End of year letter

Class of 2023,

I can not tell you how much this year has impacted me.  We all know that our class has had some ups and downs throughout the year. We have had some tears, but I know we have had more laughs than anything. I can honestly say you are the most entertaining class I have been a part of. You are a class full of leaders, which can be hard at times, but I know that you will all use that leadership to make a difference. 

You have constantly shocked and impressed me this year. Some of you have focus and drive for perfection that is something to be proud of and to nurture as you get older. This is evident in your improvement from August until now. Just remember how you never thought you would understand RACE, or look at the gains you have made in your Lexile score! That drive and internal motivation you have will come in handy not only in your educational life but in your personal lives also. 

I hope that you will take what you have learned this year to heart and use it. We have had a lot of "life lesson" talks in this room and I have seen you all grow into young adults (scary). If you take anything away from my class I hope it is this:

• To always look for the best in people (even when it is hard)
• That manners ARE NOT optional
• You are capable of much more than you know
• You need to take your life into your own hands, its not up to your parents, or your friends
• What you do now leads what others think of you later (choose wisely)
• YOU have the power of choice always
• Rise above the situations you are in, be the bigger person

I love each of you like you are my own. I can not wait to see what you do in the future. I know I will see some of you doing great things. Take your education as seriously as you want your future to be. Good luck next year! Make lifelong friends, memories, and progress please!!!

Love,

Mrs. Belker

Some of my favorite pictures from the year below:

Last but not least...

Last Friday Update

Happy FRIDAY!


Happy Friday on the LAST Friday of the year. You should all be extremely proud of your students on their MAP tests they all put a lot of effort and time.  I also wanted to send you our crazy schedule of activities for next week.

Monday: -Tiger Time as normal

-      7:45-9:40 Talent Show rehearsal

-      Lunch - Pizza Reward for Super Attendance and No D-Cards

-      12:30 PTA Reward for Perfect Attendance students

Tuesday: Tiger Time (maybe…depending on spelling bee)

-      8:15 Spelling Bee (7:50 Participants will be called)

-      12:45 Talent Show

Wednesday: Tiger Time as normal

-      MAP Carnival (Kelli put an agenda, timeline, lunch schedule on the NAS J)

-      No RATS classes that day

Thursday: 5^th grade EOY assembly (time TBD)

-      6^th Grade EOY assembly (time TBD)

-      10:45 Dismissal (no lunch will be served)

 

End of Semester Book Assignments

Below are links to some of the ONLINE book assignments students chose to do. I will be adding more as I get them. Students please watch a few and leave a comment on Google Classroom explaining what you noticed and what you enjoyed.


Nya
Olivia 
Danielle
Gracie
Preston
Emma
Mady
Brooklynn
Jackie
Kaleigh
Jenna
Lucas 

Spanish Speaking Country Cultures

Go to the link below and explore the website. There are links to guided tours and online activities to show the daily life, culture, and environment of some Spanish speaking countries. When you are finished you may use google maps (street view) to explore YOUR Spanish speaking country. You may also work on your travel guide project.

LINK

SRI- Lexile Testing

On Wednesday you will be taking your LAST lexile test of the year. This will show how much you have improved through out the year.  If you improve 100 points or more from the first test (or if you have a 920 or higher from the beginning) you will earn an extra 10 minutes of recess on Friday.

How to get to the test:
Upper Elementary Library Page
SRI link on the LEFT SIDE of the page
Click on Chromebook Link
Log in with FIRSTNAMELASTNAME as your username and Tigerslunchpin# as your password


When you are finished write your score on your assignment book and grab the MAP review packet off the tall table and start working.

Spanish Enrichment

This week we are going to continue our focus on Duolingo and our country research project,  but we will also start a new unit. Spanish survival terms and phrases for traveling. These are the "Musts" of what you would need to know when traveling in a Spanish speaking country.

Monday- What would we need to know? Duolingo/Review of colors, dates
Tuesday- Review of family members. Start "Where is" phrases
Wednesday- Review stations and Country research/ presenting
Thursday- Duolingo Day


Survival Phrases
Ordering in Spanish
Basic Phrases (video)

End of Year Compassion Project

We decided on a cause to support as a class. We are going to support "Least of These" here in the communnity. To do that we are going to be doing a class hygiene and food drive. I posted below the list of items the organization is currently needing. We also have a portion of this project to help those around us that we feel may need a pick me up. We will do this by passing out "Nicety  Notes" to brighten peoples day. Our goal is 100 items and 100 notes. I hope to go far above that.

Least of These Website Link

Immediate Needs:

Cereal

Pancake Mix

Syrup

Peanut Butter

Jelly

Canned Meat

Canned Pasta

Juice

Flour

Sugar

Deodorant

Shampoo

Bar Soap

Toothbrushes

Toothpaste

Cleaning Supplies

Clorox Wipes

Glass Cleaner

Paper Towels

Toilet Paper

Semester Book Assignment

The end of the semester is upon us and it is time for our ever popular BOOK ASSIGNMENT!!! I was shocked by your creativity last semester and can not wait to see what you can come up with this semester. Below I have put a few examples of ways you can show your knowledge of a book. I am open to going as far as your minds will take it. If you have a great idea not on the list, come TELL ME! At the bottom I have included a list of the final portfolio items needed before the end of the year. Create a Google Drive folder for the portfolio and share it with me.


1.  Sign Posts- Our sign posts we have learned come to life in real signs to explain our favorite sign posts of the book. Must include at least 3 sign posts. You can find the sign posts explained here.

2. Movie Trailer- Any medium, as long as you can share a link with me to view it. Please remember not to give away the ending. Example here.

3. Day in the life of- A video journal or vlog acting as a character in the book (give internal thoughts)

4. Write from a different point of view- A different character tells the story and changes the events that happen. Type this please.

5. Character analysis- What characteristics, personality traits, etc does that character have? Draw, write, or write a poem.

6. Setting analysis- Look at the setting, why it impacted the story. How would it be different if it was in a different setting or time?  Illustrate a new setting and analysis of how it would impact the story.

7. Characters iPhone- What would be on the main characters iPhone? Draw an illustration or make one online to print off. Also include explanations of why you think that would be on their phone.

8. Coat of arms- If the book was explained only with a coat of arms to illustrate it what would it look like? Create a coat of arms that shows the aspects of the story-line or the characters. Please provide an explanation of what you included and why.


Printed copies will be available to take home

End of Year Portfolio items:
- Beginning of year, middle of year, and end of year Lexile levels
- Favorite writing piece of the year
- Favorite journal assignment typed out
-Reading log (full year)

Friday Goals

Below are the goals for Friday's class:

Finish persuasive performance event

Self grade/assess goals

Discuss book clubs/ notice and note signposts found

Explain our prior knowledge on the Civil War (our NEW unit)

FYI: Our summative on Perspective and POV was 89%!!!!! That is great growth, sooo proud! 

Basis for our book club discussions this week

Introduction paragraphs 

Our basic outline for opinion essays

Reminder: plant your Arbor Day trees!

HS FFA shares trees and knowledge with all 5th graders

Professional Email

In the last few years you have written countless "Friendly Letters" in school. I am here to tell you that I have honestly never, being a 23 year old, written a "Friendly Letter" in  my real life. I grew up just as you are writing them in school, but that is where it ended.

On the other hand, do you know what I do write? EMAILS. In my professional life I email principals, and other teachers. When I was interviewing and looking for jobs I wrote emails to the people who would be interviewing me. Don't you think you should know HOW to write a professional email? That is why, instead of writing your writing performance event as a letter (who writes letters?) you will be writing an email! You can write the email to any local or state government official that you think has the ability to pass or influence laws about your subject.

Here are the 6 steps to writing an email:

1.    Specific subject matter to alert the purpose (written in the subject line)

2.    A greeting where the recipients name is correctly spelled.

3.    A nicety to begin the body of the email; how are you can go a long way to start a pleasant conversation.

4.    Specificity in their request.  Not just “I need help,” but instead “I need help with…” and also including when they are available and would like to meet.

5.    A wrap up sentence thanking for help or time.

6.    An ending with their own name attached.
      By Pernilles Ripp  (see, I gave CREDIT)

Plus, a little reminder- even though it is an email, I am still an English teacher....soooooo

Friday (Monday) Update

Good morning,

I hope you all enjoyed your beautiful weekend! This week is going to be a bit different in ELA and social studies. Our students have been working hard on getting mastery on opinion essays in the last weeks. This week will be their chance to show what they know. This performance event is a check in to see how the students can plan, write, and edit on their own with much less guidance. We also have our summative for Perspective and Point of View on Wednesday. During this unit I have been so impressed with the students initiative to work hard and share their learning with their class. We have had some amazing collaboration and work times. 

Reminders:
I will be updating several things online for parent portal by Friday.
Wilson's Creek permission slips are due signed by Friday

As always, email  me with any questions or concerns. 

Enjoy the field trip pictures below and I hope you have a great week!

We had a great time exploring nature

Some time drying off after the stream exploration

Student exploration

Our small scavenger hunt team

Taking a break from our hike

Took us a while, but we finally found the last clue

Trail Hiking

Even found some critters

Learning about potential pollution in the Ozarks

Examining the critters

Serious science journaling

We were all just a bit excited

Marshland Observations

Some of the team

Water cycle games

Comparing perspectives of the 3 Little Pigs

Point of View/ Perspective Activities

3 Little Pigs Activity and Video

Enrichment

Enrichment this unit will be used as a MAP review for the class. You will be in charge of creating a review booklet that each student will use as a review packet for the MAP test. I will bind the pages together as a book. Below are all of the subjects that need to be covered in order.

Reading Units
1. Compare and Contrast
2. Nonfiction and Fiction Summary
3. Nonfiction text features
4. Text Structures
5. RACE
6. Figurative Language
7. Main Idea
8. Theme
9. Perspective
10. Authors Opinion/Purpose
11. Point of View
12. Inference


Writing Units-
1. Parts of a narrative
2. Essay Format
3. Differences between narrative/ information/ opinion writing

Each review page must include

• Title
• Review information
• an activity/ questions to practice (may need a reading passage)

Friday Update

Happy Friday!

This week we focused on finishing up our opinion essays and continuing working on the Revolutionary War (pictures below). Opinion essay grades will be sent home and updated online next week.

Next Week:
Field Trip- TUESDAY THE 5th: Students should have brought home a field trip permission slip for our annual Watershed Field Trip. They will need to wear comfortable clothes and shoes that are good for walking.

Volunteers- A few parents have volunteered to help out on the field trip and turned in the volunteer paperwork. The Aristocat team is extremely thankful for all your help! If you are volunteering you will need to either follow the bus from the school or meet us at the Watershed (2400 E. Valley Water Mill Rd,Springfield MO).

Schedule:
8:45am- buses loaded
9:15 am-  Volunteers meet us at this time. Students arrive at the Watershed Center. Welcome from James River Watershed and Springfield Watershed.They will be dividing us up by classes. You will take your advisory class to 4 different stations. Parent volunteers are to stay with your class. (about 20 minutes per station)Lunch – around 11:15 12:00- 1:00pm scavenger hunt – divide your students among your parent volunteers to do the Nature Walk/Scavenger Hunt 1:15pm load buses

Creating Revolutionary War Soldiers

Peer Conferences 

 

Revolutionary War Letters

More Peer Conferences

Spanish Color Practice (Tiger TIme)

Game

Quiz

When you finish you can move on to the coloring page on the counter.

Summative Practice Links

Main Idea Hamburger
Passage Practice
Fact V Opinion
Authors Purpose

Friday Update

Happy Friday!

I hope you all had a great week and are looking forward to the weekend. This week we started writing opinion essays in ELA and the students had some very passionate opinions to write about (pictures below). We also continued our unit on Main Idea, Perspective, and Inference. The summative will be on Tuesday next week and a study guide was sent home over inference this week  and another will be sent for main idea on Monday.


Reminders:

• BOOK FAIR is going on here at Upper and will be all day Tuesday and Thursday, other days are before and after school.
• Grade cards  are being sent home today and will need to be signed and returned if your student has a C in any core class. 

Breakup Letter Activity

As we know, the colonist were not very happy with King George III. We have learned about the intolerable acts and the tax acts that all caused anger in the colonies. Now, you get to voice your angry opinions to the King in a break up letter.

• You are a colonist.
• You are not happy about how the King has been treating you.
• You are going to write him an angry break up letter, letting him know "You are NEVER getting back together". You are ready to start your own country and break away from England.
• Pick one event that you think was the WORST to write him about.

This letter will be do after Must Do/ May Do time on Friday.  

Friday Update

Happy Spring Break,

This week has been a very eventful  here at Ozark Upper. The students got the chance to learn a lot about what next year will be like for them. This school will become Ozark Middle School. They learned about their schedules and class options. In ELA they focused on their essays and main idea. Book clubs also have started to finish up for this round. A new one will start after spring break. Students also got rewarded on Friday for meeting their book goals for the quarter. The goal was 4 books. Along with reading the books the students had to keep their reading log up and have journal responses for each book. This was a very difficult goal to meet this quarter and I am hoping this will help motivate more students to meet it for next quarter.

REMINDERS!:

• Parent Volunteers are needed for our upcoming Watershed Field Trip April 5th , email me if you are interested. 
• Students are bringing  home class sheets for next year to rank their options. These need to be brought back by MARCH 18th
• Our annual Wilson's Creek Field Trip will be April 19th
• New Tiger Time classes will start after Spring Break

Robotics: Teams were announced on Friday and we are sooo excited to welcome our new members!

Enjoy your Spring Breaks,

Mrs. Belker

Reward Hour for Book Goals

Scheduling Talk

Watching the Band Preview

Congrats to New Members

Scheduling Time

Baby Goat Here At Upper