Welcome to Third Grade - Mrs. Meeusen's Magazine



Welcome to Fifth Grade!

I welcome you and your child to Fifth Grade. This is an exciting and challenging time in your student’s life. With the support of parents and teachers, your child will have the opportunity to experience a very successful Fifth Grade school year!

One of the main goals is to help students fine tune their independent work habits and self-discipline, both in conduct and academics. These qualities continue to be vital to being a good student. My hope is that all of the students will assume responsibility for their actions and work, both in completion and quality. The most important element of learning is to develop good work habits.

Please read this handout carefully so that you will be aware of the procedures and protocols of 5th grade. Of course, please contact me with any questions or concerns.

Grading Scale:

Fifth Grade is the stepping stone to Middle School. The students are receiving letter grades for achievement in Math, Social Studies, and Science. These grades are the result of daily work assignments, tests, formal assessments, and informal assessments. The grades are based on the percentages below.

A 99-94 C 76-74

A- 93-90 C- 73-70

B+ 89-87 D+ 69-67

B 86-84 D 66-64

B- 83-80 D- 63-60 C+ 79-77 F 59 and below

Parental Support:

Here are some helpful guidelines for school work that comes home:

Papers that are not graded are practice assignments designed to develop and strengthen skills. This work is very important in student understanding of the learning material.

If incomplete classroom assignments are brought home, it tells you that your child is not completing their work in the time allowed in class. Graded and practice school assignments should be coming home regularly. Please help your student empty his/her binder each night, and go over these worksheets with them. This is a good way to keep informed of your child’s progress in school and to help you become aware of strengths and areas in need of extra support and practice. Now is the time to instill a regular pattern of good study habits and to promote a sense of responsibility and pride to ensure successful learning experiences for your child. Please check Power School regularly to track your student’s progress.

Homework and The Genius Hour:

Your child will have a Homework Packet each week that is due on Friday. In addition, any work that is not completed in class should be taken home for homework and returned the next day to receive full credit. Students who complete their weekly work will participate in The Genius Hour each week. Those students who have missing or incomplete assignments will complete assignments before participating in The Genius Hour.

Class Rules:

Our positive behavior system at Ojibwa is the Ojibwa Owl’s 3 Hoots for Success: Look whooo’s responsible! Look whooo’s respectful! Look whooo’s safe!

We will continually have class discussions throughout the year about what this means to our Ojibwa community. The students will discuss meanings and examples of each of the expectations during Morning Meetings, Class Meetings, and whenever there is a conflict. These expectations are posted in the classroom and throughout the school and are expected to be followed by everyone. Integrity Tickets are given out to the students for following the rules. Integrity Tickets may be redeemed for incentives!

Cooperative Learning:

We will be encouraging the children to work successfully together in small groups. This stresses good listening skills, respect for other’s ideas, and problem solving. Group activities will enhance the skills taught in all subjects. Cooperative learning groups are an important part of the Michigan Standards. This work may be “hands-on” or a worksheet depending upon the activity. Please encourage your student to work collaboratively at school.

Agenda:

Each day your child will copy assignments in his/her agenda. This agenda will keep you informed of your child’s school day. At the end of the day, students will indicate work that has not been completed. If the agenda shows an assignment has not been completed at school, please have your child complete that task at home. Please sign or initial your child’s agenda each night after you have looked it over and checked for homework. I consider your child’s agenda a daily communication opportunity for us to help support your child.

Fifth Grade Curriculum:

Reading:

In Fifth Grade, students should be independent, fluent readers with good comprehension skills. Our new ELA Program is called Journeys, and it is a realistically paced close reading routine and online tool that empowers students to read rigorous texts. Using authentic text to anchor the core instruction, Journeys weaves the skills of close reading into a practical routine that is designed to have students read and reread for a variety of purposes, giving students more time to dig deeper into the text. The Student eBook provides tools that promote close reading such as responding to questions at point-of-use, highlighting text, and taking notes online. Journeys Close Reader consumable resource features the high-quality paired text from each Student Book lesson and instruction in reading, re-reading, note-taking, and text annotation—empowering students to read any rigorous text. The Daily Five is the management tool that I use to teach reading instruction. Students should also read daily at home.

Spelling/Words Their Way:

Traditional spelling lessons has been replaced with a program in Journeys that is called Words Their Way. You will no longer see a spelling list come home, and students will no longer take spelling tests. Research shows that students learn more by working on vocabulary, grammar, and the building of words and decoding skills.

Handwriting:

The students are asked to use either printing or cursive to perform neat and accurate written work. Fifth graders are expected to turn in quality work both in appearance and content. The program for cursive that we use in the district is called Handwriting without Tears. Your student was introduced to this program in lower elementary and 4th grade.

Math:

The Michigan Standards in math include Operations and Algebraic Thinking, Numbers and Operations in Base Ten, Numbers and Operations – Fractions, Measurement and Data, and Geometry. The math program that we use in the district is called Bridges. Your student should be familiar with this program since it was introduced in 1nd grade and taught through 4th grade as well. To ensure proficiency and accuracy in everyday math, memorization of basic math facts is essential. Therefore, 5-10 minutes each day should be spent on studying these facts through flashcards, written drills, computer games or any other method of study. Daily homework includes math fact drills.

Language, Writing & Grammar:

Writing instruction in Journeys empowers students and teachers. The program offers an intuitive writing environment linked to reading that guides students through the process of collecting compelling text evidence to write skilled analyses of two or more texts according to specific prompts, just like they’ll encounter on standards based assessments such as the M-Step and NWEA. The Journeys writing program connects all learning tasks, including process writing in all genres, writing to sources, analytic writing, and performance tasks. Teachers collaborate in a writing environment that empowers students to be successful.

Social Studies & Science:

In Social Studies we will be learning about American History from the time of Native Americans to the American Revolution along with geography and government.

Our areas of study in Science are: Science Processes, Force and Motion, Animal Adaptations, Organization of Living Things, Heredity, Evolution, Earth Systems, Seasons, Earth in Space and Time, and the Solar System.

Technology

Students will experience technology opportunities in many different ways. This year in Fifth Grade, students will learn keyboarding, experience Distance Learning, Skype, use SMARTBoards, Document Cameras, iPads, computers, e-readers, etc. Students are expected to learn procedures and techniques in our 21 Century Classroom.[pic]

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