All fifth graders will spend approximately 50% of their classroom instruction in both English and Spanish. Students will spend their entire day in integrated homerooms. Your child will have both English literacy and Spanish literacy every day all year.  They will also have an extended literacy block that will rotate between English and Spanish literacy creating a longer block for one or the other on a rotating basis to ensure balance. The language of instruction will also rotate for math, science and social studies, ensuring language balance over time.  

Binders

The students take their binders home with them each day. One of the main reasons for this is so that your child can be reviewing at home what they’ve learned in school during the day (studying). Although we do not always send specific homework each day, in preparation for sixth grade and beyond, we expect your child to get in the habit of coming home every day and studying what they’ve learned in school. The binder also serves as a home-school connection. The binder is a great resource for you, the parents, to see what your child is learning in school since all of their work is kept inside. Please ask your child to share their binder with you and try to make it a habit of looking at it together a couple of times each week.

Snack

We will not be having a formalized snack time at fifth grade. However, your child is allowed to bring in a small snack to eat during the morning. We do ask however, that the snack be healthy (no candy or chips), not messy, non disruptive and individual. We do have several severe food allergies within our student population and ask that snacks follow the strict guidelines as outlined by your classroom teacher. Students will not be allowed to share their snack with other students. As we don’t have a specific time set aside

Behavior Policy

It is our goal that fifth graders get every opportunity to become good problem solvers. School sponsored programs such as Peer-Mediation aid us in meeting this goal. We take a proactive approach to resolving conflicts. One example being, utilizing periodic talking circles throughout the year and holding weekly class meetings to discuss classroom climate issues. We process with students when there are issues of concern or behavioral problems.

We also have worked together as a 5^th grade community to make five agreed upon rules which we expect all students to follow: 1. Respect property 2. Be safe 3. Respect other people 4. Respect time 5. Respect language use.  When students have more serious or repeated offenses we contact parents and refer students to the guidance counselor or the office for processing via a “Time to Think” report. 

Snack

your child will be able to eat the snack at any time during the morning as long as the above guidelines are followed, and that the snack doesn’t interfere with your child’s learning. 

Assessment

Fifth graders are required by the state of Colorado to take the CSAP test. Testing will occur in the spring. No definite dates have been set, but we will inform you of the dates as the time approaches. During the CSAP testing we ask that you postpone all doctor appointments, or any other appointments that may cause your child to miss school during the testing days.

Regular classroom assessment will be administered in both English and Spanish. Assessments may look like a standard test of mathematical computation, teacher/student conference notes and observations or a portfolio of your child’s work.