• Whole class or group reading
  . Teacher selected
  . Elements of literature taught
  . Vocabulary emphasized
• Independent reading
  . Student selected
  . Log kept
  . Formal sharing through a variety of response styles
• Students will write for a variety of purposes: personal narrative, persuasion, research, procedure, response to literature and creative pieces.
• Attention to grammar, usage, and mechanics (GUM)
• Spelling – weekly lessons and tests

Reading

Through classroom novels and the Daybook fifth graders will:

• Build and strengthen vocabulary
• Study the elements of literature
  . setting
  . plot development including rising action, climax and falling action
  theme
  . point of view
• Students learn to become active, critical readers
  . through predicting, asking questions and visualizing;
  . by being able to summarize, find the main idea, make inferences, sequence,
  . identify tone, and note cause and effect
  . by experiencing figurative language, sensory language and descriptive language

Through independent reading fifth graders will:

• Increase their fluency
• Experience a variety of genres
• Practice various response styles

Students will write for a variety of purposes:

• Personal narrative
• Information or report writing
• Procedure
• Creative
• Persuasive
• Descriptive
• Response to literature

Student writing will show evidence of:

• Prewriting technique
• Multiple paragraphs on one topic
• A clear purpose and a developed focus
• A variety in sentence structure
• Details and descriptive language
• A dynamic lead
• Cohesive paragraphs

• Appropriate transitional words and phrases
• Figurative and sensory language
• Voice
• Revision
• Editing

Fifth graders will:

• Write in complete sentences and well organized paragraphs
• Identify parts of speech
• Use capitalization and punctuation properly
• Use quotations
• Write a proper business letter

Fifth graders will focus on the rules and patterns of spelling:

• Short and long vowel sounds
• Word forms
• Compound words
• Homonyms
• VCCV pattern
• VCCCV pattern
• VV pattern
• VCV pattern
• Suffixes and prefixes
• Consonant and vowel changes
• Syllables

• Both content and study skills are taught
• Daily work may involve reading together, teacher guided, note-taking and activities
• Some assignments will be long-range projects with clearly defined guidelines, criteria and timelines

Content

• Physical Science
  . Light
  . Sound
  . Volume and Capacity
  . Static Electricity
• Life Sciences
  . Cells
  . Plants including Wildflowers
  . Invertebrates
  . Vertebrates

Skills

• Comprehension strategies
• Organization of content material
• Investigation
• Scientific method

• Both content and study skills are taught
• Daily work may involve reading together, teacher guided, note-taking and activities
• Some assignments will be long-range projects with clearly defined guidelines, criteria and timelines

Content

• U.S. Geography
• Native Americans
• Explorers
• Settlement of early colonies
• American Revolution
• Canada

Skills

• Comprehension strategies
• Organization of content information
• Research
• Essay and report writing

• Computation – accuracy of work
• Concept – understanding key ideas
• Mad Minutes – personal growth
• Problem solving – follows State Standards

Curriculum

Our curriculum encompasses:

• Number Sense
  . the ability to use appropriate vocabulary
  . recognizes proper operation for problem solving
  . can check for reasonableness (does the answer make sense)
  . understands place value
  . sees patterns, sequences and relationships
  . can represent data through a variety of graphs
  . uses whole numbers, fractions and decimals
• Algebraic Thinking: Patterns, Relations and Functions
  . can use charts, tables and graphs to explore interrelationships
  . uses patterns and functions to solve problems
  . write an equation to represent a situation and to solve problems
  . describe, extend, analyze and create a wide variety of patterns
• Geometry and Measurement
  . identify, draw, describe, compare and classify geometric figures
  . know and apply measurement equivalencies
  . compute with measurements
  . describe the meaning of and use perimeter, area, weight, volume and capacity
• Data Analysis: Statistics and Probability
  . devise a plan, collect, organize and describe data systematically
  . construct, read and interpret tables, charts and graphs
  . make inferences and convincing arguments that are based on data analysis

Social Development

• Self-esteem
• Peer relationships
• Communication with adults
• Individual and team problem solving activities

Physical Development

• Fitness tests assessed from past year
• Muscle contractions
• Muscle strengthening
• Muscle flexibility
• Soccer
• Elementary team games
• Volleyball
• Circus and juggling
• Basketball
• Tumbling and gymnastics
• Nutrition and food pyramid
• Cleanliness and minor first aid
• Elementary combat games
• Handball
• Wiffleball and lead-up to softball activities
• Orienteering
• Reassessed fitness from current year
• Track and field
• Team games

The art program will consist of a spiraling curriculum. Each lesson/project will build on the previous one. It will reflect the Vermont Standards and be based on the elements and principles of design, incorporating art history, aesthetics and art criticism with projects appropriate to each grade level. A wide variety of media and techniques will be used. All activities will be structured to accommodate different learning styles and paces. Art education will be available for all students.

The art program includes content from the four foundational art disciplines known as Discipline Based Art Education:

• Art history – art in a cultural or historical setting
• Art production – the concepts and skills used to make art
• Aesthetics – the philosophy or nature and value of art
• Art criticism – making judgments and analyzing art objectively.

Assessments will be conducted on a regular basis. Assessments will be teacher assessments in the form of grades, mid-term reports, report cards and oral critique. In addition, fifth graders will be completing self-assessment forms at the end of each project. By the end of the school year students should be able to demonstrate understanding of:

• The elements of design (line, shape, form, space, texture, color and value)
• The principles of design (unity, emphasis, contrast, balance, pattern, movement and rhythm)
• Composition, landscape, still life and collage
• 3-D clay construction – animal effigy vessels and 3-D paper construction – masks
• Observational drawing, depth and perspective, artistic problem solving and design
• Impressionism
• The work of Vincent Van Gogh

Fifth grade students progress in the knowledge and use of computer programs, specifically in facets of multimedia, ie. PowerPoint and web pages.

Basic Operations

• Moving information (cut, copy and paste)
• Work with multiple windows/programs
• Working with files (saving, finding, maintaining)

Information Tools

• Data manipulation (spreadsheet, data base, graphing)
• Page lay up
• Video editing

Social/Ethical Use and Practices

• Online etiquette
• Uses and advantages/disadvantages of IT
• Computer crime
• Current developments in IT

Research

• Encyclopedia
• Online searching

Problem Solving

• Spreadsheet as a problem solving tool

Advanced Computing

• Hardware and maintenance

Sample Activities

• Use tab key to line up
• Insert search
• Set margins
• Set tabs and types
• End and home keys

Library Media Program

In the Library Media Program the two main focuses are to encourage the students to have a love for reading and to teach them to be information literate. To be information literate means to be able to access, evaluate and use information efficiently and effectively. The Library Media Program operates on a flexible schedule. This allows the library media specialist to collaborate with the classroom teachers so that these skills are taught as the students need to use them for their classroom assignments instead of in isolation.

The students will:

• Begin using a more advanced research model
• Be able to find a book by its call number
• Be able to find information using the print and online encyclopedias
• Understand how to use a dictionary
• Learn to efficiently find information using an almanac, atlas and the Internet

Life-Long Reading

• The students will:
• Learn to identify different types of stories – tall tales, fairytales and folk tales
• Learn to identify different kinds of literature genres such as mysteries, adventure and biographies
• Recommend books to others

The students will:

• Be able to find a book using the online catalog by keyword
• Be able to create a multi-media presentation
• Be able to run an efficient search on the Internet

The student will:

• Be able to evaluate web sites as being relevant to their topic
• Understand the difference between appropriate and inappropriate web sites
• Understand the Acceptable Use Policy of the school