5th Grade 2019-2020

Fall Farm Days and Other Updates

During the 2019-2020 school year, the fifth grade students at All Saints Academy have the unique opportunity to attend the Franciscan Outdoor Environmental School for 3, two-day sessions over the course of the school year. Fifth grade students and their teachers will visit the Franciscan Life Process Center in Lowell for a “down on the farm” environmental science experience.

Students will use core academic skills, and experience faith development, while they participate in a range of lessons and activities. Students will learn about the seasons, harvest time, animals, and farm life, as well as environmental principles and concepts. Students will also have time for art, music, team building, hiking, baking and cooking.
The first 2 days of this experience were October 23rd and 24th. Students collected leaves for leaf books, worked with the farm animals, and selected their “little portions.” Little portions are a small section of land that one invests time into observing over the seasons to note how that small piece of God’s creation changes over time. While selecting their little portions, the Franciscan sisters pointed out interesting evidence of life in the area to students. Some highlights were formerly inhabited fox dens, and poison ivy.

In the barn, students interacted with the chickens, bunnies and cows, but Boston and Pico, the goats, were the most popular animals! Part of the farm days experience also includes team building and communication skills practice! Students were able to reflect on teamwork and practice working together as a class.

“I learned that every tree has a different type of fruit and that there is one trees fruit and it literally looks like peas in a pod not even kidding. I also learned that even when you wanna have fun you still have to watch out and be careful because there is a lot of poison ivy that you could run into.” - Carissa Sisk

In April, 5th grade parents will be invited to join their students for a barbecue on the last day of this experience. They will also experience first hand the land and the Franciscan community their students have been blessed to learn with over the course of this year.

We are so thankful to the St. Alphonsus Foundation
for helping to make this experience possible!

Here are a few other 5th grade class updates for 2019-2020: 

4/5 Religion - The fourth and fifth grade combined religion class will focus primarily on the Spirit of Truth 5th Grade book (The Sacraments), while reviewing/teaching the main points of the 4th Grade book (Jesus Teaches us How to Live).  Students will learn through book work, discussion, and hands-on activities.  Coming from a multi-age school, I am well use to having different level kids in one class.  Although we will be doing the many of the same activities, I will have different expectations for what students produce based on his or her grade level and ability.  My goal is for each child to grow in both knowledge and love of the faith. 

5th Language Arts - Fifth graders will be reading across genres this year and keeping track of the amount of books read by creating a class Tower of Books.  When each student completes a book, he/she will grab a celebratory snack, conference with Mrs. Zimelis, assemble a "book" to add to our 3D class tower, and bring home a congratulatory note to share with parents. When the class reaches their first goal of 25 books, a special celebration will take place. 


Centers will also occur often in the 5th grade classroom. They are a great way for Mrs. Zimelis to differentiate within the class.  Some centers such as story analysis, independent reading and response, and vocabulary are designed for all students. Other centers will be designed to give students more practice on a concept or allow students to move ahead to some more advanced work. Favorite centers always seem to be the ones designed to celebrate holidays like All Saints Day and Halloween!

Overall, 5th grade reports that they are enjoying their class rotation this year and especially excited about the addition of band class!