5th Grade

Current Unit:  Module 9 - Unexpected, Unexplained + Module 10 - The Lives of Animals

Module 9 Reading:

Over the next three weeks, our class will build their knowledge about mysterious events, with a focus on the mystery genre. We will read texts and view videos about why people are drawn to mysteries and driven to solve them. Children will also write an opinion essay about which mysteries in the module are the most believable and which seem made up for entertainment.

 

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 mystery. 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
• describe interesting characters and events
• present a conflict and show how it is resolved

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

• The Big Idea:  Reinforce the topic words suspense, falsify, factor, and effect in everyday conversations with your child. Use prompts like these: What factors can change your mood? Is suspense exciting? Why?
• 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 the roots fac, fec, fy and the suffixes –y, –ion, –ic, –less, –ous/–ious, –al, –ant, –ment 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

Math Topic 7:  Add and Subtract fractions with unlike denominators.

We will begin this unit by expanding on our fraction skills from 3rd and 4th grade. We will start by adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators using fraction tiles. We will use our foundational skills of creating equivalent fractions to complete the 5th-grade skill - adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators using fraction tiles and representations of fraction tiles. Students will use benchmark fractions, number lines, and number sense of fractions to estimate mentally and assess the reasonableness of answers.

Students will use strategies based on equivalence and reasoning to solve additive interdisciplinary and real-world context problems, such as cooking with recipes with fractions with unlike denominators. Students will use the Problem Solving Procedure when solving all types of word problems and tasks to solve correctly, prove their answers, include math vocabulary, representations, and connections. Students will solve using multiple strategies and relate the strategy to confirm their results. Students will relate each learning objective to their everyday lives, wherever applicable.

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. We complete a multiplication tracker during math. The students have 2 minutes 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

→ Cook with your child and have discussions about the recipes. 

→ Have them add the ingredients together to determine the total amount of cups, tablespoons, etc that were used.

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

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

→ http://www.math-play.com/fractions-board-game/fractions-board-game_html5.html 

→ http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/math/fractions/add-sub-unlike-denom.htm 

→ https://www.mathgames.com/skill/5.77-add-and-subtract-fractions-with-unlike-denominators 

→ https://braingenie.ck12.org/skills/102631 

→ https://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/fractions/mathman_fractions_add_uncommon.htm

Module 10 Reading:

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

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

Topics 8 and 9: Multiplying and Dividing Fractions 

We will begin this unit by applying and extending previous understandings of multiplication to multiply a fraction by a whole number or a fraction. We will also be multiplying mixed numbers. We learn how to multiply fractions and mixed numbers using hundredths grids. We will extend on the 4th grade skill of finding the area of a rectangle by using fraction side lengths. Then we will interpret multiplication as scaling or resizing. We will create multiplication rules just like we did for decimals! 

Next, we will interpret a fraction as division of the numerator by the denominator. The fraction line means division! We will apply and extend previous understandings of division to divide unit fractions by whole numbers and whole numbers by unit fractions. Throughout the entire unit, we will solve real world problems involving multiplication and division of fractions, mixed numbers, and whole numbers. We will continuously stress the importance of using math vocabulary when speaking and in solutions.

**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!

Tips for families to support learning

→ Practice your Multiplication facts

→ Basic Facts Flash Cards

→ Cook with your child and have discussions about the recipes. 

→ Have them multiply recipes to create more servings.

→ Have them divide recipes to create less servings.

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

→ http://www.math-play.com/fractions-board-game/fractions-board-game_html5.html 

→ http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/math/fractions/add-sub-unlike-denom.htm 

→ https://www.mathgames.com/skill/5.77-add-and-subtract-fractions-with-unlike-denominators 

→ https://www.mathgames.com/skill/5.85-multiply-fractions 

→ https://braingenie.ck12.org/skills/102631 

→ https://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/fractions/mathman_fractions_add_uncommon.htm

ART 

5th grade will make connections to their HMH module by creating artwork related to the lives of animals. Students will observe different animals and what they look like. Students will learn how to make the different parts of an animal. Students will focus on key details to explore the shape, color, texture, and environment of the animals they will be creating.

Music:

Students in 5th Grade are preparing for a concert performance, which will take place on May 6th. The songs for this concert connect to the students HMH unit on exploration and discovery “Above, Below and Beyond.”  The students will be connecting this to their own journeys to self discovery as they prepare to graduate elementary school and move on to middle school. 

SPARK: In their partnership with SPARK New Victory Theater, the students have been generating a story, turning that story into a script and staging their script with characters. The students have been learning about the elements that go into performing a show, including rehearsal, collaboration and character work. 

DANCING CLASSROOMS: In their partnership with Dancing Classrooms, students will be learning about various styles of ballroom dance, such as the waltz, merengue and tango. The students will be working with a teammate to achieve technical mastery of each dance style, and learning about the cultural history that each dance style reflects. They will be sharing their learnings with families on June 13th

 

We  ❤️  Feedback in FIfth Grade

• I love learning about new concepts in science, like the theories around how the dinosaurs went extinct.  I also liked learning about KCF in math - this was a helpful division strategy for math!  - Toshani B.
• I love how the teachers are able to express themselves and help us understand.  Ms. Realmuto is able to explain the new concepts and make it easy to learn.  I really like the investigations we have done to prepare for the state test.  Mysteries have been super fun to read - I love Mr. Linden’s Library and The Secret Keeper! - Maya H.
• Division is my favorite topic in math because it is fun to break down numbers into smaller parts.  My favorite strategy is long division! - Daniel C.
• In math, I learned LCD and it has helped me become really good at dividing fractions.  In science, I love doing hands-on activities where we made chemical reactions.  I like this because I can try it at home after learning about it in school.  - Wasel H.

• I really love the way my teachers master the different strategies that we learn in class.  Our teachers really help us when we need it! - Shanty R. 
• Fifth Grade is awesome because we make individual goals for math, reading and writing and we get to show our teachers we accomplished them and then get paid!  - Avery L.
• he science investigations we have been doing all year have been so much fun.  We learned all about life cycles, chemical reactions, water shortages and mixtures. - Matias V.
• Student leaders has been such a great experience! Doing the participatory budgeting project was rewarding.  I wish we had more clubs we could participate in - Rylan B.