5th Grade

Daily Learning Expectations at Home

To help support your child’s growth and reinforce classroom learning, please ensure the following activities are completed each day:

• i-Ready Math: 20 minutes of independent practice
• i-Ready Reading: 20 minutes of independent practice
• Independent Reading: 20 minutes of reading each day.

Each weekend, your child will complete a short written response using the provided question prompt.

 

These daily habits help strengthen essential math and reading skills while building independence and confidence as learners. Thank you for your support in creating a consistent routine at home!

Current Unit:  Module 3 - Natural Disasters, Module 5 - Planet Earth

Module 3 Reading:

Over the next four weeks, our class will build their knowledge about natural disasters, with a focus on the informational text genre. We will read texts and view videos about how Earth’s movements, features, and weather can cause natural disasters. This reading unit will also be supported in the writing lessons, as students will also be writing a persuasive essay about which natural disaster is the most destructive.

 

HOME CONNECTIONS:

Tips for families to support learning

→Set aside time daily for your child to share with you what he or she is learning. Use these ideas to help build your child’s knowledge about the topic:

• Talk about the ideas your child has added to the Knowledge Map each week.
• Ask about the texts your child is reading and what he or she has learned from them.
• Share with your child your own questions about the topic, and work together to find the answers.

→Explore the Genre: The genre focus in this module is informational text. Discuss with your child the characteristics of this genre. Ask your child to read to you each day and make time to read

Together. Look for texts that

• spark your child’s curiosity
• tie to the module topic
• explore interesting scientific facts and ideas
• have unique formats, graphic features, and visual elements

→ Build Vocabulary: Use these ideas to help your child build a rich vocabulary. 

• The Big Idea:  Reinforce the topic words notable, spontaneous, tremor, and hazard in everyday conversations with your child. Use prompts like these: What hazards do you avoid?
• • Describe the last spontaneous thing you did.
  • What Does It Mean?: Have your child keep a growing list of the Critical Vocabulary words. Quiz each other on their meanings.
  • Word Hunt: Look for words with roots graph, gram, geo, rupt, fer; suffixes –logy/–logist; and prefixes inter–, com–/con–/cor– in books, magazines, online texts, and environmental print.
  
  

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

  → RAZ Kids has a large variety of nonfiction reading passages on your child’s reading level - Kids Log-In

  → Open access reading is available on www.readworks.org/ for short 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

  → Targeted reading lessons on IXL that correlate to the objectives and lesson foci of this unit.  These will be updated weekly.  

  → Room Recess - reading games for all ages

Module 5 Reading:

Over the next four weeks, our class will build their knowledge about our planet, with a focus on the persuasive text genre. We will read texts and view videos about different things people do to care for the Earth and its living things. Children will also write an opinion essay about what they think people can do to make Earth a better place today and in the future.

 

HOME CONNECTIONS:

Tips for families to support learning

→Set aside time daily for your child to share with you what he or she is learning. Use these ideas to help build your child’s knowledge about the topic:

• Talk about the ideas your child has added to the Knowledge Map each week.
• Ask about the texts your child is reading and what he or she has learned from them.
• Share with your child your own questions about the topic, and work together to find the answers.

→Explore the Genre: The genre focus in this module is persuasive text. Discuss with your child the characteristics of this genre.

• spark your child’s curiosity
• tie to the module topic
• In which an author presents evidence for or against something.
• In which the author asks readers to take action about an issue.

→ Build Vocabulary: Use these ideas to help your child build a rich vocabulary. 

• The Big Idea:  Reinforce the topic words contaminate, benevolent, imperil, endangered in conversation with your child. Use prompts like these: What is the opposite of contaminate? Describe a benevolent person.
• What Does It Mean?:  Have your child keep a growing list of the Critical Vocabulary words.
• • Quiz each other on their meanings.
  • Word Hunt: Looks for words with the Latin root bene and the suffixes –ive and –ure in books, magazines, online texts, and environmental print.
  
  

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

  → RAZ Kids has a large variety of nonfiction reading passages on your child’s reading level - Kids Log-In

  → Open access reading is available on www.readworks.org/ for short 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

  → Targeted reading lessons on IXL that correlate to the objectives and lesson foci of this unit.  These will be updated weekly.  

  → Room Recess - reading games for all ages

WRITING MODULE 3: Argumentative writing through a Persuasive Essay

FOCUS STATEMENT: Using persuasion is much more powerful than fighting.

Focal Text: Green City: How One Community Survived a Tornado and Rebuilt for a Sustainable Future

Author and Illustrator: Allan Drummond

Summary: A community survives a tornado and rebuilds their city using sustainable design.

WRITING PROMPT: Using persuasion is much more powerful than fighting.

THINK about the times you struggled  to get your way. Did you yell or reasonably explain your idea?

WRITE a persuasive essay stating which natural disaster is the most destructive.

 

WRITING MODULE 5: Argumentative writing through an Editorial

FOCUS STATEMENT: People see things in different ways.

FOCAL TEXT: The Elephant Keeper: Caring for Orphaned Elephants in Zambia

Author: Margriet Ruurs  Illustrator: Pedro Covo

Summary: The true story of a keeper named Aaron and the elephant he helped to rehabilitate.

WRITING PROMPT:  People see things in different ways.

THINK about what it means that people have different points of view about caring for Earth. 

WRITE an editorial for your local newspaper about an environmental issue you feel strongly about.

 

Tips for families to support learning

→ Have your child state their opinions without using the word “I”

→ After your child has stated their opinion, make sure you always ask them WHY and to PROVE IT with evidence from their reading or lessons

 

Use these resources to work on persuasive speaking and writing skills

→ What is persuasive writing?

→ Island Dilemma

→ Opinion writing anchor charts

→ Opinion Writing Checklists

 

Math:   Decimal and Whole Number Operations

 

November to January in fifth grade is all about decimals! In November, we will finish multi-digit whole number multiplication. We will then move into multiplying decimals. In December, we switch operations and begin by dividing whole numbers. We end the decimal units in January with dividing decimals. Throughout these decimal units, we will be learning how to use place value to multiply and divide whole numbers and decimals into the hundredths.  Some of the strategies for multiplication include: standard algorithm, area model, and lattice. Some of the strategies for division include: long division, box method, and partial quotients. We will be using these skills in real-life applications of money and weight.  These topics will continue to develop the skills from topic 1 (place value), such as reading and writing decimals to the thousandths place, decimal place value, rounding, and comparing as well as topic 2 (adding and subtracting decimals).

 

We will also be continuing our Exemplars work weekly. Each week students will complete an Exemplars task relating to the skills from the topic. Students will problem solve, justify their thinking, make connections, draw representations, and include math content vocabulary.

We have really been working hard at achieving our 5th grade fluency goal: multiply multi-digit numbers. The students complete a multiplication tracker. The students have 1 minute to complete as many multiplication problems as they can (max of 50). Then a peer scores them and they track it on their personal tracking sheet. They are able to see their progress week to week. This started week 1 of school and your children are getting more and more problems correct each week! We are so proud of them for all of their hard work. Please work with them at home on their facts from 0-15 so they can strengthen their skills and work their way up to 50!

 

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

Basic Facts Flash Cards

 

Tips for families to support learning

→ Practice your Multiplication facts

→ Practice reading decimals

→ Use these Math Vocabulary Cards to practice using 5th grade math academic language

 

Use these resources to work on whole number and decimal operations 

→ Multiplying Whole Numbers

→ Dividing Whole Numbers

→ Multiplying Decimals

→ Dividing Decimals

 

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

→ https://www.mathgames.com/grade5

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

→ http://www.mathgametime.com/grade/5th-grade

Science: 

The Earth System: Investigating Water Shortages. In the role of water resource engineers, students ask questions and investigate what makes East Ferris, a city on one side of the fictional Ferris Island, prone to water shortages while a city on the other side is not. Students develop and use system models that help them figure out how water cycles through parts of the Earth system at the nanoscale and at the observable scale. They apply their understanding of condensation and evaporation to design freshwater collection systems as a possible solution for East Ferris’ water shortage problem. 

 

Tips for families to support learning

To support your child at home there are resources posted on your child’s Google Classroom under the Science topic.  You can check out the different simulations and ask your child to explain what they have been learning using the following question prompts:

Chapter 1

• I hear you are investigating a place with a water shortage. Where do you think our tap water comes from?
• Are there lakes near where we live? An ocean? Rivers? What do you wonder about these  places?

Chapter 2

• Where do you think the water in rain comes from?
• If I heat water in a pot on the stove, eventually there is less water in the pot. What do you think happens to that water?

Chapter 3

• Let’s see if we can see some clouds. What do you think the clouds are made of? How do you think they got there?
• What have you learned about ways water can change?

Chapter 4

• What have you discovered about the water shortage you have been investigating?
• Can you tell me about one investigation about water you have done? What did you figure it out?

Chapter 5

• I hear you are investigating ways of cleaning dirty water. What have you learned? 
• What are some things that engineers do?

 

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

→ Students can work on the “Teacher Recommended” lessons that correlate to the Amplify Science topics and lessons.  

→ Students can explore the unit simulations at home through the links in Google Classroom.

→ Additional 3rd and 4th grade science topics are available for practice on IXL - this will help them review for science topics that may appear on the NYS Science Exam in May.

Materials:

Amplify Science digital tools, Amplify Science Simulations, investigations notebook/packet

 

Physical Education :      

5th grade has been staying active and building healthy habits in PE! Students are learning the importance of teamwork, sportsmanship, and goal setting through fun activities like cooperative games, fitness challenges, and team sports. We’ve also been focusing on improving coordination, strength, and endurance through various games and activities. This will be beneficial once we begin the Fitnessgram.  

Art : 

5th Grade will make connections to their HMH modules by creating Op Art Tornadoes. Students will learn how to make optical illusion tornadoes from lines and shading. Students will explore artists like Victor Vasarely and Bridget Riley to observe how artists created optical illusions with geometric shapes, lines, and color contrasts to give a sense of movement, vibrations, and depth.

Music:  

         Students in Fifth Grade Music are preparing a Winter Concert performance entitled “Just One Candle”. The selected songs connect to current and previous HMH units. In their first HMH unit about inventors, the students drew connections between inventors and composers. They discussed how composers “invent” sound to evoke the feelings they want to convey to the audience. They connected this to the work of composers such as in Alan Menkin’s “Go The Distance” and Stephen Schwartz’s “Defying Gravity.” On 12/12 the students will be going to the Hostos Center for Culture to hear the musical compositions of Kinen Azmeh. 

          As they begin their HMH unit about “Natural Disasters” the students will be learning a song entitled “Just One Candle” that was written for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The students will be performing the song with the corresponding sign language. 

           Our Winter Concert will take place on 12/23/25. STUDENTS WILL WEAR FORMAL BLUE to school on the date of our concert. We encourage dresses, collared shirts, dress pants, and skirts. Please refrain from wearing sweats, jeans and sneakers for this event.  Sparkly clothing is encouraged!

 

SPARK New Victory Theater:

        All students in fifth grade are participating in our partnership with SPARK New Victory Theater. Teaching artists from the theater will be leading our students in fifteen workshops on theater. In March, the students will be attending a performance by New Victory Theater in NYC.

 

We  ❤️  Feedback in FIfth Grade

Reading:

Anthony S. - I have learned about prefixes and suffixes in our vocabulary lessons.  This helps me to become a better reader because it helps me determine the meaning of the words in our lessons.

Levi C. - I like that we are reading plays in our classroom.  Reading plays is my favorite because it connects to my love of musicals.  Plays are different from other texts because they have stage directions, they include a narrator, and they are broken into scenes and acts, not chapters.

 

Math:

Jason C. - I learned about the area model for multiplication. I like this model because it is easier for me to follow the steps to multiply accurately.  

Nivan U. - I am learning about estimating the product as a strategy.  Estimating can help me because, if I can’t solve in my head, I can use compatible numbers to solve the problem instead.  

 

Writing: 

Anyaliah D. - We worked on expository writing about inventors.  I learned how to research my topic. I did this by asking myself questions about my inventor and thinking about the 5W’s when I was researching - who, what, when, where, and why (they were important).  

Noah F. - We are currently working on narrative story writing.  I learned that in order to get the reader interested, you need to add a lot of dialogue and figurative language.  This helps the reader because it helps them know who is talking and it makes them want to read more in your story.  

 

Science: 

Zarah B. - We are learning about the water cycle and how West Ferris has a water problem.  This is important because we are trying to help with real-world problems and come up with science solutions.  

Adilla E. -  I learned about how water becomes vapor and goes into the sky.  Then, it falls back to earth and it gets recycled.  This connects to how the world works and shows how water is important to every living thing. 

 

Social Studies: 

Jazlin D. - We are learning about speech writing and I am focusing on child abuse.  I learned this is a big problem, with thousands of kids being impacted by this every day. 

It’s important to pick a topic that you care about when you are writing a speech.  

Kaira A. - I learned that you have to add a call-to-action when you are writing a Soapbox speech.  This is important because it helps you interact with your audience and it helps solve the problem that you are speaking about.

Our amazing 5th grade students and family volunteers collected 348lbs of garbage at Marine Park in Brooklyn.  It was a great day making a difference in our community!  It is aligned to the Mayor’s Climate Action Day for Waste, which takes place in November.