Update for Week of Feb. 8

Here is the latest news for Room 17:

* Great ready for our district-wide fundraiser next week (Feb. 14-18) - "Great Schools" Week, sponsored by CEEF/TFIN, will feature over 50 community businesses who have offered to donate a portion of all of their proceeds for the week to CUSD schools. We are encouraging all CUSD families to shop at these area businesses and help our schools continue to maintain the high standards of education we have always provided. Check out this web link for the list of businesses which are participating, and look for your "golden ticket" in your child's Friday folder this week!
www.ceefcares.com

* Room 17 will have a Valentine's Day party next Monday, Feb. 14 from 2:00 to 3:00 PM. A flyer was sent home last week with a list of all students' names in the class. A sign-up list will be posted tomorrow for donations of food/drinks/paper products. We will also need a few parent volunteers!

* Many parents have asked for assistance in helping to prepare their child for the upcoming STAR writing test on March 1 - here is a link to the site at the CA. Dept. of Education that contains information about the assessment as well as previous years' tests. Scroll down to "California Writing Test Resources" on this page.
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sr/resources.asp

* In math, we have started learning fractions - this unit will continue after the President's Week break. Fractions can be a challenging concept for many children - we will place greater emphasis on equivalent fractions, adding/subtracting fractions, mixed numbers, and improper fractions.

* In Language Arts, we continue to practice for the STAR Writing test - students are also learning about word roots, suffixes, and prefixes. We are creating "vocabulary trees" finding root words in combination with other prefixes/ suffixes.

* We will finish Unit 2 of Social Studies and take our test on Thursday - Unit 3 will begin our study of the California Gold Rush and statehood. Our "Gold Rush Day" will take place on April 13 for all fourth grade students.

* Next week we will complete our science unit, "Electricity and Magnetism" - our final test will be on Thursday, Feb. 17. Students have enjoyed many interesting hands-on experiments and "sparked" their curiosity through the study of circuits, magnets, and motors.