Dear 5th Grade Students,

     Welcome to 5th grade distance learning! I am looking forward to an exciting year of learning. This summer, I spent many days getting ready for our year together. I can’t wait to see all of your work filling the walls of our classroom. Yes, I will be putting your work up on our classroom walls. I will share pictures of your work on the walls, and you will get to see it when we return to learning at Falcon Academy.

     My family and I enjoyed a very relaxing summer. Usually, my wife and I spend our summers with our son, daughter, and son-in-law doing various activities: museums, concerts, and hiking. This year, however, we spent most of our time at home in our backyard watching birds, listening to podcasts, playing board games, singing along to our favorite music, and most importantly - reading.

     In addition to teaching and spending time with my family, my passion is music. I enjoy listening to music, going to concerts, talking about music, and most importantly, playing music. In fact, I became a teacher after performing as a professional musician for over fifteen years, and I bring that experience into the classroom. After all, music is math, language arts, science, and social studies all combined into one. You will soon discover that I have music playing in our classroom frequently.

     As I contemplate the school year, I think of all the books we will read, the ideas we will share, the projects we will create, and all the wonderful things that we don’t even know are wonderful yet. This reminds me of something Pablo Picasso said, “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” Let’s make this a great year of learning.

                                                              Sincerely,

                                                              Mr. Pipes