Ice Skating

The first day of the ice skating program at the Burlington Ice Palace. Fifth graders at Memorial are lucky enough to participate in this four week program. Ms. Bannon and Mr. Peterson do a great job organizing and running this. Here is what students need to bring tomorrow and every Thursday in January:

* Warm clothes: the Ice Palace is extremely cold and with the record low temperatures expected for tomorrow, warm clothes will be very important! 
*Helmet
* A bag: No plastic bags. A backpack, duffle or canvas bag will be best. 

Happy New Year and Welcome Back

Welcome to 2015! 

I hope that everyone had a wonderful break filled with family and friends. I look forward to seeing all of the students tomorrow! Now that it's time to get back to work, here's an update on what will be happening in Room 235:

* Ice skating begins on Thursday. This is a special event that Ms. Bannon and Mr. Peterson coordinate. It's important that everyone has warm clothes and a helmet.

* ELA: DRA tests  (Developmental Reading Assessment) were administered in December and i-Ready assessments will be given this week. My reading class will be taking i-Ready on Friday. We will be starting to read the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen. We will focus on theme, point of view, and author's purpose as we read this book. We will be working on persuasive writing as well. 

* Math: We will be working on multiplying and dividing decimals. There will continue to be a focus on fact fluency, and Reflex will be weekly homework. 

* Science: We will be starting our unit on space. We will review facts about the planets, but there will be large focus on the phases of the moon. Mr. Musselman will be in to do an activity with us. 

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.