5th Grade

Current Unit:  Reading and Writing about Westward Expansion in the United States - continued

Summary of Unit: 

Westward Ho! During this reading and writing unit we will be taking our wagon trains out west as we travel from the newly established American colonies in the East and move out to the Pacific Coast.  We will explore the different events that lead the pioneers to expand and explore from sea to shining sea.  We will start with the Louisiana Purchase and the expansion of the US territories westward, move into the monumental expedition of Lewis and Clark, read about the journey along the treacherous Oregon Trail, investigate the circumstances and consequences of the Trail of Tears, examine the causes and effects of the California Gold Rush, and determine the necessity and importance of the Transcontinental Railroad.   We will also have a visit from the NY Historical Society, who will be providing an in-school field trip where our fifth grade students will consider how westward expansion impacted pioneers and Indigenous People by studying maps, images and replica touch objects. 

Reading: Non-Fiction

Our fantastic fifth graders will be returning to nonfiction reading, focusing on analyzing multiple accounts around different events involved within the historical topic of Westward Expansion in the United States.  Through the use of differing perspectives, and primary and secondary sources, students will see how an author’s point of view is critical to how we understand a text/event and how we learn about history is impacted by the perspective in which we read.  Our students will use their nonfiction reading and research skills to create their own information books.  By gathering information and identifying key ideas and findings from the time period, our readers will gain a better understanding of the causes and effects of Westward Expansion in both the eastern and western portions of the United States.

HOME CONNECTIONS:

Tips for families to support learning

→ Access content vocabulary for our Westward Expansion reading here!

→ Access Ducksters for more information about the nonfiction topics your child is reading about

→ Use these anchor charts to help with various nonfiction reading strategies and skills

→ Push your child to read MORE THAN ONE TEXT about a topic.  Ask them to compare and contrast the information they uncover.  Consider the following: Is similar information presented in both texts?  If the information is different, does it discuss the topic from a different point of view/perspective?  Your child will be assigned text sets for Westward Expansion topics, which is the perfect resource to use to compare texts across the same topic/concept.  Click here to access Epic! Reading.

→ Encourage your child to read every night to build stamina.

 

Use these websites/materials to support your child’s learning at home:

→ RAZ Kids has a large variety of fictional reading passages on your child’s reading level - Kids Log-In - please reach out to your child’s teacher if they need their log-in information.

→ Open access reading is available on www.readworks.org/ and www.commonlit.org for short fiction and nonfiction passages on a variety of reading levels - have your child log in using their NYC email account and they are connected to our classroom

→ Students are able to read on Sora through the NYC Library.  Click this link to access the Sora Library with your child’s NYC students email address.  

→ Check out videos on different literary elements and historical concepts on Flocabulary

→ Room Recess - reading games for all ages

→ IXL - have your child read nightly on IXL and practice a variety of reading skills.  Check out your child’s  individualized MAP Skills Plan, based upon their January 2024 MAP screener results.  They can work on their skill plans for both reading and math.  We are running a LEADERBOARD competition to see how  many 5th grade skills can be mastered by our awesome students in both classes!

Writing: Persuasive 

As we travel out west, we will be wearing the hat of both a researcher and a teacher.  Students will be enhancing the skills from our first informational writing unit to research about one of the big events that occurred during the period of time in US History known as Westward Expansion.  As we learn about these different events throughout the reading lessons, we will be keeping research notes as writers to be able to refer back to as informational writers. At the conclusion of the unit, students will be able to introduce a topic clearly, provide a general focus, organize related information logically, develop a topic with facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information; include text features, illustrations, and multimedia.  We will be creating a collaborative digital class book to teach our peers and families all about the major events during  this eventful time in US History.

 

Tips for families to support learning

→ Keep a fact tracker.  When reading about the different topics, practice note taking by writing down interesting facts.  Try putting that information in your own words. 

→ Provide a place for your child to write. 

→ Read, read, read! 

→ Encourage your child to keep a writer's notebook.

→ Provide authentic writing opportunities for your child. 

→ Be a writing role model. 

→ Ask questions. 

→ Help your child publish their writing.

 

Check out these resources that we are going to use to guide our informational writing

Informational Writing Scaffolds and Supports - Check out these scaffolds and supports we will use to guide all of our informational writing lessons.  You can use these resources to help you revise and publish your writing. 

5th Grade Informational Writing Rubric - This is the rubric we will be using to grade our informational writing pieces. 

Informational Writing Video - Watch this video to help understand what informational writing is and what is expected of our young writers. 

Westward Expansion Resources - Use these resources to help with your Westward Expansion research! There are so many other important events during this time in history.

Math Topics 8 and 9:Getting Ready for 6th Grade

From now until the end of the year, we will be working to get ready for sixth grade adventures! We will be looking at multiple topics to make sure we are prepared for sixth grade math. All of our topics will be looked at through the context of story problems and Exemplars.  We will begin by looking at the order of operations. Students will discover the correct order to solve equations: groupings ()[]{}, exponents, multiplication/division, and addition/subtraction. Then students will solve problems involving length conversions and plotting/interpreting data on line plots. Next up is coordinate grids. Students will learn what grids are, how to read points, and how to plot points. We might even be playing some old school battleship! We will dive into ratios or negative numbers at the end of the year! Finally, we will end the year by creating a Google Slides lesson to teach next year’s students a topic we learned about this year!

**It is extremely important that children know their basic multiplication and division facts.

Exemplars

Ask your child about our Exemplars work! We are working on showing our thinking not only with an algorithm but with a representation. They are creating plans with math vocabulary. They are labeling their representations with keys. They are verifying their results and they are making connections. They take each task a step further by doing something extra!

→ Encourage your child to use the Problem Solving Procedure when solving math problems at home!

Tips for families to support learning

→ Practice your Multiplication facts

→ Basic Facts Flash Cards

→ Revisit old lessons and videos with your child for some spiral review. 

       → This will help to reinforce all of the 5th grade concepts we learned about throughout the year.

 

Use these websites to support your child’s learning at home:

→ https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-fifth-grade-math

→ https://www.math-play.com/5th-grade-math-games.html

→ https://www.splashlearn.com/math-games-for-5th-graders

→https://www.mathgames.com/grade5

→https://www.education.com/games/fifth-grade/math/

→https://www.mathplayground.com/grade_5_games.html

Music: 

Students in class 501 will be preparing a concert entitled “It’s My Journey” which will encompass their journey from elementary school to middle school. Connections will be drawn to their ELA study on Western Expansion, comparing the experiences of the travelers to their own experience. The performance will occur on May 30th at 8:30am. 

Students in class 502 have been selected to perform at the Queensborough Performing Arts Festival. The students will be practicing “Singabahambayo Thina”, a song written based on the words of Nelson Mendela. The song was originally performed by the people of South Africa as the protested his unfair imprisonment. This connects to their ELA study about Taking a Stand. 

Spark: 

Our partnership with SPARK New Victory Theater will begin in May. Students will be working with a teaching artist from the New Victory Theater for six sessions during school. In SPARK students learn about performance and theater skills such as public speaking, acting out a character and collaborating with their peers. 

Physical Education:

In Physical Education, class 502 will be focusing on team sports and reinforcing the importance of leading a healthy and active lifestyle. As they get older, learning different skills and activities that are relevant to their environment and lifestyle will help encourage the students to stay active with activities that are of interest to them personally. This may include playing team sports such as baseball, softball, basketball or soccer or individualized activities such as yoga, walking, jogging and swimming. Moving our bodies daily is essential to good health and wellness. 

In addition, our Fifth Grade will be preparing for our “VIP Field Day” coming at the end of May. Keep your eyes out for more information! It is always such a fun day of showing off all of our skills that we have learned over the years! We can guarantee lots of laughs and tons of fun!! 

 

We  ❤️  Feedback in Fifth Grade

The most important strategy we learned in writing this year:

• The most important thing I have learned in writing is that just because something is bigger it doesn’t mean it’s better.  Writing is about what you write - not how much you can get on the page.  - Jessenia
• I learned to use foreshadowing as a tool to help my narrative writing. -Rashed
• The most important thing I learned as a writer this year is how to find and use relevant evidence. - Marck
• I learned that you have to connect the reader in your conclusion. -Anais
• Something important I learned as a writer this year was how to connect details to one another and explain them with the words like "This Shows That."  -Amelia
• I learned about using different transition words and deciding on which ones that are strongest for my claim.  -Aissata
• The most important thing I learned as a writer this year was to angle your evidence. -Maliha 

 

The most important skills we learned in reading this year:

• An important thing that I learned in reading this year is how to annotate passages to track my thinking about my reading. -Paige
• One of the most important reading skills I learned this year is learning how to look for the main ideas by thinking about what the text is mostly about. -Nathan
• I learned to restate the question in my own way to show what I know the question is asking me.  I think, “what is this question asking me to do?” -Aissata
• I learned how to look at passages and learn about what they are trying to tell me, find the main idea, and the key details to support it. -Mahreen
• The most important reading skill I learned this year is sketchnoting to show connections I see in my reading.  -Paris
• The most important thing I learned in reading is that there are different paragraph structures in nonfiction reading, like compare and contrast.  -Kevin 
• The most important reading strategy I learned is to look back in the passage for evidence that connects to the question I am trying to answer.  -Kendrix

 

The most important concepts we learned in math this year:

• The most important thing I learned was dividing fractions and dividing decimals.  -Ean
• The most important concept I learned was PEMDAS, or order of operations.  -Ayeleth
• I learned that you always have to show your work and make your thinking visible. -Anais
• I learned about geometry, customary units, multiplying and adding fractions, and also converting fractions greater than one to mixed numbers or whole numbers. -John S.
• The most important thing I learned as a mathematician this year was how to find the volume of shapes.  -Maliha
• The most important strategy I learned this year was how to determine the LCD (least common denominator).  -John A.
• I learned that numbers and fractions are in your everyday life.  -Solei