One of the main goals we have for students in literacy this year is to help 5th graders understand that most writing (stories, magazine and newspaper articles, reports and encyclopedia essays) has a main idea.

Developing this strategy will go a long way in their education as students read and recall information.  It is also expected to be a large part of the English/ Language Arts part of the PARCC standardized test this spring. Focusing on a main idea and supporting details will also give your child better skills in writing non-fiction.

While in 3rd/ 4th grade your child may have been asked to “pick out” the main idea from an article, chances are that it was stated in either the first or last sentence.  In fifth grade and in middle school, children need to learn that often the main idea is implied or inferred rather than succinctly stated in a single statement.  Look at the following paragraph for instance:

 

 

   Newsletters       (Hard copy sent home in Thursday Folder... this is just the main text and does                                                               not include all sections . . . work coming home/ school information                                                                          coming home, etc.)

 

Newsletter No. 1/ August 21st, 2014

 

•Hard to believe we’ve been in school almost a week already.  I feel like I’ve known these kids for months!  We have a class of 26 bright, enthusiastic and curious 5th graders, and the year has gotten off to a good start.                                                

•I was happy to get to meet and talk to most of you at back to school night last Thursday/ when I dropped letters off at you home.  Thank you for sending in/ emailing me the letter about your child.  This helps me not only learn more about your son/ daughter from your perspective, it helps me better with planning instruction.                               

•We’ve accomplished quite a bit in a week.  The assigned homework/ classwork has all come back looking good.                              

•Remember, Lifebags are due tomorrow.         

•I’ve also mentioned to kids that although they should be reading every night, we’re not going to be actually recording this until we start formal homework in a week or two.                                           

•TCAP scores are in from last school year.  I received these yesterday and would like to review them before sending them home.  If you are anxious to see your child’s scores, stop by or email me, otherwise these will be coming home in one week.

 

Other Important News:

 

• As the weeks progress, we will be using laptop computers and iPads for some of our learning.  It would be helpful if you could send in a pair of earbuds for your child to use – basic size should work.

• As you see in your child’s folder, there is form explaining the annual school fees of $10.00.  In this class, we will be using that money for things such as daily planners, Time For Kids, and 3 ring binders to help organize our work.  I’ve found the binder/ organizer/ planner to be pretty invaluable as students move into middle school.

• On the back of this newsletter I’ve enclosed a quick guide of the simple grading system I use for a lot of the general work that we do in class.  

• This week we did a lot of fairly interesting things: Practiced Daily Procedures to keep things running smoothly, learned more about each other with activities such as:  Top Ten Things About Me, Human Bingo, Personal Surveys and 3 Truths and a Lie.  In math we took some, basic math fact arithmetic assessments, transferred a typical summer day into a Circle Graphs and reviewed some basic math concepts from 4th grade.

• We’re reading a great read aloud – Wonder which is not only holding the student’s interest, it is a great way to introduce the strategies of comprehension which include: making connections, inferencing, determining importance, etc. 

• Need a parent to do Thursday Folders and also to do some basic scoring on addition, subtraction, multiplication and division sheets.

• We have a great mix in this class including 6 new students: 2 transfer students from  the district (Mt. View Elementary), and out of district students from Michigan, Florida and  Nebraska.

• Website is up and running – some of the material is from last year, but should be a helpful resource as the year progresses. 

 

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Newsletter Number 2/

August 28th, 2014  

 

This week I started having students organize their new planner/ binder to help them structure their learning and their homework.  As you know from previous communication from our school district, the $10 you recently paid is to cover the costs of the binder, planner, dividers and also the weekly magazine - Time For Kids,  which we will start receiving after Labor Day.

 

I remember when we first started using planners in 5th grade a few years ago.  There were some questions about the necessity of their use.  Over the years I’ve realized that they’re a very useful tool that can help students meet some of their most important objectives. After talking to a number of middle school teachers at Altona, I’m now convinced that this simple device helps students develop better work habits and skills.  These include planning, organizing, time management, goal setting and self directed learning. 

 

I’ve seen planners improve homework completion rates, and encourage students personal and interpersonal growth. Furthermore, I believe it keeps parents involved and reinforces school and classroom priorities. It may well help your child’s character development and help with grade improvement. The small amount of time you invest to help your child use their new planner will pay off all year long and into middle school.  Our goal is to help students incorporate many concepts of our school leadership focus into their planners. Finally we’re asking that students take home their planners and binders back and forth from school everyday.

 

Other Important Final News:

 

• Remember to send in some earbuds/ earphones if you have them for your child to use during computer time.  (He/ she will be the only one to use them.)

• Thanks also for sending in the 10 dollars student fee I referred to earlier in the newsletter.

• Last week’s newsletter is now online on my website later this evening.

• This week we took the SRI reading inventory test, continued on our fall writing sample, met with our new kindergarten buddies in Ms. Hansen’s class reviewed the important concepts of factor, sum, array, equal groups, product, area and perimeter in math, talked about the strategies that good readers use during literacy time, and reviewed how to choose a good book at your reading level.  (This is now in your child’s binder.)

• This week we’re sending home the lengthy and detailed SVVSD behavior pamphlet.  The idea is to read it and return the signed back sheet by the end of September. You also need to update and the demographic information sheet that is enclosed.  This includes race/ ethnicity, new address/ phone information, etc.

• Eagle Crest is looking to get some pictures of kids up on the leadership wall by the front office. If your child/ another child you know, showed some leadership skills over the summer or these first couple of weeks of school, let me know. If we get any stories and pictures before late start we can also recognize these kids at the late start assembly.

 

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Newsletter #3,

September 4th​

 

Last week you received your student’s TCAP scores in their Thursday folders.  These of course are the state assessments that were taken last year when they were in 4th grade.  Only those students who attended Eagle Crest last year have received these scores.  (There are a number of new students to our school from other states who did not take the TCAP test, and those students who transferred from neighboring schools who must wait until those schools forward the test scores to us.)  

 

Reading, writing and math scores were fairly good for our school, and my quick review showed that most kids scored above what they had in 3rd grade.  There were a couple overall patterns. Math scores were overall the highest; reading scores were strong, but lower than both math/ writing. It is of course, difficult to compare scores because classes are different each year and the tests are almost always slightly changed and may favor a special aptitude. 

 

The important thing is to look at individual growth from year to year. 

Since the inception of these state tests, I’ve always thought that it is a good assessment, but that parents/ teachers/ communities shouldn’t jump on the high stakes testing bandwagon and only look at this test as a sole indicator of how a child is doing in school.  For example, even though this class may have scored higher than the district and state average in reading, we still have a lot to do to have these students be competent in 5th grade reading comprehension.  

 

In other words we should look at a number of factors before we simply call students at or above grade level.

 

Similarly, I’m sure there were some students who scored below their ability because they were a) unfamiliar with what the test was asking them to do, b) rushed through the test without checking answers and using good test taking skills or c) were sick, had a bad day, were tired from taking hours of tests, etc.                                  

While I believe the information is explained pretty well on the sheets you got, if you have any questions I’m always available to talk to you about these scores.

 

Other Important Final News:

 

• This week we continued on some assessments in writing and reading (computerized tests from the standardized Galileo Program), started our first social studies unit in The Land and Early People and geography of the United States, and worked on the strategy of “showing, not telling” in narrative writing.

• Thanks for sending in the demographic census forms.  While I don’t usually like to reward kids for doing something they should be anyway, the school has offered a free popsicle party for each class that gets in 100% of their forms by September 12th.

• Picture Day is coming.  This coming Tuesday, September 9th.  Kids must have the order form that is enclosed in this week’s Thursday folder with them on that day if they wish to order pics.

• Remember Parent Information Night this coming Tuesday, September 9th.  Our time is scheduled from 5:45 – 6:30p.m in my classroom.

• As you may know, I will have a substitute for today (Thursday, 9-4) and tomorrow (9-5.)  I told the students I made a late decision to fly to Wisconsin to check in on my mom who is having some routine abdominal surgery. We talked a bit today about the difficulty of being a substitute teacher and the expectations I have for them of helping, working hard and being responsible.  We’ve had 3 good weeks thus far, so I’m confident in their ability to well while I’m gone.

 

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Thursday, September 11th.

Newsletter 4

 

One of the most powerful ways to significantly improve student writing is for students  to use the strategy of “Show, Don’t Tell.”  These past 2 weeks, we’ve worked on this a lot in class. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, the goal is to teach students not to tell what is happening in their   stories (Amy was nervous), but to show what is happening instead (Amy’s palms were sweaty).  To practice this strategy, I give them various  statements like "My room is a mess."  They then had to “show” me the room was a mess without using those specific words.                    

 

Here’s a more specific example.  Let’s say a student was writing about how rushed their morning is.  A typical 5th grade statement might be, “My mornings are really crazy.  It’s hard for me to get to class on time.” Not bad, but one that leaves room for improvement.

 

A “Showing” strategy would include descriptive words, feeling and emotional words, and various examples and details.  Using the above statement as a starting point, a student using this strategy might say:

 

“I  awaken to the deafening buzz of my alarm clock at &:00 am.  I hit the snooze button three times before dragging my drowsy self to the bathroom.  I brush my teeth, take a shockingly cold shower, and blow dry my wet hair in record time.  After trying on nearly every outfit in my closet, I run down the stairs, feed my barking dog, and inhale my oatmeal breakfast.  I toss my books in my backpack, grab my coat and gloves, and finally race out the front door.  I arrive at the bus stop just as the bus drives away

               

We’ll continue to introduce stronger verbs and dialogue as the year goes on to have students develop the skill of how they can paint a picture inside their readers’ heads.

       

Other News:

• Hard to believe that it was a year ago that we experienced the flooding disaster in our area.  We still have students at our school and in our class who had their lives totally uprooted; others (like my family) had very little impact/ no damage to our home and belongings.

• Glad to see many of you at the Parent Information Night on Tuesday night.  I hope what was shared was helpful.

• Your child gets an ID this year!  Our school picture company has issued one to each student at Eagle Crest.  Use them for discounts at museums, proof of age for events, etc.

• Scholastic Book Order forms coming home today.  Check out the grade level books.  These will be due 2 weeks from this Friday.  A few books I recommend from this issue include: The Map Trap (Andrew Clements), Dork Diaries (Rachel Renee Russell), Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods (Rick Riordan.)

 

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Thursday, September 18th

Newsletter #5

 

We had 6 kids out today!  Talking a lot about the necessity of handwashing to prevent the transfer of germs.

 

This past week we started a new learning method I learned in a class I took this past summer.  This method, called a Socratic Seminar, is a teacher-led classroom discussion that promotes higher level thinking, very careful reading of texts, and increased classroom and discussion skills.  They are appropriate for students at any age (K-12) and are most effective in literature, social studies, history, and other “humanities” courses.  Socratic seminars are named for Socrates’ belief in the power of asking questions, value inquiry over information and discussion over debate.   Socratic seminars acknowledge the highly social nature of learning. In this discussion, based on a text, the leader asks open-ended questions.  Within the context of the discussion, students listen closely to the comments of others, thinking critically for themselves.   Students then articulate their own thoughts and their responses to the thoughts of others.                                                            

Students learn to work cooperatively and to question intelligently and civilly. Socratic seminars work best with authentic texts that invite authentic inquiry—an ambiguous and appealing short story, a pair of contrasting primary documents in social studies, or an article on a controversial approach to an ongoing scientific problem.  Because seminars ask students to keep focusing back on the text, it’s important students have the text in front of them. Though students may eventually be given responsibility for running the entire session, the teacher usually fills the role of discussion leader as students learn about seminars and questioning.  This past week we read, The Emperor’s New Clothes, and students did a great job for their first trial run.

Other News:

• I’m sure you got the phone call/ email about no late start day in October.  This is a state mandated official student count day.  School all day for kids.

• Book orders due one week from Friday, September 26th.

• Check out the school leadership blog Lyndon

• Check out the Laps for Leadership information packet coming home today.

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September 25th

Newsletter # 6

 

Fall conference time is here.  As of today you can sign up online for your time.  (See the electronic email from school to sign up.) The regular scheduled conference week is Monday, October 13th – Thursday, October 16th.  However, I will be conducting conferences the following 2 weeks as well.

As we find the best time that works for you and your child, remember the following things.  I will be having a 40 minute parent/ student/ teacher conference.  It is crucial that your child attend the conference, as the process gives them a voice in their education. The primary purpose of these October conferences is to set goals for the year and share student progress.  Parents, students, and teachers will have input on the goals for students.

The following are the roles each of the participants should play.  The student should: be involved, responsible, and accountable for his/ her learning and behavior, evaluate his her work fairly and honestly be organized and communicate openly with the adults in areas that are important.

Parents should: be active listeners ask questions that encourage your child to explain more about his/ her learning, compliment what your child already does well, ask what your child will do to accomplish goals specific behaviors, and how you can be supportive, add any goals you would like to see him her work on this year.

Mr. Blaser will facilitate and assist students in identifying areas of growth in their learning, demonstrate how to create and use an agenda, provide opportunities in class to practice presenting their goals, discuss goals and needs of students at conferences with families, provide insight on progress of students.

A portion of the conferences I do are directed by 5th graders. While we’ve been doing student led conferences for a while in 5th grade at Eagle Crest, some parents may be relatively new to this format of student progress reporting.  Student led conferences is a major way to actively engage students in their learning process.  Here are the highlights you should expect to see at you child’s conference.

 

• Students assume greater control of the academic progress

• Students accept personal responsibility for their academic performance Parents teachers and students engage in open and honest dialogue. Parents attend conference at increased rates students learn the process of self evaluation students develop organization and oral communications skills.

• Depending on the child I like to spend about ½ the time on student sharing and about half the time me talking to parents.

 

Other News:

• 1. Student council elections are coming up.  Talk to your child about this leadership opportunity.

• 2. No Late Start this coming Wednesday.

• 3. Last call for Scholastic Book Orders – due tomorrow.

• 4. HW due tomorrow:  Blue Reading Report sheet, Daily Math HW sheet, Spelling packet (Consonant Digraphs/ More Silient Consonants.)  Dictation Test (Word Study/ Spelling will be given tomorrow.)

 

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October 2nd,

Newsletter #7

 

 

Just started our new read aloud book – View From The Cherry Tree.  It’s a mystery, and kids are really enjoying it.

 

Over the years, as I speak with parents, I notice that it’s natural to assume that once kids are reading independently in 5th grade, they don’t need to be read to anymore, and they don’t need any more help from Mom and Dad anymore . . . but that’s very commonly not true.

 

Many, many, students in middle school, high school, and beyond, can still surprisingly be unskilled readers if they don’t continue a solid reading practice at home.

 

That’s why I ask students to read 150 minutes at home each week. In addition to this I also suggest that you read aloud from a book sometime with your child.  That can easily give you a quick snapshot of their reading capabilities.  If kids are tripping over lots of words and bumble through big sentences with complex phrasing, their comprehension is bound to suffer.

If you notice your child is spending lots of time wrestling with reading the text, there’s too little brain-space left to think about what the passage means.  And, of course, struggling like this is no fun at all.

 

So, it’s not uncommon for students (even though they may be reading at or near grade level) to sometimes use words like boring or stupid when they read.

 

Again, even though they can read they may find reading difficult, confusing and even ego flattening . . . 

. . . and then they create excuses to avoid it. I’ve found that one good fix for turning reluctant struggling readers around is to read to them.  Older kids usually love being read to, and no, it won’t spoil them or make them lazy.  On the contrary, reading aloud to an older child helps motivate them by letting them absorb and enjoy the content free from all the stumbling blocks.  Bottom line, read to your kids, they’ll benefit greatly.  

 

Other News:

• 1. Tomorrow we give our speeches for student council officer positions.  No math homework tonight, lots of kids giving speeches – I’d like them to focus on this.  Remember, those who are not elected have a great chance to be a representative or serve in another leadership position this year.

• 2. Remember Laps for Leadership money forms!  Send them in when you can.

• 3. Look forward to meeting with all of you in the next few weeks at conferences. Your child has been working hard to prepare.

 

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Thursday, October 15th

Newsletter #8

 

This week we took our first unit test in social studies on the 13 Colonies and The Constitution, continued on our new math unit with decimals/ fractions, studied spelling words to learn about synonyms and antonyms, and organized our conference folders to share in the upcoming weeks. 

 

 This year in 5th grade we’ve been a little behind in starting our science units.  However, in the coming week we will be focusing and studying this with emphasis.  This year we will study a few different areas of the life, earth and physical science as well as understand and practice the scientific processes.  (Incidentally – quick heads up - everyone will be required to do a science fair project due in April.  More on this later – no need to stress about it now.) 

 

Our overall objectives of science this year are to identify questions that can be answered through scientific investigations, design and conduct basic experiments, use appropriate tools and techniques to gather, analyze and interpret data, and try to integrate technology into the science curriculum. 

 

As we are starting to work on the Mixtures/ Solutions unit, our goal is to have kids gain hands on experiences in the different areas of science while using textbooks as a reference.  A variety of instruction and differentiated activities/ lessons will be integrated into the instruction.  Three of our major units this year are based on using Delta Educations FOSS (Full Option Science Systems.) 

 

These are basically science units in a box. The FOSS program mission is that elementary students learn science best by doing science. Students also appreciate and learn scientific concepts and develop the ability to think well by actively constructing their own ideas through inquiries investigations, and analyses. 

 

These units engage students in the scientific process as they explore the natural world.  Evaluation of students work and performance will include various types of assessment such as class participation, cooperative learning assessments teacher generated tests and quizzes possibly web based lessons and quizzes video quizzes homework writing samples and individual and group projects.

 

More news:

• 1. You can still turn in pledge money for Laps for Leadership on Monday.

• 2. Thanks to Alex’s mom Stella and Malia’s mom Mary for heading up our Halloween party on the 31st at the end of the day.  Look for ways you can help out in the next week or two.

• 3. I’ve extended the most recent Scholastic book order to next Friday, October 24th.

• 4. Remember no school tomorrow.

• 5. Congratulations to Nicolas Mc Cready and Riley Crawford who were elected by their peers to represent our class as student council officers.

• Talk to your child about the “puns” we are doing for Halloween.  Specific information coming home on Monday.

 

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October 22nd

Newsletter #9

 

This week - with having last Friday off - was short, but we got a lot accomplished.

 

• 1. We worked on our word study of homonyms and multiple-meaning words.  Hopefully this will help some of the kids think of a good pun for next Friday.

• 2. We also are working on a number of harder math concepts including explaining how subtraction methods apply to real world problems.

• 3. We spent some quality time on our science unit.  As I mentioned last week, we’re looking at a number of key concepts where students make and measure mixtures and solutions with different solid materials and water.

• 4. In language arts we are studying the difference between declarative, interrogative, imperative, etc. sentences.

• 5. We did a fair amount of work with informational text.  This is where students attempt to quote accurately from a text while also explaining what the text says explicitly and while also inferring from it.

 

 

I enjoyed meeting with all of you the past couple weeks for parent/ teacher/ student conferences.  I have a few left in the upcoming week to wrap them up for the fall.  

Will be sending a book review/ report form home in the next couple days.  I’ve gone over the requirements with students and would like it to be completed at home.  It is due Friday, November 14th. The purpose of the report part is to present the content of a book as objectively as possible. It should provide not only a summary of content but also some analysis of structure. This part should give enough information about a book to help decide whether it will be of use or interest to a potential reader.  The review part is a descriptive and critical or evaluative account of a book. Like the book report, it provides a summary and analysis but will also assess the value of a book and recommend (or not recommend) the book to other students.

   

More news:

• 1. Enclosed is a flyer for our Halloween party coming up in one week.  Thanks again to Mary Rudeen and Stella Lee for setting this up.  Refer to the flyer for information on how to help!

• 2. We sadly say farewell to classmate Logan Carpino.  Logan has moved to Cape Cod to be closer to family.

• 3. Book orders due tomorrow. Friday, October 24th.

 

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October 29th

Newsletter #10

 

 

 

 

We began studying fractions this week. Believe it or not, this can be one of the most frustrating topics to teach to elementary school children. Linking the experience of students with fractions in their daily lives to fractions in the classroom can make this task easier. Kids have early experiences with the concept of fractions when they want to share a sandwich with a friend. They know that if they have a sandwich that is cut in two parts they can share it by keeping half for themselves and giving the other half to their friend. This experience gives them the foundation for the concept that a fraction is part of a whole. The concept can be expanded if you talk about pizza. The average medium pizza has eight slices. This allows me to talk about the fact that one slice is one-eighth of the pizza. These strategies allow students to have a real world link as I teach more difficult concepts in fractions. Real world connections will not work for all of the concepts that need to be taught about fractions so using hands on activities, or manipulatives work well.  

 

For a lot of kids in 5th grade, unless they see it and experience it themselves visually, they don’t understand. Research shows that about 65% of students today are visual learners so hands-on activities work well when teaching fractions. We’ll be using pattern blocks to show that fractions are representations of parts of a whole.  This has the added advantage of reinforcing the proper terms for the shapes of each piece, reinforcing some geometry as I teach fractions. 

 

 

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November 6th

Newsletter #10

 

With fall conferences over, a parent question that often pops up is just what kind of parental involvement -- and how much involvement – should I actually  be doing with my child and their homework at this point of the year?  The most useful thing I usually tell parents is to be somewhat but not overly involved in homework. The emphasis needs to be on you helping your child do their homework themselves -- not on doing it for them. Research has shown that children who spend more time on homework, on average, do better academically than children who don't, and the academic benefits of homework increase in the upper grades, such as 5th grade. As I said earlier this year, homework can help your child to review and practice what they have learned in class; prepare for the next day's class; use resources, such as libraries and reference materials; and sometimes investigate topics more fully than time allows in the classroom. Parents can help by removing distractions; having supplies and resources on hand.  

having supplies and resources on hand, monitoring assignments; and providing guidance. Talking about an assignment so your child can figure out what needs to be done is OK.  And reviewing a completed assignment with a child can also be helpful.  The kind of help that works best depends, of course, partly on the independence level of your child and your gauge about how much help they actually need. Finally, students who have homework accommodated, are new to our fifth grade class or are not used to doing homework may need more direct involvement than others. Homework has been coming in looking great, so continue the good work and let me know if you have any further questions.  

More important news:

• 1. Ms. O’Rourke and I will be heading up the fall running club. Actually more like the early winter running club.  Great for 5th graders to get some movement in, and in low stress way, stay or get in shape.  Talk to your child about joining and see attached flyer. 

• 2. Our fall student council representatives:  Will Kramer/ Bryce Gorr.  Our spring student council representatives:  Ava Nolledo, Malia Rudeen.  Congratulations on these leadership positions. 

3. This week we went over the Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing, (we’ll be watching a University of Colorado group perform it here on Friday,) continued on fractions and began looking at adding/ subtracting fractions w/ unlike denominators, started a descriptive writing piece on “Super-Heroes,” or “Super Villains,” and read the story,, “Haunted,” where students drew inferences/ direct quotes from a grade level text.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------                                                                                                                                                     

 

 

November 13th                                                                                                                                                                                             Newsletter # 11                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

One of the more interesting things that we have done this year happened last week. On Thursday were fortunate enough to attend the Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing.  Students from the University of Colorado/  Shakespeare Festival came to our school to not only provide an entertaining performance from 16th century England, but to use the play to teach us about bullying and violence. It was a very interesting presentation.  The themes included: the power of words, reputation, fashion and appearance, gender roles, friendship, and revenge.  In the play characters repeatedly spread rumors about one another - some were friendly and some not so friendly.  10 and 11 year olds are not immune to this behavior. In this internet age rumors can spread very quickly, and cyber bullying has become a significant problem. All our 5th grade classes at Eagle Crest have experienced some level of bullying, so this production proved quite timely.

• After we watched the play, CU students conducted a workshop in our classroom which focused on bullying and how to prevent bullying.  We learned that a student is bullied or victimized when he or she is exposed repeatedly and over time to negative actions on the part of one or more students.  We also learned that bullying is characterized by 3 main things: 1) It is aggressive with the intention is to cause harm, 2) It is carried out repeatedly and over time and 3) It occurs within an interpersonal relationship characterized by an imbalance of power.  While we have a good class, these 5th graders can often witnesses to others causing or be on the receiving end of bullying.  By watching this play, active discussion and  practicing different roles and scenarios I felt this was a real valuable experience.  

  More important news:

• 1. One of the key things we did this week was work on the development of theme in literacy.  In your child’s Thursday Folder you will find 2 work examples that focus on the important standard of seeing how your child can identify a theme.  A strategy we used was to stop after each section of reading and ask ourselves what the main character learned.

• 2. The story in your child’s folder – The Story of the Mexican Fisherman, is an example of one of the pieces of text we use during our Socratic Seminar sessions.  Excellent discussion this past week.

• 3. Again, a reminder about dressing for the weather.  We pretty much go out everyday.  Apparently, school policy is that the cutoff for staying indoors is 17 degrees and under.

 

 

 

Over Thanksgiving break I will be entering grades for the first trimester.  Kids will then be getting their report cards shortly after we return from break.

I wanted to just remind everyone (or explain to those who might be new) that these are standards based report cards and have a somewhat different format and grading system than traditional report cards. It can be a bit tricky. 

First, we use the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 to indicate progress towards end of the year proficiency.  These numbers are related to standards and measure the attainment of these standards. For example, if we’re assessing whole number division, most kids will get 2’s. Like most subjects right now, we’re working on it.  We’re not ready to test on it. However, we would expect students to be proficient (3) by the end of the year. 

While it’s possible to be proficient in this right now, it’s more probable that we haven’t assessed this yet, are still teaching it and working towards a 3.  

In other words, there are not a lot of 4’s given out in November.

Traditional grades of A, B, C indicate in the moment progress on school work and homework evaluation.  Therefore, you can get a 2 which indicates where you are in attaining the standard and an A which indicates where you are “in the moment.”

It would also be possible to get a C (how you’re doing right now), but have reached proficiency (3) in that standard.

Instructional levels indicate the level at which your student is receiving instruction in these subjects.  Most students in my class will generally be instructed “at grade level,” indicated by an=equals sign.  If a student’s instruction is being differentiated significantly because they are advanced or struggling with one or more of these subjects, it will be indicated with a plus or minus.  Again, don’t be too surprised if you see a number of 2’s on our child’s report card.  In most cases, this is right where your child should be.  Also, even though you still have not received your child’s grades yet, remember that I am available anytime to talk to you if you have any questions about child’s progress.

More important news: 

• 1. Our student council leaders (Riley, Nicolas, Bryce and Will) shared information about the possibility of getting some new playground equipment. Ideas include: fire pole, volley ball net, soccer nets, kickball chalk lines, move soccer goals for kickball, straight slides ,new monkey bars, sports balls such as basketball, soccer ball, kickball etc. They also shared information about the Canned Food Drive. There will be prizes for the class with the most cans brought in. First, place prize is breakfast burritos, Second place prize chips and salsa. Over the break collect cans from your house, you need to have your items in a can. 

• 2. This week we worked a lot on 2 things: the steps in writing a quality essay, and adding/ subtracting fractions that have unlike denominators (including those with mixed or contain improper fractions.)  Tough stuff, but 2 of the most important things to master in 5th grade.

• 3. Hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving.  Appears I will be traveling to Nebraska to be with family on my wife’s side.  It’s not Cancun, but I’m looking forward to it.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday, December  4th

Newsletter #15

 

You are getting a sheet in your child’s Thursday folder that will walk you through the process of printing out your child’s report card online.  I believe you can get your hard copy today if you like.

Like I mentioned last week, these are standard based report cards. A lot of the items under Reading, Writing, Math, Social Studies and Science are topics that are “in progress,” meaning not all of them have been assessed.  Therefore, the 2 or 3 you see now may not be the final score you see child receive in the 2nd or 3rd trimester.

Report cards of course only tell part of the story of the learning progress of your child.                          

Let me know if the communication on your child’s learning is unclear, I’d be happy to discuss your child’s academic development with you.

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Sometimes I know parents have questions about Late Start Days.

On these days teachers often get together to get training or work together to improve instruction for kids.  We don’t get a lot of time to do this, so these days are generally pretty valuable.

Yesterday we spent a fair amount of time learning more about the upcoming new assessments this spring put out by PARCC.     

PARCC stands for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.  It is hoped that this new PARCC assessment will allow parents to better engage in their child’s education. It’s sometimes difficult for parents to measure whether or not their child is learning what they need to know to succeed in the future. The new assessments will provide parents with more information about how their child is progressing in school. Again, it is the hope that these new assessments will replace outdated and ineffective tests with new tests that measure real world skills that colleges and employers say they value – like critical thinking and problem solving. Yesterday teachers at Eagle Crest looked at ways to best prepare kids for this test.

More important news:

• 1. Tomorrow is the last day to turn in book orders for 

             December Scholastic books.

• 2. Our class is looking pretty slim on the canned food drive.  And we are the defending collection champions from 2013-14! Send in your donations if you are able.

• 3. This week back from Thanksgiving break we accomplished the following in math: Reviewed numerical expressions (example: translate the difference of 12 and 9 divided by 3 into a numerical expression,) continued with adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators (example:  3 2/3 + 1 7/8=?)  When you mix in improper fractions/ mixed numbers, this can often be a challenge for many fifth graders.

One of the main goals we have for students in literacy this year is to help 5th graders understand that most writing (stories, magazine and newspaper articles, reports and encyclopedia essays) has a main idea.

Developing this strategy will go a long way in their education as students read and recall information.  It is also expected to be a large part of the English/ Language Arts part of the PARCC standardized test this spring. Focusing on a main idea and supporting details will also give your child better skills in writing non-fiction.

While in 3rd/ 4th grade your child may have been asked to “pick out” the main idea from an article, chances are that it was stated in either the first or last sentence.  In fifth grade and in middle school, children need to learn that often the main idea is implied or inferred rather than succinctly stated in a single statement.  Look at the following paragraph for instance:

 

You walk into the cabin and a fire is burning, steaming hot cocoa is on the table for you.  In the corner you notice some of your favorite Goosebump mysteries, and in a comfortable chair is a soft fleece blanket.  Your black lab Scout looks happily up at you.               After reading this paragraph, a child might correctly tell you that the main idea is “the cabin is a really cool place to come in out of the cold.”         The paragraph implies or infers this main idea (it is cold) through use of details.  Determining an implied or inferred idea is a more difficult skill than simply picking out the main idea sentence, and it takes most fifth graders lots of practice before they learn it masterfully.

 

More important news:

• 1. Canned food drive looking better for our classroom.  I believe we’re up over 50 items.  Thanks for sending them in.

• 2. Next week on Friday, we’ll be having a Winter Holiday Celebration in the afternoon.  We’re going to be watching a movie and having hot chocolate and popcorn.  2 dollars will cover the cost.  Thanks to Mary Rudeen/ Stella Lee for heading this up.  We’ll be doing this with Mrs. Dumler’s class.

• 3. Thanks to Lexi and Harleen for acting as Leadership Hosts for welcoming parents to our school holiday luncheon. 

 

Let’s say your fifth grader has a math quiz today. It's 7:30 A.M. To help her do her best, you should... A. Give her a pep talk.
B. Quiz her on the material.
C. Turn on some music and challenge her to jump around for ten minutes. Okay, it's sort of a trick question, since all these strategies could be correct. But if you answered C, you've right -- and there's a very good chance your child will do well too. Of course, we all know that regular physical activity is important for kids' health and reduces their risk of becoming overweight. However, the more interesting news is that it's also associated with higher academic achievement. A recent big study found that kids who were more physically fit generally performed better on reading and math tests than their less-active peers. "More exercise appears to provide an even greater benefit, though short bursts can also enhance a child's cognitive function," said the study’s director.  Studies have also suggested that physical activity during school is particularly powerful for kids. Researchers found that when 8- to 11-year-olds exercised right before taking a test, they were better 

able to concentrate and their scores improved by an average of 10 percent. There's a clear scientific basis for this doctors say. Physical activity causes the brain to produce a protein which helps build and maintain nerve-cell connections. The stronger these networks become, the easier it is for a child to understand and retain information.  That is why many schools these days are incorporating movement activities throughout the day. Exercise also causes the brain and body to produce neurotransmitters that help brain cells communicate and enhance a child's mood, motivation, and focus. Every day we try to take a brain break/ body break so that students can relax, unwind, refocus and hopefully get back to work in a way that will increase achievement.

More important news:

• 1. Remember tomorrow is the last day to send in the $2.00 for our popcorn/ hot chocolate/ movie winter celebration.

• 2. We say goodbye to Lexi Johnson who is moving and will be      attending Rocky Mountain Elementary School after break.

• 3. This week we spent a good chunk of time working on writing.  We practiced writing an opinion piece for the prompt – “Which kind of pet is best.  Dog or cat?” We had 3 class periods to work on this with the final copy being typed and shared on Google Classroom. Google classroom is kind of cool because it is a learning management system for schools that aims to simplify creating, distributing and grading assignments. It was introduced as a feature of Google Apps for Education just a couple of months ago.

Have a great winter break.  See everyone in January of 2015.

 

Kids being lazy.  This time of year we tend to see this a lot with kids. However, when I start to experience this, I have to stop and tell myself that after 20 years of teaching I’ve rarely encountered a truly lazy student.  Usually when you view what you think is laziness and look underneath you find confusion, frustration, lack of knowledge, lack of skills, anger, or sadness… And in some cases often a kid who’s just tired. Will power for kids is often in short supply, and the demands of the school day can often drain a student of his/ her ability to attend and persevere. In a class I took recently I learned about an interesting study that I think may interest parents about this topic. In this study a bunch of students went in a room with freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies.  The lucky kids were randomly assigned to the cookie eating group and were told to help themselves, but were told “Please don’t eat any of the radishes” . . . because that bowl of veggies at the other end of the table was reserved for the other students. These other students were told “Please eat at least three radishes and sorry, no cookies for you.” Students were then left alone in the room, responsible for controlling their own behavior.

Of course, as you would expect, the cookie group had no trouble avoiding the radishes, but the radish – eaters tended to stare longingly at the cookies while they nibbled.  Having finished their snacks, participants were then asked to work on a challenging puzzle.  So what happened? The cookie eaters persevered on the difficult puzzles for an average of 20 minutes before giving up.  But the radish eaters persisted for an average of only eight minutes. Why? Researchers believe that the radish eaters burned up a ton willpower resisting those cookies and then had less energy to figure out the difficult puzzle.  The point I’m trying to make is that all day in 5th grade, your kid is a sort of a radish eater, burning up willpower on academic tasks and obeying rules and reining in behavior.  Many kids then arrive home with very little self discipline left to apply to homework.  And if your child has a learning challenge, the school day taps out their reserves of perseverance and self control that much faster.  I’ve found that kids don’t often need lectures on working hard.  Instead, students often badly need understanding, encouragement, comfort and support.  Simple gestures of kindness and help can make all the difference for a kid who does want to do his homework but who is running on empty in the willpower department.

 

 

Winter Conferences are coming up pretty darn quick.  The scheduled week for conferences is February 10, 11, and 12.  That’s a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. As I did in the fall, I will be scheduling conferences that week and the 2 weeks following.  Please sign up electronically on the available times that are listed on the calendar site that was sent to you from Eagle Crest.  My plan is to do around 3-4 a night.

If I don’t see your name on the calendar in the next week or two, I will assign you a time and email you that information.  This will be an important meeting for you, me and your child. It will give us an opportunity to share information about your child’s progress, and develop a plan for your student’s future in middle school.

This week students worked a fair amount on writing.  We reviewed that effective writers use a writing process – collecting information, choosing a “seed” idea, writing a draft, revising

editing and publishing. Since our new assignment involves persuasive writing, we learned that our writing must have a clear viewpoint, strong supporting details and attention to a specific audience.  Persuasive writers choose their words carefully in order to support their point and bring voice to their writing.  Our topic for this piece is the topic: Would you support/ not support year round schools?  Students had to read 2 articles (one for/ one against) and then complete a 5 paragraph outline. Since students this year will have to type their essay on the PARCC test, we are practicing all this assignment on-line.  Surprisingly, there are many good reasons why some               school districts go to year round schools, and there     were a number of students who supported this                       option! 

More important news:

• 1. Lots of information coming home this week.  Please take specific note of the permission slip for our upcoming field trip to hear the Longmont Symphony.  This performance is designed just for 5th graders in our school district and gives them a preview of instruments they may be interested in playing in 6th grade.  Ms. Ordway will be accompanying us.

• 2. No school on Monday.  It’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

 

 

Newsletter/ January 21.

 

We’re about halfway through the fantasy/ adventure novel - Tuck Everlasting.  This is a book we’re all reading individually.  It’s difficult for some, but “just right” for most.  Even if 5th graders find it easy to understand the plot, the vocabulary can be very challenging and in leveled book groups we’re discussing some higher order thinking moral dilemmas.  I like this book because it’s a bit older (published 1975) and avoids some of the hyper-realism of so many recent novels written for children and young adults. This novel gives a pretty believable and loving portrait of real people in a very difficult, if somewhat fantastical, situation.

The main character Winnie Foster, who is about the same age as most of the kids in this class, is neither an angel nor an anti-hero. She's simply a young girl with strengths and weaknesses; she is basically good, but far from perfect. The family she has to deal with – the Tucks, at first glance, come across as little more than endearing, slightly mysterious country bumpkins. 

We quickly realize however, as Winnie does, that there is much more to them than is immediately apparent. Angus and Mae Tuck are not highly educated, but they are wise in their own way, and they have much to teach Winnie about life. The central event of the novel—the Tucks offering Winnie immortality—is both intriguing and problematic. Should she accept the offer? Should she consider marrying Jesse Tuck and coming to live with them? Whether she herself chooses to live forever or not, should she keep their secret? Winnie must decide whether the freedom the Tucks represent is right for her. This decision is made even more complex when the unnamed stranger in the yellow suit makes an appearance and, in his overwhelming desire to gain control of the fountain of immortality, threatens both the Tucks and Winnie. We’re having good discussions and I believe this is a great book that is raising kids’ comprehension, inference skills,   understanding of main ideas and building vocabulary.           

More important news:

• 1. Congratulations to Caleb, Berlin, Riley and Lyndon for helping out preschool the last few weeks.  We’ll be choosing new kids in the weeks to come to continue in this leadership community service project.

• 2. Socratic Seminar this past week was interesting – article we discussed had to do with homelessness.  It’s in your child’s folder.

• 3. Spring Reps for student council are Ava Nolledo and Malia Rudeen.  They will be taking over for Bryce Gorr and Will Kramer.

 

week we practiced a specific type of writing students need to learn in 5th grade.  This type of writing focuses on informing and explaining.  This standard asks students to examine and share information clearly and accurately on a specific topic. In 1st or 2nd grade, this may be simply writing some facts about a topic – fish for example.  In 5th grade students will try to analyze/ synthesize information on a topic from 1 or more sources. The goal then is to produce writing that sheds light on a concept or process – ways to conserve water for example.

The primary purpose of informative/  explanatory writing is to increase the understanding of the reader. Unlike opinion pieces, informative/explanatory writing starts with focusing on telling how or why.  Your child’s informative/explanatory writing might include any or all of the following:

• • Providing new knowledge

• • Explaining a process

Developing a concept 

• • Defining

• • Explaining behavior or function

• • Providing explanations of why

In order to write in this text type, students must be able to find and choose relevant information from different sources, and combine this new information with background knowledge and experiences. At the same time, students will work on developing their writing craft, becoming skilled in techniques for explaining, citing anecdotes or scenarios, comparing/ contrasting, and transitioning.
 

More important news:

• 1. Congratulations to Riley Crawford and Berlin Babcock for competing in the Annual Eagle Crest Little Chef Bake-Off. 

• 2. There was less homework this week and last.  Last week because we had a short week; this week because Ms. Ordway asked that we cut back due to the music concert tonight.

• 3. Check out the notices from our library about overdue books.

• 4. Important Altona news for incoming 6th graders in your child’s folder.

• 5. Hat Day Celebration will be tomorrow Friday, JANUARY 30. Bring in a dollar to wear a hat. The money is going towards Children Cancer Research fund. Student council has shared that this is one of the least funded research areas in the nation and thousands of children are affected each year. Student Council officers will collect the money on Friday.

I look forward to seeing you all next week at our Winter Parent/ Teacher/ Student Conferences. 

As in the fall, we’ll be having 40 minute meetings.  It is crucial that students attend the conference, as this process gives them a voice in their education. The primary purpose of these conferences is to share student progress and discuss how your child is doing as a 5th grader.  It’s also important to talk about transitioning to middle school. As I mentioned in the fall, the following are the roles each of the participants should play:

ROLE OF THE STUDENT:

• • Be involved, responsible, and accountable for his/her learning and behavior.
• • Evaluate his/her work fairly and honestly.
• • Be organized.
• • Communicate openly with the adults in areas that are important. 

ROLE OF THE FAMILIES:

• • Be an active listener.
• • Ask questions that encourage your child to explain. more about his/her learning.
• • Compliment what your child already does wel.l
• • Ask what your child will do to accomplish goals (specific behaviors), and how you can be supportive.
• • Add any goals you would like to see him/her work on for the rest of the school year.

ROLE OF MR.BLASER:

• • Facilitate and assist students in identifying areas of growth in their learning.
• • Demonstrate how to create and use an agenda.
• • Provide opportunities in class to practice presenting their goals.
• • Discuss goals and needs of students at conferences with families and provide insight on progress of students.

While we’ve been involving students in their conferences for a while in 5th grade at Eagle Crest, some parents of new students may be relatively new to this format of student progress reporting.  Having students participate in their conferences is a major way to actively engage students in their learning process.  Here are the highlights you should expect to see your child’s conference.

-Students assume greater control of their academic progress.
-Students accept personal responsibility for their academic performance.
-Parents, teachers, and students engage in open and honest dialogue.
-Parents attend conferences at increased  rates.
-Students learn the process of self-evaluation.
-Students develop organizational and oral communication  skills.  

More important news:

• 1. Please see the attached flyer about our upcoming Valentine’s Party.  I’m enclosing a class list as well.  Remember that if you decided to do share valentines, do one for everyone or not for anyone.
• 2. This week kids prepared for conferences,, took a unit test in math on multiplying/ rounding large decimals, and worked on the life science standard that examines organisms, cells and human body systems..
• 3. Not too early to start thinking about our annual Cal-Wood Outdoor Education Trip coming up the second week in May.  Next week we’ll be sending some information home on dates, cost, parent meeting night, etc.