5th Grade Team
5th Grade Curriculum
Math
August/September
Unit 1: Expressions, Equations & Volume
Learning Targets
- Students write and evaluate numerical expressions with parentheses
- Students write a simple expression to record calculations with numbers
- Students use unit cubes to measure the volumes of solid figures
- Students measure volumes by counting unit cubes, using cubic cm, cubic in, and cubic feet
Family Resources
October
Unit 2: Adding & Subtracting Fractions
Learning Targets
- Students add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators, including mixed numbers
- Students rewrite fractions with unlike denominators as equivalent fractions with a common denominator in order to find their sum or difference
- Students solve story problems involving addition and/or subtraction of fractions
- Students solve story problems involving division of whole numbers with fraction or mixed number quotients
- Students solve story problems involving multiplying a whole number by a fraction
Family Resources
November/December
Unit 3: Place Value & Decimals
Learning Targets
- Students read and write decimals to thousandths represented by numbers, number names and expanded form
- Students compare pairs of decimals to thousandths
- Students round decimals to the nearest one, tenth, hundredth
- Students explain patterns in the number of zeros in the product when multiplying by powers of 10
Family Resources
January
Unit 4: Multiplying & Dividing Whole Numbers & Decimals
Learning Targets
- Students use the standard algorithm with fluency to multiply multi-digit whole numbers
- Students divide a 2, 3, or 4-digit whole number by a 2-digit whole number
- Students use equations, rectangular arrays, or area models to explain strategies for dividing multi-digit whole numbers
Family Resources
February
Unit 5: Multiplying & Dividing Fractions
Learning Targets
- Students solve story problems involving multiplying a fraction by a fraction
- Students find the area of a rectangle with fractional side lengths by tiling or multiplying side lengths
- Students divide a whole number by a unit fraction
- Students solve story problems involving division of a unit fraction by a whole number or a whole number by a unit fraction
Family Resources
March
Unit 6: Graphing, Geometry & Volume
Learning Targets
- Students graph points in the first quadrant of the coordinate plane to represent a problem
- Students describe the meaning of the values of coordinate points based on the context of a problem
- Students classify 2-dimentional figures based on their attributes
Family Resources
April
May
Unit 8: Solar Design
Learning Targets
- Students read a thermometer and practice converting between the Fahrenheit and Celsius scale
- Students analyze data collected from their model houses to determine the most efficient insulator materials
- Students design floor plans for their houses, draw them to scale, and build the walls
- Students test their houses and analyze their data to determine which houses captured the most heat and maintained heat the longest
Family Resources
Reading
- August/September
- September/October
- October/November
- December/January
- January/February
- March/April
- April/May
August/September
Unit 1: The Classroom Community
Topic and Learning Targets
- Comprehension
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Students will learn about genre
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Students discuss their reading lives and share with the class what they like to read
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Students use the reading strategies of questioning, making connections, and visualizing
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Students explore themes in fiction and narrative nonfiction
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Students explore nonfiction text features
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- Independent Practice
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Students learn about Individualized Daily Reading (IDR)
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Students learn a procedure for selecting appropriate books
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Students practice choosing books on their own
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Students learn a procedure for self-monitoring and practice it as they read
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Students learn and use “fix-up” strategies
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Students learn about the purpose of reading conferences
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Students write about their ideas in their reading journals
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Students notice what they are thinking about as they read
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- Word Study
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Students discuss, read, and analyze polysyllabic words
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Students learn about etymology and morphemic analysis
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Students explore origins of several words and how their meanings change over time
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Students review prefixes sub-, super-, and trans- and the “not” prefixes family
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Students review suffixes -ic and -al
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Students learn about the features of dictionaries
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Students read and discuss the poem “Word Collection”
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Students begin their own word collection
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Students review Greek and Latin roots
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Students learn about word webs
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Students learn about proverbs
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Students learn syllabication strategies
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Students learn about the schwa
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Students practice reading polysyllabic words
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Students learn about word families and morphemic transformation
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- Social Skill Development
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Students listen respectfully
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Students share ideas
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Students build and reflect on the classroom community
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Students learn and practice classroom procedures
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Students take responsibility for their learning and behavior
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Students handle materials responsibly and share them fairly
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Students ask clarifying questions and confirm each other’s thinking
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Students share their partners’ thinking with the class
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Texts
- Because
- Turning Pages: My Life Story
- “10 Ways Reading Improves Your Mind and Body”
- The Cat Man of Aleppo
- Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World
- The Tragic Tale of the Great Auk
- Be the Change: A Grandfather Gandhi Story
- “Word Collection”
September/October
Unit 2: Strategy Development & Generating Independent Thinking
Topic and Learning Targets
- Comprehension
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Students use the thinking tools “Stop and Ask Questions” and double entry journals
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Students make and confirm predictions
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Students learn about and discuss the story elements of character, setting, plot, theme, and challenges
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Students use reading strategies including making inferences, making connections, questioning, visualizing, determining importance, summarizing, and synthesizing
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Students identify important events and use these to identify main ideas in the text
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Students discuss the organization of nonfiction: description and compare/contrast
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Students use text features
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Students write a shared summary of a text
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Students consider what they think about the topics and how their thinking might have change
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- Independent Practice
- Students self-monitor and use “fix-up” strategies
- Students complete a reading self-assessment and establish reading goals
- Students generate independent thinking
- Students write a reading journal entry
- Word Study
- Students discuss, read, analyze, and spell polysyllabic words
- Students learn about prefixes co-, com-, and col-
- Students learn about suffixes -ive, -ative, -itive, -ion, -ation, and -sion
- Students learn about the meaning of the Latin root struct
- Students discuss shades of meaning
- Students create a synonym word web
- Students notice and discuss spelling changes that take place when these suffixes are added to base words that end with a silent e
- Students use print and online thesauruses
- Students use context to confirm words' meanings
- Students learn about the connection between etymology and spelling
- Students learn about layers of the English language
- Students revisit their word collections
- Social Skill Development
- Students listen carefully and actively
- Students use discussion prompts to build on one another’s thinking and extend conversations
- Students share their partners’ thinking with the class
- Students take responsibility for their learning and behavior
- Students agree and disagree with one another in a caring and respectful way
- Students ask clarifying questions
- Students confirm they understand each other's thinking
- Students give reasons to support their thinking
- Students reach agreement with their partners before making decisions
Texts
- Tani's Search for the Heart
- “Satchmo's Master Plan” from Look Both Ways
- “Amazing Auntie Anne”
- “La visita”
- Wangari Maathai: The Woman Who Planted Millions of Trees
- “The Green Belt Movement”
- Environmental Activist: Wangari Maathai
- “Beautiful Town”'
- “Flowers”
October/November
Unit 3: Fiction
Topic and Learning Targets
- Comprehension
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Students learn about the characteristics of fiction, including story structure
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Students use reading strategies, such as questioning, making inferences, making connections, visualizing, synthesizing, and summarizing
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Students discuss story elements including character, setting, plot, themes and narrator
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Students identify important events
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Students use “Stop and Jot”
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Students participate in close reading
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Students write a summary of a novel
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Students build fluency
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- Independent Practice
- Students self-monitor and use “fix-up” strategies
- Students think about story elements, including setting, character, plot, and theme
- Students use reading strategies, including making connections and summarizing
- Students generate independent thinking
- Word Study
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Students discuss, read, analyze, and spell polysyllabic words
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Students read and discuss homophones
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Students learn about the prefix inter-
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Students learn about the suffixes -ize, -ify, -ure
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Students learn about the Latin roots fract/frag and rupt
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Students use word parts and context to confirm words' meanings
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Students discuss the figurative language (similes, metaphors, and personification)
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Students practice morphemic transformations
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Students discuss nouns
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Students create a word web
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Students revisit word collections
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- Social Skill Development
- Students take responsibility for their learning and behavior
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Students use clarifying questions
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Students listen carefully and respectfully
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Students confirm one another’s thinking
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Students share their partners’ thinking with the class
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Students give feedback in a helpful way
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Students agree and disagree in a caring way
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Students use discussion prompts to build on one another’s thinking and extend conversations
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Students share partner time
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Students support one another’s independent work
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Students contribute ideas that are different from other people’s ideas
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Students reflect on their partnerships
Texts
- The Night Diary
- “Moon”
- “Quilt”
- “Song to Mothers”
- “Untitled Poem”
December/January
Unit 4: Narrative Nonfiction
Topic and Learning Targets
- Comprehension
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Students learn about the characteristics of narrative nonfiction
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Students build knowledge by reading and discussing biographies of people who have made a difference through exploration
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Students discuss elements of biographies, including setting, important events, and theme
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Students learn about the structure of biographies
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Students discuss the organization of nonfiction: sequence
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Students use “Written Conversations”
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Students participate in close reading
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Students write an outline for a biography
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Students build fluency
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- Independent Practice
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Students self-monitor and use “fix-up” strategies
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Students determine important events and identify themes
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Students use reading strategies, including making connections, making inferences, and summarizing
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Students generate independent thinking
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- Word Study
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Students discuss, read, analyze, and spell polysyllabic words
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Students build vocabulary connected to the theme of exploration
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Students read and discuss homophones
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Students learn about the prefix auto-
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Students learn about the suffix -logy/-ology and -ity
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Students learn about the roots bio and mot/mob
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Students match words with the suffixes to their base words or roots
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Students complete a word sort
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Students create synonym word webs for the words connected to the Reading strand theme of exploration
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Students complete morphemic transformations for words connected to the Reading strand theme of exploration
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- Social Skill Development
- Students learn and practice the procedure for “Heads Together”
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Students include everyone in and contribute to group work
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Students take responsibility for their learning and behavior
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Students contribute ideas that are different from their classmates’ ideas
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Students support one another’s independent work
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Students analyze the effects of their own behavior on group work
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Students reflect on their partnerships
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Students build on one another’s thinking
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Students listen carefully
Texts
- I, Matthew Henson
- Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle
- Sharuko: El Arqueólogo Peruano/Peruvian Archaeologist
- “Matthew Henson: American Polar Explorer”
- “Junko Tabei: Mountaineering Marvel”
January/February
Unit 5: Expository Nonfiction
Topic and Learning Targets
- Comprehension
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Students learn about the characteristics of the genre of expository nonfiction
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Students build knowledge by reading and discussing texts about wild animal conservation
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Students use reading strategies, such as determining importance, synthesizing, and summarizing
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Students discuss ways authors organize information in nonfiction text, including sequence and cause/effect
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Students use text features
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Students participate in close reading
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Students discuss digital reading
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Students review how to find and evaluate credible online sources
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Students synthesize and write about what they learned about wild animal conservation
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Students build fluency
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- Independent Practice
- Students self-monitor and use “fix-up” strategies
- Students determine important ideas
- Students use reading strategies, including determining importance and summarizing
- Students generate independent thinking
- Word Study
- Students discuss, read, analyze, and spell polysyllabic words
- Students build vocabulary related to the theme of wild animal conservation
- Students read and discuss homophones
- Students learn the meanings of the roots terr, geo, aqua, hydra, and ject
- Students create a word web in pairs
- Students complete morphemic transformations
- Students discuss parts of speech
- Students revisit word collections
- Students create a found poem
- Social Skill Development
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Students listen respectfully and actively
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Students take responsibility for their learning and behavior
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Students include everyone in and contribute to the group work
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Students give reasons to support their thinking
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Students reach agreement before making decisions
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Students support one another’s independent work
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Students share their ideas with one another
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Students give feedback in a helpful way
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Students respectfully discuss and solve problems
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Students share their partners’ thinking with the class
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Students ask clarifying questions
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Students confirm one another’s thinking
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Students reflect on the classroom community and partnerships
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Students handle materials responsibly and share them fairly
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Students build on one another’s thinking
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Texts
- The Woolly Monkey Mysteries: The Quest to Save a Rain Forest Species
- “Mosha’s New Forefoot” from Bionic Beasts: Saving Animal Lives with Artificial Flippers, Legs, and Beaks
- “Asian and African Elephants”
- Bringing Back the Giant Panda
- “The Gorilla Doctors”
- “Rainforest”
March/April
Unit 6: Persuasive Nonfiction
Topic and Learning Targets
- Comprehension
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Students learn about the characteristics of persuasive nonfiction
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Students use reading strategies, including questioning and determining importance
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Students discuss audience and purpose
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Students identify and discuss author’s opinions and the reasons and evidence to support their opinions
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Students discuss aspects of author’s craft that make texts persuasive
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Students discuss the organization of nonfiction: compare/contrast, cause/effect, and problem/solution
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Students distinguish between facts and opinions
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Students participate in close reading
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Students discuss how an image conveys information and a message
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Students use “Written Conversations”
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Students share and discuss their own opinions about topics
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Students write a persuasive book recommendation
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Students build fluency
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- Independent Practice
- Students self-monitor and use “fix-up” strategies
- Students think about author's purpose, audience, face, and opinion
- Students use reading strategies, including determining importance and summarizing
- Students generate independent thinking
- Word Study
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Students discuss, read, analyze, and spell polysyllabic words
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Students read and discuss homophones
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Students learn about the prefixes anti-/ant- and contra-/counter-
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Students learn about the roots dict and scrib/script
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Students analyze words with these suffixes using word-part and sentence clues
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Students read and discuss idioms
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Students read and discuss proverbs and adages
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Students revisit word collections
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- Social Skill Development
- Students share their true opinions
- Students listen and discuss opinions respectfully
- Students share their partners’ thinking with the class
- Students include everyone in and contribute to group work
- Students build on one another’s thinking
- Students support one another’s independent work
- Students give feedback in a helpful way
- Students use “Heads Together”
Texts
- “Is Social Media Good for Society?”
- “Save the Penny!”
- “Retire the Penny!”
- “Keep Cell Phones Out of School”
- “Cell Phones in Bay City Schools”
- “A Hard Look at Plastic Straw Bans”
- “Plastic Straw Bans: A Necessary Step”
April/May
Unit 7: Drama
Topic and Learning Targets
- Comprehension
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Students listen to and discuss a play
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Students use reading strategies, including making inferences, questioning, determining importance, and visualizing
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Students discuss the play’s story arc and story elements, including character, setting, challenge or problem, and theme
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Students participate in a close reading
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Students review and practice fluency skills they have learned, including reading with attention to punctuation, phrasing, and emphasizing certain words
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Students perform dramatic readings of a play
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Students work in groups to write and discuss facts and opinions about the genres
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Students compare the play and book version to identify similarities and differences across genres
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Students reflect on the reading community
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- Independent Practice
- Students self-monitor and use “fix-up” strategies
- Students think about story elements, including character, setting, plot, and theme
- Students notice dialogue
- Students use reading strategies
- Students generate independent thinking
- Word Study
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Students discuss, read, analyze, and spell polysyllabic words
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Students read and discuss homophones
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Students match prefixes and roots with their meanings
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Students compare sets of words
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Students combine word parts to create words
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Students discuss an idiom and a proverb
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Students generate and categorize words
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Students analyze and sort words
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Students locate words with suffixes in texts they are reading independently
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Students review figurative language, including similes and metaphors
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Students make connections among the meanings of roots
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Students invent new words
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Students think about shades of meaning
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Students learn about and discuss riddles called “hink pinks” and puns
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Students revisit word collections
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- Social Skill Development
- Students take responsibility for their learning and behavior
- Students listen respectfully and actively
- Students share their ideas and explain their thinking
- Students contribute ideas that are different from other people’s ideas
- Students reach agreement before making decisions
- Students give feedback in a helpful way
- Students express interest in and appreciation for their classmates’ performances
- Students solve problems respectfully
- Students agree and disagree in a caring way
- Students work responsibly in pairs
- Students reflect on partnerships
- Students discuss their growth as members of the classroom community
Texts
-
Cucarachas
Science
August-October
Physical Science: Chemical Reactions & Properties of Matter Unit (Chemical Magic)
Learning Targets
- Students observe that a salt and vinegar solution will turn a dull penny shiny again indicating that substances can change other substances
- Students coat a steel nail in copper by placing it into the solution that dissolved bits of the penny. Students realize that substances can change to become particles too small to be seen, but they still exist
- Students figure out that acids are very reactive substances. Students investigate reactions between different substances to determine how known acids react with other materials
- Students combine different substances together to discover that chemical reactions can create new substances
- Students investigate and model the reaction between baking soda and vinegar. They figure out that gases are made of particles too small to be seen
November - January
Earth & Space Science: Water Cycle & Earth's Systems Unit (Watery Planet)
Learning Targets
- Students analyze and interpret data from world maps to determine the relative amounts of fresh, salt, and frozen water. Students figure out that while the Earth has a lot of water, most of Earth’s water is not fresh or accessible
- Students create a model ocean to observe how salt seems to completely vanish when dissolved in water. Students measure and graph quantities to provide evidence that the salt is still in the solution, even though we can’t see it
- Students learn most people get fresh water from underground sources. Students determine the best place to settle a town by considering features of the landscape & the characteristics of the plants that thrive there
- Students create a model of the ocean and sky to investigate how temperature influences evaporation and condensation. Students figure out that higher ocean temperatures lead to more evaporation, thus leading to more rain
- Students define the problem that a town needs protection from flooding. They design solutions using different types of flood protection. They realize flooding is caused by severe rainfall generated by hurricanes. Hurricanes are created where ocean temperatures are warm
February/March
Earth & Space Science: Stars & the Solar System Unit (Spaceship Earth)
Learning Targets
- Students model the rotation of the Earth and investigate why the Sun looks like it’s moving across the sky. Using evidence they gathered in the investigation, students build a model that explains how the Earth’s rotation around its own axis causes the Sun to appear to rise and set
- Students make a shadow clock (sundial) and investigate how the direction and length of shadows change with the position of the light shining on the sundial. Students realize that the Sun’s position in the sky can be used to tell the time of day
- Students examine photos taken at different times of year and figure out the time of year that each photo was taken. Students discover that the Sun’s path changes with the seasons, as does the time of sunrise and sunset. The Sun is always highest in the sky at noon, but that height changes with the season
- Students build a model of the universe and use it to explain why different stars are visible at different times of year. Using evidence from this model, students make an argument that supports the claim that the Earth orbits the Sun
- Students use a physical model of the Sun and Moon to investigate how the Moon’s phase relates to its position relative to the Sun. Students notice that the Moon’s phases repeat in a predictable pattern
- Students gather evidence to support an argument that the apparent brightness of the Sun is dependent upon an observer’s distance from the Sun. They construct a model of the solar system and gather observations of the Sun’s apparent brightness from each planet within their model
- Using mathematics and computational thinking, students calculate how high they could jump on planets and moons that have stronger or weaker gravity than Earth. Students analyze and interpret this data to construct an explanation for why the amount of gravity is different on other planets
- Students discover that the Earth is in the “Goldilocks Zone” — a distance from the Sun with the right amount of light and heat for life to exist. Students evaluate other solar systems, comparing their stars to our Sun. Based on their analysis, students plan a space mission to a planet with conditions similar to those on Earth
April/May
Life Science: Ecosystems & the Food Web (Web of Life)
Learning Targets
- Students develop a model of a pond ecosystem and realize that interrelationships exist between decomposers, plants, and animals. Students discover that each organism must be in balance for the pond ecosystem to function
- In this lesson, students learn about what happens in unbalanced ecosystems and how that can lead to an overabundance of algae and harmful algal blooms. In the activity, Bloom Busters, students play a game in which they obtain and combine science ideas in order to help a community respond to and prevent harmful algal blooms
- Students develop a model of a dinosaur food web. Students realize that blocking the sun’s energy would have disastrous effects on the organisms that rely on this energy in the food web and cause the extinction of some entire species
Social Studies
Writing
August - November
Unit 1: The Writing Community
Learning Targets
- Students build a caring community and get to know one another
- Students get ideas for writing from read-alouds
- Students draft many pieces in a variety of genres
Unit 2: The Writing Process
Learning Targets
- Students select drafts to develop and publish
- Students revise drafts
- Students proofread for spelling and conventions
- Students write final versions and publish
Unit 3: Personal Narrative
Learning Targets
- Students write about significant experiences that resulted in learning or change
- Students use sensory details
- Students proofread for consistent verb tense
- Students explore strong opening sentences and endings that draw a story's events to a close
December - February
Unit 4: Fiction
Learning Targets
- Students develop interesting plots that make sense
- Students informally explore conflict in plot
- Students use descriptive, sensory details to convey character and setting
- Students develop character through dialogue
- Students explore very tenses and first- and third-person points of view and apply them consistently
One-Week Narrative Writing Unit
Unit 5: Expository Nonfiction (Informative Writing)
Learning Targets
- Students collaborate with a partner to research and write a report about a nonfiction topic of interest
- Students explore expository text features to include in reports (e.g., author, biography sections, bibliographies)
- Students take research notes and organize them by topic
One Week Informative/Explanatory Writing Unit
March - May
Unit 6: Functional Writing (Explanatory Writing)
Learning Targets
- Students write directions to a specific location
- Students explore audience, purpose, sequence, accuracy, completeness, and clarity in directions
Unit 7: Opinion Writing
Learning Targets
- Students identify audience and purpose for opinion writing
- Students write clear statements of opinion supported by reasons
- Students explore strong openings and conclusions that restate the opinion
One Week Opinion Writing Unit
Unit 8: Poetry
Learning Targets
- Students explore imagery, sound, and form poetry
- Students tab into creativity
Unit 9: Revisiting the Writing Community
Learning Targets
- Students reflect on growth as writers and as community members
- Students plan summer writing