Horseheads Intermediate School
Welcome to Fifth Grade
5th Grade Academics Overview
Our fifth graders are grouped in homerooms and work within a team of two or three teachers. Further grouping in some subject areas may occur within teams to meet individual children’s needs. Students may rotate to other team teachers once or twice for instruction in different content areas.
Special subjects including art, vocal and instrumental music, and physical education are taught separately by specialists in their respective fields. Students receive instruction on various topics during library class as well.
All students are expected to complete assignments on time, put forth their best effort, practice good study habits and be prepared for tests/quizzes. Grading is done by percentages at the Intermediate School; this is a shift from the standards based 1-4 system in elementary school.
| English Language Arts (ELA): | We use the Guided Reading framework for ELA instruction. This approach utilizes literature and informational text to focus on comprehension, oral language, word study, reading, and language arts. Research and library skills will be taught to help the students realize the potentialities of the language arts learning outcomes and performance tasks. Students will engage in writing arguments to support claims, narratives to develop events, and informative/explanatory texts to analyze relevant content. The students will be completing district-wide common performance tasks at the completion of each unit. There will be several novels that students will read or hear this year. Additionally, the students will be reading informational articles and answering a variety of types of questions based on those articles. Our curriculum is aligned with the Next Generation Standards which can be found at http://www.nysed.gov/next-generation-learning-standards. |
| Mathematics: | We use Tang Math and Mid-School Math as resources to provide a wide variety of learning opportunities. There is also a committee in place that, has been and will continue to align skills needed to meet the Next Generation Standards. You can find these standards at http://www.nysed.gov/next-generation-learning-standards. It is essential that your child know their basic math facts in order to understand and solve problems within all of the standards. Although time may be spent in school reviewing basic facts, reinforcement is helpful and strongly encouraged at home to help your child achieve mastery. As with ELA, students will engage in Performance Tasks to demonstrate their understanding and mastery of standards taught. |
| Science: | The aim of the science curriculum is to increase the student’s scientific literacy through STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) Education. This will be accomplished by developing skills, positive science attitudes, and acquiring knowledge about the natural world. Students will demonstrate their growth in scientific literacy through investigations. Hands on activities will be used in the classroom often throughout the year through the FOSS Science Program. For more information on the FOSS program your child will be using, visit https://fossnextgeneration.com/state/new-york/. Along with math and ELA state tests, students will also take the fifth grade NYS science test. This will include a written portion as well as hands-on labs. |
| Social Studies: | Fifth grade social studies will focus on the study of the Western Hemisphere (the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and parts of Central and South America). The political, social, and economic concepts of the Western Hemisphere will be investigated along with the study of history and geography of those specified regions. We will be following: https://www.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/programs/curriculum-instruction/ss-framework-k-8a2.pdf |
We emphasize character education and the Habits of Mind of persisting, managing impulsivity, listening with understanding and empathy, thinking flexibly, thinking about your thinking, striving for accuracy/thinking and communicating with clarity and precision, questioning and posing problems and taking responsible risks.
Each team has their own expectations, behavior plan and homework policies. We encourage our students to be independent, responsible, and organized. These are life skills that we will continue to model and utilize each day.
We are looking forward to a fantastic school year. Your continued support of both teacher and student is appreciated and will help your child succeed. If at any time you have questions, feel free to contact your child’s teacher.