ORCHARD SCHOOL
GRADE 5
ROOM 35
MS.DINH'S DOOR TO DISCOVERY
MORE ABOUT OUR CLASS
READER, WRITER & MATHEMATICIAN OF THE MONTH
On the first Wed. of every month, a Reader, Writer, and Mathematician of the Month will be announced in class to honor students who have been trying their best in these areas. They will receive a medal, certificate, a Bruin PAW prize, and a seat cushion (for the month). To promote a growth mindset, I choose students who have shown a lot of effort and improvement in their participation, classwork, and homework.
STAR OF THE WEEK
Every Wed., the Star of the Week
will be announced at the beginning of class.
Since there's only one 4th-5th grade Star Student Assembly on the first Wed. of every month, two volunteers will represent the class in announcing all of the Stars of the previous month.
Star students will fill out a "Fakebook" page and present to the class about themselves the following Wed.
BIRTHDAYS
Please notify me 1 week in advance if you
plan on bringing a treat for your child's
birthday. We will celebrate during the last 15 minutes of class. Please make sure that the treat is store-bought, nut-free and healthy. Please save your receipts in case any food consumption issues occur.
SIGN LANGUAGE
We use sign language to communicate in class.
TEAM POINTS
Whenever students are unified and are working hard as a table group, they receive points for their team, which earns them ice cream when they get to 50 pts.
FUN FRIDAY
When the entire class makes good choices, they can earn free choice minutes for Fun Friday.
PARENT COMMUNICATION
The majority of my communication will be via my class website, texting through the Remind app, and e-mail. On Mon. or Tues. of each week, I will send home a Weekly Progress Report form for the previous week. Please use it to talk with your child about his/her week, sign, and return it by Fri. All returned tests (except Spelling) must be signed and turned in by Fri. of that week. Text reminders will be sent to parents if the Weekly Progress Report and tests aren’t signed.
All school forms, flyers, and returned student work will be in students' Thurs. envelope. Please check it every Thurs. night, sign, and return it by Friday.
POSITIVE BEHAVIOR SUPPORT
I thoroughly believe that “Practice Makes Progress”. Therefore, when students make a mistake in terms of behavior in class, I will quickly document the behavior and during my free time, I will ask those students to practice the correct behavior in order to learn from their mistakes.
If the behavior repeats after multiple practices or is extreme, I will send home a citation/referral to explain the behavior that we’ve worked on in hope that parents can support their child by discussing about the documented behavior.
If the student takes a longer time to improve, we will create a student-teacher contract together in order to set goals and work toward them.
At the beginning of each day, I will pull equity sticks to choose 2 students as my "Mystery Seats." I will pay attention to their behavior throughout the day. If they work hard, collaborate well, and make good choices, I will announce their name at the end of the day. They then can choose a prize from my treasure chest. Names of students who make poor choices will not be announced. I will only explain the behaviors that have caused that student to not be able to earn a prize.