Summary of Skills

Unit 1: Animal Adaptations [S]

Science

• Analyze how adaptive characteristics help individuals within a species to survive and reproduce.
• Collect information by observing and measuring.
• Communicate valid conclusions.
• Construct and interpret simple graphs, tables, maps, and charts to organize and evaluate information.
• Describe environmental changes in which some organisms would thrive, become ill, or perish.
• Describe how living organisms modify the physical environment to meet their needs, such as beavers building a dam or humans building a home.
• Explain and discuss how humans and other animals can adapt their behaviors to live in changing habitats.
• Identify characteristics among species that allow them to survive and reproduce.
• Observe and describe how all living and nonliving things affect the life of a particular animal including other animals, plants, people, and climate.
• Observe and discuss how behavior and body structure help an animal survive in a particular habitat.
• Observe and identify characteristics among species that allow each to survive and reproduce.
• Observe and record how animals of the same kind differ in characteristics and discuss possible advantages and disadvantages of this variation.
• Represent the natural world using models.

Social Studies

• Compare how people in different communities adapt to or modify the physical environment.
• Describe the effects of physical and human processes in shaping the landscape.

Unit 1: Abel's Island [LA]

Language Arts

• Analyze characters, including their traits, feelings, relationships, and changes.
• Answer open-ended questions.
• Ask questions about text.
• Compose a draft that conveys major ideas and maintains focus on the topic by using preliminary plans.
• Compose a variety of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama selections using a various topics and forms.
• Compose original poems.
• Conduct research for projects from a variety of sources (with assistance).
• Demonstrate an understanding of parts of speech.
• Develop vocabulary by listening to and discussing both familiar and conceptually challenging reading selections.
• Draw and discuss visual images based on text descriptions.
• Draw conclusions, make generalizations, and gather support by referencing the text.
• Identify (with assistance) the purpose, audience, and appropriate form for the oral or written task.
• Identify and discuss similarities and differences in events, characters, concepts, and ideas within and across selections and support them by referencing the text.
• Identify and interpret elements of fiction such as the plot.
• Identify multisyllabic words by using common syllable patterns.
• Increase sight vocabulary, reading vocabulary, and writing vocabulary through book discussion.
• Interact with the text before, during, and after reading, listening, or viewing by making connections.
• Interact with the text by locating information for specific purposes.
• Make inferences and draw conclusions about characters and events.
• Make predictions and inferences while reading.
• Read independently daily from materials consistent with reading level.
• Represent text information in different ways, including story maps, graphs, and charts.
• Respond to fiction by participating in creative interpretations.
• Respond to literature using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes by relating plot, characters, and setting to own experience.
• Share a written and an oral project in a variety of ways.
• Show understanding and interpretation of text in discussion and writing.
• Support interpretations or conclusions with examples drawn from text.
• Use oral and written language to present information in a sequenced, logical manner.
• Use oral and written language to recount or narrate.
• Use oral and written language to report on a topic.
• Use planning strategies (with assistance) to generate topics and organize ideas (e.g., drawing, mapping, discussing, and listing).
• Use root words and other structural cues such as prefixes, suffixes, and derivational endings to recognize words.
• Use text and personal experience to verify facts, concepts, and ideas.

Science

• Explain and discuss how humans and other animals can adapt their behaviors to live in changing habitats.
• Observe and describe how all living and nonliving things affect the life of a particular animal including weather, other animals, and plants.
• Observe and discuss how behaviors and body structures help animals survive in a particular habitat.

Social Studies

• Compare how people in different communities adapt to or modify the physical environment.
• Draw maps of places and regions that contain map elements including a title, compass rose, legend, scale, and grid system.
• Use a scale to determine the distance between places on maps and globes.

Unit 2: Early Explorers [SS]

Science

• Analyze scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories.
• Plan and implement investigations.
• Represent the natural world using models.

Social Studies

• Describe how individuals, events, and ideas have changed communities over time.
• Describe how individuals, such as Christopher Columbus, contributed to the expansion of existing communities or to the creation of new communities.
• Distinguish between various types of maps and globes.
• Identify and use the compass rose.
• Identify reasons for early exploration.
• Identify the accomplishments (and shortcomings) of significant explorers.
• Use cardinal and intermediate directions to locate places.

Unit 2: Pedro's Journal [LA]

Language Arts

• Analyze characters, including their traits, feelings, relationships, and changes.
• Answer relevant questions and make contributions in small or large group discussions.
• Compare language and oral traditions that reflect customs, regions, and cultures.
• Compose sentences with interesting, elaborate subjects.
• Conduct research to learn more about a topic.
• Demonstrate learning through productions and displays, such as oral and written reports, murals, and dramatizations.
• Demonstrate understanding of informational text in a variety of ways through writing and illustrating.
• Determine how his/her own writing achieves its purposes.
• Develop vocabulary through reading.
• Distinguish fact from opinion in various texts.
• Draw conclusions from information gathered.
• Generate ideas for writing by using prewriting techniques, such as drawing and listing key thoughts.
• Identify and discuss similarities and differences in events, characters, concepts, and ideas within and across selections and support them by referencing the text.
• Identify and interpret author's use of figurative language.
• Identify and interpret elements of fiction and nonfiction and support by referencing the text to determine the author's purpose, plot, and the author's lesson or message.
• Identify areas for further study.
• Interact with text by locating information for specific purposes.
• Read fiction and nonfiction text.
• Read from a variety of genres and sources for pleasure and to acquire information.
• Recognize the distinguishing features of familiar genres.
• Record personal knowledge of a topic in a variety of ways, such as drawing pictures.
• Represent information in different ways, including story maps, graphs, and charts.
• Respond to fiction by reflecting on reading, gaining new insights, and identifying areas for further study.
• Respond to fiction using evaluative processes by considering the main character's point of view.
• Respond to fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using interpretive, critical, and evaluative processes by considering the differences among genres.
• Share written and oral products in a variety of ways.
• Use correct punctuation and capitalization.
• Use criteria to identify the most effective features of a piece of writing.
• Use oral or written language to recount or narrate.
• Use planning strategies (with assistance) to generate topics and organize ideas.
• Use quotation marks within sentences to indicate words spoken.
• Use resources and references, such as beginners' dictionaries, glossaries, available technology, and context to build word meanings.
• Use text and personal experiences to verify facts, concepts, and ideas.
• Use vocabulary clearly to describe ideas, feelings, and experiences.
• Write in different forms for different purposes.
• Write to communicate with a variety of audiences.
• Write to record and develop ideas and reflections.

Social Studies

• Examine the significance of art within a culture.
• Give examples of community changes that result from individual or group decisions.
• Identify examples of actions individuals and groups can take to improve the community.

Unit 3: Work, Tools, and Simple Machines [S]

Science

• Analyze information to construct reasonable explanations from direct and indirect evidence.
• Build and use a model to solve a mechanical design problem.
• Collect information by observing and measuring.
• Communicate valid conclusions.
• Construct graphs.
• Construct simple graphs, tables, maps, and charts using tools, including computers, to organize, examine, and evaluate information.
• Design models to represent the natural world.
• Determine how people use simple machines to solve problems.
• Explore simple machines in the community.
• Identify simple machines that combine to form complex machines.
• Plan and implement descriptive and simple investigations which include a well-defined question, a testable hypothesis, and proper equipment.

Social Studies

• Analyze changes that have occurred in communities past and present.
• Compare how people in different communities adapt to or modify the physical environment to meet their needs.
• Describe how individuals, events, and ideas change over time.
• Describe similarities and differences among communities in different times and places.
• Discuss, describe, and assess ways in which technology is used in homes and communities.
• Identify the impact of technological change on communities around the world.

Unit 3: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH [LA]

Language Arts

• Analyze, compare, and contrast printed and visual information (e.g., graphs, charts, maps).
• Answer open-ended questions about text.
• Apply structural analysis to words (i.e., prefixes, suffixes, and syllables).
• Compose elaborate sentences in written texts and use appropriate end punctuation.
• Compose sentences with interesting, elaborate subjects.
• Conduct research on assigned topics using books and technology.
• Consider a character's point of view.
• Demonstrate learning and ideas through productions and displays such as reports and murals.
• Determine the plot, conflict, sequence of events, and resolution of a story.
• Discuss alternative solutions for a problem in a story.
• Draw and discuss visual images based on text descriptions.
• Draw conclusions about characters and events.
• Draw conclusions, make generalizations, and gather support by referencing the text.
• Identify abbreviations and acronyms.
• Identify and describe the setting of stories.
• Identify and discuss similarities and differences in characters.
• Identify and interpret elements of fiction and nonfiction.
• Identify and use the correct spelling of homonyms.
• Identify and use the correct spelling of homophones.
• Increase vocabulary through word study.
• Locate information in text for specific purposes.
• Make inferences and draw conclusions about characters and events.
• Participate in creative interpretations of stories.
• Read from a variety of genres (print and electronic) for pleasure and to acquire information.
• Recognize and apply story structure and text organization.
• Recognize the differences among genres of literature.
• Reference the text to determine the plot and sequence of events in a story.
• Relate characters and their actions to personal experiences and ideas.
• Respond to fiction by identifying areas for further research.
• Respond to stories and poems in ways that reflect understanding and interpretation.
• 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 drawn from text.
• Use a variety of strategies to organize ideas.
• Use correct capitalization and punctuation.
• Use correct irregular plurals, such as "sheep."
• Use dictionaries to find the meanings of words.
• Use oral and written language to present information in a sequenced, logical manner.
• Use prior knowledge to anticipate meaning and make sense of texts.
• Use singular and plural forms of nouns and adjust verbs for agreement.
• Use text and personal experiences to verify facts, concepts, and ideas.
• Write in different forms for different purposes.
• Write to communicate with a variety of audiences.
• Write to discover, develop, and refine ideas.
• Write to record ideas and reflections.

Science

• Design a way to solve a mechanical problem.
• Determine how people use simple machines to solve problems.
• Determine how simple machines are used.
• Observe and describe the habitats of organisms within an ecosystem.

Social Studies

• Compare how people in different communities adapt to or modify the physical environment to meet their needs.
• Discuss, describe, and assess ways in which technology is used in homes and communities.
• Explore the role of selected fictional characters in creating new communities.
• Identify the impact of technological change on a community.