Fifth Grade

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~Welcome to Grade 5 ~
Welcome to fifth grade!  Our goal for fifth grade is to successfully prepare students both academically and socially for their future middle school years at Tuckahoe School.  We foster a literacy-based learning environment that offers many opportunities for student inquiry, sharing, and self-discovery.  Our classrooms allow students to work cooperatively with one another to further enhance the learning experience.


Literacy:
Our literacy-based classrooms foster a love of reading and    writing through the balanced literacy framework which provides students many opportunities for real life reading and writing experiences.  A minimum of 120 minutes daily is devoted to literacy instruction.  Reading and writing workshops encourage students to read and write across the curriculum.  Students are expected to read and write in a variety of genres. They respond to literature, discuss and share their experiences with literature.  Students also learn the skills for writing personal narratives, poetry, short stories, nonfiction, and other genres.  Within this framework, students participate in the following components:

Reading Workshop (includes independent reading, guided reading, and literature study) Writing Workshop (includes independent writing, guided writing, and research-related writing) Language/Word Study (includes the study of language conventions, spelling and vocabulary 


Social Studies:
The fifth grade social studies program stresses geographic, economic and social/cultural understanding related to the United States, Canada, and nations in Latin America today.  These perspectives build on and reinforce historic and political content about the United States taught in the fourth grade curriculum. There is a focus on U.S. history,     beginning with the founding of the European colonies leading up to the Revolution.  We then follow our nation as it enters into an industrial  period with growing cities and immigration. Students will then learn about the landscapes, climates, and heritages of the vast nation to our north, Canada.  We move south, researching countries in Central and South America. As young pioneers, we travel west with our unit of Westward Expansion and then into the study of The Wars (Civil War, World War I, World War II, and The Vietnam War).  Students also demonstrate their understanding of the geography of the U.S. including the distribution of people, places, state resources, and population growth.  Much of our learning will be conducted through research-based projects and reading/writing activities.Mathematics:  Our math curriculum focuses on place value, higher-level multiplication and division, fractions, decimals, and geometry. Math differentiation is a focus of the year, as students continue to participate in small group work that addresses ability level.


Science: 
The fifth grade science curriculum will introduce students to the fundamental ideas in chemistry.  Students will have  the opportunity to make and separate mixtures, compare the mass of a mixture to the mass of its parts, determine relative concentration, plan and conduct saturation investigations, identify unknown substances based on the properties, and observe and compare reactants and products of several chemical reactions. The program relies heavily on  the use of literature as well as hands-on scientific experiments.


Special Subject Offerings:
Library, Art, Music, Computer Technology, Physical Education, and Health.


Assessments:
New York State Assessments in English Language Arts and      Mathematics
Fall/Spring Reading Benchmark Assessments
Fall/Spring Writing Benchmark Assessments
Fall/Spring Math Benchmark Assessments
Portfolio Assessments
Unit Mathematic Assessments


Extracurricular Activities:
Fifth grade students attend local and long-distance field trips that support our grade level curriculum. Students also have the opportunity to attend an extended camping trip in collaboration with our Outdoor Education   Program.  They have the option of taking band in fifth grade and can partake in numerous after school clubs and activities.