We hope you enjoyed your Labor Day with your students.
This week’s digital planners:
Boelter/Caskie AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning): Boelter Caskie Digital Planner
Caskie/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Mrs. Caskie in the morning): Caskie Boelter Digital Planner
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.
I met with all of the students who come to me in the morning about their math assessment last week. That rubric and their reflection went home on Friday. Those who see me in the afternoon will bring their rubrics and reflections home tonight or tomorrow night. I’ll make sure to post in dojo so that you know they are coming. 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 can see that you are encouraging your student to work through those more challenging concepts in science and math and it helps their mindset in the classroom so much!
Boelter/Caskie AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning): Boelter Caskie Digital Planner
Caskie/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Mrs. Caskie in the morning): Caskie Boelter Digital Planner
We dug into challenging 5th grade curriculum this week in both science and math. Students had the opportunity to learn that the size of objects in space is relative; for instance, Earth can seem both big and small when compared to other objects in space. In math, we finished up our unit on order of operations and students completed their CYU (Check for Understanding) on Friday in which they checked their own understanding in preparation for our assessment on Monday. The purpose of our CYUs are for students to check their own understanding in our learning progression. Friday’s CYU required a lot of thinking, and after we finished, students were asked to reflect on where they were in terms of understanding the order of operations and written expressions.
Don’t forget! This Tuesday is our 5th Grade Grown Up Orientation! We’d love to have you join us. Please send a dojo message confirming that you’ll be joining us to your student’s homeroom teacher. We want to make sure we are in the best space for seating for all parents, and knowing how many parents will be attending is really helpful. Thanks so much!
Curriculum
Next week, we will jump into a new unit in math, understanding place value and how it relates to partial and whole numbers, including numbers with exponents. Monday, 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 at the Grown Up Orientation. You’ll note that the digital planner this week has an❗next to Monday’s assignment. This is how students know that they have an assessment. Each assessment will be marked with that ❗ In science, we’ll continue to investigate the size and proportional distance of planets and stars in our solar system.
We’re getting 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/Caskie AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Ms. Boelter in the morning): Boelter Caskie Digital Planner
Caskie/Boelter AM Digital Planner (if your student start their day with Mrs. Caskie in the morning): Caskie Boelter Digital Planner
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Please remember that we have 5th grade grownup orientation coming up soon on August 29, 2023 at 5:00 p.m. We’d love to have you join us so you can better understand what we do in the classroom each week and how your student is progressing.
August 23, 2023 – WachDog Night
August 25, 2024 – House Leader Voting
August 29, 2023 – 5th Grade Grown Up Orientation
Last Week
Last week, we ended the week with an engineering challenge. Students were tasked with building wind cars. The task required them to evaluate a problem and come up with possible solutions to the problem by creating an engineering design. While they worked and revised, I evaluated their work and how they demonstrated understanding of the problem we created and discussed together. I’ve told them that I’ll always be evaluating which is an advantage for them. They’ll have many opportunities to prove mastery. That grade will be posted to Infinite Campus this week.
This was the wind car that ended up going the most distance in our tests with both classes. Brainstorm with your student why this specific design was so successful!
Curriculum
Next week, we’ll being our first math unit which is 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 will come home with your students this week. 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 we begin the unit, students will have a worked example so that they understand what our goal is for the entirety of the unit, and what demonstrating that understanding looks like. Here are our two worked examples. The first one shows that we understand the concepts and can apply them. The second example shows what mastery by the end of the year should look like. Our goal is that students will be able to self evaluate where they are on that journey and celebrate their learning growth as they progress toward that mastery.
Worked Example 1:
Worked Example #2 (Please don’t mind my poor bracket making skills :)):
In science, we’ll start our fist unit on the earth and sky. Students will gain a better of understanding of the patterns we see with our earth and extending that out to what we see in the sky.
Students will start moving between classes for a literacy Power Hour as well this week. The goal of this process is making sure each student gets direct instruction at their learning level.
I met with most students last week, but I have a few more to meet with this week. That will happen on Monday and Tuesday. Thanks so much for your continued support. I can’t wait to see how your students show growth this week!
Wow! We had an amazing first week. Thank you so much for sending me such kind and caring students!
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, including stealing my chair (which is quite comfortable). 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. These include use of my chair, 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.
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, Classcraft, and more.
Students will learn all about Classcraft which is much like Dojo with characters, gear, pets, and more. Many of the assignments we complete will have quests along with them. As students earn classroom continuum rewards or complete classroom tasks, they will earn XP, level up, and unlock gear and pets. It will be an adventure. If you’d like to follow along, there will be a join code in their Friday Folder this week. You can also reward students gold for tasks they do at home!
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 Tuesday and Thursday, 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 Tuesday and reading on Thursday. If you are with Mrs. Caskie, you will test reading first and math on Thursday.
In math, we will continue to learn how to critically think and apply that thinking to any problem. In science, we will jump into the engineering process and get creative.
Our digital planners for the week are below. Please note some of the assignment links will be directly to Canvas and other learning programs which will require student login authentication. If you have any questions, please reach out!
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. We will get our Chromebooks on our assigned library day. On Friday, we’ll have our first House Challenge!
I have included a link to my Amazon Wish list below, but know we’re pretty well set to start the year. We will be engaging in another 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 14, and that will likely start on Tuesday, August 15th.
Please reach out if you have any questions via Dojo!
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
There’s a lot happening this week, and I know this message will be long, but I appreciate you taking the time to read it.
First, most students have finished their MAP testing. I have a couple of students who were absent. We’ll do our best to make those up during the next couple of weeks.
Goals
As your students have likely told you, we have a pretty big class this year. Our class size will likely stay the same until at least October 1, and even then, we will not know if we will get another 5th grade teacher. That being said, paying attention and responding to our classroom queues are really important. We’ve had a hard time making good choices as a class as a whole during specials. Our goal this week is to get a 3 (of 5) or above each day in specials. Students know that if they achieve this daily, they get some cool Classcraft rewards, and if they get that 5, they get extra recess. Please talk to your student about their choices and ask your student what they did personally to reach that goal. We’re also working on transitioning from one task to another without talking.
Send Me Your Schedules
Does your student participate in sports, dance, gaming, or something else outside of school? If they do, please send me their schedule. One of my goals each year is to see each student in something they do outside the classroom at least once.
What Are We learning?
In reading this week, we are closing up our understanding of point of view. The student’s sunbursts will be their formative grade for point of view. They are due Friday. If they do not complete them in class, they should complete them as homework.
In math, we’re finishing a unit as well, on place value. Students will have their first summative test on Friday. Students have been instructed that they need to complete 45 learning minutes of Khan Academy math a week. I’ve showed them how to check their minutes. If they are unable to finish it in class, this will be homework.
In writing, we’ll be writing our first piece of narrative writing about what we each “have a hand” in. This will be student’s first formative grade in writing. We’ve worked through picture prompts and students have learned the difference between revising and editing. This week, students will learn how their work is graded and what their rubrics mean before writing their first narrative.
In language, we’ve been completing minilessons on the 8 parts of speech as a group. This week, students will start completing that activity on their own.
In science, we started a unit on living things and created our own biosphere! The kids had a great time. This week, we’ll learn more about the food chain!
Thanks for raising such awesome kids. Please remind them of their goal to only chat when it we are at a conversation level 1 or above. This will help us get through more content and have more time for fun things daily. 🙂
This week, we are going to jump into our first “big” fifth grade standard in reading. We’ll learn all about point of view. We really push students to demonstrate a complete understanding why an author wrote a piece with a specific point of view and how that advances the story. Our key components of understanding this standard are the third person omniscient and limited points of view. We will work with various texts so that students can understand and identify the author’s point of view with confidence.
In writing, we’ll take the prompts we’ve done thus far through revising and editing, and into publishing. On Friday, we’ll have a publishing party!
In math, we’re exploring place value and how to move from decimals to fractions for numbers that are less than one whole.
Finally, we’ll start a power hour this week. This will be the time when students really get to drive their education and make some of their own decisions about their work. Don’t worry! We’ll still hold them accountable! This process allows them to decide what they want to work on and how they can asses if they are learning, so they get buy in and ownership of their own learning process.
Ask your students to show you their Digital Brown Bag project! We’re sharing those this week as well.
We all have Chromebooks now! YAY! Students will be able to bring their Chromebooks home. We brainstormed together to decide if we should charge them at home or at school. They decided they would charge them at home. Tomorrow, they will go home (if students want to bring them home), and Tuesday will be the first day they’ll be responsible for bringing them back in. Please help your student remember to charge their device tomorrow night and bring it in on Tuesday.
We’ve had a few bumps getting this year started, but we’re finding our stride as an awesome 5th grade community.
Thanks for sharing your incredible, creative, and caring students with me. We are going to have a great year!
Please keep in mind that sometimes things come up and plans change. I may edit this document throughout the week to reflect those adjustments. We do plan on taking our reading MAP test this week, so our reading block may change on the day we take that test.
As mentioned in my last message, we did get the Chromebooks today so we’ll be able to start using those in class, and student assignments will all be posted in Canvas.
With that in mind, any work that I plan on grading will have a red! mark on it on the digital planner. This way students and parents know what will show on Infinite Campus.
Last week, we started reading our first novel, Night of the Spadefoot Toads. We learned about the author and why he wrote this book before we started reading. This week, we are working on place value in math. In reading, we are working on writing complete responses with text evidence. In writing, we’re working on understanding the differences between a rough draft and a final draft, and how to revise and edit a rough draft; working toward gaining a better understanding of the difference between revising and editing as we go.
If you have any questions, please reach out! Thanks for an awesome first week of school!
Ms. B. in Class 