Our MATH curriculum in Hudson is called Investigations, which is an inquiry-based (that means we ask a lot of questions and do a lot of sharing to find out our answers) curriculum that is taught in a series of units.

Mrs. O'Connell will be teaching all grade five math classes . Mrs. O'Connell utilizes the concept of heterogeneously conceived performance-based groupings. She believes that mathematical success occurs when a child's cognitive and developmental levels are challenged. Mrs. O'Connell hopes to provide more challenging work for those students who show an aptitude for it, and she will provide the extra help for those students who need it as well.

We begin in September with a unit called "Mathematical Thinking at Grade Five" which helps us learn about numbers that are called "landmark numbers". Some examples of "landmark numbers" are numbers that end in 5s and 0s. Can you think of a reason why they are called "landmarks"? (Go ahead and look up that word; that might help your inquiry!) You will also work with two units from Investigations' middle school component called Connected Math during this school year.

We will cover other units on geometry ("Picturing Polygons"), fractions, decimals, and percents ("Name That Portion"), probability ("Between Never and Always"), 3-D geometry ("Containers and Cubes"), and we'll do some work in statistics, estimating, and measuring.

Phew! Sounds like a lot, right? Well, we think you will enjoy it. On some days you will practice your math skills using various math manipulatives, techniques, and games. You will do some word problems, some computation, and some skill work all in an easy-going, fun kind of way.

You may also have a "POW" or Problem of the Week most weeks and you may be given it on a certain day, to be due the following week (unless Mrs. O'Connell tells you differently). These are difficult problems, and they are tricky at first, but you'll soon catch on. You can expect to have math homework each night (Monday through Thursday).

Language Arts

LANGUAGE ARTS: will be taught by Mr. Mulcahy, Mrs. Varden, and Mrs. Williams. Mr. Mulcahy and Mrs. Varden will jointly teach Mrs. O'Connell's ELA classes. We will do lots of writing, grammar, and spelling. You can expect to read and write almost every day. Here's a brief overview of the Language Arts curriculum:

WRITING: You can expect to write almost every day. Writing is a vital part of Language Arts in the fifth grade. Writing is something that you will do for the rest of your life, and it is very important that you learn how to do it correctly. We follow the 6 + 1 Traits writing curriculum in the 5th TEAM.

In these classes, writing will be short term and long term. By that we mean you will be writing short, quickly concluding pieces, and you will have long-term projects that may take several days to several months to complete. For example, we begin our year with the Moon Journal project in October. It's wonderful and VERY creative! We KNOW you will enjoy it very much, but it's not easy!

We also do a project called the Poetry Anthologies in the spring. These are beautiful, but, again - a LOT of work!

Our long-term writing assignment is the grade five Autobiographies. This will take all year and your parents will be very involved!

This is just a taste of our writing curriculum. You will have a block of time in the computer lab to "publish" your writing each week, so try not to get behind. "Works in progress" are more easily managed when you have the work in school, so please do not take your writing home until you and we decide it's ready to go. OK?

SPELLING: Our spelling curriculum corresponds to our Reading curriculum. There will be schoolwork and homework as needed.

GRAMMAR:
We follow the grammar lessons included in the new reading program. All grammatical lessons coincide with each week's story. You should expect homework in grammar at least two times per week.

READING:
Our 5th TEAM classes will be primarily using two reading curricula. Our primary series is authored by the McGraw-Hill Company, and it is an anthology based curriculum that will utilize a variety of texts that have been developed for different instructional purposes, such as tradebook literature (chapter books), informational texts that integrate our curriculas' content areas, and leveled books to accomodate the range of abilities in our classrooms.

Our supplemental series is called "Making Meaning", and it is a wonderful resource to increase our students' abilities in the area of comprehension. It has a wonderful social component because much of the work is done among the students themselves working in pairs as they talk to each other about the books that they are reading individually.

Each student's reading level will be determined by using DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) testing at the beginning of the school year.

We will also be doing RAH (Reading At Home) every day using suggested titles from the reading program, and we will also use some corresponding titles from our rather extensive grade five trade books collection. These are novels that have been chosen for your students' learning and enjoyment especially by the fifth grade teachers and our Reading Specialist. You will be expected to read each night for at least 20 minutes, make a notation of your time, have your sheet signed by a parent of guardian, and return it to your Reading teacher at the end of the week.

From time to time you will have reading projects due, but we'll explain those in plenty of time.

WORDLY WISE:
You will be working on this vocabulary curriculum in your homeroom, taught by your homeroom teacher. This is a wonderful vocabulary learning experience, but it's not easy! You will have Wordly Wise homework each night (Monday through Thursday) and you will have a test each Friday. The good news is that by the end of the year, you will have mastered over 300 new words to add to your vocabulary!

Science:

Your Science teachers for the 5th TEAM will be Mrs. Varden and Mr. Mulcahy.

Our Science curriculum in Hudson is called "FOSS " or Full Option Science System. In fifth grade we spend the year studying some interesting areas of Science inquiry. This deep introspection really helps our students figure out how things work. We will spend some time preparing for the MCAS exam in May. More information will be given to you later.

Social Studies

Your Social Studies teacher in the 5TH TEAM will be Mrs. Williams for all four classes.

We will begin our work in grade five this year by focusing on an in-depth study of the Constitution with emphasis on Constitution Day, September 17, 2009. Some other areas to be studied will be the United States and the world in Geography because it is very important to know where we are located on Earth. We will spend a great deal of time during the second half of the year examining slavery and Civil Rights issues.

We will have lively discussions, some interesting debates, some short writing assignments relating to the topics we're studying, and we'll do other interesting things to learn social studies.

Another aspect of Social Studies is Current Events. Our study of Current Events comes from using Time For Kids each week, and classroom discussions of what is currently in the news. You will have "TFK" homework most weeks.