Welcome to the Fifth Grade!

Hello everyone! We are excited to work with your child during their last year at Randolph Heights.  Fifth graders participate in lots of exciting activities and field trips such as a 3-day/2-night trip to Eagle Bluff, Junior Achievement BizTown, Bdote and putting on a Wax Museum.  We look forward to lots of fun, learning and making connections.  The fifth grade teachers at Randolph Heights are Joe Flahavan (room 2210), Jenny Eisele (room 2211) and Jesse Buetow (room 2206). 

Math

We use HMH Into Math as our core math curriculum.  In addition to robust problem solving, students will focus on multi-digit multiplication and division, fractions, decimals, algebra and geometry this year.  We also spend some time solidifying recall of math facts to support our math problem solving.  Students should expect to have about 15 minutes of math homework each night.

Reading

Students in fifth grade are honing their reading skills and moving from learning to read, to reading to learn.  We focus on both fiction and non-fiction reading and visit and revisit reading strategies and skills. We learn about main ideas and details, text structures and features, character development, and identifying themes, to name a few for the 5th grade reading standards we address.  We dedicate time each day to practicing our reading through book clubs, independent reading and shared reading.  Reading instruction can be individual, small group and whole group and is integrated into writing and social studies as well.  Students are expected to read at home for at least 30 minutes a day, completing on average a book a week.  Students track their reading through taking Accelerated Reader (AR) tests.

Writing

Writing provides an opportunity to test out some of the ideas we have been discussing as we read.  We use the district Into Writing Curriculum integrated into various writing projects that students bring to final publication.  Students focus on sentence, paragraph and essay structures, also on grammar, spelling and morphology patterns.  Most importantly, we develop our critical thinking skills through organizing our ideas to best communicate the messages we want to send our reader.  Our BIG writing project is a multimedia biography project that students present as a living wax museum.

Social Studies

Randolph Heights is a Core Knowledge school. Some of the units fifth graders study include: World Lakes and Geography, Mayan, Aztec, and Inca Civilizations, Age of Exploration, Renaissance, The U.S. Civil War, Native Americans, and a BizTown economics unit. You can learn more about Core Knowledge at https://www.coreknowledge.org/ .

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We are looking forward to a year full of discovery, excitement and learning! Parents, feel free to stop by for a visit to our classroom! You are always welcome!