Mrs. Campbell's Classroom Information
Planners
Every child will receive a planner where he or she will record the objectives from each subject and any assignments given. In order to maintain daily communication between school and home it is imperative that you look over your child’s planner every night, initial it and return it to school the next day. If your child does not finish an assignment in class, it will be circled in his or her planner and thus assigned as homework to be turned in the following day. Such unfinished assignments will also be put in the homework folder located in his or her binder.
Flexible Seating
With the availability of flexible seating in our classroom this year, the students will be able to have greater choice in not only what seat works best for them each day, but also in how they learn best and what resources they need to support their learning. As their teacher I want to empower each student to choose which seat in our classroom best meets their individual needs. Students will have a variety of seating options throughout the day. They will no longer be tied to sitting on a chair at a desk while they learn. Desks are still an option for those who prefer them, but they are unassigned. Our seating options include high-top tables that can be used with stools or as standing tables, foam pillows, stadium chairs, bungee chairs, crates, wobble stools, couches and stability balls. Students will have their own large trays and reading boxes to store their books and other materials.
Flexible seating has also been proven to have several other benefits for students’ overall academic performance, behavior and well-being. These benefits include burning more calories, using up excess energy, improving metabolism, increased student motivation and engagement, creating better oxygen flow to the brain and improving core strength and overall posture.
I am so looking forward to tailoring our classroom learning environment to meet your child’s needs through the use of flexible seating!
“Team” Binder
Each student will be asked to purchase a binder (1.5 inch with a clear view sleeve) and three folders that are three-hole punched. Student planners will also be put in the binders. These “Team” binders will become a very important organizational tool this year and serve as a vital form of communication between school and home. These binders will go home with your child every night with any unfinished work and must return to school the next morning.
Growth Mindset and Re-Do’s
This year we will be encouraging the students to “grow their mindsets” and view their learning as a process that can always be improved. Therefore students will be expected to embrace challenges, learn from feedback and reflect on how their effort is contributing to their success. We believe that it is important for students to understand that failure does happen and that it is okay. In fact, each time we fail and try again our brains are growing stronger. Therefore students will be given multiple different opportunities to demonstrate their growing understanding of the standards in all subject areas. In regards to all assignments, students will have one week from the day they received the graded assignment back to re-do the assignment and turn it back in for an improved score that demonstrates a better understanding of the content.
Homework and Late Work Policy
We do believe that it is important to hold students accountable for their work, especially at the fifth grade level when they will be entering middle school next year. With that being said, all homework assignments will be due the next day unless otherwise noted. Throughout the year your child will be asked to complete special projects or larger assignments, which will have a specific due date that is given in advance. In the event that your child is consistently spending more than 30 minutes per night of concentrated effort on homework, please contact us. If a student does not turn in his or her assignment on time, then he or she will be required to attend recess detention until the missing assignment is completed. Turning work in late not only affects your child’s understanding of the core concepts in fifth grade, it will also be documented on his or her report card under the Behavior, Homework and Work Habits section as well as result in a decreased “Classwork” grade.
Standards Based Grading
Instead of seeing an overall letter grade for each subject, students will receive scores for each individual power standard they are expected to master by the completion of fifth grade. For example, rather than just receiving an “A” in Math for the trimester, your child will receive a 1, 2, 3 or 4 for each standard that was covered during that trimester. Much more information will be provided on Standards Based Grading at our Curriculum Night on September 12th.
Power School
At any point in the year, you can access your child’s up-to-date progress on Power School. Missing work will be noted in Power School as missing. Please check Power School at least once a week. All fifth grade students will also be receiving their own usernames and passwords to access Power School.
No Name Papers
These papers will be put in a box and it is the responsibility of the students to manage.
Friday Folders and Graded Papers
Your child will bring home their corrected papers on Fridays so please be sure to check your child’s backpack for important papers and notes each week. Please keep in mind that students can redo any assignment they experienced difficulty on for a higher score.
Summit Learning—Science and Social Studies
We are excited to inform you that we will be piloting a new innovative personalized learning platform for science and social studies.
Math
Our Everyday Math program is a spiral series which involves the use of many hands-on manipulatives and focuses on multiple strategies for solving problems including non-traditional algorithms. At the beginning of each unit a parent letter will be sent home that describes what content will be covered in that unit, important vocabulary, suggested at-home activities as well as the answers to the unit’s homework problems. With this series students will receive homework with each lesson. The homework is referred to as “Home Links” and is designed to take your child no more than fifteen minutes to complete each night. The parent letter given at the start of each unit provides some of the answers to the homework problems in the event your child is struggling. We highly recommend designating a spot in your home, like the refrigerator for example, where you can post the parent letter as you will want to refer to it often. The Student Reference Book, which can also be found online and therefore accessed from home, will serve as a valuable resource for completing the homework assignments. In addition to his or her Everyday Math Online accounts, each student will also be issued an ixl account this year again. At the start of the school year students will receive their usernames and passwords to access these two valuable resources at home. These access codes will be placed in the front of their planners.
Monday Math Quizzes (MMQ)
Each Monday all students will take a short math quiz focused on computational math skills. There will be four rows of problem with each row having a separate mathematical concept highlighted. For example, row one may be subtraction problems, row two addition problems, row three multiplication problems, and row four fraction problems. When the quiz is graded the score for each row is evaluated to determine if 75% or higher was obtained for that row. If the criteria were not met, then your student will receive a page of math homework that addresses the concept missed. Thus, a student may bring home no homework or up to four pages of math problems depending on the results of the weekly quiz. This homework will always be due on Friday of that week unless otherwise noted. Please look for this homework to come home no later than Tuesday night. It is imperative that you check with your student to see if he or she received this homework assignment each week.
Word Study
Students will not be given traditional spelling lists this year. Instead fifth graders will be engaging in a word study program in which they will gain a deeper understanding of important Greek and Latin roots that will help contribute to their vocabulary development across all subject areas.
Reading Logs
This year your child will not be required to complete a weekly reading log at home. Instead, your child will be participating in the 40 Book Challenge that is outlined on the attached sheet. With that being said, your child is still required to read at least 100 minutes at home each week (suggested 20 minutes each night) in order to fulfill the challenge requirements and earn their Accelerated Reader points.
Accelerated Reader Requirement
All students are required to complete a minimum of 25 accelerated reader points per trimester. The 25 points will be averaged in as one grade for the trimester. This requirement corresponds directly to the 40 Book Challenge since in order to receive credit for completing a book, students must pass the Accelerated Reader test.
Snack
We will have a working snack every morning and afternoon. Healthy snacks only, please refrain from sending junk food or candy. As fifth graders, we have the latest lunch time so sending in a small snack for each morning will be important to ensure that your child’s brain stays active and is ready to learn ☺ Students should have some sort of water bottle each day as well.
Birthdays
Students love to celebrate birthdays! Treats may be sent in for the whole class, we just ask that you try to let us know in advance. Summer and holiday birthdays can be celebrated too!
Volunteers
Parental involvement has been shown to be directly correlated to student achievement! If you would like to volunteer to come into the classroom to help out, we would love to have you! We could use parents for copying or working with small groups of students. Our highest need at this time is assistance in making copies or reading with students.
Every child will receive a planner where he or she will record the objectives from each subject and any assignments given. In order to maintain daily communication between school and home it is imperative that you look over your child’s planner every night, initial it and return it to school the next day. If your child does not finish an assignment in class, it will be circled in his or her planner and thus assigned as homework to be turned in the following day. Such unfinished assignments will also be put in the homework folder located in his or her binder.
Flexible Seating
With the availability of flexible seating in our classroom this year, the students will be able to have greater choice in not only what seat works best for them each day, but also in how they learn best and what resources they need to support their learning. As their teacher I want to empower each student to choose which seat in our classroom best meets their individual needs. Students will have a variety of seating options throughout the day. They will no longer be tied to sitting on a chair at a desk while they learn. Desks are still an option for those who prefer them, but they are unassigned. Our seating options include high-top tables that can be used with stools or as standing tables, foam pillows, stadium chairs, bungee chairs, crates, wobble stools, couches and stability balls. Students will have their own large trays and reading boxes to store their books and other materials.
Flexible seating has also been proven to have several other benefits for students’ overall academic performance, behavior and well-being. These benefits include burning more calories, using up excess energy, improving metabolism, increased student motivation and engagement, creating better oxygen flow to the brain and improving core strength and overall posture.
I am so looking forward to tailoring our classroom learning environment to meet your child’s needs through the use of flexible seating!
“Team” Binder
Each student will be asked to purchase a binder (1.5 inch with a clear view sleeve) and three folders that are three-hole punched. Student planners will also be put in the binders. These “Team” binders will become a very important organizational tool this year and serve as a vital form of communication between school and home. These binders will go home with your child every night with any unfinished work and must return to school the next morning.
Growth Mindset and Re-Do’s
This year we will be encouraging the students to “grow their mindsets” and view their learning as a process that can always be improved. Therefore students will be expected to embrace challenges, learn from feedback and reflect on how their effort is contributing to their success. We believe that it is important for students to understand that failure does happen and that it is okay. In fact, each time we fail and try again our brains are growing stronger. Therefore students will be given multiple different opportunities to demonstrate their growing understanding of the standards in all subject areas. In regards to all assignments, students will have one week from the day they received the graded assignment back to re-do the assignment and turn it back in for an improved score that demonstrates a better understanding of the content.
Homework and Late Work Policy
We do believe that it is important to hold students accountable for their work, especially at the fifth grade level when they will be entering middle school next year. With that being said, all homework assignments will be due the next day unless otherwise noted. Throughout the year your child will be asked to complete special projects or larger assignments, which will have a specific due date that is given in advance. In the event that your child is consistently spending more than 30 minutes per night of concentrated effort on homework, please contact us. If a student does not turn in his or her assignment on time, then he or she will be required to attend recess detention until the missing assignment is completed. Turning work in late not only affects your child’s understanding of the core concepts in fifth grade, it will also be documented on his or her report card under the Behavior, Homework and Work Habits section as well as result in a decreased “Classwork” grade.
Standards Based Grading
Instead of seeing an overall letter grade for each subject, students will receive scores for each individual power standard they are expected to master by the completion of fifth grade. For example, rather than just receiving an “A” in Math for the trimester, your child will receive a 1, 2, 3 or 4 for each standard that was covered during that trimester. Much more information will be provided on Standards Based Grading at our Curriculum Night on September 12th.
Power School
At any point in the year, you can access your child’s up-to-date progress on Power School. Missing work will be noted in Power School as missing. Please check Power School at least once a week. All fifth grade students will also be receiving their own usernames and passwords to access Power School.
No Name Papers
These papers will be put in a box and it is the responsibility of the students to manage.
Friday Folders and Graded Papers
Your child will bring home their corrected papers on Fridays so please be sure to check your child’s backpack for important papers and notes each week. Please keep in mind that students can redo any assignment they experienced difficulty on for a higher score.
Summit Learning—Science and Social Studies
We are excited to inform you that we will be piloting a new innovative personalized learning platform for science and social studies.
Math
Our Everyday Math program is a spiral series which involves the use of many hands-on manipulatives and focuses on multiple strategies for solving problems including non-traditional algorithms. At the beginning of each unit a parent letter will be sent home that describes what content will be covered in that unit, important vocabulary, suggested at-home activities as well as the answers to the unit’s homework problems. With this series students will receive homework with each lesson. The homework is referred to as “Home Links” and is designed to take your child no more than fifteen minutes to complete each night. The parent letter given at the start of each unit provides some of the answers to the homework problems in the event your child is struggling. We highly recommend designating a spot in your home, like the refrigerator for example, where you can post the parent letter as you will want to refer to it often. The Student Reference Book, which can also be found online and therefore accessed from home, will serve as a valuable resource for completing the homework assignments. In addition to his or her Everyday Math Online accounts, each student will also be issued an ixl account this year again. At the start of the school year students will receive their usernames and passwords to access these two valuable resources at home. These access codes will be placed in the front of their planners.
Monday Math Quizzes (MMQ)
Each Monday all students will take a short math quiz focused on computational math skills. There will be four rows of problem with each row having a separate mathematical concept highlighted. For example, row one may be subtraction problems, row two addition problems, row three multiplication problems, and row four fraction problems. When the quiz is graded the score for each row is evaluated to determine if 75% or higher was obtained for that row. If the criteria were not met, then your student will receive a page of math homework that addresses the concept missed. Thus, a student may bring home no homework or up to four pages of math problems depending on the results of the weekly quiz. This homework will always be due on Friday of that week unless otherwise noted. Please look for this homework to come home no later than Tuesday night. It is imperative that you check with your student to see if he or she received this homework assignment each week.
Word Study
Students will not be given traditional spelling lists this year. Instead fifth graders will be engaging in a word study program in which they will gain a deeper understanding of important Greek and Latin roots that will help contribute to their vocabulary development across all subject areas.
Reading Logs
This year your child will not be required to complete a weekly reading log at home. Instead, your child will be participating in the 40 Book Challenge that is outlined on the attached sheet. With that being said, your child is still required to read at least 100 minutes at home each week (suggested 20 minutes each night) in order to fulfill the challenge requirements and earn their Accelerated Reader points.
Accelerated Reader Requirement
All students are required to complete a minimum of 25 accelerated reader points per trimester. The 25 points will be averaged in as one grade for the trimester. This requirement corresponds directly to the 40 Book Challenge since in order to receive credit for completing a book, students must pass the Accelerated Reader test.
Snack
We will have a working snack every morning and afternoon. Healthy snacks only, please refrain from sending junk food or candy. As fifth graders, we have the latest lunch time so sending in a small snack for each morning will be important to ensure that your child’s brain stays active and is ready to learn ☺ Students should have some sort of water bottle each day as well.
Birthdays
Students love to celebrate birthdays! Treats may be sent in for the whole class, we just ask that you try to let us know in advance. Summer and holiday birthdays can be celebrated too!
Volunteers
Parental involvement has been shown to be directly correlated to student achievement! If you would like to volunteer to come into the classroom to help out, we would love to have you! We could use parents for copying or working with small groups of students. Our highest need at this time is assistance in making copies or reading with students.