February 16th, 2011

NEW 

MSU-Billings is looking at offering camp opportunities for gifted students.  As part of their planning process, they would like to have the input of parents of gifted children and educators in the area.  We are currently looking for parents that would like to participate in a brainstorming session to offer ideas and input to the planners at MSU-Billings.  A definite date has not been set, but it appears that a meeting could be held in the next week or so.  If you are interested please contact parent, Bill Mercer at wmercer@bresnan.net or 698-1671

or teacher, Darla Williams at 690-9662 or williamsdl@billingsschools.org.

Upcoming Dates

I will be at Poly Drive on SUNDAY, MARCH 6TH  FROM 1-4 PM TO HELP WITH ANY ASPECT OF THE SCEINCE FAIR. Please call my cell phone to gain access to the school: 697-5934.

Please read under "Science" for more information about the due dates, etc.
Viewing by parents can be before school or after school on THURSDAY, March 10th. They will be taken down/home on Friday, March 11th.

MontCAS tests will be March 8-15. If you are planning trips, please try to avoid that time. 


If you would like to provide a healthy snack for the class during the 4 days of testing (Tu-Fri), please contact me so we can schedule the day. We have 27 students. 697-5934

NWEA tests will be in April.

Midterms

Please sign them and return them. There has been quite a bit of late/missing work. The computer grading program puts in a 50% for missing work and a 0% for work if the child was absent. When I get the work, the grade will change the overall score.

To view your child’s grades at anytime during the year, you can go to

http://www.billings.k12.mt.us/poly/porisch/grades/index.html, key in your child’s username and password, and see how they are doing. If you have forgotten the password, email me or call for that information.

Reading

Students have finished their novels. We will do a wrap up activity for each novel on plot development.

Language

Poetry writing: cinquains and haikus

Test preparation: Text of the Week (expository text w/ questions)

Quiz on Thursday: anim, cred, equ

anim: spirit, life

cred: believe

equ: equal, fair

in-    in, into, not

-ate: to make, to act

-ence: state, quality, act

-ible: able to be

-ity: state quality, act

-ulous: having the quality of

Math

All: Powers of 10 (83 x 10³ or 482 x 10^-2)

All: Data, Graphs, Probability and Geometry

Science

The next help session will be Sunday, March 6th from 1 PM to 4 PM.

Science Fair Display Boards: Due WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9TH.

They will be evaluated by me that evening and by the high school judges Thursday morning. They will go home on FRIDAY, MARCH 11TH. 

All students received the evaluation tool the judges will be using on Tuesday, March 1st. 

Many thanks for your help, guidance, practice, and support with the process and project!

Checklist of what your child will need for Wednesday, March 9th (for the judging on Thursday, March 10th):

___ Display board

___ Practice, practice, practice (I told them to pretend you, parent, are the judge. Just say, "Hi, can you tell me about your project?" and they should be able to take it from there!)

___ Science Fair Notebook (all in one folder or notebook AND organized. Some have been coming in rather randomly.)

___ Any data collection sheets that they used in recording (the original ones)

___  ONLY FOR THOSE ENTERING THE DEACONESS BILLINGS CLINIC SCIENCE EXPO--an abstract

Viewing by parents can be before school or after school on THURSDAY, March 10th. They will be taken down/home on Friday, March 11th.

What are the parts of the science fair project?  

Question

Background (research)

Hypothesis

Materials LIST (kids so not have to bring in the physical materials)

Parent signature and date in the science fair notebook indicating that things are proceeding.

Procedure

Results (graphs, tables)

Conclusion

What (did you learn?) (do you want to know now?)

Abstract--only for those entering the Billings Clinic Research Center Science Expo. If you would like more information about the BCRCSE, click the address below.


http://www.billingsclinic.com/workfiles/Research/pdf/2011-Sci-Expo-Elementary-MS-Handbook.pdf

Steps of the Scientific Process

http://www.jccschools.com/staff%20pages%20riverside/nurse/science%20fair/process.htm

Successful Science Fair Projects

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/fair.html

How to set up your display board (Presentation)

http://www.cool-science-projects.com/Science-Fair-Project-Display.html

Kids Corner of Science

http://scorescience.humboldt.k12.ca.us/fast/kids.htm

Doing a science fair project will be mandatory this year. Entering it in the Billings Clinic Science Fair will be optional. (March 25 & 26)

Social Studies

5^th grade: Map: South America. In the text, they have been assigned an explorer. They are reading books from the library on their explorer and the text currently.

4^th grade: Regions of the US: NE, SE, Midwest, and SW. Students have been divided into groups and make presentations to the rest of the class about their region.

4th grade spelling words Unit 25 Feb 28^th VCV pattern

BASIC:  event, humor, music, relief, detail, unite, frozen, siren, polite, hotel, protest, defend, relay, student, moment, rapid, planet, figure, punish, habit

CHALLENGE:  rumor, jealous, license, image, rival

REAL-WORLD- VOCABULARY: Manners

hospitality, welcome, appreciate, comfortable, thoughtful, grateful, invitation, guest

5th grade spelling words Unit 25 Feb 28th 

Final /n/, or /an/, /char/, /zhar/

BASIC:  certain, villain, mountain, captain, surgeon, curtain, fountain, nature, future, mixture, departure, texture, creature, gesture, furniture, feature, adventure, pleasure, treasure, measure

CHALLENGE: leisure, sculpture, architecture, chieftain, enclosure  

REAL-WORLD- VOCABULARY: Accidents

ambulance, emergency, recovery, paramedic, physician, specialist, surgery, x-ray