Units Overview - May

SEL Topics:

• Lessons and Talking Circle on celebrations & reflection: Students will reflect on this year, what we learned, what we are proud of, and how we have grown

Amplify Desmos Math: 

Unit 7: Two Dimensional Shapes and Perimeter

In this unit, students will reason about shapes and their attributes. Determine the perimeter of two-dimensional shapes, including when all or some side lengths are given. Solve problems involving perimeter and area, in and out of context. Apply geometric understanding to solve problems.

Sub-Unit 1: Reasoning With Shapes (Lessons 1-5)

Sub-Unit 2: What is Perimeter? (Lessons 6-9)

Sub-Unit 3: Expanding On Perimeter (Lessons 10-13)

Below is the link to the caregiver resource that includes explanations of key math concepts and problems to try with your student Link 

Novel Study - I Survived the Great Chicago Fire

What will my student learn? Students will learn comprehension skills through the novel I Survived the Great Chicago Fire. Students will learn character traits, setting, sequence of events, cause and effect and other comprehension skills by using the text. We will also learn to make historical connections using the novel. We will learn vocabulary throughout the text, but we will not have spelling tests for the remainder of the year. We will also use Mystery Writing to develop our skills through Writers’ Workshop. 

Home Connection: At home you can ask your child about the characters in the novel, the setting, how the story connects to us today and how they feel about the story. If they like it, why?

I Survived the Great Chicago Fire

Foundational Skills:

In Unit 4, students will enhance their reading and spelling skills by focusing on words containing the schwa sound /ə/, alternative sound/spellings, contractions, possessives, homophones, and homographs. This unit builds an understanding of the varied spellings that can produce the same sound. Students will practice reading and writing different spellings for the /shәn/ and /shәl/ sounds, as well as tricky spellings of the /ə/ and /oo/ sounds. Examples include tion (action), sion (mission), and tial (initial).

The unit delves into the complexities of the English language, exploring contractions (e.g., can’t), possessives (e.g., my dog's), homophones (e.g., hair/hare), and homographs (e.g., wind as both a noun and verb). Students will integrate their knowledge of sound/spellings to decipher these elements, particularly focusing on tricky consonant and vowel spellings.

Unit 4 also promotes an understanding of vowel-and-consonant syllabication patterns in multisyllabic words. Students will work with six major patterns such as VC/CV (e.g., fiction) and V/CV (e.g., humor), applying these patterns to divide words into syllables.

The unit further reviews prefixes such as mid–, post–, semi–, anti–, and multi–, suffixes like –tion, –sion, –scope, –able, –ible, and –ly, and roots including spect, meter/metr, port, mot/mov, form, phon/phone, dict, graph, and scrib/script. Students will explore how these affixes and roots alter word meanings and syntax.

Students will develop their spelling and writing skills through exercises focused on target sound/spellings and morphemes. Dictation exercises will encompass multisyllabic words and various spelling patterns, enhancing students' ability to spell abbreviations and comprehend reading passages. Writing prompts are provided for each passage, along with a sharing routine, during which students discuss their writing and get feedback from peers.

Social Studies:

Unit 5: 

In this unit, students will  In this unit, children will investigate how they can make a difference in their own lives. They will compare people and groups who have made a significant historical change in Chicago and the world. They will analyze the qualities that these people demonstrated as they took action. Children will consider how each person has a role in making a difference at home, at school, and in the community, and will come to understand that each of them has the qualities needed to take action for positive change. 

Lesson 3 - Curiosity About the World

Lesson 4 - Being Strong

Lesson 5 - Works of Creativity

Science:

Unit 4: Properties of Materials- Changing Landforms

In this unit, students will use models to investigate how wind and water can cause changes to landforms. They learn that landforms made of solid rock undergo small-scale changes, and that over time, these changes add up to big changes. 

Chapter 2: How did the recreation center’s cliff change?

Chapter 3: How did the recreation center’s cliff erode without the director noticing? 

Chapter 4: Could the recreation center’s cliff erode quickly?