Remember, grades are stepping stones toward mastery, not final judgments of your child’s ability. Low grades at the beginning of the year are normal as students adjust to new concepts and expectations. With practice, perseverance, and support, your child’s understanding and confidence will grow. Encourage them to focus on skills, effort, and progress, rather than just the number on a paper. Growth takes time, and each step—big or small—is a step toward mastery.
Theme: Adventures, Heroes, and How Stories Work
We’ll embark on a lively literary adventure with Don Quixote, exploring how setting, scheme, and protagonists drive a story forward. Students will learn how to outline ideas, craft informational essays, and strengthen their grammar through lessons on sensory linking verbs, adverbial clauses, pronouns, and indirect objects.
Pre-Requisite Skills to Reinforce:
Read aloud daily and ask your child to retell key events in order.
Practice identifying the main idea and details in short readings.
Review basic parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb).
Enrichment Ideas:
Listen to an audio version of Don Quixote together—discuss what makes Don Quixote a hero or a dreamer.
Encourage journaling with descriptive language that uses the five senses.
Watch a favorite movie and ask your child to name the protagonist, setting, and conflict.
Theme: Renaissance to Reformation – A Changing World
Students will travel through time to witness the Renaissance rebirth of art and science, the Reformation’s bold stand for conscience and faith, and explore what was happening simultaneously in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. We’ll trace how ideas spread, cultures interacted, and innovation shaped history.
Pre-Requisite Skills to Reinforce:
Review basic map skills—continents, oceans, compass directions.
Practice timeline sequencing using family or historical events.
Discuss cause and effect in everyday situations (“What happens when…?”).
Enrichment Ideas:
Visit an art museum (in person or virtual) to see Renaissance masterpieces.
Watch short videos on great inventors like Gutenberg or explorers like Zheng He.
Try sketching in Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook style—label observations and ideas!
Theme: Fantastic Fractions and Mighty Measurements!
It’s going to be a fraction frenzy! Students will add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions while discovering how to apply these operations to real-world measurement and volume problems. Math gets practical and fun—think cooking, building, and problem-solving challenges.
Pre-Requisite Skills to Reinforce:
Master multiplication and division facts for fluency.
Review equivalent fractions and simplifying fractions.
Practice reading measuring cups, rulers, and scales at home.
Enrichment Ideas:
Bake together—have your child double or halve a recipe.
Build or craft something that involves measuring—legos, woodworking, or fabric cutting.
Play “fraction war” with a deck of cards or explore fraction games online.
Theme: Energy and Force – Modeling Earth’s Systems
From gravity’s pull to wind’s power, students will study how energy and forces shape our world and keep Earth’s systems in balance. Through experiments and models, we’ll explore how energy moves through natural processes like weather, erosion, and waves.
Pre-Requisite Skills to Reinforce:
Review states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) and basic energy forms (heat, light, motion).
Practice reading simple data tables or graphs.
Encourage curiosity—ask “What do you think will happen if…?”
Enrichment Ideas:
Make a homemade catapult or marble ramp to test force and motion.
Visit a science museum or watch “Earth from Space”–style documentaries.
Model the water cycle or rock cycle with everyday materials.