Summary of Skills

Unit 1: Dirt and Plants [S]

Language Arts

• Compose a variety of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama selections.
• Use oral and written language to present information in a sequenced, logical manner.

Science

• Investigate and describe how plants pass through distinct stages in their life cycle including growth, survival, and reproduction.
• Analyze and interpret information to construct reasonable explanations from direct and indirect evidence.
• Communicate valid conclusions.
• Conduct science experiments and investigations.
• Determine how composting recycles discarded plant and animal material.
• Determine the ability of soil to support the growth of many plants, including those important to our food supply.
• Determine the relationship between heat and decaying plant matter in a compost pile.
• Explain why the number of seeds a plant produces depends on variables such as light, water, nutrients, and pollination.
• Follow the scientific method.
• Identify and describe the life cycle of living things.
• Identify and describe the process of photosynthesis.
• Identify and record properties of soils such as color, texture, capacity to retain water, and ability to support the growth of plants.
• Identify plant products and their importance.
• Identify the basic components of soil: sand, clay, and humus.
• Investigate and observe that different soils absorb water at different rates.
• Observe and describe how environmental conditions determine how plants survive and grow in a particular environment.
• Observe and describe the properties of soil: color, texture, and capacity to hold water.
• Observe and discuss how bees pollinate flowers.
• Observe and measure how the quantities and qualities of nutrients, light, and water in the environment affect plant growth.
• Observe, describe, and record properties of germinating seeds.
• Recognize the impact of the environment on living things.

Unit 1: Little House in the Big Woods [LA]

Language Arts

• Adapt speech communication to the audience, purpose, and occasion.
• Analyze characters, including their traits, feelings, relationships, and the changes they experience.
• Compare a dramatic performance with a print version of the same story.
• Compare language and oral traditions (family stories) that reflect customs, regions, and cultures.
• Compose a draft of preliminary plans that conveys major ideas and maintains focus on a topic.
• Compose a variety of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama selections on given topics.
• Conduct research (with assistance) for assigned and self-selected projects from a variety of sources.
• Connect own experiences with the experiences, language, customs, and culture of others through speaking and listening.
• Consider the difference between fiction and nonfiction using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes.
• Demonstrate learning through productions and displays such as reports, illustrations, and dramatizations.
• Demonstrate understanding by using a variety of complete sentences (declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory) in writing and speaking.
• Draw conclusions from gathered information.
• Draw conclusions, make generalizations, and gather support by referencing the text.
• Identify (with assistance) the purpose, audience, and appropriate format for an oral presentation.
• Identify and discuss similarities and differences in events, characters, and concepts across selections and support them by referencing the text.
• Increase reading and writing vocabulary through word study.
• Interact with the text before, during, and after reading by asking questions.
• Interact with the text by making connections, answering questions, and locating information.
• Interpret, create, and use graphic sources of information, including maps, charts, graphs, and diagrams.
• Organize information using notes, charts, and labels.
• Produce work that follows the conventions of a particular genre (e.g., personal narrative, short report, friendly letter, directions, and instructions).
• Proofread writing and correct most misspellings independently with reference to resources.
• Read aloud grade-appropriate text with fluency, comprehension, and expression.
• Read independently.
• Recognize the difference between fact and opinion.
• Relate plot, setting, and characters to own experiences and ideas.
• Respond to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive and evaluative processes.
• Respond to text by reflecting on learning, gaining new insights, and identifying areas for further study.
• Share an oral project through presentation.
• Share written and oral products.
• Summarize main ideas from written or spoken texts, using succinct language.
• Use correct capitalization in writing.
• Use oral and written language to answer open-ended questions.
• Use oral and written language to present information in a sequenced, logical manner in order to support the following skills: discuss and sustain conversation on a topic, share information and ideas, recount or narrate, and share written and oral products in a variety of ways.
• Use planning strategies to organize ideas.
• Use story structure and text organization to comprehend text.
• Use word reference materials (e.g., dictionary, glossary) to confirm decoding skills, verify spelling, and extend meanings of words.
• Write with more proficient spellings of inflectional endings, including plurals, past tense, and words that drop the final "e" when -ing, -ed, or -able are added.

Unit 2: Native Americans [SS]

Social Studies

• Analyze changes that have occurred in communities past and present.
• Analyze similarities and differences among families in different times and places.
• Analyze similarities and differences among people in different times and in different places.
• Compare how people in different communities adapt to or modify the physical environment to meet their needs.
• Compare the ways of life of Native-American groups in the Western Hemisphere.
• Create maps to reflect information about the environment.
• Describe and compare cultural characteristics of regional tribes and evaluate their significance.
• Describe how individuals, events, and ideas change over time.
• Describe how individuals, events, and ideas have changed communities over time.
• Describe similarities and differences among communities in different times and in different places.
• Describe the similarities and differences among people of North America, past and present.
• Describe traditional art, music, and craft forms of the Native American tribes.
• Explain cultural traditions in Native American communities.
• Explain the economic patterns of various early Native-American groups.
• Explain the need for leaders in communities and describe their roles and responsibilities.
• Identify Native American groups in the Western Hemisphere before European exploration and describe the regions in which they lived.
• Locate and describe Native Americans in North America, past and present.
• Use appropriate source maps to locate communities.
• Use geographic terminology to describe variations in the physical environment.
• Use maps to locate communities.
• Use vocabulary related to chronology.

Unit 2: The Sign of the Beaver [LA]

Language Arts

• Accurately use capitalization and punctuation, such as commas, in writing.
• Analyze characters, including their traits, feelings, relationships, and changes.
• Answer open-ended questions related to a text.
• Compose a draft that conveys major ideas and maintains focus on the topic by using preliminary plans.
• Compose a variety of literary genres, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, using self-selected topics and forms.
• Compose elaborate written sentences and use appropriate end punctuation.
• Conduct research for assigned and self-selected projects from a variety of sources.
• Connect his or her own experiences with others' life experiences, languages, customs, and cultures.
• Determine the author's purpose, plot, conflict, sequence of events, resolution, and theme of a text.
• Draw and discuss visual images based on text descriptions.
• Edit writing for standard grammar and usage.
• Focus reflection and revision (with assistance) by clarifying ideas, adding descriptive words and phrases, sequencing events and ideas, and strengthening word choice.
• Identify (with assistance) the purpose, the audience, and the appropriate form for an oral or written task.
• Identify and discuss similarities and differences in events, characters, and ideas among selections and support them by referencing the text.
• Identify and interpret elements of fiction and nonfiction.
• Identify cause and effect patterns found in text.
• Identify parts of speech within a sentence.
• Identify root words, prefixes, and suffixes.
• Identify similarities and differences such as in topics, characters, and themes in texts.
• Increase vocabulary through word study.
• Interact with text by making connections.
• Practice different kinds of questions and tasks.
• Present dramatic interpretations of experiences, stories, poems, or plays.
• Produce work that follows the conventions of particular genres.
• Read fiction and nonfiction texts.
• Recognize correct sentence structure.
• Relate plot, character, and setting to own experiences.
• Respond to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes by participating in creative interpretations.
• Respond to stories and poems in ways that reflect understanding and interpretation in discussion, writing, and through art.
• Respond to text by reflecting on learning, gaining new insights, and identifying areas for further study.
• Share written and oral products in a variety of ways.
• Summarize main ideas from written or spoken texts using succinct language.
• Support interpretations or conclusions with examples from text.
• Use oral and written language to share information and ideas.
• Use prepositions and prepositional phrases in writing.
• Use text and own experiences to verify facts, concepts, and ideas.
• Use word reference materials such as a dictionary or glossary to confirm decoding skills, verify spelling, and extend meanings of words.

Science

• Explain what people can learn from observing the habits of animals.

Social Studies

• Compare how people in different communities adapt to or modify the physical environment to meet their needs.

Unit 3: Ecosystems and Ecology [S]

Science

• Describe environmental changes in which some organisms would thrive, become ill, or perish.
• Describe how living organisms are dependent on their environment to meet their needs.
• Describe how organisms modify their physical environment to meet their needs.
• Examine ways people can protect the environment.
• Identify and describe the importance of Earth's materials.
• Identify ways living organisms are dependent on other organisms within their environment.
• Observe and describe the habitats of organisms within an ecosystem.
• Observe and identify organisms with similar needs that compete with one another for resources such as oxygen, water, food, or space.
• Represent the natural world using models.

Social Studies

• Explain variations in the physical environment including climate, landforms, natural resources, and natural hazards.

Unit 3: Native American Animal Stories [LA]

Language Arts

• Choose and adapt spoken language appropriate to the audience, purpose, and occasion, including use of appropriate volume and rate.
• Compare experiences of characters across cultures.
• Compare language and oral traditions (stories) that reflect customs, regions, and cultures.
• Compose sentences with interesting, elaborate subjects.
• Demonstrate understanding by using a variety of complete sentences.
• Develop drafts.
• Edit writing for standard grammar and usage, including subject-verb agreement.
• Generate ideas for writing by using pre-writing techniques such as drawing and making lists.
• Identify similarities and differences across texts in topics, characters, and themes.
• Identify the conflict and resolution of a story.
• Identify the importance of the setting to a story's meaning
• Increase knowledge of other cultures by reading stories from around the world.
• Locate information from text for specific purposes.
• Make inferences and draw conclusions based on events in the story.
• Participate in creative interpretations of stories.
• Present dramatic interpretations of experiences, stories, poems, or plays.
• Recognize the distinguishing features of familiar genres, including myths and folktales.
• Recognize the problem or plot of a story.
• Record and recognize synonyms and antonyms for words.
• Reflect on learning, gain new insights from text, and identify areas for further study.
• Respond to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive and evaluative processes.
• Retell a spoken message by summarizing or clarifying.
• Understand literary forms by distinguishing among stories, poems, myths, legends, and folktales.
• Use capitalization with proper nouns and punctuation, such as commas, in a series.
• Use correct subject/verb agreement.
• Use relative pronouns (who, whose, whom, which, that) and relative adverbs (where, when, why).
• Use singular and plural forms of regular nouns and adjust verbs for agreement.
• Use written language to report information on a topic.
• Write in different forms for different purposes.

Social Studies

• Analyze similarities and differences among families in different times and in different places.
• Describe similarities and differences among communities in different times and in different places.