4th Grade
Mrs. Devincenzi feels strongly that students should feel safe, comfortable, and free to express themselves in her classroom. Using the Responsive Classroom approach, she helps to develop a positive classroom community.
Students will collaborate with peers and work independently on presentations and projects throughout the school year in all curriculum areas. A major part of the fourth grade curriculum is California History. Students begin the year studying the physical and geographic features of California. Students move on to describe life and interactions among people of California. At the end of the year, students participate in The Tour of California where they learn about the Gold Rush and how it led to California statehood. Another focus is the Language Arts curriculum which takes the students from learning to read to reading to learn. The goal in this classroom is to help every student become a proficient writer and reader. They will use the writing process to create expository, narrative, opinion, and five paragraph essays. The students will be given plenty of time to read for the joy of reading and encouraged to read many books from different genres.
5th Grade
United States history comes alive in fifth grade! Ms. Lynch and her students travel back in time to learn about how our land was colonized and became a country. They learn about the thirteen original colonies and end the study with the annual Colonial Day! They also have an overnight trip on Angel Island where they reenact how California played a role in the Civil War.
Reading is another ADVENTURE for the students! Ms. Lynch shares her love of reading with each and every student. Whether they are reading fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, or informative text reading is a large part of their year. Another important component to the fifth grade curriculum is Math. The focus is on fractions and decimals. They learn to add, subtract, multiply, divide, simplify, compare, and convert them.