Our 5th grade year has started off with a bang! In just the first two weeks of school we have been setting the tone for a fantastic school year of exploration, inquiry, and collaboration. I have been absolutely delighted to get to know your children and start to develop relationships with each and every one. This year we have a classroom of twenty-seven very unique, thoughtful, and passionate kiddos -- and we have already started to build a classroom culture where we learn from each other and grow together as a community. Here's just a taste of our journey and accomplishments from the first weeks of school. 

This week students cultivated and shared their own "Bags of Me" -- a way to express their identity, interests, and experiences with special objects. All students participated through presenting an array of items -- photos, souvenirs, stuffies, books, games, t-shirts, instruments, handmade crafts, original comics and stories, scrapbooks, sports gear, and any number of symbolic objects. "Audience members" rotated from presenter to presenter and had the opportunity to learn about what makes each of their classmates tick. We all agreed that it was a wonderful way to start the year and develop trusting relationships.

Over the last two weeks we have been starting our school days with meetings to build community and reflect on the values that will guide our learning environment this school year. These conversations are foundational to our classroom's social and emotional growth and will ensure that all community members feel safe to learn, grow, and take risks. So far, we have agreed to try out "Flex Seating," in which students choose where they sit to fit their own needs as an individual learner. Other benefits to students include developing responsibility and independence as well as having the opportunity to collaborate with different classmates everyday. 

The first two weeks have set us off on our "Wild Reader" journey. We are in the process of establishing our "Wild Reading" habits that are critical to living our lives as passionate and intrinsically motivated readers -- reading independently, selecting "just right" books, tracking our reading lives, setting up our reading notebooks, and sharing our reading lives with our peers. Also, we've established our school year's "40 Book Reading Challenge" through which we read will widely across various genres. Next week we will be setting individual reading goals and diving deeper into the characteristics that differentiate genres.

We have started the school year with YouCubed.org's "Week of Inspirational Math" which provides a variety of inquiry-based and collaborative math activities and encourages students to internalize powerful "growth mindset" math messages. Already we have learned that making mistakes and struggling through a math challenge cause brain growth, that anyone can be a "math person" as long as they try, and that everyone sees and thinks about numbers differently. Check out some of the explorations we have embarked on over the last week.

Collaborative challenges are a critical part of our 5th grade year! Ongoing partner and team challenges exemplify the kind of developmental growth we like to see in our older students as they are compelled to cooperate, communicate, and problem-solve with a wide variety of students. Activities such as these help to foster social-emotional dispositions such as perseverance, flexibility, collaboration, and metacognition -- as students reflect on their process. Our first partner challenge was to create and present an "invention" out of random materials. Our first team (and cross-grade) challenge was to build the highest possible structure out of newspaper and tape that could also withstand "hurricane-force winds" (i.e. a hair-dryer). Both challenges brought out incredible creativity and teamwork in our students -- and we also had a blast.

Your support and communication will be critical to making our fifth grade school year a success! It will be important for your child to understand that their parents and teachers are working together as a team and I look forward to all the different ways that we will partner up this year.

In the meantime, here are some ways that you can support your child as we move into our third week:

• Transitioning to our early start time is a challenge for all of us! However, please do your best to get your child to school on time every day, as we start our work right as the second bell rings at 7:55am. Getting this habit established early on in the school year is important for the functioning of the whole class.
• Please support your child as we establish our 5th grade home-to-school routines with homework and supplies. Students are responsible for bringing a number of learning materials back and forth every school day. Routines, organization, and responsibility are key -- please guide your child and help them check and pack their bags at an established time and location before every new school day. Items that your child can expect to pack up every day include: orange folder (with flyers, homework, and parent-school communication), planner, green reading notebook, and independent reading book(s).
• One goal of homework this year will also be to develop responsibility and organizational skills in your child. At this point, we're starting off slow to support your child's success. One tool we will be using regularly is our planner. During our classroom "End of Day Routine" we will all be writing down homework assignments and other important reminders. You can support your child by making sure that they check their planner every afternoon/evening. You may also want to establish a routine where they check off completed assignments in their planner every day.
• Loooong Parent Letter from last week: If you somehow missed it, please click HERE. This is a letter I sent home last week which explains some other important things to know about the school year (e.g. Snacks, Birthdays, Specials Schedule, etc.).
• I have been updating our classroom Twitter feed with photos and updates from our classroom almost everyday! If you haven't already started following us, please do! Our Twitter handle is @MsGoldmanQAE 
• Last - please continue to engage your child with questions and conversations about what they are doing every day in school. One entry way into this discussion is to read this blog post together - it will hopefully provoke a rich discussion! Also, feel free to comment or ask questions on this blog. Next week, we will be looking at the blog as a class and discussing what it means to post effective and appropriate comments online. It would be wonderful if we had a chance to respond to some of your own thoughtful comments!
• Thanks for reading this far and please feel free to email me with any questions. Here's to another fabulous week of fifth grade!

It is almost mid-November and it seems like eons ago, but let's not forget the BLAST that the Islanders had on Halloween! Although we were emerging from the lovely haze of IslandWood, we still managed to have a very a full day of thematic and creative fun, including an awesome, parent-organized party!

Our menu of festive activities included:

• Halloween-themed MadLibs 
• A creepy, collaborative, creature-creating art activity called Exquisite Corpse (with student presentations the following week)
• School-wide costume parade
• Hilarious party games like Catch the Doughnut (no hands!)
• Halloween-y estimation jars and prizes
• Cookie designing (and snacking!) with fabulous decorations
• Group character skits and performances
• Karaoke singing and dancing

A big shout out to ALL the parents who made this wonderful party possible! Islander parent-organizers included Jennifer Richardson, Karen Gigliotti, Suzanne Beckerman, and Lauren Gums. Thank you!!

Enjoy the slideshow!

It is nearly impossible to summarize our experience at IslandWood due to the sheer amount of moments that occurred over the course of the week: moments of learning, moments of growth, moments of teamwork, moments of exploration, moments of discovery, moments of teaching each other, moments of taking care of each other, moments of creativity, moments of curiosity and wonder, moments of building relationships, moments of joy. If students' expectations for their experience were high before they even set foot on the leafy pathway leading into IslandWood, they left with their expectations exceeded... and even beyond bursting!

To call IslandWood a school or even a camp would not be able to do justice to the uniquely integrated learning that students experienced from opening their eyes at the chaperones' wake-up calls to hitting their heads on their pillows at lights out. Students' exploration of the natural world was but an avenue into understanding (and applying) team decision-making skills, stewardship for one's global and local community, the interconnectedness of ecosystems, the multifaceted uses of flora and fauna for human survival, the human impact on the earth through food consumption and waste, and care and consideration towards our peers-turned-lodgemates.

From a teacher's perspective, I only have tremendous gratitude for such a special opportunity. This one week away from our everyday QAE hustle-and-bustle allowed me to develop meaningful "out-of-the-classroom" relationships with your children. I was able to witness their growth and leadership not only during our daily fieldwork but also at the dinner table and during our bonding "Lodge Time." Most significantly, I was able to take on the role of a "student" and learn side-by-side with your children as we uncovered crabs at the harbor, sang songs by the fire during our "Friendship Circle," and discussed our table's food waste status at breakfast. Thanks to all of the 5th grade parents for your support and helping to make possible such an incredible experience for both students AND teachers!

Lastly, I have to extend a HUGE shout-out to our incredibly helpful 5th grade parent chaperones, whose participation was vital making our experience what it was. A special thank you goes to Lauren Gums, our Islanders representative, who actively supported the students, teachers, and IslandWood instructors from sunrise to sunset. We definitely couldn't have done it without you!

I hope you have had (and continue to have) many conversations with your child about their experience and what it meant to them. For the Islanders' personal reflections, I encourage you to log onto our classroom Blog and click on the post "IslandWood Poem." I invite you to scroll through students' writing, get a little "taste" of the IslandWood experience, and please leave your own questions, comments and wonderings! 

Our KidBlog: https://kidblog.org/class/the-qae-islanders/login
Username: guest
Password: guest2015

Also, please enjoy the slideshow below and let these pictures speak for all of the powerful and precious moments we experienced at IslandWood.

Intriguingly, 5th grade Washington State Social Studies starts with the year 1492. 1492: A year in U.S. history whose meaning is loaded with various perspectives, opinions, and versions of the "truth." Fortunately for the Islanders, their identity as Seattleites also provides them with a direct challenge to the notion--taught across the country--that "Columbus discovered America." In 2014, the Seattle City Council voted to discontinue the celebration of Columbus Day and, instead, decided that the day would be used to honor the lives of Native Americans through Indigenous People's Day.

The story of one of the most famous years in American history colliding with a special decision made by the City of Seattle provided us with our first guiding, inquiry question of 5th grade Social Studies: Why does Seattle celebrate Indigenous People's Day instead of Columbus Day?

Over the past two weeks, the Islanders have been honing their research skills and investigating a variety of sources to find evidence that addresses the guiding question of this unit. After initially assessing our own knowledge, and realizing that we are coming into the school year with a range of different ideas about Columbus and virtually no background knowledge on Indigenous People's Day, we set off on our own journey of discovery--uncovering the "truth" and realizing that perspective shapes the writing of history.

As a whole group and with partners we collected research from the following online and text sources, among others:

• BrainPop
• The Seattle Times
• CNN Online
• Time Magazine Online
• The Pew Research Center
• A Young People's History of the U.S. by Howard Zinn
• Encounter by Jane Yolen

After compiling and sharing a list of evidence on our classroom KidBlog, students started to consider the different ways they could express their learning. The next step of this unit will be for the Islanders to form collaborative teams and determine the purpose, audience, format, and content of our projects. Stay tuned--the adventure continues!

During the second and third weeks of 5th grade we have continued our beginning-of-the-school year growth and community building! It has been a pleasure getting to know your children and all of their unique interests and personalities. The last two weeks have been about creating a trusting classroom community, celebrating each others' effort and creativity, and diving deeper into curriculum!

Diving in deeper means...

• Through our Social-Emotional curriculum Positive Discipline, students have been creating and practicing guidelines for a safe learning environment and an enriching school year. Over five days, students collaborated in groups and as a whole class in order to determine our "non-negotiable" guidelines and how they would function during our everyday classroom activity. For the best possible school year, the Islanders committed to being kind, working together as a team, being self-directed learners, finding solutions, and having fun!
• Beginning-of-the-Year Reading Workshop has been all about setting the tone for a year of "wild reading habits." Students have been building a culture of reading through "Shelfie" posters, Book Graffiti, Book Commercials and Daily Status Updates. Students have begun documenting their reading lives through Reading Notebooks and keeping track of books they have read and books they want to read. This week we started discussing our year-long "40 Book Challenge" and the characteristics of the various genres that we will be exposed to. Most importantly, students have been getting sucked into awesome books everyday during independent reading time. In fact, Reading Workshop ends each day with a collective groan of Wild Readers who could on keeping reading for hours!
• In Writing Workshop, students have launched their Writing Notebooks with tried-and-true strategies that help all writers brainstorm ideas from our lived experiences, feelings, and interests. Writing about the world starts with us! This week, students used the "Best List" and "Worst List" strategy to think of the best and worst times of their lives before picking one idea that they could flesh out into a story. After drafting, students shared stories in small groups of supportive peers.
• In Math, students spent the last two weeks participating in inquiry-based mathematical exploration through Youcubed's Week of Inspirational Math (WIM). Students were challenged to make sense out of puzzles, identify visual and numerical patterns, and use mathematical language and reasoning to provide evidence for their theories. In the end, WIM provided us with a lot of "take-aways" that will guide our thinking as mathematicians this year: making mistakes means that your brain is working and growing, math is about deep thinking and not rapidity, and all people see and understand mathematics in entirely different ways -- to name a few of the critical lessons we learned.
• Over the last two weeks, students had a chance to embark on their first "mini-PBL" of the year with an iPad challenge-- to create a presentation that explains and teaches some aspect of Queen Anne Elementary to Ms. Goldman. In partners and trios, students used their "Explain Everything" app to create slideshows with visuals and interviews regarding a variety of QAE-related topics -- the Talent Show, Jog-a-thon, P.E. Class, Halloween at QAE, Mrs. Meck's class, just to name a few! Stay tuned for student work on our website!
• The Islanders are lucky enough to be buddying up with Mrs. Meck's first graders this year! For our first get-together, 5th grade and 1st grade Buddies collaborated to create a "getting-to-know-you" presentation using the EduCreations app on their iPads. In partners and small groups, Buddies discussed and shared their interests, similarities, and differences. It was incredible to see the students working together and learning from each other across ages and grade levels and, in the case of the 5th graders, to see the older students stepping into the roles of leaders and role models. I can't wait to see what comes out of our classroom partnership this year!
• The Islanders started thinking critically about online communication and, specifically, how to comment appropriately when using mediums such as classroom websites, Blogs, and Twitter. This year, the Islanders will comment with "C.A.R.E." When responding to someone online, students will always consider whether their comment is Connected, Appropriate, Responsive, and Edited. This week, we had the opportunity to practice as a whole group when responding to the wonderful and thoughtful comments and questions posted by our broader classroom community of parents and even grandparents! Thank you for taking the time to model positive online communication with your child's classroom!

There is so much learning and growing happening already in the Islanders' humble abode of Portable 2. I am looking forward to discussing so much more in person this Wednesday, October 7 during Curriculum Night.

Please enjoy a photo slideshow of our adventures in learning:

We have had an awesome first few days of 5th grade! In addition to "reacquainting" ourselves with reading workshop, writing notebooks, and math challenges, we have been spending a lot of time getting to know each other better and building a supportive community. 

Here are just a few of the things we have been up to in the first days of school:

• "Make Something" Partner Challenge 
• Presenting "Bags of Me" that express our interests, passions, and identities
• Developing our Reading Culture/Community through posting "Shelfies"
• Launching our Writing Notebooks with the histories of our names
• Sharing Read Alouds, including The Right Word, Si Se Puede, and Milo Speck
• Kickstarting Math instruction with collaborative, inquiry puzzles 

Last, but not least, students spent the last couple of days working in small groups campaigning for their choice of our classroom's team name. After creating posters, presenting proposals, debating our preferences, and going through two rounds of anonymous voting, our class has chosen our official name for the year. It is… (drum roll…) … The Islanders! Be sure to ask your child what our classroom name means to them!

Hear, hear to QAE's Islanders and a fantastic 5th grade year!

Stay tuned for Blog updates that showcase what we're up to as we begin a whole new school year! In the meantime, you can check out some learning experiences from my previous year of teaching (in a 4th grade classroom).