Guidance: Encourage your child to read by themselves and out loud to you each day. Your child should work to read the punctuation, including pauses and changing their voice so it sounds like the characters in the book. Fifth graders took home several books to read over spring break. Encourage your child to spend some time reading those books.

Parents can work to engage students in conversation about what they are reading. Rich discussion can help parents gauge whether or not students are understanding the text. Parents can ask students about their favorite/least favorite parts, predictions for what will happen next, how the book makes them feel, how they would describe the characters, and the text evidence that supports their thinking. Parents can also consider reading the same book/text that their child is reading to help engage in a thorough discussion about what has been read.

Classroom teachers will be emailing parents with login credentials for two different resources: Epic! and Mackinvia. Both resources are online tools that students have used in the classroom and provide digital access to texts that students can read with, or without, audio. Mackinvia has a wide range of books for older readers, including many of this year’s Iowa Children's Choice Award books.

Encourage students to share about their reading by completing a book talk. Students can create book talks in many different ways. A book talk could be as simple as taking a few notes about the book to share with others, creating a Google Slides presentation, or creating an online video using WeVideo about a book they have read. Students could share their book recommendations to their peers.

Guidance: Keeping a writing journal is a great way to practice writing during this break from school. Students can come up with their own ideas or use a writing prompt from Journey Buddies Prompts or Writing Prompts for Each Day.

Another way to engage students in writing is to engage them in taking a virtual field trip! Each day “explore” a new place in our state, nation or world. Visit National Parks and other amazing places in our world. Simply search for a place on the internet or use the virtual field trip link found below. Once you’ve "visited" a new place, start writing about your “field trip”. Some ideas that students could use to write about their adventure could include:

• What I saw...

• What I learned...

• Share some amazing facts about this experience.

• Would you like to visit this place in real life? Explain why or why not.

• Questions I have about this location…

Guidance: There are many ways to work on math at home! Fact fluency is important for students, especially since 5th grade students are capable of solving large problems and can work with fractions.

Parents and children can use playing cards to practice basic math facts. Consider playing “War”, where two players flip over a card and typically the high card wins. Instead of the winner being the high number shown, the winner could be the first person to correctly multiply the two numbers (one from each card) and state the correct answer. Games like this can help students build speed with their facts.

Students can use Reflex Math, an online program at home. Information about how to access and login to Reflex math has been emailed to parents from their classroom teacher. Prodigy Math, an online tool that adapts in difficulty to suit your child’s learning style and grade level, can also be accessed and used at home after setting up a free account..

Please use the additional resources below, as they can be helpful in keeping students thinking like mathematicians throughout this break.

Guidance: Kids are naturally curious about the world around them. They have questions about everything! Fifth graders have also become quite skilled at finding answers. Encourage them to ask questions and search for their answers. They’ll be excited to share what they find with you!

Below you will find two resources to support science at home.

Mystery Science has links to 6 Mini-lessons (15-30 minutes) that are all digital. Additionally, it has links to 5 full lessons (45-90 minutes) that include a hands on activity. Some of the activities can be done digitally and others are hand-on. Choose those that work best for you! Access free lessons (at all grade levels) without setting up an account by visiting the link below.

Exploratorium provides parents with free interactive apps from the San Francisco Exploratorium that contain archived videos from the total solar eclipse expeditions, previews of future expeditions, interactive maps, and more! Consider using the Exploratorium website which has a lot of other activities to offer, as well.

Guidance: Keep your child active! Physical activity provides many health benefits. In addition, physical activity helps to reduce stress and anxiety in children.

Consider the following ways to add physical activity to your day: Take a walk together as a family each evening or as a midday break. Have your child walk up and down the stairs and count them. Count by 2s, 5s, 10s, or any number. Mix it up by not starting at 0 each time.

Your student can test themselves and monitor their progress by tracking how many sit-ups, push ups, jumping jacks, lunges etc. they can complete in one minute. Encourage your child to track how many laps they walk or run around the block while they are home during the entire school closure.

If it is necessary to remain inside, create a competition such as: How many times can you run/walk up and down the stairs in one minute?

Go Noodle (linked below) is a great resource to trick your kids into a remote gym class at home! Perfect for days indoors with no real physical activity, GoNoodle’s suite of funky games — including Flo Yo’s Bubble Pop and Squatchy Berger’s Rock and Roll — gets kids waving their hands and moving their bodies.

Consider using the resources below as additional options to provide students with movement and exercise at home.

Guidance: From the buildings that we live in to the advertisements that we see on social media, our eyes are constantly viewing what artists often call “visual culture.” Visual culture is the stuff that we interact with on a daily basis, often not even realizing it! The visuals that we interact with were created by someone with a purpose in mind, and it is important to help our students look critically at the world around them, whether they are looking at a painting in a museum or a Nike advertisement.

Just like text, images and visuals can be “read.” One of the ways we do this in art class is through an activity called Visual Thinking Strategies. By asking three simple questions, we can begin to help students understand and dissect the images that they see! An infographic is included below if you’d like to try it with your fifth-grader. Perhaps you find a famous artwork to talk about or apply this technique to a billboard you see out on a drive! Any visual works!

Additionally, encourage your fifth grader to create their own images using any materials you have at home! Generating innovative ideas is always a focus in art class, and sometimes it is helpful to have a prompt to help us begin generating those innovative ideas. Below is a link to a list of prompts that you might show to your students if they are feeling stuck or simply need a place to get started!

Guidance: The change to staying at home can be stressful for families. You may notice behavior changes that affect sleeping and eating habits and impulse control. This can all be difficult when the brain is full of worry. During this time, focus on connection and feelings of safety. Your child will benefit from love and support-- there’s not a perfect schedule or perfect parent! Model kindness and patience, and take a break when you need one. Practice mindful activities both together and alone that will help reduce stress- play games together, go on a walk, listen to music, read books, color or draw, and rest when you need to.

Dr. Emily W. King writes, “When you have to pick, because at some point you will, choose connection. Pick playing a game over arguing about an academic assignment. Pick teaching your child to do laundry rather than feeling frustrated that they aren’t helping. Pick laughing, and snuggling, and reminding them that they are safe.” Mental wellness is important for everyone… we are all in this together!

Two resources are provided below. The first resource works similarly to a counseling lesson at school. It starts with a lesson, time for discussion, and ends with some independent practice. Try one activity at the beginning of your day to help build social emotional skills. The CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) website will help provide guidelines for parents related to social emotional learning- with resources for talking to children about the Coronavirus, planning activities at home, and coping with stress and anxiety.

Notice: The purpose of this website is to provide parents and students with optional resources that could be used during the current school closure due to COVID-19. Students are not required to use the resources and information found on this site. Information and resources on this site do not constitue "educational services & opportunities" being provided by the ADM Community School District. Please use the following link for more information about why ADM is not providing distance learning educational services and opportunities: ADM COVID-19 FAQ