For the first part of the marking period we are going to be hitting studying for the MEAP hard.  We  will review 4th grade material, but also work on test taking skills!

Math

This year our class has a unique opportunity to experience what it is like to switch classes.  Mrs. Porter will be teach the Math portion of 5th grade to both her class and mine. This year we are using an all new Saxon Math curriculum which weaves together many skills. Students will be challenged to work with addition, subtracting, multiplication, division, fractions, shapes, graphs and more. After each 5 lessons students will have a test to review their knowledge. After 10 lessons students will do an investigation that is usually a class activity.

Reading

We will be using our Scott Foresman reading series, and try to add a few things along the way. The series does an awesome job of combining reading, comprehension, writing,  vocabulary, and grammar all together.  We usually focus on one story each week and do the different activities that accompany it.  These activities are a combination of reading, language arts, and spelling.

We will be focusing on plot, genre, settings, understanding the author, author point of view and more.  Each week I see the students comprehending each of these concepts better and scores are improving.

Each nine weeks we also attempt to read a novel together as a class also. For the first nine weeks we read Indian In the Cupboard. The second marking period is Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. The third marking period is Freedom Train, and finally the last marking period is something like Shiloh.

Language Arts

This summer I spent a significant amount of time working on the Language Arts piece of our curriculum.  This is what I will be teaching to Mrs. Porter's class while she has my students. While we will still do some pieces from the Scott Foresman we are also adding in  6 plus 1 writing to our day.  We will spend time working on making writing guides they contain words that are out of the box (like cold or happy would be frigid and zealous), verbs that are now dead to us, how to write a paper and more. We begin our year with making Life Boxes that contain mini-autobiographies.  They are hanging in our hallway, please feel free to come see them. We will jump into making our very own Superhero's and then begin looking at how we write a research paper.  To me writing has never been so fun!

Spelling

Spelling happens every week!  Even when we are not doing a story from our reading series there is still a spelling contract. The contract should come home every Monday where each student should practice twice with an adult. Once that part is complete, parents sign the box. (I check for those signatures first thing Tuesday morning.) Students have until Friday at 8:00am to turn in the contract with at least 75 points. (The points go up by 5 each semester, but students can still set goals above that number!)

Science

Hands-on, minds-on science is the philosophy that we like to go with.  We will play with bugs, work in the BELL, learn about invertebrates, circulatory systems, astronomy and more. It will be an exciting year in Science! 

Social Studies

We will begin the year with mapping skills.  Students will get the chance to make their own country while explaining what a compass rose and a key are.  After that we will head into Native Americans beginning with the Olmecs, Anasazi's, and Mound Builders and heading through the times. 

Students will also get a chance to stay caught up on current events as we will read Time For Kids every week.  Core Democratic Values will also be woven into our studies!