Can I get some feedback on my fifth grade schedule, please?

I haven't read thru this whole thread, but I definitely agree with this statement.

 

I believe she said that she has to have that much time for Reading.

My schedule stinks... I have no choice this year though.


2007-2008

8:20-8:45 Morning Work

8:45-10:10 Reading

10:10-10:20 Spelling

10:20-11:00 Math

11:00-11:30 Lunch

11:30-11:50 Math

11:50-12:00 Read Aloud/DEAR time

12:00-12:35 P.E.

12:40-1:15 Specials
M=Music
T=Library
W=Writing
Th=Guidance
F=Art (12:55-1:35)

1:20-1:50 Language

1:50-2:20 Science

2:20-2:50 Social Studies

2:50-3:00 Recess

3:00-3:15 Prepare to go home


I am flip-floping Science & S.S. every week due to my inclusion students being pulled from 2:30-3:00.

 

I know it does talk a little about morning meeting in the upper grades in the Morning Meeting Book. In this book I almost bought... Messages for Morning Meeting (or something like that!) it shows examples from fith grade classrooms.

WHen I teach science/social studies, we do units about 2-5 weeks long. So we get to science/ss every quarter but rotate montly.

Ah recess! We have 35 min lunch and recess and that is IT for the day. And these are six year olds! Sad.

 

We have requirements on how much time we have to give each subject each week. Breaking it down to a daily level it is: ELA - 120 minutes, math - 65 minutes - science - 45 minutes - social studies - 45 minutes - fine arts - 30 minutes - pe - 30 minutes. We use that to frame out our day. We try to keep most of the ELA blo0ck together so that's before morning recess. Now that we are self contained I'm doing math right after recess. I've tried it later in the day and they are spaced out.

 

Here's my schedule from this past year (give or take a bit) for a Monday:

8:10 Students begin entering the classroom
~Students have a list of things to do upon entry including: unpack backpack, hang clothing and backpack in locker, sharpen pencils, hand-in homework, place planner and STAR book on desk, and begin assignment on board.
8:20 Bell Rings... Morning Procedures start
During this time, we take attendance/lunch count, do the "assignment" which could be a mini-quiz, start a math game, handwriting practice, write a poem, DOL, or STAR read (independent reading time).
8:30-9:30 Math
Typically my math period is 10 min review of yesterday's assignments via correcting. The next 35 minutes is teaching the new concept (we use EveryDay Math). The final 15 minutes consists of additional practice time or doing the game associated with the lesson. It is during this 15 min that the kids get their "working snack-milk" break.
9:30-10:10 Science/Social Studies
10:10-10:30 Spelling (We use Sitton Spelling)
10:35-11:00 P.E.
11:05-11:30 Health/Poetry/Writer's Workshop/English
11:35-12:00 Music
12:00-12:40 Recess and Lunch
12:40-1:00 Independent Reading Time
1:00-2:40 Balanced Literacy
~This time is devoted to literacy which takes on a variety of "looks" including guided reading, shared reading, read aloud, etc. I also use some of this time for more concentration on Writer's Workshop and/or English (grammar) skills.
2:40-2:50 Get Ready to go home!
~Kids fill-out planners, collect homework & mail, clean their area, stack chairs, pack their bags and get dressed for outside.
2:50 Dismissal

Our math program really needs 1 hour of instruction and practice. The spelling and English times vary with the days of the week. Typically I get 10-20 minutes for each of these a day. Each day my kids get at least 15 minutes of independent reading after lunch so that they can relax and "get a grip". My "read-alouds" are completed during my Bal. Lit. block. On Fridays, my schedule (last year) included an hour of art nearly each week so all other subject areas were modified to accomodate that. We only have PE and music 4 times a week for 25min/daily. So, on Wednesdays, I only have one special as on Fridays also.

Hope my schedule helps you out...

 

The bell rings for students to enter my room at 7:20. Some days I wish I wouldn't see them until 8:10! haha

 

goodness, at our title I school we never have time for more than 10 minutes of recess at the end of the day... if we're LUCKY! my school also requires 180 minutes of language arts and 90 minutes of math, so our day is packed and social studies has to be incorporated within LA. last year we departmentalized so the switching also killed about 10-15 minutes a day. i'm not thinking about my new schedule until august!

 

That 180min seems to swallow your day doesn't it? I can relate. 90min for math? I don't know where I would get the extra 30min from. Do you have specials.

 

In 5th, we had 2 music, 2 art, 2 PE, 1 Spanish, and 1 computer special. They went out for science 3 days a week. I still did a modified morning meeting, one hour for math, an extensive social studies (American history) and read aloud for 30 minutes every day. I needed more time for LA, but simply didn't have it.

They had no morning break, except for specials, and went to lunch at 11:30 for 45 minutes, which included recess, daily.

 

P.S. I started working on fractions in bell work/morning meeting from the first week of school. Don't wait until it comes up in a chapter. It is sooooo important that they master all operations with fractions and it takes loads of reinforcement.

 

My schedule last year for 5th grade was

8:15 - 8:30 Morning Work
8:30- 9:00 PE (M,T,TH,F)
9:00 - 11:10 LA/Universal Access
11:10 - 12:03 Lunch
12:03 - 1:10 Math
1:10 - 1:25 Recess
1:25 - 1:45 ELD
1:45 - 2:30 Social Studies (M,T) Science (Th,F)
2:30 -2:40 Clean up and Jobs

Wednesdays is mim. day so everything is shortend, and every other Wed. we went to the library for 30 min.

For P.E. the students ran a mile every day and then they had free play.

I also think that it is important to get to Science as 5th grade has the science test, but remember at least in CA 40% of the questions on the 5th grade test come from the 4th grade curriculum.

 

Yes, I remember reading your response to a thread a LONG time ago and kept that in mind.

 

Yeah, I remember the 5th grade teachers talking about this. So, that means I gotta brush up on 5th and 4th grade science.

 

So do you find that fiipping between science and S.S every week is helpful for you and the students?

 

Well, I do need to have a certain amount of time for LA because of our school. BUT, here's the other side to the story. We are required to teach all parts of Open Court, but I also want to do readers and writers workshop. There's no way I can incorporate this in Open Court. Open Court is very structured ad scripted. It tells you exactly how to teach a concept. I LOVE the idea behind readers and writers workshop. They choose the stories they want to read, they choose the topic they want to write about. Open Court doesn't allow that freedom. With workshop, you look at their needs, and do a mini lesson on them. I love the idea of the students sharing their reading and writing. Plus, I'm new to the school district and on probationary level 2. I want to do what is expected by the district.

 

I do Social Studies on Mondays and Tuesdays and Science on Thursdays and Fridays. I like doing them both in the same week and the students did too. I tried doing them every other week, but I just prefered to both in during the week. On the Wed. that we did not go to the library, we reviewed states and capitals for their bi-weekly tests.

 

Were your bi-weekly tests just over states and capitols? I know I had to work alot last year with continents and oceans because my students came to us (since there was another teacher there before me) not knowing the names or locations of any of those land masses / bodies of water.

 

I do both science and ss during the week too. I don't have the review time that would be required to do them bi-weekly. I would be interested in finding out how your students are able to retain information(those of you who teach the subjects bi-weekly/monthly).

 

I have a book of maps that break down the states into manageable sections. I give the students two weeks to study at home and on the Wednesday we do not go to the library we study together. This takes a while to complete then they take the test on the whole United States. After we do that, we work on continents and oceans. As far as the bi-weekly tests, those students who really study for their state and capital tests do well at the end. Every now and then I do a review quiz and it might include about 3 sections of the United States that they have already learned. I also give the students who get 100% on their final state and capital test a pizza party, so they really work hard to do a good job.

 

What is the book that you have? Is it something you bought or something that was provided through school? I can't seem to find a way that I like to break it down. Are the manageable sections just based on regions?

 

WOW...I can't believe you are allowed that much recess time! We are allowed 15 minutes a day (K-6th) and our lunch is 30 minutes.

Are you the only 5th grade teacher? We departmentalize here starting in 3rd grade (becuase of the state tests in reading, math, science and writing). I couldn't imagine having to cover every subject!

 

My schedule this past year was
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
7:40 to 8:00 breakfast
8:00 to 8:25 morning meeting
8:30 to 9:30 math
9:30 t0 10:00 recess (my prep)
10:00 to 11:30 LA block M, W science T, TH
11:30 to 12:00 lunch
12:00 to 12:30 recess (my lunch)
12:30 to 1:00 read aloud
1:00 to 215 social studies/ health

Thursday
7:40 to 8:00 breakfast
8:00 to 8:25 morning meeting
8:30 to 9:30 math
9:30 t0 10:00 recess (my prep)
10:00 to 11:30 science
11:30 to 12:00 lunch
12:00 to 12:30 recess (my lunch)
12:30 to 1:30 LA
1:30 to 2:30 art

Friday
7:40 to 8:00 breakfast
8:00 to 8:25 morning meeting
8:30 to 9:30 math
9:30 t0 10:00 recess (my prep)
10:00 to 11:00 PE
11:00 to 11:30 reading/spelling
12:00 to 12:30 recess (my lunch)
12:30 to 1:30 music
1:30 to 2:30 LA

 

I can't believe you have that much recess time either, especially in 5th grade! I have an hour lunch and no recess time.
I do a 90 literacy block, at least 1 hour for math and 1 hour for science/social studies. The rest of the day I fill in with language, fluency, math centers, specials,etc. I think you will definitely need more time for math.
I do science and social studies by units; my team does 3 weeks of social studies then 3 weeks of science. We teach them daily. We have found that by doing that this way we can teach more of our indicators from our standards. Also, our standardized test is given the first week of May in Ohio, and allows us more time to cover the 5th grade material.
One of my administrators wanted us to do a morning and afternoon meeting. I tried, but found no benefit from this with my kids. They were bored, or it became a complaint session. I dropped it altogether. I think that people jump on the bandwagon with books like The First Six Weeks of School, and suddenly we have to do it!! With the pressure from the state, it is hard to not touch academics for 6 weeks!!!
Good luck with your schedule. I just finished mapping my year, and now I have to work on my schedule!!

 

I had morning meeting with grade k to 8th. It was my students favorite time of day. I also, worked at a responsive classroom school the year before, and attended a workshop. So I knew how I wanted to run my meetings.

 

So much to respond to - I couldn't keep track of the quotes.

Peachy - where in CA are you again? I think you told me you were down south. If you are Title 1 and Program Improvement, check to see if you have requirements as to how long LA and Math blocks need to be.

Here is my rough schedule
8:00 - 8:40 ELD
8:40 - 9:40 Math (Wed. goes to 10:10)
9:40 - 10:10 Specials, Class Meetings, Interventions
10:10 - 10:30 Recess
10:30 - 12:30 Language Arts
12:30 - 1:10 Lunch
1:10 - 1:30 P.E. (Mon. and Fri.)
1:30 - 2:30 Science/Social Studies (Mon. and Fri.)
1:10 - 2:30 Science/Social Studies (Thursday)
1:10 - 1:30 Read Aloud (Tuesday)
1:30 - 2:30 P.E. (Prep time for me)

We will be teaching a unit of Science then a unit of Social Studies and alternate that way.

For teaching States and Capitals, we have songs for four regions. They aren't the typical atlas regions, and I have no idea where we got them from. There are maps and activities and we test once a week. We will do this concurrently with the first Science unit and then review all year.

 

I've taught for 12 years. I love to go deeper in science and so I alternate 2 weeks for science then 2 weeks for social studies and I give it a little longer. Or else you could use some reading time for science books to integrate the 2 subjects.

 

I know, for the recess... we get Friday for 30 minutes and that's it. I almost wish the school day was extended an hour earlier to accomodate more freedom in the schedule. I would add read-aloud, recess, and probably more science/social studies time in the extra hour.

 

Oh, and then there's SPEECH! I have five or six kids in speech this year.

Here's about how the schedule may look with all the particulars thrown in- (More broken down than before)

8:30-9:00- Morning Work (attendance person goes down, brain teasers)
9:00-9:20- Writing Mini-Lesson
9:20-10:00- Writer's Workshop
10:00-10:40- Specials
10:40-11:00- Reading Mini-Lesson
11:00-11:45- Reading Centers and Conferences (Snack permitted during this time)
11:45-12:10- Houghton Mifflin Reading Period
12:10-12:40- Lunch
12:40-1:40- Math
1:40-2:10- Computer Lab (During this time will probably be Speech... but I don't know if it will be permitted because they'll have to make up the computer time. It's a program that prepares them for state testing. The kids are up to 2 days a week in speech. Maybe I can get them logged in on my classroom computers during morning work with the program to make up the time.)
2:10-3:00- Science, SS. (Recess is on Friday.)

It's just...
-The kids can't go to Outer Slovakia, the planet Pluto, or even the office during Reading. It is the uninterrupted 90-minute reading block.
-Math is never the time to get them out, either.
-Writing would be sad for them to miss.
-They only get 2 days a week in science and s.s. as it is.
-Morning work isn't a bad time... but they may be out a little longer with the pull-out (until 9:10, and they'll miss the first ten minutes of the writing mini-lesson).

(Comes to realization again) I have FIVE OR SIX Speech kids!!!! I'll have to do some great scheduling here, though I don't have a choice over the main schedule. Just the time they're taken for Speech.

 

That sure is a confusing schedule. I forgot about morning work. My stuents do that from 7:15 to 7:40. And the second bus kids do it after they eat breakfast.

 

I am not flipping teaching the subject, I am flipping the time I teach them, so that the kids do not always miss the same subject when at resource.

This is my first year to teach inclusion (will be about 4-5 students in my class). In the past I have taught one unit in one subject, then switched to another. Year before that I taught one month of one subject, then a month of another. My first year I taught three weeks, then three weeks.

We have benchmark testing the the main 4 subjects this year, so you can bet your biscuit they will have Science & SS in reading time too (with Reading skills of course)

 

My general schedule is:

7:55 - Morning work (DOL, DGS, etc)
8:00 - 10:00 - ELA
10:00 - 10:10 - recess
10:10 - 11:20 - math
11:20 - 12:20 - science
12:20 - 12:30 - read aloud
12:30 - 12:50 - lunch
12:50 - 1:10 - fine arts
1:10 - 2:00 - specials (PE 3 days a week and the other is split between library and computer)
2:00 - 2:10 - recess
2:10 - 3:00 - social studies
3:00 - 3:10 - fine arts
3:10 - kick 'em out

 

mstnteacherlady - The book I believe just says World Maps on the front cover. I won't have access to my room until August so I can't tell you for sure. I bought the book at Lakeshore about 2 years ago. The maps for the United States are broken down into regions, but then I break it down even farther to make it more manageable. Let say a regions has 10 states, I do a Quiz A for the first 5 and a Quiz B 2 weeks later for the last 5. I takes longer, but because they study at home I wanted to make it easier for them to manage.

 

Excellent, thanks! I'll do some searching! Don't worry about looking for it in August! I'd hate to add something else to your plate! Thanks so much! That sounds like a good plan. I'll have to see what I can come up with.

 

Ah, okay. Gotcha.

 

I truly envy your schedule because you have a greater amount of time for science and social studies. You don't have to flip schedules or anything else because the time is always ample. I wish we had an extra hour to extend those and incorporate recess. We start at 9 and end at the same time as you.

What is fine arts? Art, music, drama, stuff like that? Like the 10 minute period at the end of the day?

My struggle is having students who have Gifted and Speech. Gifted is one whole day a week. I know that is the day I am sending this boy to Speech during Morning Work time because I won't see him after that, anyway, until 2:30. He'll still be missing Writer's Workshop for the day; it doesn't matter if Speech ends at 9:10. Last year, I should have done the same because I had another Gifted Speech fellow. Gifted is across the hall from Speech! (Note to self: Common sense!! )

 

How can you do anything in 10 minutes?

 

Just wondering, I think I only saw two or three people include a planning period in their schedule throughout this thread. Is that something you're forgetting or does your school not allow for you to plan between 8-3:30?

 

We toss in that 10 minutes of Fine Arts to meet the requirements, but I integrate them into several different subjects. That's one of the "on paper" only things. Usually I'm finishing up social studies, or working on something we didn't finish earlier in the day. They only pull for speech, gifted, etc during their specials time. If I have inclusion kids, they sometimes are pulled during content time, but they work really hard with us, and sometimes I have to change my schedule for that. As for planning, their specials time is my planning time. (If I don't have kids in the room for make-ups, remediation, etc.)

 

The only special the kids can miss is computer lab. The rest are mandated by the state, and we cannot keep them in the class to make-up any thing during this time.