Students are writing a letter to their future self to put into their portfolios (they are VERY sweet!!!).  The portfolio will also include their "This I Believe" essay, their Ameritowne reflection, several samples of writing from the year that they picked out and some of their artwork that was created with Mrs. Wright.  This will all come home on Wednesday, along with yearbooks and chromebooks so please keep an eye out!!  Every student in fifth grade will get a yearbook and they will have a chance to get them signed before and after our Boondocks trip. (FYI - The rest of the school will bring their yearbook home on Monday...)

Sadly, we are not going to have time to squeeze in the walking field trip this week - but I truly appreciate the volunteers who were willing to chaperone!!  If any of you would like to go to Boondocks with this fantastic crew, we could still use a bit more help!  You would get a ticket to play mini-golf OR bowl with the kids and we will feed you pizza.  You can even drive separately if you wish! Please let me know if you are interested and have passed the background check.

Here are a few logistical details that I should share as we close out the school year:

• If students are planning to stay within BVSD next fall, their Chromebook and charger will come home for the summer.  Students will turn these in at the end of eighth grade and since it is a "school device," the district still manages it - meaning that some features are blocked.  I can't fix that.  Here is a letter with more details, including what to do if you have a problem.

• Wednesday we are going to Boondocks and kids do not need to bring a lunch UNLESS they are allergic to pizza (please reach out to let me know).  We have the option of being inside in case of rain, but if the weather is nice, the mini-golfers will be outside - so please dress appropriately for the weather.

• Students tend to dress up for graduation.  They can bring clothes to change into during lunch if they would like.

• Graduation is on Thursday at 1:15 and families are invited.  I would advise arriving closer to 1:00 so you can check in, read some of the "This I Believe" essays that students will have up in the hallway and then get a seat where you can see!  The fifth graders will be up on the stage and the rest of the school will be sitting in front.  Afterwards, parents and graduates will stay in the gym to watch the slideshow of the kids growing up! (Bring tissues...)

As I reflect on this year, I am truly impressed by how much these kids grew as readers, writers and mathematicians.  They have also grown up quite a bit on the social front!  Mrs. Fries was delighted by how well the fifth graders ran field day this year.  Although she spent a couple of hours getting the equipment set up and put away, she felt like the day ran itself!  For the staff, it was lovely to see multiple ages of kids in the school interacting again - this got lost a bit during COVID.   This year, school finally started to feel "normal" again! Whew!  As we send this crew off, I feel confident that they are very well equipped for middle school.  

Thank you for all of your support this year - I hope you can savor the next 4-5 years before time speeds up again!  My best advice for raising teenagers is to be present when they want to talk to you - this happens on their terms rather than yours.  I told my class that if they wanted to have an awkward conversation with you, those moments when you are driving them around in the car are great times to bring up their "open ended" questions - so be prepared!  (You can use that trick on them, too.)  Best of luck and if you happen to run into me in the future, I always love to hear about how "our" kids are doing!

Our walking field trip was rained out but we made the best of the day.   Since our garden planting was also rained out, parents helped our students make bookmarks with some flower petals that had previously been collected.  We also walked over to the bridge to look at the increased water flow and tested the creek water for fecal coliform bacteria (it was positive).  I did an impromptu lesson on safety during flash floods and we explored some of the pictures and maps from the 2013 flood in Boulder.  Looking at all of the year end events on my upcoming calendar, I am unconvinced that we will be able to fit in the hike to Martin Park, but I may try to manage a short hike up the canyon on May 22 - I will keep you posted if it happens.  (We won't miss lunch again.)  

On Wednesday, I sent everyone home with a Venus flytrap (I have a few left if anyone is still interested). We learned about the adaptations of several different types of carnivorous plants as part of our final science unit. My husband, Rich, is a huge plant enthusiast - he grew these from seed and got them to go dormant outside last winter!  This is not an easy plant to care for, but it's fairly novel and my class was very enthusiastic!  Here are the growing instructions that I sent home in case yours were misplaced.

April 30 - Home stretch!

We finished our mandatory testing (except for a couple of make-ups) and have moved into the experiential part of the year. Woohoo!! Based on data from the end-of-year-math test and iReady, I can see that my students have made a lot of growth this year.  I am so proud of the effort and seriousness that they put into these assessments that I decided to add a walking field trip on May 12 to celebrate their hard work.  We will take a picnic lunch and do some exploration of the Bear Creek watershed to accompany the Environmental Detective study that we are doing in class.  If you would like to join us and have completed the volunteer screening, please let me know!

Here is a brief list of upcoming dates and deadlines:

• May 4: Cultural Festival at Bear Creek (4:30-6:30)

• May 8: Young Ameritowne field trip (bring a sack lunch)

• May 8: images due for the graduation slideshow (details sent via email)

• May 12: Walking field trip and picnic (bring a sack lunch and dress for the weather)

• May 15: Orchestra concert for parents at 1:00 in the cafeteria

• May 17: Fun and fitness day (more info to come soon)

• May 18: Band concert for parents at Southern Hills  (6:30-7:30 but kids arrive early)

• May 24: Boondocks field trip (10-2; lunch will be provided)

• May 25: Graduation at 1:15 in the gym (families are invited)

This week, I was invited to attend a reunion of the Bear Creek graduates from the class of 2015, who are graduating from high school this spring.  It is always so lovely to reconnect with my former students and hear about their plans and adventures.  The reunion is an event that parents organize and we have missed the past few years, due to the pandemic...  This evening reminded me that the broader community at Bear Creek is integral to our success.  I deeply appreciate all of the support that our parent community provides through their time, financial support and  engagement with their children's academic endeavors.  

Thank you for all that you do!!   I hope to attend a reunion for this class seven years from now! 

Thursday, students learned their jobs met their teammates for our upcoming Young Ameritowne trip.  For the most part, students were gracious and excited!  Many thanks to those of you who have turned in the permission slips!  We have started learning some basic economic concepts and will spend the upcoming week discussing personal finance topics such as how to write a check and the difference between a debit and a credit card.  While I grew up watching my parents "balance the checkbook" to the penny each month, many of my students have never seen a check since so much banking is now electronic.  The next time you need to pay a bill, it would be great if you could show your child how you do it!

We are now rolling into our end of year activities (e.g. choosing a song for graduation, preparing for the final band / orchestra concert, brainstorming for a This I Believe essay).  As the year winds down, it's not uncommon for emotions to flair up.  This is normal, but can feel hard to navigate.  As always. please reach out if you have any concerns.  It's such a privilege for me to share this journey with my class each year - they have grown so much! 

Finally, I included a video of a sword dance that my class worked on in music last week.  This week we have PE - don't forget appropriate footwear!

 Now that we have finished the bulk of our "musts," I am adding more fun elements to our day.  For example, we did some creative building challenges in the library last week. It was a great way to practice communication and teamwork! The students who wrote a research paper have begun presenting their projects and the class has been very interested in their work. Students have been doing "book pitches" to help their peers build a solid summer reading list.  School is soooooo much easier for kids who like to read and we have talked about how we all get better with practice.  Hopefully, every student will leave fifth grade with a booklist full of peer recommendations, leading them to read a handful of books over the summer.  

Finally, as we approach this upcoming rite of passage, we will spend some time reflecting on the journey. This is a time when students often get into conflict with their best friends and emotions start running closer to the surface.  Some students are pretty nervous about the transition to middle school and others are sad that their friends are scattering to different places.  A few kids are so ready for the next step that it's hard to have much passion for the moment.  We will be having more frequent class meetings to resolve conflict or discuss concerns.  If your child is having a hard time, feel free to drop me a note and I will check in with them!

I saw my first robin of the year while out walking with my husband this morning.  Spring officially starts tomorrow but I think it arrived early in my classroom.  Our first butterfly appeared!  It's been fairly magical to watch it move around and spread its wings and I am hopeful that the remaining four will have arrived by Monday.  I am bringing in a couple of plants in hopes that they will lay some eggs to complete their life cycle.  We have about two weeks of science left to finish up this unit, so we should be done before CMAS.  My teammates are also on track to finish the fifth grade math book before CMAS.  We work hard to teach all of this content prior to the spring assessments - it doesn't feel fair for kids to be tested on concepts they have never seen before. 

CMAS will begin on April 10 and run for 9 days straight through April 20.  The kids will get a 4 day weekend, then we have 4 days to make up any missed assessments.  We typically do not give any homework during CMAS and we ask the kids to bring a high protein snack to eat first thing.  We try to keep the environment very low key and we have some extra recess thrown in as well!  It really helps if kids can cultivate a positive attitude, get a good night's sleep and eat breakfast on these days!  Their data will be deeply examined by their middle school, so it's to their benefit if they can accurately show what they know!!

We will start working on Young Ameritowne when we return from Spring Break. I checked in with Carolyn and she said that in order to volunteer to accompany us on a field trip, you need to go through the background check process,  listed here: https://www.bvsd.org/parents-students/get-involved/volunteers.   In addition to the day of the field trip, we have parents come in to interview the students for their roles "in Towne" and we also have some parents help manage the groups of students who set up each business.   In prior years, we have done this project in September, so I am curious to see how  it works differently in the spring!  We have a couple of other field trips in the works - I am hoping to squeeze in an outing in May to do some analysis of the water above and below Bear Creek and we are working on planning a fun field trip for the day before graduation. Please drop me an email if you would like to volunteer for any of these events.   Many thanks!

March 5 - More Science!

In general, the class did quite well on our second unit test in science.  I again set up stations around the room but this time, they were designed to review concepts that we had learned about so it counted as part of the test. (I took pictures of the stations for the five students who were absent on Friday.)  Next week, we start the final science unit, which is on living systems. I have not taught this through FOSS before, so I am curious to see how it goes!

Based on the students' vote, I started a new read aloud on Friday - hopefully they will enjoy it!   We took a short break from writing while students practiced typing skills, learned new morphemes and ran their own book groups.  This week, we will continue with another round of book groups and start ramping up our writing about literacy.  This is one component of the CMAS, which runs from April 10-28.  Starting April 10, we will have nine days of testing in a row and hopefully have time to make up the tests of the students who are absent.  If at all possible, please plan to have your child at school during this time.  

Next week, the book faire will be set up in the library.  For students who wrote research papers, I plan to post them in the hallway so that you can see what they have been working on.  Spotlights is the following week (March 14) and we also have an opportunity to participate in a DMNS "Scientists in Action" with Jane Goodall that day!  We have Hawkquest coming to give a presentation for the fifth graders on March 22 and they will bring live birds.  Finally, daylight savings time starts next weekend so we will have more sunshine at the end of the day!  I just love springtime!

I have nearly finished all of my "parent teacher" conferences and wanted to again thank you for all of the amazing dinners that you provided! Also, thanks for bringing your child along so that we could talk about middle school.  I always learn so much from these interactions and it helps me to tweak the final few months of school to make them count.  It always shocking how fast these months fly by!  As a reminder, CMAS will occur from April 10-24.  Please make every effort to have your child at school on time these days! 

On Friday afternoon, our butterflies and red wriggles arrived out of the blue and I was not prepared for them.  I asked some of the students who were finished with everything to figure out what I needed to do for these living creatures before I went home for the weekend.  They hopped right on this task and bombarded me with all sorts of information, reminding me that this class is extremely capable and ready for more authentic learning projects!  

On that note, there will be some volunteer opportunities this spring!  We will need parents to help us interview students for  jobs at Young Ameritowne.  We will also need some chaperones for May 8 when we actually travel to Golden for the big event.  I am double checking on the requirements for adult volunteers for these events, but wanted it to be on your radar!

Feb. 12 - Valentine's Day and Conferences 

Lip Sync was awesome! Thank you so much to all of the folks who made it happen this year!  I just love watching my current students perform and I treasure the quick moments when I can connect with my former students.  Last year I watched the show wearing a mask and felt really uncomfortable being in such a crowded space - it's amazing how much change one year can bring!

Students got their friend's Valentine lunch request last week and should bring the lunch in a decorated box on Tuesday morning.  Thanks for supporting this activity!  As a reminder, if your child brings a valentine for one friend, they should bring one for everyone. We will send the valentines home in the decorated lunch boxes.  

We have the first round of conferences on Wednesday.  Each conference is 15 minutes long with a 5 minute transition in between.  You and your child can come inside the school and wait in the hallway by my classroom until it's your time.  For future SHMS families, please bring the middle school course selection form if you have not sent it back already.  

We did an AWESOME science experiment on Friday.  I've been talking about how scientists make models to try to figure out how nature works and I gave each pair of students a "black box" that they could not open.  Their task was to try to draw what it looked like inside, then get together with other scientists who had the same version of the black box to see if they could come to a consensus about what the inside looked like.  Half of the groups could come to a consensus but the other half could not.  The class was so frustrated with me that I wouldn't open the box to see if they were right! This is the closest as I have ever come to demonstrating how science actually works in the real world!! I shared some of my experience working with the folks who studied the causes of the mass extinction that occurred at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary as an example of how scientist gather evidence to support a theory and share it with the community. We also did the very traditional FOSS experiment of designing a process to separate mixtures of gravel, magnetite, diatomaceous powder and salt, and then students tested their process.  Our salt water is evaporating over the weekend and making some interesting crystals!  We will look at those under a microscope on Monday.  

This week, we will continue working on models in science and do some experiments with concentration. We only have 7 weeks of instruction left before the CMAS begins so this will be our focus through the spring!  My class' writing has improved quite a bit since the start of the year but we have not done as much with literary analysis as I would have liked.  I plan to sneak some of that in between the science experiments!  For my students who are working on a research project, the paper is due before spring break. However,  I would love to start reading their papers by the end of February so they can start working on their presentation for the class.  In music, everyone learned how to edit sound using WeVideo and I have a green screen available for interested students.  I am hoping that they will be able to find a more creative approach for their presentation than just a Google Slideshow!  

Finally, I have been thinking a lot about the factors that help a student be successful in school (and life).  A lot of school success comes down to building good habits and I think that this article does a good job of fleshing out this concept and providing some additional resources: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_help_your_students_develop_positive_habits.  I am noticing that some of my students struggle to complete their work or get it turned in. I am also noticing that some of my students are not very persistent when they hit a roadblock.  These are skills that we will continue to focus on through the end of the year.

On the parent front, I sent home course selection forms for Southern Hills.  These can be returned in a Friday folder.  Conference sign ups open Monday morning through HelpAtSchools and stay open through Friday.  Since no one requested a virtual conference, ALL of the conferences in my classroom will be in person, even though grades K-4 will be virtual on Feb. 23 so please plan accordingly if you have younger students at Bear Creek! Also, please choose a time when your student can attend with you.  The Valentine instructions will come home mid-week so that you have time to prepare for our lunch exchange.  Finally, Lip Sync is on Friday, so this week is historically a bit wild!! With only one show, I am imagining a fairly packed gym, but I always look forward to seeing my students' creativity!  There is a nasty respiratory virus circulating, so thank you for keeping your child home when they are sick!

 We had a visit from the Southern Hills counselors and the students cheered when they heard that middle school starts later (although one student jumped in to say that the day was just as long, leading to lots of groans).  We will be talking about middle school course selection at the upcoming parent/teacher/student conferences in February.  As a reminder, please choose a time when your child can join you!

I added in some photos from the Kindergarten Lunar New Year parade - it's fun hearing how much my students remember about being a part of that when they were younger!  Many remembered that the fifth graders seemed HUGE so they decided to get down on their knees so they would be less scary.  These are the moments that make elementary school memorable!!

This week, we will be having our first science test.  We have been talking about different strategies for learning and studying  and I've been showing the short "Learning How To Learn" videos that were created for kids.  For this first science unit test, I plan to devote some class time to practicing these study skills.  We'll add in some flashcard-style recall games and I plan to give them back their pre-test to correct so that they can see how much better they understand the content now.  Research has shown that just reading over your notes is not a good way to practice (it leads to familiarity, which can give a false sense of understanding) but that making your own quizzes or flashcards to practice recall, integrating concepts and key vocabulary is more effective.

For those of you who are trying to interpret your child's Schoology "grades," I thought I would try to explain some of the nuances. Schoology is useful to look for missing work and to see how a student did on some specific assignments, but it is not my official gradebook since everything is equally weighted and I don't want to make a separate Schoology class for each "subject" that I teach.  Philosophically, reports cards reflect whether students have met specific standards, which can be done at any point in the learning cycle.  When we are doing an actual writing assignment, my students are graded against a rubric which they can see prior to starting the assignment. However, I often "grade" the writing in other subject areas on whether or not the answer was on-topic and the sentences were complete, since that's an area where a lot of my students are still struggling. I've been giving students feedback on incorrect answers, but not lowering their grade.  (At some point, I will raise this bar, but it's such a fine balance between having high expectations and making kids dislike school...) 

This year our school district has been focused on "data driven instruction" or DDI. We have been given common math and science tests to give to our students AND we have been given scoring guides that emphasize having students explain their thinking.  (This mimics how students are tested on the CMAS tests in April and is why we spend so much time writing across all subject areas, including math.) In response to the DDI results, we have instituted additional, differentiated, small group instruction in the afternoon, which most kids enjoy and which allows us to better support students' specific needs.  Starting this week, I am planning to take a break from read-aloud to give students more class time to finish their independent work and, if they are done, they can read on their own. Hopefully, this will give some additional breathing room for those kids who need it!  This is the first class I've ever had that didn't consider read aloud to be their favorite part of the day, so for me, it will be interesting to see if they miss it.  I know I will...  

Jan. 22 - Happy Lunar New Year!

Last week's snow day was quite a gift!  It gave many of my students time to finish up their StoryCorp interview and get it turned in and it gave me time to savor their stories!  We have been working hard to complete lingering tasks so I gave my students some extra time to finish up this week.  I've begun writing notes to parents about the students who need some extra support and will continue these conversation at our conference in February - your child will also attend!  As you approach middle school, it would be great to figure out a homework routine that works for your child.  Do they have a place at home to do their schoolwork?  Is there a time that they can get support if they need it?  Have they come up with a routine to keep track of the papers that go home and come back to school (particularly math)?  Investing time in building these habits now will ease their upcoming transition. Many of my former students come back and complain to me about how much homework they have in 6th grade...

We have shifted gears in my classroom to focus on science - this will continue until mid-April.  This week, we learned about heat transfer through conduction and convection.  I used one of my favorite simple experiments for an anchor phenomena - we put an ice cube on a black block of aluminum and a black block of plastic that was the same size and watched how the ice melted.  Prior to adding the ice, students observed the two blocks and noted that they were the same size and color but different densities and that the heavy one felt colder to the touch.  The class was pretty evenly divided on which would melt the ice faster (no one guessed that they would melt at the same rate.)  This week, we will return to the topic of weather and dig a bit deeper into the roles of air pressure and heat transfer.  My students are highly engaged in these lessons, which can be hard to make up when students are absent since there is a lot of hands-on work and discussion within their teams.  

We have PE this week so please send your child with a change of footwear. Also, thanks for sending them to school in snow gear!  We continue to go outside every day and sometimes, it's a bit nippy! 

Jan. 15 - Happy three day weekend!!

Human Growth and Development is now in the books - thanks for supporting your child through conversation!   We are now in the "sweet spot" of the school year so our expectations ramp up a bit between January and April. We've taught students our expectations, filled in some pandemic gaps and hammered home procedures so that students should be ready to learn at a faster pace.  We have also adjusted WIN time to provide extra differentiation on both ends of the spectrum.  (FYI - I have not been giving students time to do math homework during WIN so you should be seeing math homework on Monday-Thursday nights.) 

I caught up on a lot of grading this weekend and on Tuesday morning, I plan to have students create their own personalized checklist for missing work.  It's a little surprising to me that so many students have so much missing work after only 8 days of school! (Also, I am still anticipating thirteen StoryCorp interviews, which are due Tuesday.)  As a consequence, you may start seeing more than just math homework coming home.  Many students have told me that they do not have access to a computer at home.  We can make a plan to send home their Chromebook  to catch up on missing work but students then become responsible for charging it and bringing the Chromebook and charger back and forth to school - we have very limited options when students forget!  

A lot of students have been forgetting their instruments on Monday and Thursday - I had the joy of "conducting" the orchestra last Thursday because the sub did not show up and I was surprised to see that about half of the students were missing something.  Mr. Ruben noticed a similar pattern with the brass section.  Helping your student develop the habit of getting to school with all of their materials will support them next year when they will have the added responsibility of switching classes, learning the expectations of multiple teachers and managing their Chromebook. 

On Friday, we had some discussion about middle schools since students now have a sense of where they will be going.  A few students are pretty disappointed that they did not get an invitation to Summit so they all had to listen to my lecture about how getting into Summit is not like getting into MIT - it's a lottery system and is not based on ability.  Both Southern Hills and Summit are excellent middle schools and each has unique strengths!  I remind them that they get out of school what they put into it and share my dad's excellent advice when he sent me off to college.  He said, "Find the best professors and take whatever classes they teach, regardless of the topic."  I remind my students that middle school is a time to try LOTS of new activities and meet a variety of new people.  For my own two children, their future passions were sparked in middle school... This is a time when kids should be building independence and identity while broadening their view of what's possible. It's a time to take some risks, make some mistakes and build resilience and also a great time to develop strong school habits and embrace some challenges.  We will discuss course selection with the Southern Hills counselors in early February so that students are aware of the acceleration options.  (Summit students will take placement tests in the spring.)  I will follow up with you and your child during conferences in February, since we will all meet together!  As always, thanks for supporting your child on their journey and please email me if you have any questions or specific concerns.

Jan. 8 - Happy New Year!!!

We started the year off with a bang, so to speak, by diving into Human Growth and Development.  Mostly, we talk about the changes that happen during puberty and the appropriate names for various body parts, but I also attempt to answer any questions that my students have.  I actually really enjoy this unit and I learn a lot about my students - they are both worldly and curious.  I hope that you are having some interesting conversations at home as well!  Students will have a test on Tuesday and should be studying at home on Monday night using their packet.

Many thanks to the parents who stepped up to coach the fifth grade ensemble for Lip Sync this year!  This is a true right of passage for fifth grade students - they LOVE this milestone and it creates wonderful memories.  I am hopeful that most of my students will sign up to participate - practices will be on Monday and Friday mornings at 7:15 and the show is February 10.  I will be there!!

There is one week left to finish the "StoryCorp" style interviews (due January 17).  About a third of the students have submitted their interview so far and most of the time, parents have just emailed the recording to me.  Over the past month, I have heard to some incredible stories from my students' families and I consider it such a privilege to listen in on these conversations!  I recently received a note from a mother of a former student saying how much she valued this project since the grandparent who her child had interviewed had recently passed away.  She was so grateful to have the recording of the two of them...

Report cards will be available on Tuesday through Infinite Campus - Carolyn can help if you have trouble accessing it.  As a reminder, this is a single snapshot of your student's performance over the first semester and the report card does not capture all of your child's talents and abilities. I typically give a "2" to a student who is making progress or almost meeting a standard and a "3" to a student who meets the standard consistently, without support.  A "4" is exceptionally rare, especially in the first semester.  We will have conferences again in February and can discuss report cards, middle school course placement or anything else that is on your mind.  Typically, your student will join us for this conversation!

This coming week, I will be out on Wednesday at a District Math curriculum meeting so Lucy Ewing will be teaching my students more about poetry!  Otherwise, we will finish up puberty, complete a mini-unit on Graphic Novels, then refocus on science and writing.  We have a lot of science to cover before the CMAS in April and students need to be able to express their ideas in writing for this test.  As a reminder, students should be reading at home for 20-25 minutes per night.  Many thanks for encouraging this activity!!  Finally, please plan to be in town April 10-28 so we can finish all nine days of the CMAS tests!!  Many thanks!!

Dec. 17 - Happy Holidays!

We worked hard to get all of the missing work turned in this week.  It was a bit of a grind!  We also finished up our whirlwind study of the American Revolution.  In the past, I have done this unit at the end of the year when kids were stronger readers and writers.  This year, we are ending with Young Ameritowne so we mixed it up a bit.  We will spend the next three months focused on science, trying to complete everything that fifth graders will be tested on (as well as filling in some gaps from fourth grade).  Students will take CMAS tests in English Language Arts, Math and Science in April for nine days between April 10-28.  We will do the test in the morning and prepare for Young Ameritowne in the afternoon, and there will be some volunteer opportunities associated with this project in case you were hoping for one last chance to spend some time with these lovely students!  I will keep you posted as I learn specific details.  As a reminder, the StoryCorp project is due January 17 and so far, most parents have emailed the recording to me. 

I am off to California to visit my daughter this week. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and a happy, healthy New Year! 

December 11 - last week of this semester!

Reminder: The Instrumental Music classes will have a performance on Monday at 1:00 in the cafeteria.  It will be fairly crowded and I am not sure what the procedure for signing in will be so you may want to arrive a bit early.  These kids have come a long way since the beginning of the year!  

We finished up the mid-year iReady last week and will take the mid-year fifth grade math test this week.  When I look at the overall average, the class as a whole has already made a "year's growth."  I am not a huge fan of the iReady test, but it actually does a pretty good job of predicting CMAS scores in the spring. The current results highlight the need for me to focus more on building vocabulary and practicing reading comprehension with non-fiction passages.  

Students should all be finishing their historical fiction book this weekend.  We will have our final discussions this week.  I've been encouraging students to turn in their missing work - I don't mark them down for being late but I do give a zero for missing work.  A zero is very hard to overcome...  I am hopeful that most students will internalize this message before leaving my class this spring!  

The StoryCorp interviews are starting to arrive and I am enjoying listening to them.  I made a Google form for the kids to submit their interview if you can figure out how to get it onto their Google Drive.  If not, you can email it to me.  The week, we also did a practice timed writing assessment under conditions that mimic CMAS.  I don't typically give timed writing assignments, but I think it's unfair to test kids under conditions that they have never experienced before.  Some students have done a great job of mastering the rules of punctuating dialog while others are still working to get punctuation at the end of every sentence...  I have begun to differentiate writing instruction more and hope to build more time for regular writing workshops as we move into the heart of the school year.  

It's hard to believe that we only have two weeks left in this semester.  Students will take iReady again this week and also take the middle of the year math assessment before we go on Winter Break.  It would be lovely if they could get a good night's sleep and eat breakfast for the next couple of weeks so that they have good energy for school!  Thanks for all of your support!

We continued to balance science and social studies this week.  I sent home a historical fiction book with half the class so that they could read ~100 pages over the break.  The rest of the class will get a shorter book to start reading the week we get back. (I let them choose their book.)  For my strong writers who were caught up on their work, we started a research project this week.  This project will be "due" around spring break - there will be some time to work on it during school but likely not enough time to complete the finished product.  I am looking for a well developed paper as well as an interesting presentation of their work  (Green screen movie? Stop motion animation? Model? WeVideo presentation?) rather than just an in-class slide show.  I will be starting a writing workshop for the class, now that we have reviewed / retaught a lot of the basic writing mechanics.  In January, we will get some additional support from our librarian and from our enrichment coordinator. Mrs. Ewing will also be returning for two more poetry workshops.   

I tried to send home any missing spelling packets that students had not turned in and I reminded them to look at their missing work in Schoology/BrainPop/Liberty's Kids in Playposit.  As a parent you have access to see your child's grades in Schoology and you can also see the comments that I leave on their work.  I am hoping that students will take a bit of time over this break to catch up - the semester ends in three weeks!  I will be working on report cards over Winter Break and would love to boost some of the current "2's" to "3's."  The Schoology gradebook does not directly translate to the report card since it does not contain all of the work that we have done, but it does give a student guidance.  Often, a low score is due to missing work rather than low quality work.

I hope you all enjoy a lovely week off with friends and family!  It sounds like many of you are traveling - wishing you clear skies!

On Monday, we are starting a "Story Corp" style interview project.  I am asking my students to record an interview with someone in their family and will be helping them come up with good questions.  Students can record this in person or over the phone/internet - it can be really lovely to capture the voices of special people who the kids often only see during the holidays. I always assign this project before Fall break but it's not due until mid-January.  This week, I will ask my students to choose their person, tell me how they will capture their interview and come up with 10 questions to ask.  We will listen to some examples and learn about some good interview techniques (like how to be an active listener).  We will have a special visitor on Friday so that students can watch an interview live. Finally, I will print out their planning document to send home this Friday.  Thanks for your help with this project!!

I will be sending in a Scholastic book order at the end of the week - the books will arrive before the Winter holiday.  You can find the digital flyers at https://orders.scholastic.com/GXBBF (click on the "Books and Resources" or "flyers" tab for more options) and you can find more digital fliers here: https://clubs.scholastic.com/grade5. (I tend to like the 6th grade and TAB fliers for a lot of my students.)  With a $25 order, you can pick a FREE $5 Book (use code: READS at the checkout). 

At this point, I have reviewed the formation of all of the cursive letters and students practiced for a couple of weeks.   Most students still prefer printing, but they always have the option to write in cursive...  At a minimum, they should leave fifth grade knowing how to sign their name!! I decided to repurpose some old composition notebooks to create science / literacy notebooks.  Students are documenting their scientific learning in the front and building an English / Language Arts reference in the back.  Next week, we will start adding the spelling rules that we have been studying.  

For Social Studies, I pulled out the Liberty's Kids this week.  We watched the first two episodes together, then I again modeled how I would like for them to write their discussion posts by first restating the question and using complete sentences.  We also wrote an episode summary together - another skill that I will expect students to do independently as this activity progresses.  I really think this is a great way to introduce students to this era of history.  Although they don't yet have much of a framework to "hang" this information on, we had a strong class discussion after watching together.  I have picked out about half of the episodes to watch over the coming weeks (some of this will become independent work) and will ask comprehension questions, practice summarizing and eventually have students write a cause/effect essay about the American Revolution.  We will also examine this series for evidence of bias.

Speaking of essays, some of my students are already strong writers so I plan to have them work on an independent research project.  This will involve some extra time at home and they will eventually share their project with the class.  For my students who need extra support with writing solid paragraphs, I plan to start another group on Thursdays during WIN so they can get some additional instruction and feedback.  The Science CMAS includes A LOT of paragraph writing!   Finally, most students have a book that they should be reading at home - all of our book clubs are on Mondays and Tuesdays and we will finish these books before Fall break.

Don't forget that Friday is Veteran's Day so we have no school.  I posted a collection of Halloween pictures below - enjoy! 

Entries to the Pumpkin Decorating Contest from 5E!

Students should wear their costumes to school tomorrow for our Halloween celebration - they are welcome to bring comfortable clothes to change into.  You are invited to watch the parade, which begins at 8:15.  We plan to watch the Adams Family (Cartoon) movie and enjoy some special treats - thanks for supporting the festivities!  We plan to skip math, due to instrumental music, but will sneak in some learning in the afternoon.  (Note: my math class did get some math homework on Friday that is due on Tuesday.  Hopefully, they managed their time well!!)

Last week was fairly busy as we tidied up our introduction to the original 13 Colonies.  Students wrote three "body" paragraphs to accompany an opening paragraph that I provided (I was looking to see if they could follow the structure that I outlined) and they took an open-note unit test in Schoology (you should be able to see their score).  I will send this packet home next weekend.  I used their essay in combination with the test to determine who had earned a "4" on this unit. In general, I like to connect literacy with the content that I teach, but this year, I have been doing a lot of additional direct literacy instruction. Some students still need help in structuring a solid paragraph, so we will be working on that over the next couple of months. We will also produce some cause/effect writing as we learn about the events that led up to the American Revolution. 

Bear Creek purchased typing software for all of our students and most of my class was able to log in during library on Friday. Thus, your children now have the ability to practice their keyboarding skills when they have some "down time." (They seem to like it so far!)  I have been reminding them to keep their fingers on the "home row," so please watch for this if they practice at home.  We also finished a review of all of the lower case cursive letters and will do the upper case ones this week.  The seemed to enjoy cursive practice as well. We continue to work on spelling rules - this week we will review when to drop the "y" before adding a suffix.  This is a common error that I have seen in their writing.

I plan to start teaching science on Tuesday, but will continue to weave in social studies with our literacy block.  Most students will get a new book club book this week so hopefully, you will see it come home!  We will tidy these up before fall break.  I plan to have a small group of students read Chains between fall and winter break.  It's a fairly intense, middle school level book but some students are ready for this level of challenge. I am giving students more choice in their book group options in an effort to achieve greater buy in.  Generally, students should be reading for at least 25 minutes per night - either a book that I send home or a book of their choice.  

I am starting to see more conflict during recess - this is a very competitive group of students!  If your child is frustrated about something that is happening, please encourage them to come and talk to me.  We are working hard to develop skills in conflict resolution and management of frustration. I split my time between GaGa Ball, Kickball and Soccer during recess so it's hard for me to see everything...  

October 23 - Halloween planning!

Harrison's mom, Kelly, has agreed to be my classroom parent this year. (Hooray!!  Many thanks!!)  She will be helping to organize our Halloween party - typically fifth graders choose to watch a movie after the parade and we have some fun snacks.  I plan to share our parent email list with Kelly later this evening - please let me know if you wish to be removed from this list.  As a reminder, no weapons (even cardboard fakes) or very scary costumes are  permitted - we don't want to frighten any kindergarteners!  There is an outdoor parade route and parents will be invited to watch from along this section of the route.  We have instrumental music on Halloween so our time is a bit restricted.

We are winding down our learning about the original 13 colonies this week and will have an "open note" test later in the week.  (I am trying to help kids believe in the value of capturing notes in class.) Usually open note tests are harder and they contain a short essay so those notes can really help! We will return to the skills of how to study for a closed note test once we start science.  This has been quite a whirlwind tour through history this year - but my students will learn it all in much greater depth when they get to 8th grade.  I am planning on using the Liberty's Kids cartoon as a way to build background knowledge on the events surrounding the Revolutionary War.  This is something that my on-line students really enjoyed and it is much more engaging than our textbook!

We are starting cursive on Monday and have begun reading a book called The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary.  It's written using a collection of different types of poems and is told through the voices of 18 students. I've assigned a role to most of my students (no one is required to read out loud in front of the class but most kids want to) and so far this has been a hit!  To go along with this, we have been writing and studying poetry.  I am planning to stretch this activity throughout the year, but want to make sure we are starting with a common understanding of some basic terminology (e.g. stanza, meter, theme).  We are also going to work on a compare/contrast essay this week and introduce the six different text structures... So much to do, so little time!!

Finally, we had a class meeting to discuss some challenging behaviors that popped up this week.  I like to get to know my class before having this conversation and then build the "rules" so that the process feels more connected to the specific problems that we are experiencing. This helps to build our classroom community and also helps with student buy in. (Just so you know, we have agreed that no one should start dating before 8th grade.)  We will revisit some of these conversations when we study puberty the first week back in January. As always, please reach out if you have any questions and thanks for your support!

Since everyone showed up for October Counts day on Monday, we enjoyed a PJ/stuffy/movie afternoon on Friday.  The kids voted to watch Wonder, which many students had not seen before. The community in our classroom felt much tighter this week - I think that's the biggest benefit of the Calwood experience!

In social studies, we delved into the early colonies (St. Augustine, Roanoke, Jamestown and Plymouth) and learned about the various reasons that they were founded, which ones were successful and what life was like at the time.  We finished our read aloud about Jamestown (Blood on the River) and I have to say that the quality of discussion responses improved dramatically over the course of this book!  We will read a short science fiction book this week while also starting book groups.  The book groups are either reading The Insignificant Life of a Cactus, Hatchet or Save Me A Seat.  Hopefully you will see one of these books at your house this week as students read independently in preparation for book club discussions.  This week, we will begin studying the 13 British Colonies and comparing regional differences due to climate, topography, community structure and economics.   

Students wrote a poem and a small moment story about their Calwood experience.  The poems will be in the front hallway for Parent-Teacher conference night on Tuesday.  The stories may take a bit longer because I am slowing down to teach the class how to write dialog (so many rules...).  I will put these up in the hallway outside of my classroom when they are ready.  The conferences are scheduled to be 15 minutes long with a 5 minute break in between.  I try hard to stay on schedule since some parents are visiting more than one teacher... The purpose of this conference is to discuss anything that is on your mind (e.g. academics, social challenges, middle school options, homework support, understanding Schoology, CMAS or iReady) and your child should not accompany you to this one.  If there is something specific that you would like to discuss, feel free to email me ahead of time so that I am well prepared.  I look forward to meeting all of you!

We had our social studies test on Friday and in general, students did well.  I gave them a guide to study from and told them specifically what would be on the test so that they could feel well prepared.  I did not mark off for spelling but I did penalize stuents who did not write in complete sentences when this was requested...  This week, we will review their work and make a goal for how to improve on the next unit.  A few students had trouble with the Schoology format but we worked through it - I reminded them that part of my goal as we start the year is to build good habits and strong school skills.  I will be sending home a packet of  their work so that you can have some additional context for their current school performance, but you can also get a sense of this through Schoology.  Conferences begin October 11 and the signup opens tomorrow at 6AM.

If you are sending medication to Calwood for your student, Carolyn has requested that you bring it to the office this week (unless it's already at school - she has the epi-pens under control!).  It takes some time to get everything together for this trip.  Also, remember that you need to fill out a green medication form for every individual medicine that you send - from Ibuprophen to Adderall.  I can send one home with your child if needed - just let me know!

This week in social studies, trios of students are researching a specific interaction between a native group and a European explorer.  We will make posters and share the research in a poster walk.  The week will end with an assessment on the events and people that we have learned about who lived in the 1400's to earliest 1600's.   We have focused on broad themes and the interactions between cultures, as well as the items and ideas that were shared during the "Columbian Exchange."  Our visit to the garden last week complemented this discussion since potatoes (cultivated by the Incas) and tomatoes (cultivated by the Aztecs) are two of the plants that Europeans brought from the "New World" to Europe.  My class LOVED eating the french fries that were made from the garden potatoes and those who tried it thought that Tania Hollingsworth's homemade catsup was quite tasty.  I deeply appreciate all of the work that goes into maintaining the garden through the summer - it really helps make these social studies lessons more tangible!  Also this week, we started a new read aloud called Blood on the River  which is historical fiction about the settling of Jamestown.  I have been asking students to write a daily discussion post on a topic related to the book and have been hammering home the need to check their writing for COPS (capitalization, organization, punctuation and spelling).  Students enjoy this book and it builds a lot of background knowledge about life in the early 1600's.

We finished the District math assessment this week.  Our school goal this year is focused around data driven instruction (DDI) in math so we will be doing some extra assessments to gather/analyze data and adapt our instruction appropriately.  We will also be moving some students around to find the best fit math class.  In the spring, all students will be tested on the fifth grade standards during CMAS.  Last year, 36% of fifth grade students in the grade level math classes exceeded expectations on the CMAS - meaning that they did better than a portion of the 6th grade math students!  It is SO IMPORTANT for students to develop strong number sense and master the fifth grade content of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions and decimals before they leave 5th grade.  In the ensuing years, they are expected to use these skills to solve more complex problems.  As kids reach high school, I have seen students who were in the grade level class in fifth grade go on to outperform students who were in my 6th grade class because they had a stronger foundation. There will be other opportunities to accelerate, but it's really hard to go back and pick up the basics.  

Going back to basics is a good way to describe our spelling work this year and it's a challenge!!  Taylor Appling has now taught three whole-class lessons on syllable types (we have covered 5 of the 6 types) and I am seeing improvement on the words that I ask kids to split up into syllables.  We will start adding in regular spelling dictations to see if they can apply the spelling rule patterns (this is the hard part).  I've introduced the concept of morphemes, which is my typical focus in fifth grade, but this is not my current priority.  My goals for this work are for students to be able to communicate their ideas in writing and spell words well enough that spell-check can assist them. I have never been a teacher who marks off for spelling, so I am working hard to find the right balance... Again, please know that the grades that you see in Schoology do not directly translate to the report card.  

We can discuss grades and philosophy more at fall conferences, which will happen October 11 and 13 in person and October 19 on-line via GoogleChat.  Students do not attend the fall conference (they do attend in the spring) and sign-ups start September 26 at 6AM.  If there are not enough time slots for the type of conference that you prefer, please let me know since this is our first school-wide experiment using a mixed format.  I look forward to connecting with you soon!

 I sent home book club fliers in the Friday folder.  You can place orders electronically using this link: https://orders.scholastic.com/GXBBF and you can find more digital fliers here: https://clubs.scholastic.com/grade5. (I tend to like the 6th grade and TAB fliers for a lot of my students.)  With a $25 order, you can pick a FREE $5 Book (use code: READS).  I plan to submit the order on Friday 9/9 before 3:00.  I can submit subsequent orders if they total more than $25 (to get free shipping) but otherwise, I will wait until October to send in the next batch.

In general, I expect students to read for 20-25 minutes per night and encourage them to read whatever books that they are interested in.  Also, we are starting book discussion groups this week using very short books to set expectations and build our norms.  In 2-3 weeks, I will start sending home chapter books that students will discuss in their book groups.  Students will need to read around 100 pages per week but can bring their book  back and forth between school and home. Students also have the ability to borrow books from my classroom library or the school library. This class appears to love reading, so finding good books to read should not be a struggle this year!!

We launched Social Studies this week with a introduction to the Silk Road and the different technologies that lead to the Age of Exploration (focusing on Europe and China).  Next week, we will look at some of the cultures that were thriving in the Americas before the Europeans arrived.  So far, this group is still getting into the swing of fifth grade and they are not super independent when asked to synthesize information so we did a lot of this work together.  We are also practicing listening to a short video for specific information.  I am rethinking this unit to go into less depth but still practice some independent research skills and written responses.  The social studies that I teach is all repeated in middle school, so I focus more on acquiring "school skills" than memorizing content.  With that said, we will have lots of opportunities to use this content to talk/write about cause and effect!!

Taylor Appling visited our class on Friday to help me begin building some systematic spelling instruction.  We are going pretty fast through a lot of basic material which should be review.  I typically teach kids how to use spell check on their computer, but in order to be successful, students need to be able to guess close enough for Google to help...  I plan to teach spelling strategies along with morphemes this year.  We are also doing some work with grammar using No Red Ink to practice.  I liken this work to learning math facts - it's not super fun, but if students are automatic with these skills, it will ease their path in the future.

I am looking forward to seeing you at 5:45 in our classroom on Tuesday, August 30 for Back to School Night.  At 6:20, we will move to the gym for a CalWood meeting, which will last until 7.  We plan to leave the CalWood paperwork on your child's desk for you to pick up so that you can have it in hand while we review it. We also plan to show your children both presentations during school - they should stay home during Back to School Night.  Because time is short, you will not have a chance to individually meet with your child's math teacher, but we will all be at the CalWood meeting so you can at least get a sense of who we are! 

Overall, students have done a lovely job of adapting to being back in school.  Their shoebox projects were excellent and everyone was excited to share their items with the class.  Most students have a pretty good start on their first writing, which will hopefully be up in the hallway for back-to-school night. On Monday, we will begin our first Social Studies unit by building some background knowledge about the Silk Road so that students can understand why so many people started looking for new routes to travel around the globe.  In this unit, we will also incorporate instruction on reading non-fiction texts, since this is challenging for quite a few of my students.  Spelling and grammar instruction is high on my list, too!  We reviewed parts of speech and some basic grammar rules last week and I will continue to incorporate spelling throughout the year.  In general, my students seem pretty happy to be back at school!

Here are a few "schedule" items:

• Next week, students will bring in a shoebox (or small bag) of at least 6 items (or images of items) to help us continue building our community and learn about their interests.  Instructions came home in the Friday folder and their presentation date is on their sheet.  

• We have our first instrumental music lesson on Monday to hear how all of the instruments sound.  Our class "try out" day will be September 1, and the first day with instruments will be September 8.  Students will stick with the same instrument all year.

• We will have art every day next week, followed by music for a week and PE for a week. Then the cycle repeats. The schedule is a little different this year because the District tried to make sure that every student got the same number of days for each special, even if one week was short.   Once I have figured out our classroom schedule, I will post the various schedules on this website.  

• I did send home a calendar of school lunches to all of the "youngest and only" students in their Friday folder.  As in the younger grades, the contents of the Friday folder should be cleaned out each weekend and the empty folder should return to school on Monday.  

• On Monday, we will start our "summer writing" project about a small moment that happened over the summer.  Almost everyone has gotten their picture turned in - thanks for your support with this project and for sharing your insights about your student!  I really appreciate your feedback.  

I have discovered that the majority of students in this class could use some extra instruction in spelling.  Hence, we will be working on basic spelling patterns as well as strategies for correcting misspelled words. We will do a lot of typing this year and I encourage students to use spell check but they need to be able to get close enough that spell check can provide good options.  Every student got their computer paperwork turned in and can now access their computer at school - hooray!!  To minimize disruption and damage, we will keep their computers in the classroom this year and send them home in May.  

Please email me with specific questions or concerns.  I deeply appreciate your partnership as we launch this year!

August 16 - Delighted to meet so many of you!

The rain did not dampen the "Meet and Greet" at all!  Today was the first time in two years that I was in a room with lots of children while not wearing a mask.  It felt AMAZING!!  I am so excited for this year and can't wait to get to know my new crop of students!!

Thanks for getting the computer forms turned in and for filling out the parent survey.  For the photo, we are looking for something that your student will be excited to write about.  Ideally, they are in the photo but this is not mandatory.  You can just email me if you are having trouble with the form. I hope to have these up in the hallway for Back-to-School night, which is less than two weeks away!!  I appreciate the questions that you have been asking - this helps me know what's on  your mind and hopefully I will have addressed most of them by the end of Back-to-School night.  I am looking forward to our partnership this year!!

A QUICK NOTE ON  MY GRADING PHILOSOPHY

BVSD requires 4th and 5th grade teachers to use Schoology as our "Learning Management System" and parents have access to the grades in this system.  However, the "grade" that you see in Schoology does not directly translate to the standards based grading system that BVSD uses for elementary school report cards.  While I don't use Schoology to formally calculate a student's "grade" for my class, I have discovered that a lot of my students struggle to turn in their work and Schoology does a really good job of tracking completion.  (This will be yet another good habit to build before middle school.)  If a child completes a task but gets the answer wrong, does not fully complete the assignment, or uses incomplete sentences for a short answer question, I will give them  partial credit to avoid the dreaded "zero."  If your child has a very low grade in my class, it's probably because they have a lot of missing work. I DEEPLY believe in giving feedback and building strong school habits, but I also want my students to be curious and more focused on learning than on jumping through hoops.  There will be plenty of time for that later!!  

We can discuss this more at Back-To-School night on August 30 (in person).