Carole Bruns (teacher) and Linda Thomas (classroom aide)
Come and join in our excitement of thinking, questioning, and discovering answers about our world.
Our days begin with Houghton Mifflin Math to practice and extend our number sense. We review and extend arithmetic and calculator skills using fractions, decimals, per cents, large whole numbers, and negative numbers. Learning to use many kinds of maps, graphs, and tables helps us in other subjects. The class is divided equally into five teams, and we can score additional team points for challenging assignments, such as constructing specific geometric shapes or computing the correct tax on a 1040EZ form. These diverse activities are exciting and fun!
The areas of the Language Arts curriculum are: writing, grammar, correct usage, mechanics, dictionary and library skills, speaking and listening skills, and literature. Sometimes we focus on a specific skill in the spelling book or the English text, but the goal is to perceive the parts of this curriculum as a whole. It is essential for building competency and success in other subject areas. Our writing activities include personal writings, such as poetry and pen-pal letters to other fifth-graders. We use the dictionary, the library, and the Internet for research, since we have ten writing projects outside of class for which we are responsible. In addition to independent reading, we read novels across the curriculum, particularly those which correspond to fifth grade American history lessons.
Ms. Bruns, our homeroom teacher, teaches us Religion, U.S. History, and Art in addition to the 3 Rs. She shows us how to take notes, how to outline, and how to study for quizzes and tests. Each one of us uses a new laptop in our homeroom to integrate the content area of instruction into our computer lesson and to increase cross-curricular assignments. Specialist teachers instruct us in technology, science in the lab, Spanish, and physical education. Grades may be viewed online through PowerSchool.
Two new experiences that we really love are spending time helping our kindergarten buddies and the four-day field trip to Alliance Redwoods Camp during the camp’s “Religious Schools’ Week” in April. Trained naturalists will instruct us in ecology, geology, forest friends, and other outdoor classes. As we learned from last year’s participants, there also will be several challenging courses: rock- climbing, night hike, flying squirrel - followed by games, songs, and skits.
All said, fifth graders are very busy. We appreciate the new responsibilities, we share what we do, and we enjoy school.