An Amazing First Week and First Formal Friday!

Wow!  What an amazing first week we had in fifth grade!!  I so enjoyed getting to know all of your children and your families!  Our first ever fifth grade leadership retreat was truly inspiring!  I hope your children had positive experiences and wonderful memories from the retreat!  We had tremendous discussions on what it means to be a fifth grade leader, what it means to be original, what our school norms are and what norms we need in fifth grade, how every student in fifth grade has different learning needs, and how we can be brave this school year and in life.  We began building our community as an entire fifth grade and as a class.  We developed the following norms for our grade level.  These norms will be true in each of our three classes.  I was quite impressed with the final product:

1. We will always respect others and be honest even when it is difficult.
2. We will be brave even we are scared.
3. We will be great leaders for everyone by always being kind and inclusive.
4. We will never be selfish; always be selfless.
5. We will get organized and stay organized to help us work better and stay focused.

These norms will be the foundation of our learning throughout the year, and we signed them to start our week this week.  We did this to show our commitment to living them day in and day out.

This was a wonderful foundation to start from as we began to move into our regular daily schedule.  Here is an overview of our daily schedule and what we are working on:

• 8:30 a.m. - 8:50 a.m. - Morning Routine - I will meet students on the playground each morning at 8:30 a.m., and we will then go up to our classroom.  At 8:40 a.m., we will have morning announcements from Dr. Martin, and we then begin class at 8:50 a.m.
• 8:50 a.m. - 9:50 a.m. - Writing - In writing this week, we began our work with a pre-assessment, and we are then moving into a short unit on journalism.  This will lead to the students contributing to our classroom blog!  After this unit, we will move into our first narrative unit.
• 9:50 a.m. - 10:50 a.m. - Social Studies - This week we will begin our very first unit, Cultures Meet.  In this unit, we will examine how cultural differences and competition for land lead to conflicts among different groups of people in the Americas.  We will begin this unit by examining world geography.  We are also excited that we can have the chance to partner with Mrs. Ketzer's class throughout this unit!  Art is also during this time period on D days.
• 10:50 a.m. - 11:50 a.m. - Specials - (PE, Music, Spanish)
• 11:50 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. - Lunch and Recess
• 12:30 p.m. - 1:50 p.m. - Reading - We will begin our reading routines, and we will also begin our first unit, Interpretation Book Clubs: Analyzing Themes.  This unit will help us begin to develop our writing about reading, and it will also help us to use book clubs to analyze the theme of a variety of texts.
• 1:50 p.m. - 3:20 p.m. - Math - Our first unit is focused on whole numbers, specifically place value to ten million, rounding, and estimation.  
• 3:20 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. - Planner and Pack Up - We review our assignments for the day during this time, and we gather materials we will need for these assignments from our lockers.  As you begin to see both our planner and 8-pocket folder come home this week, please sign your child's planner each night.

Please let me know if there are any questions regarding our schedule, units, routines, and procedures!

And speaking of new routines...  Last week, your children may have said that they needed a necktie or bow tie for school on Fridays.  I wanted to explain why you had this request and give you the very interesting back story behind the tradition of what we have come to know as "Formal Friday."  Ever since October 2008, Fridays have been a special day for my classes.  One Friday in October of 2008, I was greeting my students as they entered our classroom, and I noticed one of my students was wearing a suit and tie.  I asked him why he was so dressed up and he explained to me that his dad had "Casual Fridays" because he had worn formal attire all week.  The student then said to me that he should therefore have "Formal Fridays" because he wore casual attire all week.  I was struck by the originality of the idea, the confidence he demonstrated, and also, the amazing ripple effect.  At first, this student stood alone.  Friday after Friday, he took a risk and sought to be original.  He was brave.  Soon, each of my students began asking if they could also participate and put his or her own spin on our new classroom tradition.  We, of course, set up our norms and procedures for the day so as to not disturb our learning and the learning of others.  I was so excited that our class had created a new tradition, one that anyone in the school could be a part of if they chose, and that it brought our class together as well.  Ever since that day, "Formal Fridays" or "Tie Day Fridays" (the name it was given at Captain), have been a part of our classroom community.  Students are welcome to wear ties on Fridays.  I have a class set as well in case any students may forget or want to borrow one from me.  At the same time, wearing a tie is completely optional.  Many students may choose to not wear a tie, and it is completely each student's choice.  We celebrate everyone's choice to participate or not participate each Friday.  As I had stated above, we also have our norms and procedures for the day, as the tie is reminder to us to be professional and focused in our learning without any distraction.  The tie is also a reminder to always be original and let innovative and creative thinking shine through each day.  Our class and the entire fifth grade have chosen to carry on the tradition, and I look forward to seeing our fifth grade make the tradition their own.  We really enjoyed our first Formal Friday last Friday, and I look forward to posting a whole class picture soon of our "Formal Fridays" together! 

Please mark your calendars for our Curriculum Night on Tuesday, August 25, 2015.  It will begin at 7:00 p.m. in our school cafeteria.  We look forward to seeing you all that evening!

Please continue to let me know what questions you may have or how I can be of any support!