First Quarter Update

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome! I am so excited to welcome all of you to a new school year. I am very eager to begin this 2010-2011 school year with your children, and I look forward to meeting all of you in the coming weeks. Fifth grade is a significant year for students. It is their first time in the "Big Building", and they begin to learn about the culture of being in the upper school. The school year will focus on building organization and study skills, as well as community building in order to strengthen our commitment to the Catholic faith and mission.

The work will be challenging, but students will be given the skills and support that they need to meet these challenges. This year, one of my main goals is to emphasize the importance of being responsible, especially for one’s actions and work. We will also work on organization. I would like the students to realize the importance of learning, and encourage them to take pride in and ownership over their work.

These first few weeks will focus on learning classroom procedures and routines. We will also work on learning our basic classroom rules and getting ourselves and our desks organized. To help us get organized on the first week of school, please send in the following school supplies (leave the rest at home in a safe place to replenish supplies throughout the year): 1 flair pen, 6 folders, 3 erasable pens, 2 red pens, 2 pencils, binder paper, and all the rest of the supplies on the list.

Please remember that summer reading and math packets need to have been completed. We will spend some time in class reviewing the summer reading before taking a test on them. Test dates will be announced to the students, written in their assignment pads, as well as noted in the classroom newsletter.

Again, welcome to the fifth grade! It's going to be a great year!