Reader’s Workshop 5 provides students the opportunity and skills to expand their comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, and interaction with the text. This course follows the PA Common Core Standards for 5th Grade and assesses students’ proficiency and growth through weekly written responses and comprehension assessments, as well as through projects and unit tests. Students will interact with instructional videos, games, practice quizzes and an online textbook to enhance their learning, and will use Google Drive and other online tools in addition to their written responses to demonstrate their understanding.
In Reader’s Workshop, students will:

• Make connections, compare and contrast a variety of writing, both fiction and non-fiction.
• Reinforce skills and strategies that happen before, during, and after reading.
• Dig deep and engage in critical thinking, classroom discussion, and review of reading.
• Use leveled readers to individualize instruction for the student.

Digital Textbook:

• Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Journeys Grade 5 Student Set

Books/Novels:

• Frindle, Andrew Clements
• Hound Dog True, Linda Urban

Writer’s Workshop 5 follows the PA Common Core Standards for 5th Grade to introduce students to different styles and structures of writing and provides them tools and opportunities to strengthen their skills in each. Instruction of grammar and conventions will be incorporated throughout the school year. A variety of online tools including Padlet, Google Drive, Quizlet, interactive HTML5 content, and others will allow students to practice and present their progress in various formats.
In Writer’s Workshop, students will:

• Developing proficiency in elements of writing such as voice, ideas, organization, word choice, and fluency.
• Utilize the writing process to create descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive, and research paragraphs and essays.
• Explore writing poetry and other forms of creative writing.
• Build fluency in writing through continuous, repeated exposure to the process of writing.
• Use writing mechanics comfortably and shift their cognitive abilities to higher order thinking to allow them to develop a more sophisticated sense of what makes good writing.
• Learn about story planning, peer conferencing, revision, teacher editing, and direct instruction in the mechanics of grammar.
• Organize thoughts to create a story or write about a given topic and develop it into an understandable narrative with a voice and focus that present information to the reader.
• Develop expression, revision strategy and skill in writing, and be encouraged to try new things during the revision process.

Math Explorations 5 combines online tools, the student workbook (both printed and an interactive online version), and interactive online programs with live virtual lessons to equip students to problem solve in correlation with PA Common Core Standards for 5th Grade.
In this course, students will:

• Develop computational and critical thinking skills involving place value, measurement, and geometry.
• Solve problems in computation and estimation by multiplying and dividing integers, whole numbers, decimals, fractions, and mixed numbers.
• Choose the correct method to solve a given problem.
• Draw conclusions based on graphs, measurement and probability.
• Identify algebraic concepts and interpret number theory.

Physical/Digital Textbook:
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill: My Math Grade 5

Manipulatives/Kits:
Grade 5 Math Kit

Science and Social Studies Explorations 5 utilizes instructional videos, online texts, interactive online tools, and an array of other resources combine to present material in a variety of ways. Likewise, students are given opportunity to demonstrate their understanding through various means including, but not limited to, projects, quizzes, reports, Google Drive tools, and video creation.
In this course, students will:

• Alternate instruction between science and social studies topics.
• Identify how living things are classified.
• Determine what cells have to do with our lives.
• Explain how the systems in the human body keep us alive.
• Describe how plants stay alive and produce offspring.
• Recall how the parts of an ecosystem interact and demonstrate an understanding of how changes in habitats affect living things.
• Summarize how water moves through the environment.
• Explain why the weather changes.
• Identify the types of processes that change Earth’s surfaces.
• Discover the importance of conservation of Earth’s resources.
• Determine what makes up everything around us.
• Explore how chemistry forces and motion are used in our daily lives.
• Identify how many types of energy we use each day.
• Model an electric current and how it works.
• Explain how the study of stars has expanded our knowledge of the universe.
• Analyze how the motion of objects in space creates cycles.
• Discuss how technology affects our lives.
• Conduct directed and guided experiments to test and illustrate scientific principles that help create real world connections to the Science content.
• Continue to develop geography skills.
• Examine the Civil War.
• Discover how the United States became a world leader.

Physical/Digital Textbooks:

• Pearson: Building Our Country
• Discovery Education: Grade 5 Science

Manipulatives/Kits:
Grade 5 Science Kit

In this course, students will:

• Reach proficiency in the vital aspects of the human body and their importance in movement and healthy living.
• Master course content to promote higher order thinking skills and relate topics to their own experiences
• Master developmentally appropriate vocabulary to better understand the whole body, how it functions, and how to stay safe at home and in the community.
• Reach proficiency and master new activities which promote lifelong fitness and creativity through various movement concepts and principles.

In this course, students will:

• Draw, paint, and use clay and other media to communicate ideas, experiences and stories.
• Expand creativity and confidence in art skills.
• Solve art problems common to many artists.
• Develop a definition of art by exploring aesthetics in famous and personal works.
• Learn and review a variety of artists, styles and periods from countries around the world.
• Be encouraged and challenged to use materials in new and different ways while creating art.
• Connect skills learned in art to other subjects and real-world situations.
• Share artwork and exchange ideas and opinions in virtual class.
• Develop respectful opinions about their work and the work of others in a safe, fun and dynamic class.
• Receive an art kit with brushes, watercolor and tempera paint, colored pencils, a Sharpie, a kneaded eraser, canvas, watercolor, construction and drawing paper, modeling clay and a ruler. Families will be responsible for providing some additional standard home office supplies such as pencils, scissors and glue.

Manipulatives/Kits:
Grades 3-5 Art Kit

This elective course will explore coding using sites like Scratch and Hour of Code.
In this course, students will:

• Learn computer programming basics while creating animations and games with CodeStudio, Scratch, and a variety of other programming sites.
• Examine and compare computer programming languages such as JavaScript and Python.
• Discover the history of computer programming and its applications.
• Identify the parts of a computer and its uses.
• Explore the world of engineering learning about inventors and inventions that have affected our world.
• Apply the engineering design process to create student made projects.
• Recognize technology in the world around us.
• Work both independently and collaboratively, sharing ideas and projects in virtual lessons, group discussions, and code studios.
• Build character qualities such as perseverance, problem-solving, and creativity.
• Work both independently and collaboratively, sharing ideas and projects in virtual lessons, group discussions, and code studios.

Prerequisite: Prior experience with Scratch.
In this course, students will:

• Further explore coding using sites like Scratch, Hour of Code, Google Computer Science, CodeStudio, CodeCombat, and Kahn Academy.
• Examine and compare computer programming languages such as JavaScript and Python.
• Write computer programs in Javascript and Python.
• Discover the history of computer programming and its applications.
• Identify the parts of a computer and its uses.
• Explore the world of engineering learning about inventors and inventions that have affected our world.
• Apply the engineering design process to create student made projects.
• Recognize technology in the world around us.
• Work both independently and collaboratively, sharing ideas and projects in virtual lessons, group discussions, and code studios.
• Build character qualities such as perseverance, problem-solving, and creativity.
• Work both independently and collaboratively, sharing ideas and projects in virtual lessons, group discussions, and code studios.

In this course, students will:

• Be introduced to the Spanish sound system and develop listening, speaking, writing and reading skills through various online lessons.
• Explore a variety of topics such as greetings, numbers, family, and food.
• Learn to appreciate the global Spanish speaking world and how other cultures compare to their own.

Students will be expected to record their voice. Introduction to Spanish is recommended for 6th graders who have never studied a foreign language. Students must maintain a C in their core courses to remain in this course.

In this course, students will:

• Be introduced to the French sound system.
• Have an opportunity to use the language in both synchronous chats and voice recordings.
• Discover how to express who they are, what they like and where they are from through engagement in playful activities.
• Develop listening, speaking, writing, and reading skills through various online lessons, projects, and stories in French.
• Make voice recordings for submission, engage in natural exchanges with peers and construct authentic conversations.

Introduction to French is a Middle School course is open to academically motivated 5th graders who have previously maintained a B average. It is recommended for students who have never studied a foreign language.

The Rosetta Stone program allows students to select a foreign language to study through use of self-paced Rosetta Stone software. There are many languages available upon request and interest. Please see rosettastone.com for a list of all available languages.
Students selecting Rosetta Stone Spanish, French, German or Japanese may receive additional assistance or content from PALCS teachers.
Rosetta Stone does not have a live weekly required virtual lesson.
The Rosetta Stone program has limited availability and continued enrollment in the program requires active student participation.