5th Grade
2023-2024
Newsletters
September Update
Tomorrow is the Digger Dash. Please send your child with a water bottle (with their name on it), sunglasses if wanted, a hat, sunscreen, comfortable clothes, and appropriate running/walking shoes. Also, please have them wear their 5th Grade GRE shirt. I have medals for them to match our name: Mrs. Broecker's Screaming GOATS. In addition to the Digger Dash, we have a lot going on in our classroom now that the school year is in full swing. I have really enjoyed getting to know your children! They make me laugh and smile everyday...I'm so thankful for that!
Parent teacher conferences will be on October 10th and 12th (a Tuesday and Thursday). I will be sending out the conference schedule soon. Please look for that email.
Important Dates
9/18 - Digger Dash envelopes due
9/22 - No School - Teacher Professional Development Day
10/10 & 10/12 - Conferences
10/16-10/20 - Fall Break
Reading
We have finished Unit 1: Partners in Survival. Students learned how to interpret the main idea of an informational text as well as how to identify personal narrative/first person point of view. They also learned the difference between author's purpose and author's message. We will continue to revisit these standards throughout the year.
On Friday, we began Unit 2: Characters Develop Relationships. In this unit, students will be focusing on visualization and character conflicts. In this unit, your child will read stories in which he or she compares characters and analyzes their relationships with each other. We will read several excerpts from various stories and compare the responses of characters in them. This will help students get an idea of how different characters interact with each other, and it will also help them understand what makes some characters more likable than others. In addition to this example of realistic fiction, the unit also includes some letters, as well as a biography. I’m looking forward to this exciting unit, exploring with your children what makes characters “tick.” It will be fun to discover how they make connections between the characters in the stories and people in real life. Students will be reading a book in a small group. I encourage you to ask them what their book is about and talk about the conflict the characters have within that book.
Writing
In this unit, we are working on writing like a scientist. Students will be using informational writing techniques such as text features, text structures, and elaboration in a way that will help them to write in a clear and concise manner. This genre pushes writers to use scientific details to teach about a scientific topic. By the end of this unit, students will have a written piece on a topic of their choice.
The goals of this unit are for students to:
Generate and plan ideas for informational writing from areas of science
Use scientific details to explain their topic clearly
Structure their writing intentionally to support their meaning
Use conventions intentionally
Use their writing partners to give and receive feedback
Science
Your child has been on the journey as he or she has been exploring the matter and energy flow in ecosystems. Your child’s mission was to explore many phenomena while learning the following concepts:
Plants get the material needed for growth primarily from air and water.
Food webs consist of plants, animals that eat plants, animals that eat other animals, and decomposers.
Matter moves between the air and soil and among plants, animals, and decomposers that release waste matter back into the environment.
Organisms survive and thrive in environments that meet their needs.
All the energy organisms have was once energy from the sun.
We have almost completed this scope and will be moving on to our next one which is Observing Our Sky. Your child is about to begin a new journey as he or she explores how objects in space are observed and how they interact. Your child’s mission will be to design a planetarium combined with a thrill ride that lets people experience and learn about the Sun, the Moon, Earth, and the stars as well as the motions of Earth and the Moon. As your child works toward this goal, he or she will be exploring many phenomena while learning the following concepts:
The Sun is a star that appears larger and brighter because it is closer than other stars. Observable patterns occur because of the orbits of Earth and the Moon and because of Earth’s rotation.
The rotation of Earth causes day and night as well as changes in the length and direction of shadows.
Earth’s gravity pulls objects toward the planet’s center.
We will do many investigations in class over several weeks to help your child learn these concepts from firsthand experiences. Encourage your child to share these experiences with you and to teach you what he or she has learned. Ask your child to identify examples of what he or she is learning in everyday life.
Math
In Unit 3, your student is learning to fluently multiply multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm. He or she will learn to explain patterns in the number of zeros of the product when multiplying a number by powers of 10. Your student will also apply his or her
understanding of place value to estimate products. This topic also uses money as a real-world context to connect mathematics to problems arising in everyday life.
There are a variety of videos on YouTube that you can find regarding multiplication. Here are some keywords to use if you want to search: traditional method for multiplication, partial products, area model for multiplication. Math Antics and LearnZillion on YouTube can be great resources for your child. Also, the videos provided by our math program are an excellent resource for your child. If they are stuck at home and are having trouble remembering the lesson, have them look in the math program in Clever under Savvas. They can access the unit and any resources to help them. You can also go to the following pdfs that I am linking here can also be a great resource for you and your child. This may help you more than I can over email. :)
The videos included in the parent resources are the same videos students can watch. I highly recommend the video link that says: Another Look. These videos are less than 4 minutes and explain the top of the homework sheets for them.
I hope you have a great week and I look forward to meeting with you at conferences!
August Update
Good Afternoon!
What a wonderful three weeks it has been! I have really enjoyed getting to know your children and I am 100% impressed with the way they are already becoming a community of learners. We have made mistakes, taken risks, made friends, and have already begun learning. Each month, I will be updating you on what is to come so that you know what we are learning about and I will provide any resources that can assist you at home.
This is a long one (sorry). Please read to the end as there are some great resources for you attached!
Google Classroom
In order to access Google Classroom for any assignments that might be homework, here is a help sheet. I also sent one home with your child if they are in math with me. We will not always have google classroom assignments for homework so this is not a consistent thing, but in case you need to know it's there! Also, if you do get into Google Classroom, please do not worry about any assignments that say they are late or missing. I use Google Classroom the most for writing assignments and I put due dates for me, but that is just for planning purposes. Many times, your child will be working on an assignment for a week because we work through the writing cycle continuously within our writing block or within a topic.
Clever
Clever is how students access all apps from the district. They have access to our reading program (Benchmark), Google Classroom, library, math program (Saavas), Discovery Education, Stemscopes (science), and more. If your child is having any difficulty with math, they can access Clever from home using this link, but they must be signed on to Google (see help sheet above). You can also find this link on our GRE website here under Student Resources. In Saavas, our math program, you will click on Grade 5 and you can/or your student can access any math videos or games associated with the lessons we have been learning. If you would like more information on how to navigate SAAVAS at home, I would be glad to meet with you in person, just let me know. It's way too hard to email steps. I can also show your child. They have been accessing it for years now so they can't tell you the famous words, "I don't know" or "I forgot." :)
Reading
We are well underway in our first unit in Benchmark. Students are learning how to:
infer the main idea of passages
identify text structures
use context clues to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words
Identify first person point of view
Identify a personal narrative
Explain author's purpose and message
We are using nonfiction mentor texts to discover these skills. We will be doing this for the next two and a half weeks, and then we will move onto fiction mentor texts that have students focusing on a variety of skills that include genre classification, inferring skills, building vocabulary, imagery, visualization, and first person point of view. In this unit, your child will read stories in which he or she compares characters and analyzes their relationships with each other. We will read several excerpts from various stories and compare the responses of characters in them. This will help students get an idea
of how different characters interact with each other, and it will also help them understand what makes some characters more likable than others. In addition to this example of realistic fiction, the unit also includes some letters, as well as a biography.
Writing
Currently, we are working on perfecting the paragraph. We have just finished writing a single paragraph and now we are going to expand that into a multi-paragraph. We are doing this in preparation for our next unit on science writing. The goals of this unit are for students to plan and generate ideas for informational writing from areas of science. Writers will use scientific details to explain their topics clearly and writers will intentionally structure their writing to teach and guide their readers. I am super excited about this unit as students have shown me some fabulous writing!!
Science
Your child has begun a new journey as he or she explores the matter and energy flow in ecosystems. Your child’s mission will be to exploring many phenomena while learning the following concepts:
Plants get the material needed for growth primarily from air and water.
Food webs consist of plants, animals that eat plants, animals that eat other animals, and decomposers.
Matter moves between the air and soil and among plants, animals, and decomposers that release waste matter back into the environment.
Organisms survive and thrive in environments that meet their needs.
All the energy organisms have was once energy from the sun.
We will do many investigations in class over several weeks to help your child learn these concepts from firsthand experiences. Encourage your child to share these experiences with you and to teach you what he or she has learned. Ask your child to identify examples of what he or she is learning in everyday life.
Math
We will be taking our first math test on Monday and Tuesday (if needed) this week. Our first learning, as many of you already know, was on place value and decimal place value patterns. This is a hard concept for kiddos and will be revisited a lot throughout the first semester through multiplication and division of decimals. Once we finish this unit, we will be moving on to Topic 2. Topic 2 is Using Strategies to Add and Subtract Decimals. One strategy I have for you when helping your child to solve any problems in this unit, is to think about decimals as money. Tenths are dimes and hundredths are pennies. I introduced the tenths and hundredths place this way when I first introduced decimals so this should help ring a bell for your child. I have linked a slew of fantastic resources for you to use in the unit. I will make sure to include these for ALL Topics going forward. This, I believe, is a new resource for us. It looks as if you do not need to be logged in to view the various links on the page, but if that changes, will you please let me know? Also, YouTube is a great resource for videos not only for your child but for you! I use them all the time to help find different ways to teach a concept and have also used those videos as a parent to help my own children as they entered Middle School and High School. I love Math Antics videos because he breaks it down so easily for kids.
I look forward to this being a successful partnership this year! Just a couple of reminders. If you email me, I have 24-48 hours during the work week to get back to you. If it is the weekend, I will get back to you on Monday unless it is an emergency email. Many times, this email will be sent to you on Sundays. If you have any questions regarding the content, I will gladly answer them during the school week.
Thank you for the gift of teaching your children daily! I am so excited this year to be working with your children! After 23 years of teaching, I feel a sense of renewal and excitement with teaching. It's going to be a fun year!!
Back to School Night Presentation
Dear Families,
Hello and welcome back!! I am so excited to meet and see you all! My name is Kelly Broecker (pronounced Breker) and I am so excited that I am going to be your child’s teacher for the 2023-2024 school year at Gold Rush. I cannot wait for this year to begin so that we can get to know one another and have a fun, successful year of learning! Please read to the end as this has a lot of important information for you and your child.
Growing up in Colorado, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. 23 years ago I stepped into my first classroom and haven’t looked back. Education is my passion and watching your children grow to be strong, independent critical thinkers is why I teach. I have a BA in History from Colorado State University, my Elementary Educators license from Metropolitan State University of Denver and I have a Masters in Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction. I’ve taught both 4th and 5th grades over the past 22 years as well as one of those years as an instructional coach. This will be my seventh year at Gold Rush and I couldn’t have asked for a better community and school to be a part of.
My family and I live right here in Parker. I love teaching in the community where I live; it allows me to stay connected to my children and the entire Parker community. I am married to my husband of 23 years, and we have two wonderful daughters. Emily, 20, will be a Junior at Colorado State University, and Abby, 17, will be a Freshman at Colorado State. As a family we enjoy watching soccer, walking our dog Izzy, and hanging out together. I am so excited for the Women's World Cup!! This year will be the first time in 12 years that my husband and I are not attending weekend games to watch our girls play soccer so I have to substitute it for something and the USA Women's Team is a close second! My own hobbies include reading, rooting for CSU Ram Football, exercising on my Peloton, watching Marvel and Star Wars shows and movies (especially anything Baby Yoda {Grogu} which you'll soon see), walking to enjoy our beautiful weather and scenery.
As we enter this year, please know that working together as a cohesive team will ensure that your child has a successful year as they prepare for middle school. Communication is very important to me and to the success of your child. E-mail is typically the best way to reach me. During the school year I will be working with your student during school hours, so if I am not able to respond immediately, I will do my best to respond after school or the following morning. I look forward to working with you and your child. This is their last year of elementary school and I want it to be a memorable and fun learning experience. I can't wait for them to experience all of the fun and exciting lessons and activities that I have planned!
I look forward to hearing about all your summer adventures! As a family we traveled to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico where we hung out by the pool, played at the beach and saw the Ancient Mayan ruins at Tulum. You will soon find out I seek out history wherever I go when I travel because I love learning about the past. Something I'm excited to pass on to you! We also went to San Diego for a week around the 4th of July. We spent much of the time hanging around Encinitas, Carlsbad, San Marcos (where we discovered a love of Pickleball), La Jolla, Solano, and spent the 4th at Dana Point Harbor hanging out with the seals. Unfortunately, we were only able to see the sun at the beach our last night there, but it was definitely one for the books! We saw two dolphins swimming and jumping about 100 yards off the coast. They hung out until sunset; I don't know what was more amazing, the sunset or the dolphins!
I am looking forward to meeting you and your student at our Meet the Teacher on Monday, August 7th. Please CLICK HERE to sign up for a 15 minute increment time slot that starts at 8:30 with the last slot at 10:50. You can sign up anytime from July 18-29th if you haven’t already done this. (Select Gold Rush Elementary and the password is digger.) Students will drop off their supplies this day and take their pictures in the gym after our visit. If you could please also fill out this form (also found on my website) to help me get to know your child before the first day of school, I would appreciate it! With the limited amount of time we have at Meet the Teacher, this will help give me additional information privately prior to our first day of school. Please remember to bring the majority of your supplies with you (if possible) on this day so that students don't have the burden of carrying their supplies on the first day as we will have the traditional Flag Ceremony on the first day of school.
Finally, if there is an alternate email you would like me to use, please let me know ASAP by responding to this email and providing me with the new email address you prefer.
Have a great rest of your summer, I can’t wait to meet you on August 7th and see you for our first day on August 8th!
Best regards,
Mrs. Broecker
Classroom Webpage (if you want to see pictures of my summer and family)
Me with my favorite flower!!
My family and I near Salzburg, Austria in 2019.
Space Mountain Summer 2021
My girls & I on a bike ride in Crested Butte (2021) where I grew up.
Emily, Abby & I
San Diego 2023
My husband and I
San Diego 2022