Grades: 4 – 5
 

The Cluster 2 Program continues to adjust curriculum to meet students’ specific needs. Students develop a more independent, self-governed approach to learning. They are encouraged to take on challenging tasks, be resourceful and self-reliant, and to push themselves beyond their comfort zones. In addition, collaboration and building respectful relationships is vital to the health of our classroom community.

Outdoor Learning Experiences include:

• Coloma Outdoor Discovery School (overnight)

• Sonoma Garden Park

• Sonoma Valley Museum of Art

• Overlook Trail

4th Grade Program

English Language Arts (ELA) — Following the common core state standards for ELA, 4th graders will:

increase reading fluency, expression and comprehension of grade-level text; refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text; determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text, describe in-depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions), etc. They will also write narratives, opinion pieces, and informational works with clear and coherent details. Students will work in collaborative groups using academic language to explain ideas, etc. Find the full list of 4th grade ELA standards at www.corestandards.org

Math — Instructional time focuses on three critical areas:
 

(1) developing understanding and fluency with multi-digit multiplication, and developing understanding of dividing to find quotients involving multi-digit dividends; (2) developing an understanding of fraction equivalence, addition and subtraction of fractions with like denominators, and multiplication of fractions by whole numbers; (3) understanding that geometric figures can be analyzed and classified based on their properties, such as having parallel sides, perpendicular sides, particular angle measures, and symmetry. Find the full list of 4th grade math standards at www.corestandards.org
 

Social Studies — Students learn the story of their home state, unique in American history in terms of its vast and varied geography, its many waves of immigration beginning with Pre-Columbian societies, its continuous diversity, economic energy, and rapid growth. In addition to the specific treatment of milestones in California history, students examine the state in the context of the rest of the nation, with an emphasis on the U.S. Constitution and the relationship between state and federal government.
 

Science — The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) include: energy, waves and their applications in technologies for information transfer, molecules to organisms: structures and processes, Earth’s place in the universe, Earth’s systems, Earth and human activity.

Book Projects during the year in which students select and read books from different literature, create a written summary of the book, and produce and present a project related to the book.

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5th Grade Program

English Language Arts (ELA) — Following the common core state standards for ELA, 5th graders will:

compare and contrast grade-level text, cite evidence from the text to support conclusions, quote accurately from informational text, determine the main idea or theme of text, and investigate and understand the use of figurative language. They will also write narratives, opinion pieces, and informational works with clear and coherent details. Students will work in collaborative groups using academic language to explain ideas.

Math – As stated in the common core state standards, instruction will focus on:

1) developing fluency with addition and subtraction of fractions, and developing an understanding of the multiplication of fractions and of division of fractions in limited cases (unit fractions divided by whole numbers and whole numbers divided by unit fractions); 2) extending division to two-digit divisors, integrating decimal fractions into the place value system and developing an understanding of operations with decimals to hundredths, and developing fluency with whole number and decimal operations; and 3) developing understanding of volume

Social Studies – In 5th grade we will study the development of the United States up to 1850, with an emphasis on the people who were already here, when and from where others arrived, and why they came. Students will also know the location of the current 50 states and the names of their capitals.

Science – The NGSS standards for 5th grade include exploring matter and its interactions, gravity, how animals obtain energy that originates from the sun, interdependent relationships of ecosystems, human impacts on earth, and earth’s place within the universe.