5th Grade

Current Unit:   Module 10 - The Lives of Animals - continued, Module 12 - Fiction Genre Study

Module 10 Reading (continued):

Over the next three weeks, our class will build their knowledge about the lives of animals, with a focus on the informational text genre. We will read texts and view videos about the amazing characteristics and abilities of animals. Children will also write an expository essay that compares animal interactions and human interactions.

 

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.

→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
• express a clear central idea
• include text and graphic features
• have a particular tone
• use precise and descriptive words

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

• The Big Idea:  Reinforce the topic words tension, antisocial, bond, and relationship in everyday conversations with your child. Use prompts like these: With whom do you feel a strong bond? When do you feel tension?
• 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 prefixes in–, anti–, and pre– and Latin root bene 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 12 Reading:

Over the next three weeks, our class will build their knowledge about fiction. We will read different forms of fiction, including realistic fiction, plays, and mysteries.

 

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:

• 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.

→The genre focus in this module is fiction. 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 fiction texts that: 

• spark your child’s curiosity
• provide interesting characters, settings, and plots
• have unique formats and graphic features

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

• The Big Idea:  Reinforce genre by having your child point out and explain genre features in the books he or she chooses. Use prompts like these: What parts of this book tell you it is fiction? What kind of fiction is this? How do you know?
• What Does It Mean?:  Have your child keep a growing list of the fiction books that he or she has read. Next to each title, have your child note the book’s genre features.

 

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: Literary Essays

Students will be working with different forms of literature, both digital and print, to write thought-provoking literary essays throughout this unit.   We will be refining claims about themes to be more precise, gathering and organizing reasons and evidence logically based on our analysis of the character's words, and explaining how feelings and actions (as well as using language) when writing arguments should be specific to the story.  Most importantly, students will understand the style and tone of various types of argument writing related to literary analysis and "not just an opinion" about a topic.   Students will be using the Panyee Football Club as a Mentor Text to drive the unit.   Through the analysis of different pieces of literature (both fiction and nonfiction) students will be angling evidence from the texts to support their claim about the text.   Students will be completing two writing pieces over the course of this unit and showcase their ability to integrate information from multiple texts as well as their ability to deeply analyze the characters, plot, setting and dialogue in a text. 

 

Tips for families to support learning

→ 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 literary essay writing

Anchor Charts 

 

5 Paragraph Essay Flocabulary Video

 

What’s a Thesis Flocabulary Video

 

Paraphrasing Flocabulary Video

 

Five Paragraph Essay BrainPop Video

 

Math Module 5: 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 fifth grade are preparing for their most important performance of all, graduation! The students are learning two songs that reflect on their experience at QE and who they are as people. The students will be singing these songs for families on graduation day! Practicing resources can be found on Google Classroom. 

 

In addition, students in 5th grade are learning to play the soprano recorder. Home recorders for additional practice can be purchased at the link below. The students are using the recorder to practice reading notes on the treble clef staff. 

  

 

SPARK: In their fifteen session partnership with SPARK New Victory Theater, the students have been developing and performing monologues in small groups or alone. The students are permitted to select a cause that resonates with them, like technology access, racial equality or gender equality . Their work draws connections to their learnings in Civics for All. 

 

Art:  

5th grade will connect to their HMH modules by creating animal art inspired by the artist, Henri Rousseau. Students will learn how to draw and paint the different features/textures of jungle animals. 5th grade will create a background of the animal's environment!

Students are also preparing artwork for graduation! Students are creating large-scale portraits that will be displayed at their Stepping Up Ceremony! 

Physical Education:

As the school year comes to a close, I am so proud of all the hard work, growth and enthusiasm our Fifth Graders have shown. It has been a fantastic year filled with sportsmanship, teamwork, growth and skill-building.

Throughout the year, students developed their abilities in a variety of games and activities. We focused not only on physical skills, but also on important values like sportsmanship, respect, and perseverance. It has been great to see students encourage one another and work together to achieve their goals.

 

We also emphasized the importance of staying active and making healthy choices every day. Whether it was through fitness challenges, warm-up routines, or outdoor games, students learned how regular physical activity supports both our body and mind.

As summer approaches, I encourage everyone to keep moving! Riding bikes, swimming, playing outside, or joining a local sports team are great ways to stay active and have fun. I hope you have the best summer! 

Health: Students will be able to support inclusion of others such as being kind, helping someone understand instructions, or asking an adult for help. In practice, this means students will learn how to notice when someone might feel left out, confused, or unable to participate especially in situations related to health or well-being (like understanding directions from a nurse or participating in activities).

 

• We  ❤️  Feedback in Fifth Grade

  The most important strategy we learned in writing this year:

  • The most important thing is that you have to be persuasive with your words. You need to make your writing exciting to make your reader eager to read more. -Naylanah B.
  • I learned how to express myself in my writing.  I learned about how to create a character through their traits and express their life in storytelling. Narrative writing was my favorite genre! -Yuritzi T.
  • I learned to use the RACCE strategy.  This helped me by reminding me to include two pieces of evidence to back up my thinking.  -Andrés G.
  • I learned that you always need two pieces of evidence to back up your claim.  This is important because, if you don’t include the evidence, your idea might not make sense to your reader and they might not agree with your claim.  -Jazlin D.
  
  

  The most important skills we learned in reading this year:

  • An important thing that I learned in reading this year was learning about so many interesting topics that taught me new information.  I learned about natural disasters and the Mars rovers, as well as central ideas and supporting details about these topics too.  -Eshan R. 
  • One important skill I learned is to reread the text multiple times.  This helps because it helps me find the right evidence and helps me better understand new information. -Abigail T.
  • I learned to notice if the evidence the author gives the reader backs up what they believe.  This is important because it can help the reader change their mind about the author’s idea or message.  -Anyaliah D.
  • I learned to compare and contrast as I read. This helps me organize my evidence and helps me understand my reading.  It shows me how ideas can be the same or different about a topic. -Ethan J.
  
  

  The most important concepts we learned in math this year:

  • The most important thing I learned was to multiply fractions.  It can help me learn about fractions and it can be a helpful skill when you have a job in the future.    -Reyan N. 
  • I learned about dividing fractions and how to create a coordinate grid.  These were new topics for me and now I feel like I have mastered them in 5th grade.  -Adilla E.
  • I learned about multiplying fractions this year.  It is important because, if it is not a whole piece, you have to know how to multiply the parts or fractions.  You can do this when you are making a recipe or cooking something.  -AJ B.
  • I learned how to find the volume of an object.  This helps me because it was something I didn’t understand at the beginning of the year, but now I know how to use the formula to find the volume.  -Ana U

 

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