Hello, Parents.
This week we will be collecting data to measure our students' academic growth. These two measurement tools are DIBELS and MAP, and will be conducted Monday and Wednesday. As always, ensure that your child is well rested and has a normal breakfast to feel their best for these assessments. We look forward to sharing their growth with you at the end of the school year. In Grammar this week, we will continue to review the parts of speech covered thus far (noun, pronoun, verb), and add adjectives and adverbs into our mix. Scholars should be memorizing definitions taught in class, as well as lists of helping verbs and personal pronouns. A strong understanding of sentence structure is an important foundation for good writing. Writing conventions should be automatic for fifth graders in their use of capital letters and punctuation, so we will continue to review these skills until writing samples are showing consistency. If you observe writing samples that are missing a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence or in a proper noun, gently ask your child to observe what is missing and guide them to correct these errors. If they have fallen into a bad habit, it will take a lot of retraining and reteaching to establish accuracy. Follow the same procedure for punctuation marks at the end of sentences. Students will recite first poetry memorization on Friday, and should be practicing at home each night. In Literature, we will read Chapters 10-12 of Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Each week one comprehension quiz is given in class at random, and discussion questions are posed for students to respond to orally and in writing. Some students have been so engrossed in reading that they have gone beyond daily reading assignments, but then struggle to answer comprehension questions for specific chapters. I have encouraged them to resist the urge to rush ahead, unless they are willing to go back and reread assignments to be ready for class. Once a week, questions are sent home for students to answer as homework. They should use complete sentences on homework responses. I hope you are enjoying the book if you are reading it with your child! Don't forget to join us on Thursday night at 6PM for our 3rd-5th grade Curriculum Night. We will begin in the MPR before gathering in the 5th grade classrooms. I look forward to seeing you all there. Warm regards, Mrs. Baird
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“Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .”- C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves Hello, Parents. This week students will be given a daily schedule to support them in transitioning to their classes with more confidence. The five minute transitions given should be used wisely so that class time is not lost or unnecessarily interrupted. Please consult these times when needing to schedule doctor or dental appointments for your child, and note the weekly lunch times in the case of a lunch being delivered. Our first seminar discussion of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was beautiful. Scholars expressed ideas with a small group about what characters they thought had inner beauty and which ones did not. We will be covering Chapters 6 through 8 this week. Students will have a comprehension quiz once per week as a pop quiz for reading accountability, but will also be answering and discussing response questions to deepen understanding of reading assignments. Students should be reviewing phonograms nightly. We will be adding 8 new phonograms each week until we have covered the first 70. Handwriting should be neat, as students are being attentive to meet the checkpoints taught in Spalding. We are going to begin marking words from lists A-G in class as we practice manuscript writing this week, and will continue to do both oral and written phonogram reviews several times each week. Our class supplies needed an overhaul, so a re-organization sheet was sent home as homework tonight. The binder will now be the ELA (English Language Arts) binder, and students should have handouts and papers filed in the appropriate section. Also, extra composition books were sent home to reduce locker clutter. Better systems with more order is the goal. Friday is a half day, so students will be released at 12 noon. No lunch will be served at school. Warm regards, Mrs. Baird If you wish to send in a birthday treat for your child please send in a healthy, packaged snack that can be easily distributed to 30 classmates (rice crispy treats, fruit snacks, pretzels, snack packs, crackers, etc.) To minimize disruption to instructional activities, we will not take classroom academic time to celebrate birthdays; treats will be distributed during lunch recess.
*Please avoid sending in any treats that are made with peanuts, peanut butter or other nuts.* As a means to lay out clear expectations for students, the following infraction system will be utilized as we aim to teach discipline through habits and order. The full behavior code and discipline philosophy can be found on page 38-39 of the Archway Trivium East Family Handbook.
INFRACTION SYSTEM
VIRTUE AWARDS Students will likewise receive virtue codes in daily agendas as recognized by classroom teachers. The cultivation of nine core virtues is foundational at Archway Trivium East, and the evidence of these virtues will be celebrated throughout the school year. These virtues are:
"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin
Parents, We have completed our introduction week of fifth grade, and are ready to settle into more routine in our first normal week of class. As scholars learned to transition to different classes, with making a stop at their locker to gather class materials several times each day, they developed in the virtue of responsibility. We expect these transitions to flow more smoothly in the days and weeks to come, allowing for more valuable class time. As students will be introduced to Spalding phonograms this week, consider investing in Spalding flash cards from Barnes and Noble, or purchasing a Spalding Phonogram app. This will support students in learning the sounds of letters and letter combinations. You can purchase the app for $3.99 from either Android Play Store or Apple iTunes Store. At the store, search for Phonograms by Spalding. Weekly phonogram reviews will be both oral and written. When practicing writing phonograms at home, students should say the sounds that the phonogram makes to reinforce learning; this engages the brain in four ways, through writing, hearing, seeing and saying. Please check your student's agenda each night to ensure that they have completed homework assignments. You are your child's first teacher and offering nightly feedback in homework ensures that he/she receives the individual attention needed. If issues arise that prevent or disrupt learning, a three letter code will be written in the agenda as a means to communicate with you regarding your child's conduct. Sign the agenda as a way to let teachers know that you are aware of the specified behavior, and have discussed it with your child. Please see "Consequences" post to read behavior policy in full. Warmly, Mrs. Baird Dear parents,
It is with great joy that I welcome you to the 2016-2017 school year. I am eager to meet your scholars and partner with you in the noble task of feeding their souls things that are true, good, and beautiful. We soon embark on a wonderful journey together. This year begins my fifth year of teaching in the Great Hearts network. Having served four years with the outstanding teachers at Archway Trivium West, this will be my first year with the passionate team of individuals at Archway Trivium East. I graduated from Grand Canyon University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Liberal Studies. Through the years I have gained experience as a guest teacher in the Pendergast School District for grades K-8, but grew to love the principles of classical education while teaching my own daughters at home during grades K-2 and 6-8. I am thankful to serve a wonderful community of students with the excellent curriculum offered throughout the network. It is a privilege to be a part of the founding years of this academy. This year we will be taking time to introduce our students to the Spalding method of spelling. Archway students begin Spalding training in kindergarten and continue to learn through this sequential, multi-sensory instruction in each grade level. We are confident that this approach will awaken a deeper love for patterns of the English language within our fifth grade scholars, as well as strengthen their ability to learn as they see, hear, say, and write their spelling words. In order to offer our fifth grade class the foundational components of the Spalding method, we will begin our year with the fundamental instruction of handwriting and phonograms, but will quickly move into the application of Spalding rules to spelling word lists. Scholars will discourse their way to deeper understanding of beautifully written classic books, such as, Little Women, Where the Red Fern Grows, and The Secret Garden. We will begin the fifth grade discussion with Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Students will learn prerequisites for effective communication as they memorize selected poetry for recitation, which will build mental discipline sure to support them in other areas of study as well. Building upon this knowledge, we will add a consistent diet of grammatical elements and diagramming practice. Through the practice of outlining and summarizing, it is our goal that students master the basic skills of writing in order to be prepared for more advanced writing in years to follow. This is the beginning of a wonderful new school year. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns throughout the year. I look forward to working together with you to cultivate in your child the core virtues of Archway Trivium East. Mrs. Baird |
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Mrs. Baird Archives
February 2017
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