Life and Learning in Memorial 231

What a great start to the year! I can't believe we are already on week FOUR. Between short weeks and Camp Bournedale, this will be our first official five day week as fifth graders. I am excited! Homework is slowing starting to come home and you can expect it to be in a full, normal routine in the next week or so. Speaking for ELA, students will be visiting the library this week to select a book for their independent reading at home. They will also be setting up their reflection journals in class and I will spend this week modeling what a quality entry looks like. Students will complete their entries at school this week, and will begin completing it at home next week. Below is a peek at some of the fun we've been having over these first couple of weeks.

Aimee Warford

Starting with a Positive Mindset

The first few days of school, we worked on getting into a positive mindset for learning. Students completed a challenging task, and it was amazing to watch how quickly students went from a "I get this. I can do this. This is easy. " attitude, to a "This is hard. I don't get it. I give up." attitude. It was less then 10 minutes to be exact. This sparked an interesting conversation around out attitude's towards challenges. Next, we watched a powerful video on mindset and learning. A couple of big take aways:

- nobody was born smart
- we are all born to learn
- failing is just another word for growing

Students created a word splash of words, phrases, and ideas that they thought about the statement I WAS BORN TO LEARN. Those finished word splashes will be out for you to see at Open House next week.

Launching Reading and Writing Class

Fifth graders began their normal schedule last week, meeting their reading and math teachers. In ELA, students completed a carousel walk around the room, thinking and responding to 6 different ideas around reading. They then completed a walk, observing the responses of others and responding to the group. We have also been establishing from routines, like Thinking Buddies" for reading and writing.