It was wonderful to see so many of you at our "Charlie Brown's Holiday"
show! The children did a particularly good job with their acting AND
organization. Our stage crew expertly managed the backstage area and made
all of the set changes. Thanks to many children and their parents, our
beautiful backdrop was created in record time.
SCIENCE:
DISTRICT SCIENCE FAIR: Congratulations!
Angela Lee - Blue Ribbon Division Award Winner - Biological
Science - "Does the Presence of Fertilizer Affect
the Number of Microorganisms in Pond Water"
Irvine Ranch Water District special award winner
(one of six for the entire District, includes
a $100 award to Springbrook for science materials
in Angela's name)
ASTOUNDING INVENTIONS: Everyone's inventions demonstrated great
creativity.
Our class, 4th grade Springbrook winners:
Max Lyman Alarm for Caged Pets
Surayya Taha See Me Phone
Cole Williams Easy Measure
Our class, 5th grade Springbrook winners:
Sonia Lin The Page Bookmark
Issac Torres The Basketball Rebounder
Our class, 6th grade Springbrook winners:
Angela Lee Color Coded Staples
Louisa Lee Solar Powered IPOD
Amber Lin Speak Reminder
Krishna Reddy The Stacker and Stuffer All in 1
Last year's Grand Prize winner: Nina Yadlowsky won 1st place in the
Irvine/Tustin Districts'ASTOUNDING INVENTIONS competition. The corporate
sponsor awarded her a $25,000 credit for use of their lawyer to do a patent
search and begin development of her energy conservation idea. Will tell you
more about it as the process progresses.
3-D models of cells by our creative students have appeared on the walls
of our classroom. Come by and see them.
MUSIC:
Congratulations to Tiffany Hsieh who was recently named to the District
Honors Orchestra!
FIELD TRIPS:
The 6th grade journeyed back to ancient Rome as they toured the Getty Villa.
Mosaics, Grecian style columns, lovely marble statues, and a recreated Roman
Villa enhanced their understanding of their recent studies of Ancient Rome
and Greece. This complimented their particularly special fieldtrip to
Bower's Museum to see the Terra Cotta Warriors on exhibit from China. 5th
grade was immersed in Colonial America at Knott's Berry Farm's Independence
Hall, where they conversed with "Benjamin Franklin" and "Dolly Madison".
They also enjoyed the spectacular planetarium show, "Where Are You". They
are looking forward to attending a special concert for 5th graders by the
Youth Symphony Orchestra at the Performing Arts Center.
NEW REPORTS IN PROGRESS
4th - Gold Rush
5th - Pioneers
6th - Ancient Asia
WRITTEN REPORTS DUE: March 17
ORAL REPORTS DUE: March 16, 17, 18, 19
ALGEBRA, GEOMETRY, and MATH:
Geometric Line Designs created by the children adorn our classroom walls.
Classifying triangles by sides and angles has been challenging and fun for
4th grade! 5th grade is flying through the many facets of fractions. It's so
easy to "see" how it all works when using the Montessori fraction pieces.
Complex percentage problems have challenged the 6th grade students.
The "Holiday Gifts" project provided real life use of percents, decimals,
multiplication, and subtraction as sales tax, actual price paid, and a
running total is computed for 10 purchases of each student's choice. The
kids continue to work on their favorite, "Hands On Equations" algebra
lessons. Daily, in Morning Math, they are completing word problems, multiple
digit multiplication, division, decimals, fractions, Order of Operations,
percents, and ratio.
LANGUAGE ARTS:
Taking on the persona of a Revolutionary War soldier at Valley Forge was an
exciting adventure! Envisioning the cold, dark conditions, the children
wrote home describing their experiences with George Washington. We have been
searching our reading and poetry books for examples of common, proper,
concrete, and abstract nouns. The uses of commas and the formats of business
and friendly letters have been revisited. Oral reports are giving the
children the opportunity to polish their public speaking skills.
COMPUTER:
The children are working on their keyboarding skills in their computer
classes, along with Power Point presentations,research skills, and creating
a state brochure.
PARENTS:
Thank you so much for all of your volunteer hours! The History luncheons
are a great success due to your organization and serving. We have several
parents who volunteer weekly to assist in the classroom. Thanks so much!
And, a special thanks to Tamara who graciously agreed to be our Room
Mother.
