Wow! You’re now officially rising 5th graders! I’m super excited for you as you embark on summer adventures and prepare to enter the world of middle school at MEH or another new school outside of Falls Church... We’ll miss those who are leaving FCCPS, but we know that they’ll make many new friends in Kenya, Springfield, Maryland, China, and Uzbekistan. Huskies: Are you ready for combination locks?
Summer Tips for Keeping Your Brain in Tip-Top Shape
As you settle into a summer, don’t forget to maintain your brain! Returning to school in September will be much smoother if you haven’t allowed your mind to grow lazy over the long, hot summer days. Exercising your brain is a lot like exercising the rest of your body-- the more you do it, the easier it gets and the more fun you have. Here are some ideas for keeping your synapses sparkling… (What are “synapses,” you ask? Look it up!)
1. Enjoy Reading!
Probably the best thing about summer is all the uninterrupted time we have to read. There are so many possibilities! You could peruse magazine articles while relaxing on a beach towel; you could frighten your fellow campers by reading aloud suspenseful stories in a cabin in the woods; you could escape the heat in a well air-conditioned library, etc, etc. Scientists who have studied kids’ brains and their reading habits have learned that how often you read is more important than how much you read at any one time. To keep your brain “muscles” in shape, make time to read each day-- a half hour or more is best. You could even keep a reading log, just like we did during the school year. Just think of how impressed your 5th grade teachers will be when you show them the log you kept this summer. (Just in case, I’ve attached reading logs for the rest of June and the months of July and August to this letter.)
As you go about your summer activities, remember to bring a book along. Books are always good for downtime, whether you’re taking a break in the shade or passing time on a long road trip.
Ways to Locate Good Books:
· Talk to other kids-- They give the best recommendations!
· Visit the library!
· Visit the Reading and Authors sections on Ms. B’s portaportal site
o Scholastic Book Video “Trailers” (similar to movie previews)
o Al Roker’s Kids Book Club Videos (Kids get to ask authors questions about some of their favorite books!)
o Author Video Interviews (Christopher Paul Curtis, Kate DiCamillo, etc.)
o Summer Reading Challenges (Both Barnes & Noble and Borders give away free books if you complete their challenges!)
REMINDER for HUSKIES: MEH has assigned you some summer homework. Don’t worry! It’s easy peasy! All you have to do is read 1 book from the list they’ve attached to the 5th grade school supply list. I’ve put both in an email to your parents. Huskies are also encouraged to read from Virginia’s Readers’ Choice list so that they can vote on their favorite books next year.
REMEMBER: Reading material doesn’t just come in book form. There are newspapers and magazines too! Plus, many readers prefer nonfiction-- Ms. B. will be starting with NF this summer. The important thing is to find something that you enjoy-- that piece of writing that you just can’t put down. Speaking of writing…
2. Don’t Forget to Write!
Many of you will be traveling over the summer or perhaps attending camp. These are great opportunities for writing! You can keep track of your experiences by journaling (use your green notebook!). Or you could write a letter to a family member, former teacher (hint, hint), or friend. All TJ teachers can receive mail at the school address: 601 S. Oak St, Falls Church City, VA 22046. We’d love to hear from you!
PARENTS: If your 5th grader is traveling away from home this summer, provide them with pre-addressed, stamped envelopes and stationary. Then there will be no excuses for not writing. On the other hand, if your 5th grader is spending the summer at home, you can provide envelopes addressed to a grandparent or cousin. The important thing is for budding correspondents to experience a “payoff”-- for every letter written and sent, one should be received in return.
5th GRADERS: Why not find a penpal this summer? If you make friends at the beach or at camp, it can be a lot of fun to keep in touch by writing to each other. Of course, there’s always email. But don’t forget about the power of pencil and paper-- it’s awfully special (and very rare these days!) to receive a real letter in the mail.
Just like reading, it’s important to write frequently. Writing for 15-25 minutes 4 times a week is a good goal. Some more ideas:
· Challenge yourself to write for an extended period without stopping. Set a timer and try not to pick up your pencil. When the timer dings, read over what you’ve written and edit as necessary.
· Establish shared family journaling time. Set up a schedule (e.g., after dinner). Each family member can individually write about what happened that day. Then you can take turns reading aloud to recap the day’s events. These writing pieces can later be added to a scrapbook and embellished with pictures to create a family keepsake.
· Play a writing game. Always a party favorite in my house is co-composing a “Progressive Story.” Someone begins the story and then passes it to another person. That person continues the story for a while then passes it on as well… And so on and so forth… Each person contributes a little and the group decides when the story is finished. Usually, we play with the paper folded so that only a portion of what the last person wrote can be seen by the next contributor. This often results in ridiculous plot twists that cause much hilarity when the story is finished and read aloud to the group. Several stories can be composed at once if you’re sitting in a circle and each person starts a story on a blank piece of paper then passes to the left. When the story has made one or two complete rounds and returned to its original owner, that person can read it to the group.
STORYBIRD UPDATE:
While we’re on the subject of writing, let’s talk about some of the fantastic writing you did this year… What will happen to your Storybirds now that you’re leaving Ms. Bragg’s class? 5th GRADERS: I plan to keep your current accounts active under my name. However, if you would like to “untether” your account from mine (so that I’m no longer in charge of managing it), please let me know and I will send you directions. Or you can ask the Storybird staff for help-- they’re very responsive! If you want your account to be entirely independent, you will need an email address so that if you forget your password, Storybird will have some way to send you a new one. Also know that future teachers can invite you to join their Storybird class with your current account. If you would like to printout a Storybird or save a copy on your computer, there is a small fee for downloading a PDF.
3. Computation Counts!
Scientists who have studied kids’ brains have also found that kids tend forget a lot of Math over the summer-- 2-3 months worth! You can avoid this by flexing your math muscles during June and July. Some ideas:
· Play Math games on portaportal
· Complete Arlington County’s Summer Math Review Assignment. There are 10 pages of problems (one for each summer week) and 10 problems on each page. Suggestions: You could do two problems per day each weekday… Or you could declare Mondays to be “Math Mondays” and get a whole page done at one sitting. Either way it’s easy peasy! Many of you could finish the whole packet in less than an hour… But try to spread out the work instead. With a little bit of practice spread out over a long period of time, your brain will be less likely to forget… And that’s the whole point, right? Helping your brain to remember school stuff over the summer!
· Challenge family members to mentally solve math problems in the car or while waiting in line at an amusement park. Take turns asking and answering questions. Example: What is 52 times 30? In your head break the problem into two parts by breaking up 52 like so: 50 X 30 = ? and 2 X 30 = ? Then add the two answers together.
· PARENTS: While out shopping or eating at a restaurant, give your children opportunities to estimate costs and practice money skills. For example, they could keep track of the cost of items added to your grocery cart, mentally estimating what the final bill will be. For added incentive, you can award a prize (such as a pack of gum) for estimations that fall within $2-5 of the actual total. Here are some other ideas for money skills practice…
· Have your 5th grader pay at the counter of a fast food restaurant.
· Have your 5th grader help you calculate the tip.
· Have your 5th grader calculate the price of a sale item after a percentage discount (e.g., 10% off).
4. Summer Listening? Yes, that too!
Many of us will be making long trips in the car this summer. Borrowing an audiobook from the library is a great way to make the time pass quicker and the experience more enjoyable for everyone. Listening to books is an excellent way to improve vocabulary, general knowledge, and comprehension skills, such as visualization (making a movie in your head). In the age of iPods and MP3 players, it’s also possible to download audiobooks from iTunes or kids.audible.com. And of course, audiobooks don’t have to be listened to in the car… Long walks with an iPod and afternoons in front of the stereo work too! You can even get the book and follow along.
For Parents
PARENTS: I have a special folder on my portaportal site
What Are You Doing This Summer?
Ms. Bragg will be…
- Helping Baby Cora learn to walk and talk (with sign language and with speech)!
- Enjoying reading! I’m starting with Happiest Toddler on the Block so that I learn how to see the world from a toddler perspective… But I’m hoping to find time for some fiction reading too… Because I’ve loved reading The Watsons Go to Birmingham, I’m hoping to read some of Christopher Paul Curtis’s other books.
- Taking Baby Cora to her 5th (!) wedding.
- Visiting Cape May, NJ to see my sister perform in play.
- Renting a house on Keuka Lake in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York with family = many hours of reading by the water’s edge.
- Preparing for next year’s 4th graders!
Former 4th Graders/Rising 5th Graders: I’d love to hear about what you’re doing this summer. With your parents’ permission, you can contact me via my regular email address: braggc@fccps.org. Remember to stay in touch and come back to visit your TJ teachers occasionally… We’re always interested to hear from you and to see how you’ve grown!
Also, think about whether you would be interested in being a guest presenter next year. I’d love to have some of you share your expertise with next year’s 4th graders... For example, would you be interested in reprising your Colonial Day presentation? It would be great for next year’s 4th graders to see an expert historical interpreter in action!
Parents: Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions-- email is best. I will be checking it less frequently, but I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Thanks so much for a wonderful year!
Have a fantastic adventure-filled summer!
--Ms. Bragg
JUNE READING LOG | ||||||
Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
Last Day of School!!! | 17 | 18 | ||||
19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | ||
JULY READING LOG | ||||||
Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
1 | 2 | |||||
3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
24/31 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
AUGUST READING LOG | ||||||
Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
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