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Listed below are the subjects I teach. They are
Reading, Writing,
Math, Social Studies,
Spelling, Science. In
addition children are graded on Studies Skills, which are every day entry
tasks (first 15 minutes of the day). Children are taught various art
projects, but participation is what's graded.
| P. E. is taught
by Jennifer Knowles
Music is taught by Mary Beth Norby
Library is taught by Michelle Shaul.
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Spotlight on Literacy
McMillan, McGraw, Hill
The basal reading series contains six units: Scenes of
Wonder, Worlds of Change, Winning Attitudes, Getting to
Know You, Take the High Road, and Zoom In. Skills of
reading, grammar, vocabulary, and writing are included with each story. The
selected stories are taken from actual trade books or novels. Classroom
teachers also use novel resources to enhance the reading acquisition.
Fifth grade teachers homogeneously group students according
to reading ability.
The Accelerated Reader program is in place to encourage
"free reading" choices and independent progress. My reading students are
required to read two AR books on their level every month. For more
information I would suggest seeing the Green Park Web Site
INVESTIGATIONS, published by Dale Seymour, is
our adopted math curriculum. This program is based upon the MCTM standards
that include algebra, computation, geometry, measurement, number sense,
probability and statistics, problem solving, calculators/computers,
communication, and connections/reasoning. There are nine units divided into
investigations and individual sessions. This year we will cover
the units containing the concepts of Mathematical Thinking at Grade Five-Overview;
Picturing Polygons-Geometry; Name that Portion-Fractions,
Decimals, and Percents; Between Never and Always-Probability;
Building on Numbers You Know-Number Sense; Measurement Benchmarks-Measurement;
Patterns of Change-Patterns and Spatial Perception; Containers and
Cubes-Volume; Data: Kids, Cats, and Ads-Collecting, sorting and
creating mathematical graphs.
Writing involves the test genres required within the
language arts curriculum. The students write to persuade, inform, amuse,
explain, and compare/contrast. They also learn the criteria for informative,
argumentative/persuasive, and narrative writing. We are using the Excellence
in Writing and Six-Trait curriculum to teach the genres of writing.
Six-Trait includes the areas of Ideas, Organization, Word Choice, Voice,
Sentence Fluency, and Conventions. Caughtya's and Daily Oral Language (DOL)
are used as instructional tools to teach editing skills. The students
learn communication skills as part of the language arts curriculum. Grammar
is taught in reading as well as in writing.
The spelling words and activities are taken from the Rebecca
Sitton spelling program. These words are based on the order of occurrence in
everyday writing. Fifth grade is assigned the words between 401 and 600. The
words may appear to be fairly simple, but the activities involved in
learning them span a wide range of spelling ability. The students receive
word lists and are tested in a variety of ways including daily writing
activities. This program is not designed to be a Monday-Friday type of
spelling curriculum. The look of literacy is improved remarkably when the
students can spell correctly every single time in every writing activity the
first 100 words on the list.
Sitton Word List
We use the textbook, American Story, published by
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. The time period we study begins with the early
arrival of man across Beringia, the land bridge, and continues through units
about Native Americans, Early Explorers, Colonization, and the Revolutionary
War.
The school district has adopted a hands-on curriculum that
allows investigation into Microworlds, Food Chemistry, and Motion and
Design. In health we are required to teach Human growth and Development with
an AIDS awareness. The boys and girls are separated for this one-week of
forty-minute instruction sessions. We have a health text which supports the
other curriculums we teach. The concepts of self-esteem and nutrition along
with body systems is covered during the year. The KIDS CARE program is
offered by our school counselor, Barbara Thatcher, to help teach appropriate
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