Elementary School

Grades & Classes

Fifth Grade

Phil Folsom

Students’ last year at GSLS is challenging and exciting, as we prepare our students for the various middle schools they will attend next fall. Projects and working together are central in our fifth grade class.

This fall during our studies of Native Americans, we built a ramada, a shade structure, outdoors behind our classroom.

Professor Frizzledoodle took our class on a field trip through our Solar System. It was quite a trip!

Our fifth grade classroom is turned into the inside of the human body in Body Systems Day in June. K – 4 students will visit our classroom and learn about various body systems through hands on experiments and activities.

We work on math daily, and learn: place value, addition & subtraction & multiplication & division of increasingly larger numbers, algebra, fractions and decimals, measurement, word problems, data, probability, and statistics.

Social studies takes us from Native Americans in North America pre–Columbus through the Civil War!

Student choice is important in our classroom. During Literature Circle time, students are grouped by reading level and interest, and select the books they read. Some favorites include: Bud, not Buddy, Hatchet, The Call of the Wild, Walk Two Moons, and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Currently we are studying the mystery genre, and are reading a variety of mystery books.

Writing is a focus in our class. We start with and continually work on proper sentence writing, grammar, spelling, punctuation, parts of speech, and paragraph writing. . Spelling correctly in everyday writing is a fifth grade goal. We work into writing long and short expository reports, descriptive and persuasive essays, and publishing a narrative book. Publishing the book and working on a poetry writing unit culminate in an Author’s Day, in which we share our books, (snuggled in pajamas, drinking hot chocolate, and eating donuts) and in an Author’s Evening, in which family members come to class to listen to chosen excerpts

We have been on and will go on many field trips this school year including these highlights: Chabot Space and Science Center, the Bay Model, Angel Island Immigration Station, Mount Hermon Outdoor Science School (spending 5 days), Camp Reynolds (Angel Island) Civil War reenactment overnight, and STRAW (Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed) restoration project.

Students are encouraged to design and execute their own projects in conjunction with the fifth grade curriculum. Four fifth grade students are planning and organizing a school wide Colonial Day to be held in March. K – 5 students will rotate through organized stations, experiencing colonial life. In another project, two students are collaborating on building an eight foot model of a space shuttle prototype they found on the NASA website. Another student has developed a research study on time spent doing schoolwork and homework. Students are encouraged to pursue their interests. I hope to teach my students a love for learning that will last them a lifetime.

Fifth Grade Rocks!