We've been busy this week with standardized testing. The students across Unit 5 spent the week taknig assessments. Your child was assess in the areas of: word study skills, vocabulary, spelling, reading comprehension, math problem solving, science, social science, math procedures, and some other general skills. It's been a full week with 1-2 sessions per day of testing and I'm sure they are ready for a weekend (I know I am!).

The results of the tests are supposed to be available to us in October in time for our School Improvement Day. This will hopefully give us a good idea of the strengths and weaknesses and help us better adjust our instruction to meet the needs of the students. It will also help us measure growth moving forward.

Thanks for your help in preparing your students by ensuring they were rested and well-fed!

The students were introduced to their first fifth grade project this week. Hopefully you were able to go over the guidelines with them that came home. All three parts of the project are due Monday, though a majority of the work should have been completed in class.

We intentionally took this project step-by-step so I could help the students understand how to plan, manage their time, and meet deadlines. As we move through the year they will often be asked to be more indpendent when it comes to projects like these. You are welcome to help them, but please make sure the ideas and products are their own. We've talked about how much help is too much help, and we've discussed plagiarism as well.

The students also know they should be keeping track of all the resource they use. For now a list will suffice, though later in the year they will learn how to create a bibliography!

There are several important dates coming up in October. Be sure to check the school calendar regularly and watch for notes and reminders that come home.

We also have several class birthdays in October, so it might be a good time to review the Classroom Handbook and our procedures and guidelines for birthdays!

As I mentioned at the Parent Orientation, one of my big goals for the students this year is to help them become more independent and responsible.

To help them achieve that goal, I'll often encourage them to find answers to their own questions, find solutions to their own problems, and resolve their own conflicts. It's not that I won't help or don't care ... but I believe that they learn much more valuable lessons by being responsible for it themselves. I will attempt to be more of a helper and a guide than the source of all knowledge.

I would also encourage you to help in that process. If your child has a question about homework or a project, encourage them to ask a classmate or search for the answer themselves. If they forget their lunch, encourage them to get a credit instead of bringing their lunch to school for them. If they forget their instrument, encourage them to live through those natural consequences and help them find ways to remember in the future.

As a parent of three myself, I know that it sometimes is very tempting to always want to "bail them out", but I also know that I learned many of the lessons I did by taking a few lumps along the way.

Fifth grade is a big year and leads up to a time of major transition. Everything we can do to prepare them will help them be more successful moving forward.

Don't forget to check the class website regularly. The homework and links pages can be very helpful, and you can also find things like project guidelines and reading logs (due Monday!) that you can download and print.