May/June

As a culmination to our Literature Circles, each group chose two important passages to read from the book.  At the same time a tableau was formed, a frozen scene from the book.  Click on each thumbnail picture to enlarge the scene.
The year is furiously speeding to an end.  We are back to the basal for several weeks and then will conclude the month by reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.
In Language Arts we are taking what we’ve learned about descriptive writing and developing a character in depth.  We’ll take this character, place him or her in a setting, and develop a story.  Finally, we will end by reviewing the parts of speech and working briefly on a persuasive paper.

Click here to view the tableaus.

Espiranza Rising, February 2010:

Students from Epiphany school met at St. Paul of the Cross on Friday, February 10^th for an in school field trip.   In addition to trading pen pal letters and examining the same Field Museum boxes, our children read and experienced the same novel, Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan.  Our morning included using symbolism and character traits to create a mask representing one of the characters from the story.  Children guessed “Who Am I?” Another group accepted the challenge of creating thoughts and events through the symbols they drew on rocks.  The rock pictures made paragraphs that other groups had to try to guess the meaning.  The Great Depression activity involved selecting a job and trying to manage a budget during the Great Depression.  The list of goods during the 1920’s was quite enlightening to our students.  Finally, our last groups recreated mama’s yarn rag doll that she made for the little girl on the train in the novel.  Our day ended with a hot pizza lunch and an exchange of valentines.  The smiles and laughter were proof enough of a successful field trip!

Click here for a Web Gallery of photos from this fun day!

Language Arts

Storytown, Harcourt, 2009
Harcourt Language, Harcourt, 2002
Spelling , Harcourt, 2009

Fifth grade Language Arts instruction centers on the oral and written communication of students. A variety of approaches to reading, writing and spelling instruction may happen in the classroom at any given time.  These include shared writing, interactive writing, guided writing, learning the Writing Process, Literature Circles, basal readers, novels, and a rich variety of resources that challenge your child to expand and improve his/her communication skills and views of the world around him/her.  Sequence of events, cause and effect, making judgements, drawing conclusions, relating to unit themes, comparing several kinds of stories, and reading tables, maps and graphs are just some of the skills learned.  Independent reading of 300 pages of an assigned genre is required each month.  Documentation of this independent reading must be signed by a parent or guardian on the first school day of each month.

The teacher’s role is one of facilitator, helping students discover what they want to say and how to express it with clarity. Rich topics from a variety of books and articles, both fiction and non-fiction, help children learn how to read, question, make notes, meet, talk, and discuss.  Grammar is incorporated as a useful and necessary tool in conjunction with writing.  Spelling supports the reading vocabulary of the basal text as well as that of Social Studies and Science.   Grading is derived from weekly spelling and comprehension tests, formal unit tests, rubrics, projects, and participation.  As writing is a developmental skill, not all writing is formally graded.