CLASS CURRICULUM

SEPTEMBER

During the month of September your child will be looking at fictional stories.  They will focus on different skills each week. Here's a weekly breakdown:

• Week 1: Making inferences and working on open-ended reponses (Main story: "The Jackalope")

• Week 2: Making inferences and writing summaries (Main story: "First Day of School")

• Week 3: Studying character traits and their motivations (Main story: "Jackie Mitchell")

• Week 4: More work on character traits and their motivations (Main story: "Thank You M'am")

During the month of October your child will continue looking at fictional stories.  Here's a weekly breakdown:

• Week 1: Conflict & resolutions (Main story: "Justin and the Greatest Biscuits in the World")

• Week 2: Conflict & resolution and Point of view (Main story:"Kai's Journey to Gold Mountain")

• Week 3: Compare & contrast (Main story: Danitra Brown Leaves Town")

• Week 4: Compare & contrast (Main story: Different versions of "The 3 Little Pigs")

• ****During this month your child will start a chapter book as part of their reading take home journal.

During the month of November your child will be exposed to both fictional and non-fictional pieces. Here's a weekly breakdown:

• Week 1: Review of all skills (Main story: "Tuesday of the Other June")

• Week 2: Conflict & resolution (review of all skills) (Main story: "The Gold Coin")

• Week 3: Character traits & motivation (review of all skills) (Main story: "Game of Catch")

• START OF NON-FICTION UNIT

• WEEK 4: Cause & Effect (Main story: "Mimicry and Camouflage")

During the month of December your child will continue looking at non-fiction pieces.  Here's a weekly breakdown:

• Week 1: Cause & Effect (Text structure) (Main story: "Stink Bugs")

• Week 2: Cause & Effect (Main Story: "Tsunami's")

• Week 3: Cause & Effect and Point of View (review of all skills) (Main story: "Tracking Tornadoes")

During the month of January your child will be looking at more non-fictional stories and looking at heroes in different genres.  They will focus on different skills each week. **They will also start their new writing style (expository writing). Here's a weekly breakdown:

• Week 1: Main Idea & Heroes in Non-Fiction (Main story: "Abe Lincoln")

• Week 2: Main idea & Summarizing (Main story: "MLK Jr.")

• Week 3: Heroes in Fictional Stories: (Main story: "Chin Yu Min and the Ginger Cat")

• Week 4: Heroes in non-fictional stories (Main story: "Sea Turtles)

• **During this month your child will start a non-fiction chapter book about Dr. Seuss for their take home journal.

FEBRUARY

During the month of February your child will continue looking at non-fiction pieces.  We will especially focus on the topic of Jackie Robinson. We will read many different types of resources about Jackie Robinson and write a detailed expository piece about him. Here's a weekly breakdown:

• Week 1: Review of all skills (Main story: "Jackie Robinson Biography: Time For Kids")

• Week 2: Review of all skills (Main story "Jackie Robinson Play" & Jackie Robinson Wikipedia)

• Week 3: Finish reading all of our sources and write our expository piece

***During this month, your child will be doing a biography project on any famous american person. They will end up doing research both in and out of school and make a cool poster on their person (along with a cool Prezi presentation using our computers). Most of the poster work will be done outside of school.

MARCH

During the month of March your child will finish looking at non-fiction pieces and go back to fictional pieces.  Most of the time we will look at Greek Myths. Here's a weekly breakdown:

• START OF 2ND FICTION UNIT

• Week 1: Exploring the themes of fables (Main story: Short fables & "The Giving Tree")

• Week 2: Conflicts in myths & Themes (Main story: "Midas Touch")

• Week 3: Conflicts in myths & figurative language (Main Story: "12 Olympians: Zeus & Hera")

• Week 4: Cause & Effect  (review of all skills) (Main story: "Athena & Medusa")

• ***During the end of March/beginning of April, your child will start a fiction chapter book titled, "Heroes In Training." It's a great series that I'm sure your child will want to read all 11 books in the series!!!!!

APRIL

During the month of April your child will continue looking at Greek Myths while using their skills from our first fiction unit. Here's a weekly breakdown:

• Week 1: Review of all skills (Main story: "Athena & Arachne")

• Week 2: Motivation in characters & Review of all skills (Main story "Persephone & Hades" & "12 Labors of Heracules")

• Week 3: Motivation in characters & How mortals can be heroes too (Main story: continue Heracules & "Achilles" & "The Trojan Horse")

MAY

During the month of May your child will continue looking at Greek Myths while using their skills from our first fiction unit. They will also be doing a week long project to wrap up our Greek Myth unit. Here's a weekly breakdown:

• Week 1: How "hope" is an important element in stories (Main story: "Pandora's Box")

• Week 2: Review older stories and see how "hope" played a major role in most of the stories we read

• Week 3: Start different leveled chapter books (The Fourth Stall, Loser, Ghost Buddy, and Dexter the Tough) and review all of our skills by doing book talk groups called Literature Circles

• Week 4: Continue Literature Circles

• ***ONLINE COMMON CORE TESTING WILL BEGIN THIS MONTH

JUNE

During the month of June your child will finish the year by reading their chapter books for Literature Circles and reading different historical fiction that goes along with our CT history unit.

WRITING

WRITING CURRICULUM FOR THE YEAR

Here's an overview of what writing skills and topics we will be studying each month.  The common core writing standards have been included in the reading standards calendar tab. Not included in the monthly breakdown is the writing skill of responding to open-ended questions.  This is a skill that we will work on throughout the entire year.  If you go to the online homework resources tab you will find the "hamburger organizer" format that we use to answer open-ended questions.  The students will also be writing different style poems throughout the entire school year.

SEPTEMBER

During the month of September your child will be focusing on

narrative writing.  They will study different skills to help them write creative stories.  Here's a weekly breakdown:

Week 1: Using the 5 senses in their writing (focusing on sight and sound first).

Week 2: Continue using the 5 senses (focusing on touch, smell, and taste).

Week 3: Learning how to use sound effects and all the 5 senses in their narrative stories.

Week 4: Being specific with their details (avoid being vague)

OCTOBER

During the month of October your child will continue focusing on

narrative writing.  They will study different skills to help them write creative stories.  Here's a weekly breakdown:

Week 1: Learn how to use speaking parts in their stories and introduce the idea of pacing their stories (not rushing their story)

Week 2: Continue working on speaking parts and introduce emotions in their stories

Week 3: Develop stronger emotions for their characters and continue working on pacing and slowing down their stories

Week 4: Create inside thoughts for their characters to keep their stories interesting

NOVEMBER

During the month of November your child will continue focusing on narrative writing.  They will study different skills to help them write creative stories.  Here's a weekly breakdown:

Week 1: Continue working on inside thought for their characters and start reviewing all the skills we have studied so far

Week 2: Learn how to write a very descriptive sentence (we call it a WOW sentence)

Week 3: Continue learning how to write WOW sentences

Week 4: Introduce similes & metaphors and how they can improve stories

DECEMBER

During the month of December your child will continue focusing on narrative writing.  They will study different skills to help them write creative stories.  Here's a weekly breakdown:

Week 1: Continue working on similes & metaphors and review all the writing skills we have done so far

Week 2: Use the writing process to produce a final piece (using all their skills within their story)

Week 3: Continue using the writing process to create a final piece

JANUARY

During the month of January your child will be looking at a new style of writing called expository writing. It is your basic 5 paragraph essay. They will study different skills to help them write expository pieces.  Here's a weekly breakdown:

Week 1: Introduce the parts to an expository paper

Week 2: Learn how to write an introduction and a topic sentence for this new style of writing

Week 3: Write their first expository piece together as a class (Using the carnival or fair as the topic)

Week 4: More work on writing introductions and topic sentences.  They will also start to learn how to write a conclusion paragraph

FEBRUARY

During the month of February your child will continue looking at the expository writing style. They will study different skills to help them write expository pieces.  Here's a weekly breakdown:

Week 1: Choose their own topic to write a paper on

Week 2: Use our reading articles on Jackie Robinson to write an expository piece on him (using a variety of 4 resources to create their paper)

Week 3: Introduce the difference of fact and opinion as an introduction to an opinion writing piece

MARCH

During the month of March your child will continue looking at the expository writing style. However, instead of informational pieces they will learn how to write opinion pieces.  Here's a weekly breakdown:

Week 1: Discuss how an opinion piece is similar and different to the informational expository piece & discuss pros and cons

Week 2: Use the topic of "School During the Summer" to write an opinion piece together as a class (while using resources to find the pros and cons)

Week 3: Research information on the pros and cons of T.V. screen time (Is too much a good thing?)

Week 4: Write their opinion piece on T.V. screen time

APRIL

During the month of April your child will continue looking at the opinion expository writing style. Here's a weekly breakdown:

Week 1: Review our skills from our narrative writing

Week 2: Write a narrative story using a greek myth prompt

Week 3: Review all writing skills (narrative/informational-expository/opinion-expository)

MAY & JUNE

During the month of May and June  your child will continue looking at all the different writing styles we have done this year. Here's a weekly breakdown:

Week 1-4: Using our Greek Myth Unit the students will choose a topic to write about.  They will also choose what style they will use (informational or opinion).  This on going project will take up the remaining weeks.

**Student will also write reflective pieces on different stories we have read throughout the entire school year.

SCIENCE