PJ & Game Day!

All students at Memorial will be participating in Pajama Day on Tuesday, December 23rd. We will also be playing board games at the end of the day, so please send in a board game with your child! 

Conference Availability

Please e-mail me if you'd like to meet with me during any of the following times:

Tuesday, Dec. 2nd
7:15am, 7:30am, 3:00pm, 3:15, 3:30, 4:00, 4:15, 4:30

Wednesday, Dec. 3rd
7:15am, 7:30am, 3:00pm, 3:15, 3:30, 4:00, 4:15, 4:30

Thursday, Dec. 4th 
10:15, 10:30, 10:45, 11:00, 11:15, 11:30, 11:45, 1:45, 2:00

Phone conferences are also available! 

Back to School night

Hello Fifth Grade Families,

We are looking forward to seeing you this Tuesday night. We will be spending the part of the half hour meeting as a grade level team in Mrs. Burns room #232.  After we give our presentation, you will have the opportunity to visit your child’s classroom.  While you are in your child’s homeroom, you will have the chance to sign up for conferences which will take place on Thursday, December 4th. We will be doing conferences differently this year. Because your child has different teachers for the various subjects, you can make a choice with which teacher you would like to conference. For example, if your priority is to discuss your child’s math progress and he/she has Mr. Rabazzi for math, you might want to set up a conference with Mr. Rabazzi. If you’d like to meet with more than one teacher, you can set up an additional meeting at another time. We are also offering phone conferences this year.

We wanted to give you this information so that you can think about with which teacher you’d like to meet. Please contact your child’s homeroom teacher if you need more information about which teachers your child has for which subjects.

Welcome!

I hope you are having a wonderful summer! The beginning of the year is right around the corner. This year will be filled with fun and learning for all of us. We are so lucky to be a part of Memorial because it is a beautiful building, but more importantly, it is a community with helpful teachers and friendly students.

Teaching is my absolute favorite thing to do. Don’t get me wrong- I love summer: the beach, barbeques, and good books. Reading is one of my favorite summer activities. As a fifth grader, you’ll be doing a lot of reading. I hope that you are enjoying some good books this summer!

On the first day of school, I’d like you to bring a paper bag filled with 5 small items. Each item should tell us something about you. This is a fun way to get to know each other better. In addition to that, there are some other “supplies” you need to bring with you to room 235. Please bring a positive attitude, determination, curiosity, and respect. Do you remember the sign that’s hanging in the front of our classroom? It says “It Takes All Kinds of Kinds.” This is a daily reminder that it’s important to accept and embrace everyone’s differences. We are all different, which makes this world a fantastic place!

I’d love to hear from you before school starts. Feel free to email me at mconceison@bpsk12.org. You can share some things you’ve done over the summer, what you’re looking forward to, or even some suggestions for this year! Enjoy the rest of your summer! Soak up the sunshine. Read a good book. Laugh with friends and family. I can’t wait to start our year together!

"It takes all kinds of kinds."

I love being a teacher. I love helping kids finally "get" a math concept, helping them develop a love of reading, challenging them to be more descriptive writers, and guiding them in exploring science concepts.  Ensuring that my students do their best to reach their academic potential is my job.  The most rewarding part of my job, however, is having the privilege to witness children showing genuine and heartfelt kindness toward each other for no reason other than making someone's day a little bit easier. We have had many conversations about acceptance and respect for others in our classroom. The children in our class speak about these concepts with a maturity and understanding that some adults fail to display. We have a class saying that we "borrowed" from a Miranda Lambert song. There is a poster that says "It takes all kinds of kinds"  hanging in the front of our classroom as a daily reminder. Yesterday, Bella came in and said hello then handed me a card. She had written a beautiful note about things she has learned this year about accepting others. She then shared that she designed a t-shirt for our whole class so that everyone can remember the lessons they've learned about treating others kindly. It was so fun to wear these shirts as a class today and spread our motto around the school. I can't think of a better concept to advertise. Thank you to Bella and her family for this thoughtful and generous gesture! 

We will cherish these for years to come. 

PARCC Tutorial

Here is a link to the PARCC tutorial for students. This is a great way to practice navigating through the test and for sampling some questions. 

A couple things...

Hi Families! 

• Report cards go home today. Please return the report card folder ASAP.
• It's time to donate to the class basket for the Toast to Memorial. Our class will be combining with Mrs. Harlow's class to make a "Pamper Me" gift basket. I sent the notice home yesterday. Here are some ideas: lotion, candles, gift cards, mani/pedi set, eye mask...Anything that you think would work! 

Thank you for your support! 

Memory Book Photos

An important message from 

the 5th Grade Committee:

Dear 5th 

Grade Parents, 

The Memory Book is a time honored tradition at Memorial. It commemorates the elementary school years of 

our 5th 

graders and is a treasured keepsake. In order to make this project a success, we need the involvement 

of every 5th grade parent. Thank you to those who have offered to volunteer and to those who have 

submitted photos already. 

We are asking that parents submit digital pictures of their Memorial students to be included in the memory 

book. Please send one baby photo and one Kindergarten photo of your child. We prefer the Kindergarten 

photo to be the professional school photograph, however, if you don’t have one we will certainly accept 

another photo of your child from that year. 

We’ve extended the deadline from February 28th to March 14th. 

You can send digital photos in two different ways: 

 Email – Send email with your child’s first and last name in the subject line to 

grade5memorial@gmail.com 

 Disc – Send disc to school in envelope marked 5

th grade committee with your child's name written on the disc. 

We would also appreciate a few group photos taken from school activities, field trips, concerts, etc. if you’d 

like to share. The book will primarily consist of 4th & 5th grade photos; however, there will be a small section that includes photos from kindergarten through 3rd grade as well. Please only submit photos of children who currently attend Memorial. 

Please email any questions or concerns to grade5memorial@gmail.com.

Compliment Books

I sent home a notice today about making compliment books for Valentine's Day. If you have already purchased valentines, please feel free to send them in. Just remember that there needs to be one for everyone and that they cannot have any food items attached. 

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and we will be using this day to celebrate friendship. Rather than bringing in valentines, each student will receive a compliment book filled with kind words from classmates. These “inside compliments” should be thoughtful and specific (more than “you are nice.”)

Here are some examples:

“I like the way you participate in class.”

“You always try your best in P.E.”

“I like that you have a positive attitude toward school.”

“It’s great that you make sure others feel included.”

“You make people laugh, but you also know when it’s  time to be serious.”

Please work with your child to brainstorm compliments for classmates. The rough draft for the compliments are due Tues. February 4th. All words should be spelled correctly. These can be worked on during morning work and at home. Keep this copy at home.

Thank you for your help and support! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Fifth Grade Committee

Are you interested in being a part of the fifth grade committee? 

Come to the meeting on Thursday, Jan. 30th

7-8pm in the library

Kindness Matters

A couple of weeks ago when our class was lining up for specials in the morning, the kids found sticky notes in their lockers with kind words like "you're a good friend," "you are nice," "you are a role model." The fifth graders were SO happy to see these random kind notes.  There were a few second graders at the end of the hall with big smiles on their faces. They wanted to spread some kindness throughout Memorial. Check out the story here!