Welcome

Welcome Back!

2024-2025 "Adventure Awaits"

Contact Information:

[email protected] 815-469-2309 I am available most mornings between 8:30-9:00 am.

I’m thrilled to be starting my 19th year here at Chelsea and my 27th year teaching Special Education. Over the years, I've had the pleasure of watching many students grow and succeed, and I’m excited to continue that journey with your child this school year.

A little about me: I’m a proud parent of two sons, Jared (24) and Cole (22), and I share my home with my husband of 27 years and a lively 6-year-old dog named Otis. My family and I have called Mokena home for the past two years, after living in Frankfort for over 18 years.

I’m looking forward to an exciting and productive school year and am eager to get to know your child. Here’s to a great year ahead!

Our Classroom Paraprofessional is Mrs. Cheney. Mrs. Cheney and I have worked together for the past three years!

-Mrs. Harris

Social Emotional Learning:

Class Dojo: This year students will earn points in our class for staying on task, participation, and whole body listening. The goal will be to earn 5 points a day in any of the three areas. If the entire class reaches his/her goal a letter will be placed on the board to spell CLASS (for ELA) and DOJO! (for math). Once all the letters are completed the class will earn the reward of "free time" to select a preferred activity.

Morning Meetings: Each day students in our morning class will gather for a morning meeting. This will be a time for students to share anything about their day that they are excited about, something they celebrated at home, or a comment they will like to share. All students are welcome to share or pass. It is also a time for us to gather to do team building activities and review our day.

High Five Friday's: Every Friday upon leaving our class, students will be given an Air High Five or fist bump on their way out of the classroom. It is a time to say goodbye and have a great weekend after a long week of working hard in school.

Friday graded work goes home! Students will gather their work from their cubbies on Friday of each week. Please check your child's take home folder for graded work and communication between home and school.

Mantra journals: Each day students will receive an affirmation and write it down in their mantra journals. The class will discuss the mantra and how to apply it to their daily lives. Mantra journals will go home at the end of the year.

2X10 Strategy/ "Tea Time": The 2×10 strategy is simple: spend 2 minutes per day for 10 days in a row talking with a student about anything she or he wants to talk about that’s going on with their day or something outside of school with their teacher. The strategy builds a rapport and a relationship between teacher and student, and lets the child see that you genuinely care about him or her as a person. Students are randomly selected and will meet at the end of a subject or the end of the day.

If your child would like to bring in a special drink to drink while enjoying "Tea Time" they may. I will keep the drink in the classroom until your child is selected.

ELA: Quarter 2 Novel "Wild River" by P.J. Peterson

Reading Literature Standards

RL 5.1 I can quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

RL 5.2 I can determine a theme of a text, including how characters respond to challenges; summarize a text
RL 5.3 I can compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama
RL 5.9 I can compare and contrast stories in the same genre on their approaches to similar themes and topics

Reading Information Standards

RI 5.1 I can quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
RI 5.2 Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize a text
RI 5.4 I can determine the meaning of general academic and domain specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject are and by using context clues.
RI 5.5 I can compare or contrast the overall structure of events, ideas, concepts in two or more texts
RI 5.9 I can integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably

Essential Question: What influences our ability to adapt?

Writing unit: Informational writing/ Research writing

Prose Constructed Response (PCR): Literary analysis: writing a continuation; rewriting part of a text from a different perspective

L 5.2 – I can demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Math: Eureka Math Grade 5 Module 2

Eureka Module 2 Multi-digit whole number and decimal fraction operations
Topic A- Mental strategies for multi-digit whole number multiplication (lessons 1-2)
Topic B- Standard algorithm for multi-digit whole number multiplication (lessons 3-9)
Topic C- Decimal multi-digit multiplication (lessons 10-12)
Topic D- Measurement word problems with whole number and decimal multiplication (lessons 13-15)
Mid- Module Assessment
Topic E- Mental strategies for multi-digit whole number division (lessons 16-18)
Topic F- Partial quotients and multi-digit whole number division (lessons19-23)
Topic G- Partial quotients and multi-digit decimal division (lessons 24-27)
Topic H- Measurement word problems with multi-digit division (lessons 28-29)
End of Module Assessment

Monday-Thursday schedule:

9:05-9:10 Homeroom

9:10-10:10 Encore/PE

10:10-11:45 snack/ Math Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Melby, Mrs. Vega, or Mr. Becker

11:40-12:30 Social Studies or Science with Homeroom Teachers

12:30-12:55 ELA Word Study (Orton Gillingham or Structured Word Inquiry)

12:55-1:35 Lunch/Recess

1:35-2:15 ELA Writing with Mrs. Harris or ELA Block 2 teachers

2:15-3:20 ELA- Reading with Mrs. Harris or ELA Block 2 teachers

3:20-3:25 Pack up

3:25 dismissal

Friday Schedule:

9:10-9:40 Tiger Time

9:40-10:34 Encore/ PE

10:34-11:55 Math

11:55-12:42 Social Studies and Science

12:42-1:07 Word Study

1:07-1:47 Recess/ Lunch

1:47-3:20 ELA

3:20-3:25 Pack up

3:25 dismissal

E-Learning Schedule:

Fourth and Fifth Grade E-Learning Schedule 2024-2025

Chelsea Intermediate School

Time	Area of Focus	Delivery
9:05-9:15	Attendance, Pledge, and review of schedule	Teams Meet with Homeroom (Block 1) Teacher
9:15-10:30	Block 1 Instruction	Teams Meet with Block 1 Teacher
10:30-11:10	Block 1 Small Group/Independent Work Time	Teams Meet with Block 1 Teacher
11:10-12:25	Block 2 Instruction	Teams Meet with Block 2 Teacher
12:25-1:05	Lunch
1:05-1:45	Block 2 Small Group/Independent Work Time	Teams Meet with Block 2 Teacher
1:45-2:45	PE/Encore	Video and Follow Up Lessons on PE/Encore teachers’ webpages
2:45 – 3:30	Social Studies/Science	Independent Student Work

*Please check your child's backpack each day. Empty out graded papers or any school information from the take home folder. Please check the take home folder and the assignment notebook each day for homework.

Fill up those Reward Bags (optional)

Reward Bags

As you know, I collect data to track your child's progress. To help motivate the students, I would like to partner with you to create a "reward bag" that your child can earn when he/she meets or beats their progress monitoring scores.

Here is how it works: Parents send to school a "reward bag" created specifically for your child (a brown paper bag will do with your child’s name on it). You know what motivates your child. I will keep the bag here at school and return any unused rewards at the end of the year. If your child “meets or beats” their score from the previous week, they can choose something out of their reward bag. As the year progresses the bag may need to be filled up again. I will let you know if that happens.

Here are some ideas of what parents have put in their child's bag:

- favorite candy

- gum that they can chew while in my room

- school supplies (new marker, cool pens, new pencils)

-coupons for special privileges at home: stay up later coupon, pick the family movie coupon, extra video game time, etc....

-Lunch/dinner with mom or dad

If you do coupons, I'll let you know what your child pulled via a certificate.

If no "reward bag" is sent to school, your child will earn a school certificate from a menu of choices that can be used at school (teacher’s chair, homework pass, free time, etc.).

We will begin Reward Bags in a few weeks (starting week of 9/23).

Thank you for your continued support! Please let me know if you have any questions!

Mrs. Harris

5th Grade Special Education Teacher

Chelsea Intermediate School