Teacher Contact Information

Melinda Rasmussen (Lead)- melinda@bridgecharter.org

Kaitlin Vigil (ELA)- kaitlin@bridgecharter.org

Ali Hill (Math)- alberta@bridgecharter.org

Ashley Crowther (Math)- ashley@bridgecharter.org

Classroom Addendum

Hello parents and guardians! We are excited to have your fifth grader in our class this year! We have given students all of the following information, but we thought it would be helpful for parents to know as well. We hope this makes it easier for you to focus on what is expected in our fifth grade classroom. As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns. Thank you!

Bathroom Procedures: Students are able to use the restroom several times a day. We transition a lot, and we encourage students to take care of their needs during these times so as not to interfere with learning in small groups, on computers, in stations, etc. However, if students do need to use the restroom, they sign out, and give a para or teacher the bathroom pass until they return. It is important for us to keep students using the restroom at the same time to a minimum.

Water and Water Bottles: Students are encouraged to bring a water bottle to class. At Bridge, water is all they are allowed to have in their water bottles, but we also have a drinking fountain in class. As you can imagine, if every student has a water bottle, our classroom can become cluttered with lots of spills. For this reason, we have designated shelves for each homeroom class to keep their water bottles if they don’t want to keep them at their desk. Water bottles that are left in the classroom for extended periods of time, or left out and unclaimed will be taken to the school lost and found.

Station Assignments: Students spend about a third of their day in stations. The assignments they work on are usually a review and can be done independently. On Friday, each student will meet with their homeroom teacher for a mini conference, where they will review their station work, and receive feedback. As parents, you will receive their work, and a graded rubric with teacher feedback (Weekly Progress Report) about their Imagine minutes, Imagine Math Lessons passed, behavior, etc. Please note that on the back page of their reading/writing assignment you will see the state standards listed that we covered that week. This is a great way for you to keep track of what your child is learning.

Class Projects and I and E (Interventions and Extensions): We have several extension projects that students participate in throughout the year. All projects are done at school, and you will be notified of them in advance on a monthly newsletter that will come home at the beginning of each month. We have over two hours each week that we dedicate to extended learning and interventions as needed. All students get to participate in extension activities and projects. 

Weekly Take Home Folders: Students will bring home a Take Home folder each Friday with their completed schoolwork, a Weekly Progress Report, any schoolwide and classroom handouts, and small group and special classes work. There will be a return pocket with any items that need to be returned. Take Home folders are due back Monday, but if absent, can be returned anytime before Friday. Please note there is a communication tracker within the folder for parents to document that they have seen their students folder.

Social Skills, Tattle Box, Bullying: In our POD we firmly believe that a lot of what happens between students can be figured out by them. We have informed students that if someone is bleeding, bruised, or bullied (repeated even when asked to stop) that they are to immediately talk to an adult so that it can be addressed and handled. That being said, some situations can definitely be handled by students and we encourage them to try to handle it on their own because that’s a great life skill to be able to get along with others and make peace. 

Classroom Expectations and Restorative Justice: We follow 5 classroom expectations that help our classroom to thrive, and be successful. The expectations are listed on the disclosure. When students do not follow expectations, it is something we take very seriously because in a pod of 70+ fifth graders, we need all students to follow these expectations, not only for themselves, but for other students. When students are not following expectations, they get to participate in Restorative Justice. This simply means that they get to write the expectations and focus a paragraph (5 sentences) on how they can improve on the expectation that they’re struggling with. They do this during the first part of our afternoon recess. We purposefully built in an EXTRA 15 minute chunk at the beginning of this recess so that we would have time to help these students realize what they need to improve upon to help our fifth graders be successful. Students are still getting their mandated recess time each and every day. Occasionally, Restorative Justice will be helping another teacher, cleaning a mess, moving rocks off the bike path, organizing books, etc. We feel that it is important for parents to know when their child is participating in Restorative Justice, so you will receive an email. We do have positive behavior incentives in place to help encourage students to follow expectations. We have classroom coupons, lunch in the classroom, raffle tickets for gift cards and much more.

Birthdays and Class Parties: Birthdays are celebrated with a classroom birthday song, a sticker to wear, and a prize of their choice out of the prize basket. Summer birthdays will be celebrated at the student’s half birthday. We will have two class parties during the school year. More information will be sent at a later date.