10 Random Facts About Room 2 We don’t have desks...even the teacher! Our classroom jobs are unlike any others you’ve done before...the chores, on the other hand, are definitely things you’ve done before.
What’s new in 5th Grade? Fifth grade is a year focused on preparing you for your journey to the middle school and your lifelong learning beyond Swasey. With this in mind, several things will be “bumped up” from 4th grade - especially the expectation of responsibility. You will need to be responsible for yourself, your choices, your work, and your learning this year. We will have several long term projects over the course of the year. You will need to help manage, plan, and complete each along with regular, daily homework assignments. Fifth graders also have to adjust to different teachers for Science and Math units throughout the year. For many reasons, it will be important to be organized. We’ll spend much of September setting ourselves up for success through good organizational strategies. There will be lots of opportunity to stretch your wings as a learner this year as well. You’ll discover new things about yourself as a community member, a friend, a school leader, and as a person. We will be sure to have lots of fun along the way too! Throughout the year, you will have choices to make in what you explore and discover and how you share your learning with others. Be prepared to connect what interests you outside of school - sports, dance, nature, music,
whatever(!) - to your work in the classroom. We are fortunate to have many technology resources available to us this year. We’ll learn using digital cameras, green screens (learn more about this on our website!), laptops, netbooks, ipods & ipads, blogs, wikis, website creation, and much more. Speaking of adventures - hold onto your hatS (with a capital S!). You’ll wear many of them this year as you try jobs such as tutorial designer, official scribe, researcher, collaboration coordinator, news broadcaster, and curriculum reviewer.
I’M HUNGRY! With all of the learning and hard work we’ll do this year, we need to keep our brains fueled! Our classroom DOES allow (all day) grazing on healthy snacks (only). Be sure to pack additional snacks to keep your brain running all day! Water packed in a re-useable, plastic bottle (marked with your name) is also welcome in our room. Additionally, to keep our hardworking brain focused, please feel free to bring in sugar free gum to chew throughout the day.
We Skype with other classrooms, authors, & places often throughout the year. Hard work always pays off here. We often work together (as a class and as a whole 5th grade) in many different ways. Our class mascot is our Eyelash Crested Gecko, Apple Noal. We do LOTS of academic simulations. You’ll get to be an EXPLORER, COLONIST, and REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER. You can eat & drink all day as long as it’s healthy and not near electronics.
You’ll get to choose a lot of what you study, read, and do!