Dear Fifth Grade Families:

I am very excited about our annual 5th Grade Transition! We have a wonderful team of dedicated 6th-grade teachers that are very excited for the coming school year! While this year has been a very powerful experience for students in person, we can’t wait to bring back many of the fun activities that we were not able to do this year!

We recognize the importance of strong relationships to help students feel safe stepping out of their comfort zone and take risks with their learning at school, both academically, socially, and emotionally. This communication is designed to introduce you to the 5th Grade Transition Process.

I am proud to be serving as the Principal of such a caring and dedicated staff. Next year will be my tenth year at Tom McCall! I am committed to making Tom McCall a wonderful place to learn, grow and play. This is the community that I live in and my own children (who are now grown and my youngest is almost graduated) have attended Tom McCall. I am fully invested in our community, our school, our district and most importantly, the success of your students! Please feel free to reach out to me this summer or fall should you have any questions.

Sixth grade at Tom McCall looks a lot like fifth grade. Students will be assigned to a 6th grade Casa, or House, which is a team of teachers that work together to enhance personalized relationships and help build a sense of community. Students will again share two teachers, one that focuses on Language Arts (reading & writing) as well as Social Studies and the other who focuses on Math, Science, and Health. These two teachers will continue to have an interior door that connects the classrooms. This structure helps prepare students to see multiple teachers a day at Neil Armstrong Middle School.

Your child’s fifth-grade teachers will be providing our counseling team with valuable information that will be used to build our 6th-grade class lists. While this is a complex process, we value family input and this is your opportunity to share information with us by completing our Parent Input Form for Classroom Placement due by May 18th (we are unable to honor requests for specific teachers). We try to keep students in the same building for both 5th and 6th grades. Change can make us feel discomfort. Please keep in mind that what helps us grow most is often uncomfortable. If your child is concerned that they might not have friends in their 6th-grade class, please encourage them to view this as an opportunity to build more friendships. We are confident that each student will know students in their class and it is likely they will have familiar friends. Regardless, we work to create many opportunities for students to build relationships with other students in their class community.

Again, we are excited to have your student for another year as part of the Tom McCall Upper Elementary School Mustang community.

Sincerely,

Sommer Johnson

Principal

Tom McCall Upper Elementary