Reading

Students will use reading comprehension and close reading strategies to read for a variety of purposes (pleasure, inform, compare and contrast, locate text evidence, etc.). This will be accomplished through:

• Content rich units of study that systematically engage students in reading literature as well as complex and content specific text (Science, Social Studies and Citizenship)
• Sustained silent reading
• Literature circles and small group work
• Text based discussions
• Research
• Read closely for information and comprehension

Listening and Speaking

• Sharing Out
• Oral presentation skills

Writing

Students will write for a variety of purposes to provide text evidence, inform, compare and contrast, describe, and reflect.

• Writing in content areas
• Literary response
• Summaries
• Narrative writing
• Paragraphs
• Evidence based opinion writing
• Informational pieces

Reading and writing instruction will also address vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure and punctuation.

Fifth grade mathematics is about

• developing fluency with addition and subtraction of fractions, and developing understanding of the multiplication of fractions and of division of fractions in limited cases (unit fractions divided by whole numbers and whole numbers divided by unit fractions);
• extending division to two-digit divisors, integrating decimal fractions into the place value system and developing understanding of operations with decimals to hundredths, and developing fluency with whole number and decimal operations; 
• developing understanding of volume.

Students will use critical thinking and problem solving to explore a real world problems.

Topics include:

• Place value and decimal fractions
• Multi digit whole number and decimal fraction operations
• Addition/Subtraction/Multiplication/Division of fractions
• Addition/Multiplication with volume and area
• Problem solving with the coordinate plan
• Percentages
• Line plots and problem solving
• Measurement - customary and metric conversions
• Simple geometry (classify two dimensional figures based on properties)
• Represent and interpret data
• Write and interpret expressions

Western Hemisphere

• History
• Geography
• Culture
• Government
• Economics

• Structures and Properties of Matter
• Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems
• Earth's Systems
• Space Systems: Stars and the Solar System
• Engineering and Design

Science Labs will reinforce these concepts through hands on investigations, experiments and field trips.