly
Circuits demonstration! 

 Tax simulation reenactment.

 Taxation without representation!

Writing workshop:  Moments in Time

 Writing partners.

Happy Friday!

We made it through the first week back from winter break!

Showcase of Learning: Many students are participating in our taxation reenactment during Monday's assembly. They have been practicing the past couple of days but still need some more time with their lines. Please encourage your students to practice their lines over the weekend so that they're ready to perform on Monday morning!  The script can be found here.

Math: We started math off with a game of strategy! Student pairs had 20 tiles and had to use different strategies to try not to be the last one grabbing a tile. Many figured out a strategy and figured out how to "win" each time! We then corrected our Calvin and Hobbes math assessment and moved on to games!

Please take note of the following dates:

No School Friday, January 18th-- Teacher Report Writing Day
No School Monday, January 21st-- Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Upcoming Field Trip Dates:  Here are dates to put on your calendar - please note the April 11 late return.  Also, more details will be emailed soon about the overnight in June.  Driving trips will be placed on the wiki very soon as well. If you would like to be a chaperone for the non-driving trips on 1/29 or 4/11, please contact Jeff directly.

• Tuesday, January 29,  S.F. MoMA  (8:30-3:00, BART)
•  Date TBD soon - Hike and activities based on Lewis & Clark (likely the 1st week of Feb. , drivers needed)
• Thursday, February 14 (Valentine's Day), Tree Planting with EBMUD (8:30 - 2:00, drivers needed)
• Thursday, April 11,  Amtrak to Sac. Train Museum (8:30-5:00) pick up at 5:00pm at the Berkeley Train Station, or back on campus at 5:30pm.
• Thursday-Friday, June 6-7, Overnight in the Sierra Nevada at the Clair Tappan Lodge near Donner Pass (a rustic Sierra Club lodge).  Driver/chaperones will be needed - more details coming soon.

Have a wonderful weekend and we'll see you on Monday!

Book Group Presentations and Assembly Preparations

 Preparing the parallel circuit for Monday's assembly presentation.

4th Grade Math Homework:  Students are continuing work from the classroom using the long division algorithm.  Each student has a goal of completing 3-5 problems.

5th Grade Math - packet

Homework - Vocabulary/Wordly Wise:  Tomorrow is a review test of lessons 5 & 6 in Wordly Wise.  Students should continue practicing their flashcards of the definition and use of the word.

School Assembly Preparations: On Monday, January 14, Strawberry Creek will be making a presentation at the all school assembly (9:00-9:30am) during a part of the assembly called the "Showcase of Learning."  During the course of the school year, each class is given the opportunity to share with the school about activities going on in their grade.  Strawberry students will demonstrate some of our work with electricity followed by a short 4 scene reenactment of the classroom taxation simulation.  The students wrote the scenes over the past two days.  We have more rehearsing to do.

Book Club Presentations: Two groups finished up their book club today with the presentation of scenes from their book. The Diary of Jasper Jonathan Pierce acted out the day the Mayflower landed in North America. The Sign of the Beaver acted out a bear encounter with the main character (photos below).

Upcoming Field Trip Dates:  Here are dates to put on your calendar - please note the April 11 late return.  Also, more details will be emailed soon about the overnight in June.  Driving trips will be placed on the wiki very soon as well. If you would like to be a chaperone for the non-driving trips on 1/29 or 4/11, please contact Jeff directly.

• Tuesday, January 29,  S.F. MoMA  (8:30-3:00, BART)
•  Date TBD soon - Hike and activities based on Lewis & Clark (likely the 1st week of Feb. , drivers needed)
• Thursday, February 14 (Valentine's Day), Tree Planting with EBMUD (8:30 - 2:00, drivers needed)
• Thursday, April 11,  Amtrak to Sac. Train Museum (8:30-5:00) pick up at 5:00pm at the Berkeley Train Station, or back on campus at 5:30pm.
• Thursday-Friday, June 6-7, Overnight in the Sierra Nevada at the Clair Tappan Lodge near Donner Pass (a rustic Sierra Club lodge).  Driver/chaperones will be needed - more details coming soon.

  Preparing props or the assembly performance.

 Script writing.

 Book group presentations.

The Diary of Jasper Johnathan Pierce

Sign of the Beaver

Successful hunt of the bear!