Mrs. Vander Kooi's Teacher Page 2024-25
I am delighted to be your child's ELA teacher and I look forward to a fantastic year in fifth grade! I will be utilizing this page throughout the year for updates on curriculum and events. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have during the school year. I look forward to building a partnership with you to create a successful fifth grade year for our students!
Classroom and School News
Important Dates
Monday, May 12 - Field trip to Field Museum
Thursday, May 15 - Step Up Day
Friday, May 23 - SIP Day; early dismissal 12:05
Monday, May 26 - No school
Thursday, May 29 - Field Day
Monday, June 2 - Tug O' War
Tuesday, June 3 - Last day of School! 12:05 dismissal
Encore Schedule
Students will have P.E. class every morning. Students will also have the opportunity to enrich their learning in the following encore classes:
Quarter 1 Music with Mrs. Zito
Quarter 2 Art with Mrs. Maney
Quarter 3 Spanish with Mrs. Smerz
Quarter 4 STEM with Mrs. Jozaitis
Theme Thursdays at Chelsea
Thursday, April 10th: Character Day! Wear a shirt with your favorite movie, TV show, or cartoon character.
Thursday, April 17th: Earth Day! Let's wear green and/or blue in honor of Earth Day!
Thursday, April 24th: Adventure Awaits! Wear a shirt that represents a favorite place, or a shirt that you acquired on a vacation.
Every Friday is Chelsea Spirit Day so let's show our Chelsea pride and wear our school colors of maroon and gold!
Library on Wednesdays
We will be going to the library on Wednesdays this school year. My homeroom class will be going at 11:15-11:40 am and the afternoon Block 2 will be at 2:15-2:40 pm. Every year our school librarian, Mrs. Schubert, has the opportunity to add new books! We can always ask her for book recommendations. There are even audio books! The students look forward to this time period to grab a book and read to their heart's content!
ClassLink at Home
Students can access ClassLink from their home computers! Directions for how to access the ClassLink launchpad from home are in the downloads section of this page. In order for students to not have to reenter usernames and passwords they will need to add an extension to their web browser. Directions for how to do that are also linked to this page. If the extension is not added then login credentials will have to be entered each time.
This information can also be found on the district website under "Student/Parent Technology Tutorials."
Communication
I am committed to establishing a strong parent-teacher relationship. I will be using this teacher webpage and the Remind app to communicate. If you would like to receive text updates on ELA class information including homework and general reminders:
Send a text to: 81010
Text this message: @363dga9
Please consider following us on social media to see photos and updates from our classroom, other teachers and our administrators.
Follow our class on Twitter: @MrsVanderKooi5
Follow Chelsea School on Twitter: @Chelsea_Tigers
Erin's Law Presentations
Governor Pat Quinn signed Erin's Law in January of 2013, which requires all schools in the state of Illinois to provide age-appropriate sexual abuse and assault awareness and prevention education programs for students in grades Pre-K through 12. The Chelsea Intermediate School social workers will be teaching each lesson in the child’s classroom. The "Think First and Stay Safe" program will be the curriculum utilized for these lessons with a focus on Child Lures.
