ACCORDIANS, MONDAY FOLDERS, and PLANNERS! OH, MY!!

WELCOME TO FIFTH GRADE!! I enjoyed meeting all of you at Back to School Night. I look forward to an exciting year of learning and getting to know your child. Please refer to your child's accordian file for papers that need to be returned to school with your signature. They should be stored in the front inside pocket of the Monday Folder (found in the back of the accordian file). This folder will be coming home each Monday (or first day of the school week) filled with your child's work from the previous week. In the brads, will be the parent signature sheet, copy of the Homework Routines, and an updated grade sheet. If your child has a zero recorded for an assignment, your child will have until that Wednesday to turn in the missing assignment or the zero will be recorded. Your child will be bringing the accordian file home each night and returning with it each morning to school. They will also carry their student planner home in this folder. The planner will be completed each Monday morning for the entire week. This will allow your student to manage HW assignments with any other events they may have going on throughout the week. The Homework Schedule will also be posted each Monday on our Tarver website under 5th grade classrooms. I do not require a parent signature on the planners each night. My hopes are to teach students to take more responsibility in managing their work and to prepare them for middle school. However, if a student is having difficulty using the planner to help keep up with homework, I will call the parent and set up a signature policy with them. If you have questions regarding these routines, feel free to call me at 720-972-8462 or email me at cheryl.stanley@adams12.org.

EVERYDAY MATH ROUTINES

Just a few notes on our Everyday Math Routines that you should be aware of:

1.      Students receive the Parent Newsletter and Study Links in the form of a packet at the beginning of each unit of study. The Study Links should NOT be done all at one time, but rather nightly to practice just the skills we covered that day in class. Please refer to your child's planner or the Homework Schedule on the 5th Grade page of the Tarver website for the Study Link # that your child should be working on each night.

2.      Your child will need to finish the Math Box for the day for homework if they do not finish in class. All journal pages that will be graded for the unit are highlighted with the matching practice math boxes indicated on the top of the page. Students are encouraged to use the practice boxes to help them on their graded boxes.

3.      You will see marked Exit Slips come home periodically in Monday Folders with the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 on them. The expectation is that students earn a 3 or 4 on these review skills. I will meet in small groups with those scoring 2 or below to reteach and practice specific skills. These scores are for monitoring purposes only and will not be averaged into their grade.

4.      Because fifth grade math introduces many multistep problems that rely on instant recall of math facts, it is imperative that students master these basic facts. Therefore, students have been timed tested on their math facts for +, -, *, and /. You will receive weekly updates as to how your child is progressing in these areas. I will record the grades, however, as the students improve each week, I will change the grade to reflect such improvement. Think of it as a "grade in progress". I have practice sheets available in class for students, as well as, a helpful website for printing your own available under Helpful Websites on the right side of this webpage.

If you have any questions or concerns about the progress of your child, do not hesitate to contact me at cheryl.stanley@adams12.org or 720-972-8462.