The digital planners for this week can be accessed by clicking the link below:
Boelter/Young AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning): Boelter Young Digital Planner
Young/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Mr. Young in the morning): Young Boelter Digital Planner
Announcements
Mrs. Dressler asked that I have all students remember to bring their recorders to school!
If you had a hardship getting the field trip paper work in, I will do my best to work with you via Dojo on Monday.
Your students have really met expectations recently. We’ve had 53 students reach in class rewards of their choice. That is really amazing! Students are on their way to help teachers in other classrooms, grab my gaming chair for the day, engage in some board game time, have lunch in the classroom with a friend, and more. Thank you so much for encouraging them to continue to find success in every way in the classroom.
Curriculum
This week we will close up our unit on place value and take the summative test. Wow, have your students made growth this unit! In conferencing with them and pulling small group instruction, they are so happy to share what they’ve learned! Thank you for your support in making this a great year for mathematical growth.
With that in mind, please make sure your student is in class this week. We had so many absences last week. I am doing my best to help this group reach their mathematical goals. It is really hard when we have multiple absences weekly. If you would like your student to practice at their level, we have programs we are using in class that I encourage students to do at home a couple of nights a week, too. If you’d like that login information, please reach out to me. If you do not have a device and this is something that you’re interested in, please reach out to me.
In science, we’ll continue to understand the earth’s rotation and how we can measure the distance to the stars and constellations in space.
If your student is able to complete that Number of the Day I’ve sent home independently, they are ready for the assessment. A copy of that is located here.
The digital planners for this week can be accessed by clicking the link below:
Boelter/Young AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning): Boelter Young Digital Planner
Young/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Mr. Young in the morning): Young Boelter Digital Planner
Announcements
Mrs. Dressler asked that I have all students remember to bring their recorders to school!
Field trip paperwork went home Friday for the Phil Harmonic. PLEASE PLEASE get that back to us ASAP. We have a quick turn around and students who do not fill out all parts cannot attend. This is FREE. No cost to students.
Staff Development Day – 9/16 No School
Picture Day 9/18
Talk Like a Pirate Day 9/19 – Dress like a pirate! Ms. Boelter Will as well.
Field Trip Forms Due 9/20 – No exceptions (form below:)
I know you’ve heard this from everyone, but attendance really does matter. We’re working really hard to get your student at grade level and extend that learning. When students are gone, even one day of the week, they miss key scaffolding to understanding. Should your student miss, the board work for the day is always in the digital planner, and the CYU link is in the digital planner. That is what they’re expected to make up, but know that pales in comparison to what we do together in the classroom.
Curriculum
Thank you so much for all that you do with your student to help them grow academically. Last week I was able to meet and conference with all students. In their Friday folder, you should find their Proud Moments and Areas for Growth as well as their rubric for topic 13’s math assessment. Thank you to everyone who returned the number of the day! Many students gained a better understanding from completing that activity with you. You may notice that for some of these topics, we are spending two days per topic. Place value is the bedrock of what we do in 5th grade, and we want to make sure students have a firm foundation before moving on. This week we’ll compare decimals and round decimals.
I will send home the number of the day again on Tuesday. If students could complete one of those, front and back by Friday, including the rounding, it would be really helpful. I have students take out their Friday folders and put them in those Friday folders. If they don’t have that Friday folder in their backpack, I give them another. This will help you know where it is.
We have a lot of content to get through this year, and we’re trying to fill in gaps in concepts students have from previous grades. I know that’s a hefty goal, but together I know we can do it. If you’d like to work with your student at home (and some of you have. Thank you so much! Your can see their confidence when working with groups after working with you as well), students have two volumes of their math workbook at home. I sent those home at the beginning of the year. We are currently in topic 1 (volume 1), and in section 4. If you cannot find them, send me a message. I’ll send another home. Please know, I do not want your student working on school work for hours at home. If completing one Number of the Day is what you and your student get through, that’s great.
Some videos to help understand current concepts can be found here:
The digital planners for this week can be accessed by clicking the link below:
Boelter/Young AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning):Â Boelter Young Digital Planner
Young/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Mr. Young in the morning):Â Young Boelter Digital Planner
Curriculum
We are ready to get this week started. Last week, we learned SO much, and took our first summative math assessment. Your kids worked hard. We’re using that momentum as we push into a more rigorous unit on place value including decimal and fractional values, and understanding decimal and fraction values in relationship to powers of 10.
In science, we will continue to better understand the brightness in starlight and how that relates to the star’s distance form the earth.
Tomorrow, I will continue to meet with students to discuss their score on the math assessment. With grading in mind, I wanted to share that one thing I really love about standards based grading is our ability to assess in multiple situations. This week, you’ll receive a link to a production report which shows how your student has performed with me, with their peers, and independently. Scores in the grade book must always be independent, but when students can solve math problems with their peers, they’re on the road to success, so I like to track that as well.
The math assessment rubric should be in your hands by Wednesday. I’ll send a dojo when it is in their Friday Folder. When you review them, please encourage them to celebrate their successes, as this is a year long learning cycle. We must master all of these skills by the end of 5th grade, and 5th grade just started.
We’ve also had some challenges as a group in specials and meeting expectations, but we feel we’re finally on track. Classroom and school expectations have been modeled, retaught, and reviewed in our first four weeks of school. We all know how to meet all of the successful expectations now. When students struggle in that regard, know I’ll reach out. If you ever have any questions, I’m always here.
Thanks for your continued support!
Important dates are below. Note that I dress like a pirate on Talk Like A Pirate Day, and we do Pirate themed math all day. 🙂
The digital planners for this week can be accessed by clicking the link below:
Boelter/Young AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning): Boelter Young Digital Planner
Young/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Mr. Young in the morning): Young Boelter Digital Planner
Curriculum
Last week, students had so much fun building their wind cars and learning through a growth mindset. We also used our understanding of the order of operations to solve more complex problems. If your student is struggling with the order of operations, working through the end of unit assessment in Topic 13 of their workbooks will really help them prepare for next week. If your student does not have volume one and volume two of their math workbook, please reach out. I sent both of those home. (Also, check their backpacks. They are heavy!)
Here’s a video that you can use at home to reinforce the order of operations with your students.
Next week, even though we have a short week, we’ll progress to our next unit in math, understanding place value and how it relates to partial and whole numbers, including numbers with exponents. Wednesday, students will complete their Order of Operations assessment. Students will be assessed in a variety of ways in the classroom, and we intend to break down how we assess in conferences with you. You’ll note that the digital planner this week has anâť—next to Wednesday’s assignment. This is how students know that they have an assessment. Each assessment will be marked with that âť— In science, we’ll start to investigate the size and proportional distance of planets and stars in our solar system.
Conferences
Since we have two teachers in fifth and we’d all like to meet with you. Mr. Young and I will start sending out dates this week for our conference availability. We realize that conferences are usually held in October, but we do have quite a bit of student performance data already this year. Keep your eyes out for available conference dates in Dojo.
We jump into more challenging concepts in both science and math this week. Encouraging your student to work through those difficult concepts will help their mindset in the classroom so much. We appreciate all of your encouragement and support. Thanks for another incredible week!
The digital planners for this week can be accessed by clicking the link below:
Boelter/Young AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning): Boelter Young Digital Planner
Young/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Mr. Young in the morning): Young Boelter Digital Planner
Upcoming Events
WatchDOGS/MOMS Pizza Night is August 28!
Curriculum
This week will begin our first unit in math, understanding the order of operations. We will also work on understanding how to evaluate expressions using those orders of operations. Students will continue to work on the boards and use those collaborative rubrics that we continue to revise as we master those behaviors needed to be successful at the boards. Math Workbooks came home Friday and the second volume will come home Monday. While we use problems from the workbook, we don’t use the workbooks themselves. If you would like your student to practice additional math skills at home, you can have them work on the corresponding unit in that workbook. For example, this week, we are working from Topic 13. That’s not the first topic, which is where we will go next. You can find additional work for your student in that workbook starting in Topic 13.
As students begin this unit, we have created a Navigation Tool (rubric) that helps them understand all they need to know by unit’s end. We’ve used a similar Navigation Tool for our productive struggle and work at boards in the first two weeks. I’ve talked with the students and helped them to understand that if they have 3 checkmarks in any of the examples, meaning they can complete problems just like these independently or while teaching another student, that shows they have mastered the content. Historically, we’ve used a worked example that shows all of the skills for the unit. This year, we decided that we would break it down a little bit more, so that the students truly know where they are so they know where they need to be. Please note this is a work in progress! I’m sharing it with you as well, so you know what they’ll need to master by the end of the unit. This unit is usually between four and six classroom days, culminating with an assessment. You can find their guiding Navigation Tool below. You may notice that as we get deeper into the tool, the examples become more advanced. This shows the progression of understanding for this standard.
In science, we’ll continue to work on our first engineering project, which we will finish by week’s end.
I started meeting with students one on one last week. I will continue to do so next week. This allows me to better understand your students and set meaningful and achievable goals. Thanks so much for your continued support. I can’t wait to see how your students show growth this week!
Boelter/Young AM Digital Planner (if your student starts their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning): Boelter Young Digital Planner
Young/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student starts their day with Mr. Young in the morning): Young Boelter Digital Planner
Thank you!
I received a lot of Amazon shipments this week from the wishlist I shared. Many of them were anonymous. Thank you for helping to make our classroom even better. I am so appreciative!
Exceptional First Week
This week, we created our classroom reward continuum. Students brainstormed what rewards they wanted to earn when they continued to meet expectations. They came up with some really inventive ideas!. Students can earn housebucks (our whole school reward currency) which they can spend on Friday at the student store for snacks. They can also turn those in for Golden Tickets which can buy them house swag, including shirts! Additionally, students can earn some free time rewards that each class created individually. Their choices included board game time, lunch with a friend or teacher, STEM time, and much more. The highest level on our reward continuum is a Golden Ticket and a positive phone call/Dojo home. If your student earns any of these rewards, know they did so because they had an exceptional day.
We worked hard on classroom expectations in all situations this week. We jumped into some board work around the room and practiced those expectations. We also created our classroom norms, and we were mindful to include all the behaviors that make a warm and cohesive classroom community. Your students carried those expectations into specials. We are capable of winning that specialist trophy and I’ll push your students to reach that expectation.
This week, we will continue to work on practicing those expectations and applying those expectations to curricular practice. Students will learn how to access our digital planner, the one I share with you weekly, through our Learning Management System, Canvas. This will help prepare them for middle school. When you look at the digital planner this week, you will see links to assignments. Those links will take students directly to programs that we use in class including Canvas, Exact Path, Formative, Mathigon, and more.
MAP Testing
We also have MAP testing this week, and I have some great news. We do not have to test science MAP this year. I am personally excited about this, as it gives me more instructional time with your students. Your students will be testing on Wednesday and Friday, and we will start that shortly after we arrive at school. Please do your best to have your students at school on time on those days, so we do not interrupt our students while they are giving their best effort. If you are with Ms. Boelter in the morning, you will test math first on Wednesday and reading on Friday. If you are with Mr. Young in the morning, you will test reading first and math on Friday.
Curriculum
In math, we will continue to learn how to critically think and apply that thinking to any problem. Each day, we’re solving a math thinking question. Ask your students what to share when they learned when they get home. Friday, we solved the problem below:
I shared that my son and I went to a carnival last weekend and though he wasn’t able to win any prizes at the ring toss or balloon popping booths, when we got to this booth, he thought he might be able to win a prize. He was told that he had to arrange the numbers 1 – 5 in the orange circles above, but had to do so in a way that the sums of each diagonal lines equaled the same number. At first, he chose 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, in that order. He added 1, 2, and 3 to get 6. He then added 3, 4, and 5 to get 12. He was frustrated because 6 and 12 were not the same numbers, but then he was able to figure it out. Many groups came up with correct answers to this math puzzle. I then asked if they could create a rule about the pattern of the numbers in the circles. It was a lot of fun!
In science this week, we’ll jump into some engineering design.
House Leader Information
If your student filled out their house leader form and turned in their interest form, you should have received a Dojo about next steps. The STUDENT interest form is due Monday. If your student is interested and has not yet filled that out, please make sure they get it from Mrs. Teunis and get it turned in. If they have turned it in, the PARENT form is due by 8/22 at 3:00 pm, no exceptions, and must be completed in order for students to move onto the next portion of the student selection process.
Homework
Many of you have asked how you can support your students at home. We will start our enVisions math curriculum next week. As we do most of our classwork collaboratively at the boards with work from that curriculum, we do not use the workbooks in class. Each week, I’ll post the unit and section we’re currently exploring in our digital planner. If your student would like to complete more work at home, they can do so. The books are pretty thick, so I’ll make sure to let you know when we send them home and you can make sure to take them out of their backpacks. 🙂
Also, we should be reading as part of the Apple Core program. I did not get your students Friday Folders in their backpacks (whoops) before they walked out the door on Friday. I’ll make sure they come home on Monday. They have all of the Apple Core Bookmark information on them. This is a grade that goes in the gradebook, so it is important students record their reading each night.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!
Each week, I will share a digital planner with you so you know exactly what your student will learn in the classroom. I’ll post two of them, one for students who start their day in my room and one for students who start their day in Mr. Young’s room. Students will also learn to access these in Canvas which will be their starting point each day once we get those procedures and expectations in place. There will be digital links to any assignment they access in those digital planners. This week, you’ll see no links as most of what we do will be on whiteboards. We will create our expectations together for Chromebook use before we use them.
Boelter/Young AM Digital Planner (if your student starts their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning): Boelter Young Digital Planner
Young/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student starts their day with Mr. Young in the morning): Young Boelter Digital Planner
Welcome!
Welcome to your student’s first week of 5th grade! This week, we will focus on classroom community. We will define what that looks like as a class to make sure every student has a voice in that process. Students will engage in growth mindset activities which help then understand why experiencing delayed success can change their brain.
We will also start the year with some self reflection about our math process and how we feel about math. Each day, we’ll engage in a number talk, where students engage in a mental math activity and then share their strategies with one another verbally. This helps us strengthen number sense and better understand our own strategies.
As we progress through the week, we will reinforce our norms and expectations. It is important students understand our classroom expectations so they know what they need to do to meet them. Students will attend a SOAR expectations assembly on Wednesday. Students will be assigned Chromebooks on Wednesday and we’ll talk to students about running for House Leader. Every student can be a house leader! We encourage all interested to apply for this opportunity. On Friday, we’ll have our first House Challenge!
I have included a link to my Amazon Wish list, but know we’re pretty well set to start the year. We will be engaging in a Pringles Challenge this week. If you’d like to send in some Pringles, we can use them.
We will MAP test starting the week of August 19, and that will likely start on Tuesday, August 20th.
Please reach out if you have any questions via Dojo!
Welcome to math and science! This year, students will engage in mathematics in a different way. We will be learning in a Thinking Classroom.
Here are some things mathematicians do:
Notice Details Collaborate with Others Take Risks Draw Representations
Explain Their Thinking Think Creatively Communicate Look for Patterns
Persevere (Keep Trying) Ask Questions Take Their Time Are Curious
What does class look like?
Students will work collaboratively in random groupings to solve problems and work through concepts at vertical dry erase boards.
Student groups are given an open-ended task that requires them to draw on past knowledge and take risks to find new solutions using concepts students already know.
Students will get stuck…experiment, try, fail, and apply their knowledge in order to get unstuck.
New concepts are introduced in a “thin-slicing” method. This means that the teacher will guide them through the basic concept and then give more difficult questions that they can explore with the same ideas to solidify understanding.
Work is done in groups, on whiteboards, so that students can ask classmates questions and have opportunities to share their knowledge.
The teacher supports students to the minimum degree necessary.
At the end of class, we come together to summarize and solidify the ideas that were discovered, and the teacher provides missed information so that all material is covered.
Why does this work?
Human beings are curious. When we discover something for ourselves, we are much more likely to internalize it and be able to apply it to different scenarios.
Being able to do something is the basic level of understanding. Beyond this, being able to justify, explain, teach, and create the ideas learned enhances understanding even more.
In order to promote problem-solving skills and teamwork, I may not directly answer every question students ask. However, this does not mean students won’t be supported. For instance, I will often provide a question or suggestion to help a group move forward or provide an extension when students are ready for more. Other student groups also have knowledge that can be shared and learned.
Note-Making (Notes for your future forgetful selves)
After group tasks, we will work to make notes that will help students to understand and synthesize Math skills/concepts. Students will be able to use their notes during class-based assessments ONLY. It is in their best interest to do a thorough job with their notes. The brain remembers information that it has looked at often. Students are responsible for their learning.
Check Your Understanding
Students will be given Check Your Understanding (CYU) questions throughout the unit. CYU questions will not be graded, but will offer an opportunity to work on concepts from class. CYU questions may include answers so students know if they’re on the right track. Worked solutions will be posted in the classroom digital notebook within a couple days of distribution. There is a strong correlation between practice, mastery, and good grades. (This means students need to practice!! 🙂)
Random Grouping
As students enter the classroom, students will choose a card at random that will determine the group students will sit/work with during that class. Professional behavior and language are expected in the classroom and with student groups. At the beginning of each class, students will choose a new group with which to work to share new ideas and collaborate to increase understanding.
What we’ve found…
students are coming for extra help and to increase understanding during recess/lunch
students know exactly where they are struggling
students are aware of how they are doing in the course
all students get to know (and work with) the other students in the class
integration of new students is supported through random groupings
students develop flexibility around working with a variety of people
thinking is not limited as students are exchanging ideas with different people daily
What an amazingly incredible trip it has been. We started this year with quite a few discussions about our math mindset and how we could grow individually and as a classroom. Your student’s math notebooks came home last Monday. They were stuffed full with worked examples, student notes, and student examples that they used to guide them as they showed off on each assessment. There is a hidden gem on the first few pages as well. At the beginning of the year, they wrote their own goals for math and their math mindset. As I passed them back to them, I was impressed with how they stayed true to themselves and to their goals. They BELIEVED and they did.
My goal this year was to create a positive classroom mindset around mathematics. Students will learn in a classroom, but I wanted to make sure that they connected to math in a positive way and had a positive mathematical memory. I wanted them to believe they were mathematicians. Little did I know when I made my own goal for our classroom, that these exceptional children you brought to me would rise to that challenge and take it beyond.
We tied mathematics to so many things this year, even writing! And as the year progressed and we conferenced, I started to see that mathematical confidence grow. We put our hands on a lot of materials to make sure we made solid connections to what we were doing. We tied math to dinner, music, and anything else we could find.
We made sure that we respected one another and that our classroom was a safe place for all types of learners and learner levels. As a teacher who consistently tries to make this happen, this year by far was the most incredible mathematical community. Any student who had not yet mastered a concept was given grace by their classmates to find their strategy and their way to understanding. And, once they found that understanding, they didn’t stop. They wanted to be challenged in bigger and better ways, and they consistently rose to that challenge. They BELIEVED and they did.
Thank you for sharing these remarkable young minds with me. I can’t express how much I enjoyed our 180 days together. I did not want them to end. I was not ready for them to walk out of my classroom doors for the last time. But, they are ready for middle school. They BELIEVE and they are. I hope you have an incredible summer. Keep challenging those minds. And, please share all of their successes and missteps along the way, because that is how we learn.
Boelter/Caskie AM Digital Planner (if your student starts their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning):Â Boelter Caskie Digital Planner
Caskie/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student starts their day with Mrs. Caskie in the morning):Â Caskie Boelter Digital Planner
Please see the school Newsletter to keep up with all that is happening in our building this week:Â Newsletter
Monday 5th Grade Field Day
Students will likely get wet. There are games that involve water. Please send them to school in what you’d like them to wear should they get wet. They can also bring a towel. If they’d like to bring a change of clothes, they can.
Parents are welcome, but entry will only occur at the south gate 9:30-9:55 a.m.-anyone arrives even one minute beyond that will be denied entry due to student supervision and safety. Field Day will start at 10:00. Students will come from promotion practice to Field Day. More information is on the family newsletter.
PLEASE send a water bottle with your student for the rest of the year. They need hydration. Even a plastic water bottle can be refilled at the water fountain.
Curriculum
This week is the fun week! We will do some logic puzzle solving at the board and some free choice science investigation. We will also write letters to next year’s future 5th graders.
Students will start bringing in classroom items home throughout the week. If you can help them clean out their backpack at the end of each night, that would be amazing. Their math notebooks will come home tomorrow. Take a look at all of their hard work. It was their own worked example for all of our lessons for the year, and they used them on assessments. It is a great snapshot of their growth for the year. 🙂
Promotion
Students will proceed from promotion to their clap out, which you can participate in, and then you are welcome to sign them out as we will be very close to school dismissal at 12:30. Thank you so much!
Ms. B. in Class 