Language Arts
In language arts, the fifth graders will be developing their voice and skills as writers. Using the writing process, the students compose pieces in various genres including poetry, plays, and editorials. Students draft, revise, edit, and publish their pieces of writing for classroom anthologies and other publications.
Basic punctuation, spelling, vocabulary skills, sentence, and paragraph structure will be taught through the context of each student’s writing, as well as through other oral and written language activities. Students will practice their handwriting using exercises from the Zaner Bloser handwriting program, and will develop their skills as spellers using the Rebecca Sitton spelling program.
Playwriting is an exciting part of our fifth grade curriculum. During the course of the year, all fifth grade students write their own plays, perform in class staged readings of their plays, and submit them to Philadelphia Young Playwrights. Our long-term playwriting unit, which includes visits from a professional playwright-in-residence, helps the students develop their voice and fluency as writers. Playwriting also helps students to gain a rich understanding of character development, plot, setting, audience, and revision.
To help students become proficient spellers, we use the Rebecca Sitton spelling / word study program. This program allows teachers to create a spelling and word study program that targets students' specific needs. Each unit focuses on three strong element practices: general skills and concepts of word study (i.e., teachers select skill-building activities from a menu of differentiated lessons to meet their students' needs), specific word study (i.e., assess all words introduced so far in the program, all the way back to grade one, to focus on specific spelling words that each individual student does not know), and spelling in writing (i.e., expectations are set for spelling in everyday writing that increase as students mature as writers, making the classroom a rehearsal for "real world" spelling in writing). Our goal is to help students become confident, strategic, spellers in their everyday writing.
Through the use of portfolios, self- assessment, and peer and teacher conferences, students develop skills to reflect on their growth as writers and learners. The goal of the language arts program is to produce students who enjoy expressing their thoughts through various genres of writing and who can present information in an effective and understandable manner.
Social Studies
During social studies, we’ll begin the year with a review of basic geography knowledge. We will also explore new and more challenging concepts that we will work into our history curriculum. We will also discover information about our 'fifty nifty states'. The students will be expected to learn the location of all 50 states. Concurrenttly we are also into “the history phase of social studies.” As we begin our discovery of the events that led to the formation of the American nation, we will be using a variety of materials, activities, and resources to help us better understand how the United States came to be.
The text we will be using is entitled United States History (Houghton Mifflin Series). I am supplementing the text with several pieces of literature that will relate to the social studies curriculum. An example of this is the novel, Bull Run, which we will read while studying the War Between the States.
Students are expected to keep a social studies journal that will be periodically checked and evaluated. In addition to this, students will be assessed through homework, written evaluations, and class participation.
Math
This year in math we will review and extend the classes understanding of topics such as measurement, geometry, statistics, decimals, and fractions. We will continue to follow the “three-legged stool” of concepts, thinking skills, and computational skills, to give a better understanding of math in the world around us. The goal of the program is for students to become critical thinkers, problem-solvers, and cooperative learners. One day a week is set aside specifically to develop the students’ problem-solving skills. Every Wednesday, we will focus specifically on problem-solving strategies through activities, Math Forum word problems, and an array of cooperative projects.
Students will be assessed through their daily work, math portfolios, projects, homework, and tests. Students will work on weekly assignments at home to review skills covered in the classroom. Students will also have the opportunity to reflect on their work in a written format as a means of communicating what they have learned.
Notes and handouts are to be kept in a three-ring binder. Student portfolios remain in the classroom. Students use a folder with pockets and fasteners to store handouts such as “mad minutes” and “math mystery sheets.” Students will use calculators and computers to compliment the curriculum throughout the year.
Reading
The fifth grade reading program is structured to develop skillful, engaged, and insightful readers and foster a lifelong enjoyment of reading. An essential part of our balanced literacy program is daily independent reading, when students read independently for 20-30 minutes in class and at least 30 minutes at home. For this independent reading, students are expected to immerse themselves in books that they love, and find books, authors, subjects, and themes that they want to read about. They are also expected to push themselves to try new genres and authors. Students grow their thinking about their reading through discussion and writing.
Daily mini-lessons and read alouds are used to explicitly teach reading strategies and practices important to readers such as: making inferences, growing a literature discussion, using evidence in a text to back up ideas, and strategies to read non-fiction. Individual conferences and small group work will be used to reinforce skills learned through mini-lessons. Students will also participate in literature circles, in which students have the opportunity to read and have rich discussions about a novel with classmates in a group of three or four students. Using these various structures, we hope to create a climate in which students attain a greater appreciation for literature and become life-long skillful, analytical, and enthusiastic readers.
Homework
In fifth grade homework plays an important role in promoting and reinforcing academic learning and in developing organizational and time management skills. Fifth graders, depending on the speed at which they work, should spend approximately 50 minutes each night on homework, and they should never need to spend over 90 minutes a night on homework. This time spent on homework should include 30 minutes of daily reading for pleasure at home. Students should have a designated space where they can work on their homework and keep the textbooks (United States History, All Write, and Math at Hand) that we have given them to use at home during the school year. Children respond best when a routine is established, so please help your child to establish a specific time for homework, i.e. before dinner, after soccer practice, etc.
All homework assignments are posted on a fifth grade blog which is accessible from Penn Charter’s website.It is also fifth graders’ responsibility to find out what assignments they may have missed due to an absence. Please call the office before noon to make a request that your child’s homework assignments be sent down to the office by the end of the day. If this is not an option, your child should call a friend to find out what assignments have been missed or check our fifth grade homework blog. Our policy in fifth grade is to speak with and have a student write a homework plan and have it signed by a parent when he/she has turned in three homework assignments late in a trimester. When five assignments have been turned in late in a trimester the teacher calls home to further develop a plan to help the student attain better success in managing homework, materials, and time..
Meeting for Worship
Meeting for Worship is an important part of the fifth grade week. Every Wednesday we have a whole class morning gathering during which we reflect on an issue to help prepare students for our twenty minutes of Meeting for Worship that follows. Each week we meet for Meeting for Worship either as a fifth grade or with the entire Lower School community. While meeting as a full lower school, the fifth grade often escorts their second grade partners to Meeting. Quaker Meeting is a time for quiet reflection or prayer, and it is a time when a person may feel moved to share an important thought or idea.
Community Service
Another important aspect of life in a school with deep Quaker roots is service learning. Students participate in various types of service learning and enriching experiences during fifth grade. Students work as assistants at the Widener School, a school for students with physical and mental learning differences, are partners to the elderly at Stapley Hall, and have a poetry partnership with the Quba School. Throughout the year they also spend time with their second grade partners, which allows fifth graders to serve as role models and build friendships with younger students in the school.
Students also participate in a classroom project entitled “Random Acts of Kindness,” which is used to facilitate class cohesiveness and to promote students’ kind acts throughout the school and in the wider community.
