5th Grade Curriculum Choices

I can not believe that I will be teaching 5th grade this year!  How did he get so big!??  When we began homeschooling 4 years ago he was just a little 2nd grader.  I am realizing that I really need to step up my game this year.  Last year was a pretty big transition year for us, and I feel that there will be a lot more independent work happening this year.  I plan to use a few new tools to help move him towards independent work.

Almost every subject this year for Elijah will be new.  Here is a run down of what we will be using this year for 5th grade.

Language Arts:  

Learning Language Arts Through Literature Purple Book and Wordly Wise 3000

 I have never used this book before, so I am not too sure how it will all work.  I liked the idea that it integrates spelling, vocabulary, writing, reading, and comprehension.  In the past we have used All About Spelling, and I realized last year that it just wasn't working for us anymore.  The books that he will be reading to go along with this are Farmer Boy, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Caddie Woodlawn.
   I decided at the last minute to add in Wordly Wise 3000 the 5th grade book.  Vocabulary is a weak point with him, and I really haven't emphasized it in the past.  This year I felt that it would be necessary to add in an extra program to really ramp up his vocabulary.  Even though he reads constantly and well above grade level, I feel that he doesn't have a strong grasp on the meanings of words.

Math:

Teaching Textbooks 5

  I am really excited about moving into Teaching Textbooks this year.  We have used Math U See for the past 3 years and I just felt like it also was not working for us anymore.  Elijah is happy to have a chance at a new curriculum as well.  I like that he will be getting a bit of a review as well as learning new concepts this year.

Typing/ Coding:

Typing Instrutor and Various free coding websites

    We purchased Typing Instructor as a download and Elijah will be working through that this year.  We will also be adding in some computer coding practice.  I found a bunch of free kids coding websites that we will be using.  If you are interested, here is the list that we will be using this year:

• Code.org
• Kahn Academy Hour of Code
• Turtle Academy
• Botlogic
• Scratch

  Some iPad apps that we will most likely use are:

• Hopscotch
• Scratch Jr.
• Kodable
• Lightbot and Lightbot Jr.

Don't forget that we will also be doing History, Science and Bible as all together subjects.  You can see that list here.

I will be sharing our 2nd grade and Pre-K 4 choices later on, along with some ways that I am going to be changing up our learning this coming year.