Fifth Grade

Welcome to fifth grade!  We enjoy this age group. It is a joy to watch children develop their confidence, leadership qualities, and sense of self.  This is an exciting time and year with many opportunities for growth.  This is a year when students take ownership of their learning and gain greater independence.  Here are some components of our day and the fifth grade curriculum. 

READING

Students in fifth grade will have a comprehensive approach to advancing their literacy skills. Students will participate in whole-group, interactive read-alouds to promote the joy of reading, expand their vocabulary, build background knowledge, and foster comprehension and reasoning skills through text-based discussions. Book Clubs are another component of the literacy program at Horace Mann. Students will work in small groups to discuss, argue, and respond to books with their peers. It is also an opportunity to enhance comprehension skills, foster motivation, and promote authentic experiences with books. 

FIRE, or Foundational Instruction for Reading Excellence, is an instructional resource for advanced readers and the time is used to develop proficient reading skills. Brief lessons will be presented two to three times a week and will focus on spelling, grammar and morphology. Students will develop skills to read, comprehend, and write about increasingly complex grade-level texts.

Independent reading passages from an anthology will be used to give the students additonal exposure to core elements of reading, including vocabulary acquisition, comprehension skills, and finding details to retell key elements. Students will read short stories, poetry and excerpts from longer pieces from authors such as Gary Paulsen, Beverly Cleary, and Andrew Clements. Our final component of reading will include "reading on your own" independently. Ideally, it is recommended that students in fifth grade read daily for forty minutes or more. In our classrooms we will provide as much independent reading time as possible to foster the love of reading!

MATH

The fifth-grade math curriculum focuses on number sense, shapes, geometry, measurement, algebra, probability and working with data. The math block uses a workshop model and includes a warm-up/review, the math lesson, and differentiated instruction. Review time may include math talk routines or review of key concepts. The lesson portion includes building an understanding of key concepts, connecting concepts or skills, and applying the skills to tasks.

Differentiated work instruction and work time may include . . . 

• Flex groups to reinforces skills
• Math games with peers

• Math enrichment activities

WRITING

Writing is an important aspect of our communication skills. Learning how to compose ideas and thoughts in meaningful ways helps us to interact and communicate with others. Writing confidently and accurately is one way to give others a positive impression of who we are. In fifth grade, students will learn writing skills through clear, sequential steps. Students grow to become confident and competent writers using a precise framework and will have the opportunity to compose essays, narratives, reports, poetry and other genres.