Mrs. Smith's 2023-2024 ELA Teacher Page
Welcome to Fifth Grade
To all Tiger families, welcome to Chelsea! Another school year is upon us! I am excited to start the 2023-2024 school year in our new building. At Chelsea School, we want each and every student to know they are valued and that they hold tremendous worth. Our school is built on the foundation of our three core values~ Respect, Responsibility, and Caring. Both students and teachers work towards these values daily. We also believe in fresh-starts and new beginnings. Let's make this school year special by believing in a growth mindset and by unlocking your child's true potential. We can accomplish this by working together. Thank you in advance for your time and support.
Please make sure your child is coming to school dressed for the spring weather. Students will have outdoor recess unless the weather is inclement. They may also be going outside for their P.E. class. Thank you for your support.
Use this newsletter/teacher page as an extension of our classroom to stay informed. This page will contain important dates, reminders, "Week at a Glance," the quarterly curriculum standards, links, and other essential information about what's happening in our classroom, school, and district.
Please check back often! Each school day's activities and homework assignments will be featured in the "Week at a Glance." Homework assignments should also be written in your child's homework planner/agenda. The standard ELA homework is to read for a minimum of 20 minutes per day at home. Please encourage reading!
Thank you for visiting my teacher page!
Spelling and Word Study
We are studying the Latin Root facere meaning "make."
List #11 spelling words: politician, information, position, television, mention, version, reduction, pollution, application, location, January, surprise, picnic, remark, sweater, awkward, Africa, tempo, rhythm, harmony, capable and caption
E-Learning Plan
The purpose of an emergency E-Learning plan is to provide for a continuation of learning and engagement for all students when conditions require that school cannot be in the building. Students will receive instruction through digital resources, and it would count as attendance days without the need to add emergency days to the end of our school year.
If an E-Learning Day is necessary, we will be utilizing the fifth-grade schedule. Fifth Grade E-Learning Schedule .pdf
Important Dates
Friday, April 12: Report cards go home today! Please sign and return envelope.
Thursday, May 16: Fifth Grade Step-Up day to Hickory Creek
Friday, May 24th: School Improvement Day-Early Dismissal 12:05
Monday, May 27th: Memorial Day-No School
Tuesday, June 11th: School Improvement Day-Early Dismissal 12:05 and the last day of school if no Emergency Days are used!
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 Spanish with Mrs. Smerz
Quarter 2 STEM with Mrs. Jozaitis
Quarter 3 Music with Mrs. Zito
Quarter 4 Art with Mrs. Maney
Theme Thursdays at Chelsea
04/04/2024-Batter Up! Baseball season is here! Represent your favorite team by wearing
a jersey or baseball themed shirt to school today.
04/11/2024-Character Day: Wear a shirt with your favorite movie, tv show, or cartoon
character to school today.
04/18/2024-Neon Day: Let's brighten our school by wearing neon colors!
04/25/2024-"Level Up" by wearing your favorite video game or level up t-shirt.
Every Friday is Chelsea Spirit Day so let's show our Chelsea pride and wear our school colors of maroon and gold!
Library on Fridays
My ELA classes will be going to the library once a week on Fridays. My homeroom class will be going from 10:35-11:05 and the afternoon ELA Block 2 will be from 2:00-2:30. 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! We always look forward to this time period to grab a book and read to our heart's content! We are so fortunate to have an abundance of books to choose from in our school library.
Volunteers needed! Parents are invited to volunteer in the library this school year! If you are interested in volunteering, then please contact [email protected] to schedule a time to come in.
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.
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."
Communicating with Students and Families
I am committed to establishing a strong parent-teacher relationship. I will be using this teacher webpage, email blasts, and the Remind app to communicate on a regular basis. You will be able to find the homework assignments in the "Week at a Glance" tab. The quarterly standards are listed in the "ELA Curriculum" tab.
If you would like to receive text notifications about your child's ELA class with information on homework and general reminders or announcements, then please select the Remind link that corresponds to your child's ELA block.
To sign up for Mrs. Smith's Homeroom ELA Block 1 notifications, please visit
To sign up for Mrs. Smith's ELA Block 2 notifications, please visit
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: @MrsJSmith4. Follow Chelsea School on Twitter by adding @Chelsea_Tigers. We tag all of our school happenings with #WeAreChelsea.
Birthday Reminder
Birthdays are definitely a special day for students. It is a time to celebrate! That being said, per our district policy, we highly discourage the passing out of invitations at school. The only exception is if the entire class is being invited. However, you are more than welcome to send a non-food item (pen, pencil ,etc.) for each student in class. We have 26 students in our homeroom (ELA Block 1) and 26 students in my afternoon ELA Block 2. Thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.
