WELCOME TO ROOM 18
2025-2026
WELCOME TO SEPTEMBER!
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​Our class is going to Coyote Hills on Thursday, Sept. 25th.
Here are the parents who are interested in going
Parent of: Aadhira, Aarya, Bria, Forest, Lola, Vivaan, April.
These are the parents who have been approved by the office: Parent of Aarya, Forest, Lola, Vivaan, Bria
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Panther Prowl Fundraiser: The Panther Prowl is coming Oct. 17th. Please look in this week's Friday folder for a note explaining how to register your child to participate and other important information.
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Don't forget, your child has a written/oral report due Sept. 18th (Running for School President).
I give plenty of time to complete this assignment so I'm hoping to see some real effort put into the report. Parents can help, but please do not do the whole thing for them as it's pretty obvious to me what is a child's report/work and parents work.
If your child lost the assignment, it can be found using the links above on this site. Go to Links, then click on Running For School President.
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Sept. 18th Math Night for 3-5th grade from 6-8 PM
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School Picture Day Sept. 25th (Our class will get their pictures taken first thing in the morning before our field trip).
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​I made a mistake in our Science Program. Instead of studying Weather and Climate, our class will be studying Inheritance of Traits. Please see information below re: what will be covered in this unit.
Mrs. Dhillon the science teacher will be teaching science units on Forces, and Weather and Climate.
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​​Please have your child try KhanAcademy, IXL, Prodigy, iReady, Readworks. All of these sites reinforce what is being taught in class.​
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​ UPCOMING ACADEMICS
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READING
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​Unit: We take a week off from Benchmark next week and will start a new unit on Ways Characters Shape Stories Sept. 22nd.
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​The weekly spelling and vocabulary words can be found in the Fri. Folder when we are working on a unit, but not during the week off from Benchmark.
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Additional material is located on Google Classroom to help students with our Benchmark program. It can be found in G.C. under the label Benchmark.
Also on Google Classroom, use the link to Khan Academy to get more help with reading.
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Try I-ready (on Clever)
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Please feel free to go to Benchmark (go to Clever first) and look over your child's tests.
Give Readworks.org a try by going to Google Classroom for the link.
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MATH
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MATH: UNIT 4 Multidigit Addition and Subtraction
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Some concepts/vocabulary students will be learning in Unit 4 are..
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place value, expanded form, standard form, ones, tens, hundreds, estimate, rounding to 10's/100's, proof drawings, regrouping, ungrouping to subtract
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​The math homework and class book can be found online. Have your child go to Clever, then ThinkCentral, then click on My library​​​
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You can also see a child's unit test results on ThinkCentral.
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For additional help in math, use the link in Google Classroom under Khan Academy and search for my assigned math.
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Go to CLEVER. Then go to IXL for many practice math opportunities.
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Try I-Ready (go to Clever first)
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HISTORY
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Lesson 2 can be found on pages 19 - 35.
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Some of the vocabulary words/concepts/ to learn about are:
cardinal direction, map key, landmark, capitol, and scale
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Social Studies
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Identify cardinal and intermediate directions and use a compass rose.
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Use map skills to locate communities on a map, determine directions, and measure distances between two locations.
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Research and map a place to visit in California.
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Analyze the role of traditions, symbols, and values in unifying the United States.
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​​​​​THIS SAME INFORMATION (BOOK) CAN BE FOUND ON CLEVER. THE NAME OF THE SITE ON CLEVER IS TCI. IT'S A DISTRICT SITE.
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SCIENCE
INHERITANCE OF TRAITS
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People have many misconceptions about how organisms get their traits and about the role that inherited information and environmental factors play in determining variation in the traits of organisms. This unit addresses these concepts directly by providing numerous opportunities for students to construct an accurate understanding of the influences that inheritance and the environment play in determining organisms’ traits.
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The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) set a higher bar for students’ understanding of inheritance and variation of traits than have past standards. While in the past, elementary students were expected to simply know that plants and animals inherit traits from their parents, the NGSS expect that students should be able to provide evidence to support this idea. Similarly, while in the past, students were expected to simply know that traits can be influenced by the environment, the NGSS expect that students should be able to say how they know by gathering evidence. To prepare students to be able to meet these expectations, this unit provides students with multiple opportunities to explore and analyze data, generate their own questions, and interpret data to help them answer those questions. Students experience more support early in the unit and assume increasing independence; by the end of the unit, students are supporting claims with evidence as they explain why various organisms got their traits. Rather than stopping at the what, this unit pushes to the why.
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How?
In Chapter 1, students learn that they will take on the role of wildlife biologists working to understand why one wolf in a fictional national park, Wolf 44, looks different from the others in its pack. Students are introduced to the question that frames their learning in this chapter: Why are wolves different even though they are all the same species? A series of activities in which students observe similarities and differences in traits between increasingly closely related organisms introduces students to the concept that organisms in a species have similar traits, but there is also variation in those traits. Students then observe and reflect on their own traits as humans. Students are introduced to the features of a scientific explanation and, as a class, compose a scientific explanation that addresses the Chapter 1 Question. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce students to the concept of species and to provide opportunities for students to observe variation among organisms within a species.
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In Chapter 2, students are introduced to a second wolf pack in the park, the Bison Valley Pack, and investigate the question Why is Wolf 44’s color similar to one pack but different from the other? Students begin to investigate where organisms get their traits. Like scientists in the field, students observe fruit fly parents and offspring as they look for patterns in the fruit flies’ traits. Through reading, students learn that genes provide the instructions for traits and that genes are inherited by offspring from both parents. Students build fictional creature offspring from clay by following instructions for traits from the creature parents. The class compares the traits of creature siblings and observes that there is variation among siblings. Through these experiences, students come to an understanding that siblings may inherit different instructions from the same parents, causing them to have different traits. Students then apply their understanding of traits and inheritance to make sense of the patterns in the traits of wolf parents and offspring. Students write their own scientific explanations that address the Chapter 2 Question.
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In Chapter 3, the question Why isn’t Wolf 44 like the Bison Valley Pack in hunting style and size? guides students’ investigations. Students investigate why Wolf 44 has traits that are different from its parents. Students start their investigation by asking questions and reviewing data about flamingo families. A pattern begins to emerge—students observe that feather color in flamingos seems to be associated with a flamingo’s environment. Building on this experience, students read a book to learn that an organism’s traits can come from the environment. Students return to the class traits posters and consider factors that may have determined their own traits, leading them to identify some traits that are affected by inheritance and the environment. Students gather evidence for this idea by conducting a hands-on investigation of an inherited trait (the green color of celery) that can be affected by the environment (food coloring and water). Students then write their final scientific explanations of the unit independently, explaining how Wolf 44 came to be the medium size it is.
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In Chapter 4, the guiding question for the chapter is How can scientists investigate questions about traits? Students apply what they have learned by engaging in investigations by using data about another species found in the national park. Students are tasked with applying their understanding of where traits can come from in order to describe the possible traits that the offspring of one set of sparrow parents will have. To prepare students to investigate the data, they read a book that describes the questions one scientist asks as she investigates why one scorpion has the traits it does. Students ask questions they can investigate about the traits of sparrows and analyze data about sparrow parents and offspring to investigate their questions. This chapter culminates with students describing the traits the sparrow offspring could have and supporting their ideas with evidence.
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WRITING
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In writing, we will work on writing full, complete sentences. We are also working on staying on topic. Students will be learning how to state a clear opinion, use sentences of different lengths, writing a strong conclusion, revising and editing.
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During the year, students will learn how to write a personal narrative, opinion piece, descriptive writing, and explanatory/informational writing.
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HERE IS THE LINK...
LINK FOR VOLUNTEERING INCLUDING DRIVING (Civicore)
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HERE IS THE LINK TO ORDER A PARKMONT YEARBOOK
LINK TO ORDER YEARBOOK​​​​​
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Link to get to Iready...
LINK FOR iReady Scores instructions
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THE FOLLOWING IS INFORMATION THAT CAN BE USED ALL YEAR
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CLASS CODES
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INVITE LINK TO GOOGLE CLASSROOM - LINK FOR GOOGLE CLASS
Google classroom code - xp3alxlm
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IReady - Go to Clever, then IReady
Prodigy - Go to Google Classroom - Use link there (code is there too)
Legends of Learning -
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KhanAcademy - use their Google Account: Class code is 9Z78XKPN
Readworks.org: use Google Account--Class code is NL4TJ6
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Epic - Getepic.com/students code: ykb6380 (only available during school hours)
To go to Thinkcentral go to Clever first then Thinkcentral
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A few notes: To get to ZOOM for my class use the
Meeting Code 435 384 5534 Password 775387
or just use link I send out
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​​If you are interested in ordering Scholastic Books for your child you either go to my links page and click on the Scholastic Link or you can go to Scholastic.com/bookclubs and use code GVYX9. I'm not sure if the books will get sent to Parkmont or your house. If they get to school I will make sure you get them by notifying you. THIS IS OPTIONAL.
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For students that need more assistance with reading fluency, please log on to Clever and then go to the Lexia icon.
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THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO AND MAKING THIS A GREAT YEAR!
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Please feel free to look at the various links my website has.
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