Week of August 26-30

It has been a crazy week.  Please start looking at skyward for missing work.  I have put in one assignment already and hopefully will have time to put more in this weekend.  This is what should have been on the planner.

Here is what we did:

 TABITGB=There's a Boy in the Girls Bathroom

What should have been turned in that I will record in skyward

• My First Day of 5th Grade
• JFK Letter (write about how you want to raise your allowance, or how your life is different than JFK)
• Martin Luther King Jr. Question response
• I Am Poem

Upcoming Events:

• Thursday September 5:  Have your Archeological Shoe Box Ready
• Wednesday September 4:  Salt Dough Landforms--please bring salt dough ready to be used

Please turn in any forms that still need to be returned from back to school night.

We will be looking at our journals and handwriting books and response sheet from our read aloud book later.  Please be responsible keep track of it.

We will be starting our math book on Tuesday and also our first week of spelling.

Don't forget to sign your planner, your passport as well as add up your reading minutes on the calendar page with at least one parent signature or initials.


Below is the start of our tape sculpture.  We had fun making him today at school. In the next week or so we will tape him together and he will become a member of our class.

I have a dream...

Today is the 50th anniversary of the I have a dream speech and the March on Washington.  Many people got involved in the Civil Rights movement to help make our country a place where everyone would want to be.  They worked so that all people could be treated equally and not by their skin color.  Martin Luther King Jr. can be an inspiration to us all.  He knew there was a problem with our country and worked to find ways to fix it and get others involved.  Through non violent ways he made change.  He used his words for good.  He has and can still inspire us.  We can focus on people, not the color of their skin.  We can be kind to everyone no matter their background.  He truly is a hero.

I hope you enjoyed learning a little about him today as we read and wrote a little about him today.  He truly has made the world a better place.

First Day of School

We had a successful day of school.  I think we had fun today...at least I did.  We started the day with a word search with school words.  We did some math timed tests, we created a list of rules, read the first chapter in our book, read the poem On Turning Ten and wrote about how our life is different in 5th grade or by being 10.  We had fun doing a drama and dance activity. We wrote about our first day and then did an art project.  It was a GREAT day!

Make sure you finish your first day of school writing project and fill out the forms from the back to school night packet asap.

If you can bring in at least two spiral notebooks for writing and math that would be great!  Please bring a 1 1/2 inch - 2 inch binder for a Leader In Me notebook and portfolio.  Smaller binders will be harder to fit everything in.  Another helpful item would be a binder clip to make it easy to navigate to the correct page in your planner.

Make sure you get your planner signed and record any reading minutes in the August month page. Please add up the minutes at the end of the month. A parents signature will need to be on there before I record the minutes into skyward. 

Any questions?  Please email me at rachel.vanorden@jordandistrict.org

School Starts Tomorrow!

You may be nervous about tomorrow...I know I am.  I often have dreams about school starting.  I know it can be scary, but we will have fun.  Not just fun for a day, but fun for the year.  We will also work hard and learn a lot. It is important for us to be the best we can be so we can accomplish what we need to this year.

I am so happy many of you came to back to school night.  It was great meeting you.  I am excited to meet those of you who couldn't come on Thursday.

Make sure you get a good night's rest tonight and eat a good breakfast tomorrow.  Changing from summer back to school can be an exhausting day.

There's a Boy In the Girls Bathroom

One of my all time favorite books is There's a Boy in the Girls Bathroom by Louis Sachar.  We will be reading it the first few weeks of school.  It is about a boy named Bradley Chalkers who is in 5th grade. He is a bully and doesn't do his homework.  He often lies.  He starts going to the school counselor who changes his life.  It is a delightful book.  It makes me smile, laugh and cry.  I love it!

Other books by Lewis Sachar you may have read or heard about are
Holes

Sideways Stories From Wayside School (and the series)

Back to School Night

Remember to come to Back to School Night.  It is from 6:00-7:00 Thursday August 22, 2013.  There will be a general meeting in the gym and then there will be a session in our classroom.  At back to school night you will find where you sit, learn a little about me and we will be talking about very important information that parents and students will need to know.  I will be giving you a packet with information and forms to sign.  Please return them as soon as you can.   I can't wait to meet you all!

If you missed Back to School Night I will be sending home information on the first day of school. 

School Supplies

This is a list of School Supplies we made for 5th Grade. 

School Supplies:  The following is a list of school supplies that we will use in our classroom. You are not required to purchase these.  This is just a list for those who are interested in buying their own.  Classroom supplies will be provided at school for students to share.  If you do choose to buy your own supplies, please be sure to label them.

#2 lead pencils (Purchase these at school sales and save them for throughout the year.)

highlighter pen

scissors (especially if you are left-handed)

1 pkg. of dry erase markers

48 count crayons (Please, don’t bring larger boxes.)

colored pencils (a set for school and a set for home)

water base broad line markers

glue sticks (Please, no fancy colors, glitters, etc.)

red ink pens (or a different color other than blue/black) for correcting

zipper pouch for pencils/pens (These are a lot better than the pencil boxes.)

box of Kleenex to share with class (We use a box per week--more during the cold and flu seasons.)

folders for organization (Students found that accordion type folders were helpful.)

ear buds or ear phones (These will help when we use mobile devices in the classroom.)

sticky notes

black sharpie pen

pencil sharpener (the kind that catches pencil shavings)

hand sanitizer to share with class

Ziplock bags (snack, quart, or gallon for various projects)

*Students will need an empty shoe box for a beginning of the year activity.

More about Miss Van Orden

My name is Miss Rachel Van Orden. I grew up in Springville Utah.  When I was growing up I spent time in Virginia, Vienna Austria, and Jerusalem, Israel when my father taught in different BYU programs. Coming from a family of teachers I also chose to go into education graduating from BYU with a BA Elementary Education and from Southern Utah University with a Master’s in Education with an emphasis in Math and English as a Second Language (ESL). I have taught both 2^nd and 5^th grades.  My first year of teaching was in Houston, Texas.  I love history and all of the arts which lead me to participate both in Jordan History Academy of Teachers(JHAT) where I learned about American History and took a trip to Boston and Philadelphia with other teachers and BYU Arts Leadership Academy where I have learned more about how to integrate arts into my teaching bringing more arts into the school. I take opportunities to be a life long learner by taking community classes, cake decorating, reading in a book club with friends and education classes to help her be a better teacher.  I enjoy learning about many different kinds of peoples and cultures and has been to 4 of the 7 continents and hopes to go to all of them in her lifetime.  I loves my students and teaching.  I will always call you my "kids."

I added a few pictures so you can see a little more about me.

This first picture is of me as a baby with my brother Michael. 

 This is a picture of my family when I was in Elementary School.  It has all of the kids and my parents.  You probably will meet my dad sometime this school year.  He is retired but used to work at BYU as a professor.  My oldest brother Stephen teaches German at Timpview High School in Provo.  His wife teaches English there too. My sister Kaye teaches US History, Geography and German at Elk Ridge (some of you may have her in Junior High--wouldn't that be crazy?). Her husband works as a security officer.  My brother Michael and his wife both work in film in LA in California.  My little brother Matthew teaches at Horizon School in Saratoga Springs with Special Needs students. His wife is finishing school at BYU where we all went to school.  Sorry Ute fans, but my blood bleeds TRUE BLUE. My mom also teaches Special Needs students at Springville High School where I graduated. Yes we are all teachers!

 

This next picture is of me at Mesa Verde one of our Awesome National Parks in the United States.  I went there a few years ago with some friends.  It is a great place to learn about Native Americans in the South West.  I always try to visit historical sights on all of my vacations because I LOVE history.

This picture is of me in Boston with my experience with JHAT.  Many teachers from Jordan School District went on a trip to learn more about the Revolutionary War and the Constitution.  It was a fabulous trip.  This picture was taken on the USS Constitution a battle ship from the War of 1812--the same war we got our National Anthem. 

Welcome!

Welcome to 5th Grade!

I am excited to have you in my class.  We will have a lot of fun but we will also work hard. This is what I expect in our class.

• Be responsible for your own work and homework.
• Work independently as well as cooperatively in small groups and whole class activities. 
• —Be respectful of others 
• follow the school and classroom rules
• —Be excited to learn about U.S. History, Reading, Writing, Math, Science, and the Arts.

Let me tell you about my summer:

• I took four classes, yes I go to school too.  I took an art, a teaching science, an ipad class and a geology class.  I learned a lot and am excited to share some of it with you. (I love to learn new things!)
• Like many of you, I have a Pass of All Passes so I visited Seven Peaks a few times this summer.
• Worked on some craft projects 
• I slept in--A LOT.  I know you probably did too. Summer is great that way.
• I ate about a million popsicles. I can't seem to get enough of them.
• I read some good books--I love to read! 
• I saw some fun movies.  My favorite for the summer was Despicable Me 2.
• I went to a family reunion in California.  While there I visited the USS Midway, Old town San Diego, Universal Studios, the Beach, San Gabriel Mission(one of the California Catholic Missions), Olvera Street in LA and got to visit with my family.  

Overall I had a great summer.  I hope you did as well.  A few pictures are below.  

Let's make this a great year!
THANKS
Miss Van Orden