Coyote Ridge Elementary School
5th Grade
September 2025
Upcoming Events
September 20 - Broomfield Days
September 29 - No School (Teacher Work Day)
Fifth Grade Focus
Reading: In Unit 1, we are reading informational and opinion passages about cultivating resources. Students have built understanding by asking questions, determining central idea, identifying key details, explaining cause and effect relationships, and determining the author's point of view and purpose. In Unit 2, students will explore the Essential Question: Why do we value certain qualities in people? The question will be explored through realistic fiction, a genre of literature in which authors create characters who could exist in real life, flaws and all, as well as plots that could actually happen. They will discuss how authors use their craft to communicate a character’s traits to readers, and how these traits are valued. Certain character traits, such as bravery and inquisitiveness, are valued across much of literature. Characters in stories can teach readers real-life problem-solving and relationship skills.
Writing: Students are writing an informational essay, gathering facts and details from print and digital sources to write an essay about the production of corn in the United States. In Unit 2, they will write in response to reading and will be focusing on writing an opinion essay on whether or not they would recommend author Jason Reynolds to others. Students will develop their opinion with reasons and support these reasons with evidence using excerpts from Jason Reynolds’ As Brave As You.
Math: We are finishing up our unit on Area and Volume. Our next unit is called Whole Number Place Value and Operations. This unit will cover place value into the millions, powers of 10 and exponential notation, as well as multiplying and dividing multi-digit numbers.
Social Studies: In this Geography unit, students are studying the major regions of the United States with a lens on Native American cultures.
Science: Later on this month, we will start a unit on Properties of Matter. Students will ask scientific questions, make observations, and use models to understand how matter can be identified, changed, modeled, and conserved.
Social Emotional Learning: We will be practicing listening to others in order to give and get advice. We will learn about the different kinds of teasing and how each person has the right to define how they feel about how people treat them. As a follow up to this lesson, we will be learning about feelings like anger and frustration, and work to increase our ability to manage these feelings more effectively. Lastly we will learn a strategy to help ourselves stay calm and communicate with other people when we are frustrated, angry, or worried about them.
Thank you! Have a great September!
5th Grade Team
