"Only as a Warrior can one survive the path of knowledge!"

Hello Parents and Students –

I am so excited to start off March with Dr. Seuss Week. He is one of my favorite authors and it leads into one of my favorite seasons, spring. I am VERY ready to say good bye to winter and get some warmer weather.

As a school, follow the flyer below to know what we are doing each day. Something fun to do at home too, could be, reading books from Dr. Seuss each night out loud with your kiddos. Making funny food ( green eggs and ham), or just talking about your favorite books you read as a child.

I am using this week to, once again, encourage my students to LOVE to READ! I am introducing our “Spring into Reading” challenge. Books that the students read this month and till the end of April, they will fill out a flower that has certain parts that will show their understanding and proof of the book. They will also RATE the book so that some of their friends may want to read it, or maybe not read it, depending on the material. The more flowers and books the students read the more they will be putting their names in for a drawing at the end of April. I will have one big prize, but a few mini prizes too. If you would like to donate any prizes for this cause, or if you would like to donate any books to my classroom, I am ALWAYS willing and wanting.

One more, EXTRA thing, we will be doing for this week will be a READ a THON held on Thursday, March 4. It will be in the afternoon, students will be able to bring: 1 treat, 1 drink, and 1 cuddly. They will NOT be able to share their treats or drinks (covid) but can enjoy good books electronically or old fashioned on the pages. LOL I will not be allowing music for this read a thon, but I was asked about listening to reading podcasts, where someone is reading a book to a student. I am just fine with that. Of course there is the permission slip to fill out. It is at the bottom of the post. Please make sure you read it carefully and understand that if you send an electronic to read with, Mrs.Young and the Quest Academy will not be held accountable for any materials lost, stolen, or broken. Also, that the student will be bringing their OWN treat, drink, and cuddly… Mrs. Young will NOT be providing any food for this party.

Have a wonderful weekend and I will see everyone back on Monday, ready for a fun week to start off our NEW month!

Read A Thon Permission Slip

Power Standards Challenge:

This is a challenge in math. It is basically like playing (Phase 10) – Everyone started with the very first power standard we had – NBT.5 = multiplying multi – digit #’s example: 345 x 76

If the child gets BOTH answers RIGHT, they move on to the NEXT standard. I know that MOST of my students have passed this standard, and some of the power standards OFF in Mastery – the reason for the challenge is mostly to see if they are retaining the knowledge, so they are prepared for the final RISE test at the end of the year, but more important, 6th GRADE! I know, can you believe these kiddos are almost there. Have fun with this, ask your kids where they are at with the challenge, if they want to practice at home on IXL that would be great too!

Warrior KID:

My husband wanted to help our kids to handle bully situations and also to build their self esteem in this crazy world. He heard a podcast from “Jocko Willink” a Navy Seal who is amazing at teaching youngsters how to handle every day problems and build up their own self esteem.

We are going to read this book and work on different classroom challenges to become a WARRIOR kid. Our first fun challenge was Tuesday, we did a PLANK challenge. It was so fun to have the administration do it with us. Hopefully this will motivate them and they can then, motivatie their families to ALL become Warrior KIDS! and Adults. LOL

Warrior Kid (Link) for more info

Hello Parents – Here is the link we discussed during PTC. I hope it helps. If you are unclear where your child should be reading, email me and I will give you that score.

Thanks for all you do, and have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

Lexile level – Book Finder:

Hello Parents –

We are doing a 1,000 th day celebration, along with Valentine’s day on Friday, February 12. The permission slip below is for the food, passing out, recieving, and all the information for the party.

I am also asking for donations. I do have candy hearts that were previously donated. But if you are willing to donate the marshmallows or toothpicks I would be GREATLY appreciative. I have enjoyed meeting with parents this week and loved bragging about their accomplishments, then making goals for success in the future. I truly love our class’s dynamics and hope it continues through the rest of the year.

Important dates that will be coming up:

• Friday, February 5 – No School – Teacher Work Day
• Friday, February 12 – Valentine’s Day/1000th Day Party
• Sunday, February 14 – Valentine’s Day
• Monday, February 15 – No School – President’s Day
• Friday, February 26 – Dollar Dress Down
• Friday, March 5 – No School – Teacher Work Day
• Friday, March 19 – End of 3rd Quarter – (Grades are on a new grade book this year. At this time there is NOT a tracker available, but I do send out an email every time I update grades.) Remember – we are a mastery school, the grades are based on their individual (tests) NOT the practice work they do before. If they do not master a concept at first, they have multiple tries to master the standard to a 3 or 4. It doesn’t matter what quarter they took the test or the standard, Final grades are Mainly what we look at for mastery. If you have any questions about your child’s grades, please email me. In our CLASS ,the students do keep track of their own grades on their data sheets, too! (Also – check out my policy page to see scoring percentages for deeper explanation.)
• Monday, March 29 – April 1 – Spring Break

Week February 1 – 5: We are Learning

• Math: Lesson 23 – NF.7 – Dividing Fractions
• ELA – RL5.1 – Quote accurately from the text.
• ELA – RL 5.6 – Author’s /Narrator’s point of view
• Science : 5.2.2 – Properties of Matter
• Writing: Opinion Paper – “Should we keep/change the National Anthem” DUE: February 11

LINK

Valentine’s Day/1000th Day permission slip

Hello Parents – HERE is the link for my ZOOM for PTC’s if sign up genius is not a happy place to find it. LOL

CAN’t wait to see you!

Angie Young is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Angie Young’s Personal Meeting Room

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/7437457403?pwd=ZzZHblNvelROeHFXV3R0dUFIcXdlUT09

Meeting ID: 743 745 7403
Passcode: DU7a3V

Hopefully, you recieved the email telling you about the “Read a Thon” coming up on Thursday, January 28. My students worked so hard and did their best during the MOY Tests that they deserved a little reward. They can BRING: 1 treat, 1 drink, and 1 cuddly – they can also bring an electronic to listen to music, or read from. BUT NOT TO PLAY GAMES! I will not be held responsible and neither will the school if the device is lost or stolen. Students can also bring their own books, or any reading material that is school appropriate.

Permission Slip

NEXT, Parent Teacher Conferences, our last official one of the year…. February 2 and 3. We will be doing a ZOOM meeting again. When you sign up on the link, it will have the zoom there, but I will also put it on here closer to PTC time. I am excited to show you their mid year scores, where they have improved, and places to work on. We will be making an academic goal, and a behavior goal to help us press forward and preserver to the end of the YEAR!

PTC sign up

Thank you for the support we have in our classroom, I know I can’t have volunteers this year… but you at home, helping your children to read, asking how your day was, finding out what they have mastered, and just supporting education! I am very grateful! I always tell my kiddos, they are one of my best classes in 16 years of teaching. THANK YOU!

Mrs. Young

ELA Diagnostic: This diagnostic measures, Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and High -Frequency Words. These should be Mastered by 5th grade. If your child still is struggling in those areas, then they will be getting extra help in the morning (WIN) and during small group instruction time with me.

THE main areas for fifth grade are Vocabulary, Comprehension /literature, and Comprehension / informational. Overall our class and most classes struggle in the informational area. But during PTC’s next month we will dig into your own child’s results and set goals to help them push forward for the end of the year.

MATH Diagnostic: Math measures a lot of standards but overall categories are Numbers and Operations, Algebra and Algebraic Thinking, Measurement and Data, and geometry. The category that is usually the hardest to master and the most important is Numbers and operations. The others are important as well, just not as critical.

Dibels/ aka Acadiance: This is how they measure fluency (speed of reading), accuracy (how many words are correctly said), and retell (summarizing the material read), and daze/maze (close read or plugging in words to a text)

They take all those pieces and come up with a composit score. Dibels in MOSTLY for accuracy and speed in my opinion. The final scores for 5th grade (to be on benchmark) should be as follows:

Fluency: 130 words per minute

Accuracy: 99% – 100%

Retell: 36 words for a summary

Daze: 24 words in (3 min)

Obviously if your child is in the BLUE they are above benchmark. THAT is WONDERFUL, but I want them to keep working hard and reading HARDER material. If parents want to help at home… encourage higher lexile reading and INFORMATIONAL topics. The more background and material they read, the more they will be able to comprehend these materials for the future. Blues lexiles should fall between 800 – 1200.

Yellows usually are working on fluency (speed). To help at home, they need to read OUT LOUD. This will help them to feel more comfortable and confident. At this point, picking material to read, JUST motivating them is necessary. Try to stick in the lexile of 600 – 800. Informational is GREAT, but I just want them to LOVE to read… and when you struggle it is hard to find the passion.

Reds will need to work the hardest. They need to WANT to read and usually it is accuracy. They are not able to sound out words and then comprehension REALLY suffers because they are stressing so much on the words and not the what. To help, have them read out loud. Stick in their lexile 300 – 600. They NEED to read at least 30 minutes a night. It is CRUCIAL for their development especially since they are heading into the Jr. High (at Quest) and soon (District). At school, we will evaluate their struggle even deeper… and during WIN time focus on that area. I will also continue to help them in small groups. If they are students with SPED needs we will have that time as well. If your child is a RED and not in SPED (getting extra help for learning disabilities) and you would like to discuss the option that they may need to be tested. Don’t hesitate to ask me about options we can do. For all my REDS, and YELLOWS I am already doing certain accomodations. Anyway I can help your concerns or worries for your children just ask.

Finally, next week we will be back on our regular schedule for testing in Math and ELA. I will have grades updated, hopefully today, or by next Wednesday. I will send out an email as they are updated. If you have questions about the new program, please email me or the office. Remember it is all based on Mastery (their test scores/ proof of knowledge) I always take the highest score for any standard. Math tutoring is commencing on Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:00 – 3:30, except holidays and PTC’s (it is cancelled on those days). Parent Teach Conferences will be virtual again. I will have the zoom link on my Signup Genius page. I will send an email out when that is up and ready. February 2, 3 will be the main dates to sign up for. If you need another one, email me privately. I will do my best to accommodate your schedules.

Thank you again, for EVERYTHING. Your support and your positive reinforcement at home. Helping to motivate your kids, and all the donations you have already given, and might give in the future. LOL

Speaking of that… I am in need of these items for our Valentine’s Party.

*Conversation Hearts: Individually wrapped (small boxes)

*A yummy SNACK that would be good for our class’s party.

*A fun project or game? for the party

*I can’t have volunteers (sad face) but any suggestions I would be VERY grateful for.

*Any (non edible) prizes to put in the treasure box – running low

*ALWAYS needed : wet wipes, glade spray (automatic), whiteboard markers, sharpie markers, pencils, colored pencils, and old games that still have their pieces, but want to donate to the class.

HAVE A WONDERFUL LONG WEEKEND!

Welcome Back!

I don’t know about you, but I have very high hopes for a better NEW year. I hope that Covid, masks, normalcy, all that wonderful stuff can improve with this year. As for our class, they are doing GREAT. They keep our class clean, everyone does their best to keep their masks on when they need to, and washing/sanitizing their hands. Learning and Growing too, I am so proud of the kids and how hard they have been facing this challenge and the many more that they will have in their lives.

On that note, we are going to start our MIddle of Year testing. This means, Math Diagnostic, Reading Diagnostic, Dibels aka Acadiance, Daze aka Maze. The students have been given a goal to shoot for and I know everyone will do their best. If you are an E learner, please make sure to make a time to take the Dibels test with Mrs. Goldsberry. All other learners will be done in class time.

Daze/Maze will be given on Tuesday at 1:15 pm. E learners will need to be on their google meet and ready with their codes. I will email that today after school. Everyone will take it at this time together. It is only a 3 minute test. But one that will help me to know where they are at with vocabulary and comprehension. (it is the one with the OWL. to help your student know)

As for what we will be learning this week:

MATH: Multiplying Fractions: I have added a short song to help parents remember this standard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcDGRLosAf0&ab_channel=MathSongsbyNUMBEROCK

ELA: RF 5.4 – Reading fictional stories on a fifth grade level

Science: 5.2.2 – Properties of Matter

S.S – Continents/ USA – Maps

Important DATES:

• Friday, January 15, 2021 – END of Quarter 2
• Monday, January 18 – MLK – NO school
• Tuesday, Wednesday, February 2-3 – Parent Teacher Conferences (I will put a signup genius up by the end of this week or beginning of next week) I will email the link as well.

Hope the year is starting off great for you as well. Can’t wait to meet and discuss how your kiddos did on MOY testing. Have a great day! AND a great January!

We had a little fun recording a song and skit for Ms. Angelee and Dr. Dave. We hope you enjoy it too!!!

*Thursday, December 17 – After lunch: 1:10 we will do our Secret Santa exchange.

*Friday, December 18 – PJ’s and Polar Express – Please sign the food permission slip below so your child can have the treats during the party.

PERMISSION SLIP