Fun in 5th!

The fun in 5th grade continues! This week, we continued to build our comfort levels in the classroom, played more games/activities to get to know each other and build friendships, learned how to develop a growth mindset and think positively when things get tough, and have been introduced to the 40 book challenge! Be sure to read about the 40-book challenge. Information went home on Tuesday, but you can also find it HERE. If you catch your child reading at home/outside/etc. snap a photo and email it to me! We're hanging up pictures our classroom and your 5th grader would be pleasantly surprised to see their photo hanging up!

Everyday is a good day in ELA ---especially when we kick it off with a little energizer activity! Check out the three 5th grade classes from our triad singing and dancing to a familiar song "Ju Ju on That Beat"...the words have been changed to fit our school setting. We have such a fun group of 5th graders!!

Mr. Mitchell's homeroom is always an enthusiastic bunch!

Mrs. Powell's homeroom is a fun group! They are a little sleepy at 7:45am, and I think they were a little nervous to be on video. Be sure to get a good night's rest and a good breakfast in the morning! We have to be alert and in school mode before 8am!

Mrs. Koenig's homeroom has it down! They are a fun group, and we are definitely lucky to have so many awesome students in our triad!

Maddie has been an excellent teacher assistant this week! We enjoyed the Maddie Show each morning during morning announcements. Students are the leaders in our classroom whenever possible. This is a great opportunity to practice speaking in front of others loud and clear for all to hear, and for the audience to practice being respectful listeners when their peers have the floor.

This week, we finished up a project based on the book, The Best Part of Me. Check out the read aloud version HERE. We read the book, studied the black and white photographs and writings, and then created our own.

It was a fun digital photography project using our chromebooks to take a photo, resize, recolor to black and white, and give a first attempt at typing a paragraph. The 5th graders loved the photography part, choosing font styles, and sharing what makes them so unique and special!

If you are in the building, come on down to our hallway and check out our budding photographers and authors! #ThisIsUs

We also spent some time learning about growth mindsets vs. fixed mindsets. We know that challenges and frustrations will come our way, but when we show resiliency through perseverance, hard work, practice, and effort, we will be successful.

Here are some of the videos and images that led our "WIN Time" discussions this week in Mrs. Powell's homeroom. Check them out....

Famous Failures

The Blind Side: Growth Mindset or Fixed?

The Incredibles: Growth Mindset or Fixed?

Does LeBron James have a growth mindset or fixed in this press conference?

Facing the Giants. This one is always a tear jerker! We had a really great discussion around this one about trusting our coaches, teachers, and parents to see the big picture and take us where we need to be in life and in our educational journey. Things can get really tough sometimes, but if we believe in ourselves and trust the process and work through the struggles, we can do great things---things we never thought possible! This movie is rated PG and would be a GREAT choice for family movie night!

Little guy, big speech!

Oh, Alan Iverson. A great basketball player with a fixed mindset. We used this video to discuss the importance of being a team player, practicing, and working hard. Just like athletes can't (shouldn't) show up on game day and expect excellence, we can't either. Students have to put in the time, effort, and practice of academic skills on and off the court (meaning at school AND at home), in order to strive for excellence. Even the best players have room for more learning and growth! The same concept applies to academics. Even the straight A student has room to grow!

Lastly, we learned about neural plasticity and what a super power it is! We are ready to grow some dendrites this year!!

And for good measure, we threw in one more study about training our brains to do really difficult things! Take a look at this to see how much quicker children can learn things than adults. Fun and fascinating stuff right here!

Now, here's the housekeeping stuff:

*Next week will will continue our first lesson with unit 1 on Personal Narratives. It will be exciting to see our students write like authors! We dive into some pretty complex texts as part of our personal narrative study. Stay tuned!

* We sent home LOTS of paperwork on Friday. Please check out the fundraiser opportunity! We are working to fund more technology, playground equipment, and more! See the letter from Mr. Brown on the gold paper that tells more about this!

* PICTURE Day is Monday, Sept. 17th!

*Check your child's grades in parent portal. Help your child stay up to date on work completion and keep those grades up! Everyday, you can help your child by looking over their planner together, asking if they have homework or if they have turned in all their work on time. You can also encourage them to READ at home every night for 20+ minutes!

*Remind your child to bring their book to ELA everyday! If they are taking it home to read, help them remember to get it in their backpacks afterward so that they can continue reading it at school. Soon, it will become routine...but for now, they could use some reminders!

Here comes week 3 already and it's going to be great!