Fifth Grade Expeditions

Year Long Expedition: Rights and Responsibilities     

From Revolution to Civil Rights
Topics: Types and foundations of governments, wars & conflict, cause & effect, historical research and historical fiction writing; poetry; construction of artifacts connected to literature.

Guiding Questions:

1. What are our rights & responsibilities as citizens in our community and our world?
2. How have Americans in history and in the present expressed their rights and responsibilities through culture and literature?
3. What were the rights and responsibilities of Americans in history and how have they changed?

Core Texts
The Color of My Words
Houdini
This Same Sky: A Collection of Poems from Around the World

Guided reading and lit circles
Shh! We’re Writing the Constitution
O! Freedom: Kids Write about  Civil Rights
Taking Liberty
An Eye for an Eye
My Brother Sam is Dead
The Watsons Go to Birmingham
The Road to Freedom
Riding Freedom
Wringer
Fever: 1793

A Conversation with Local Farmers and Landowners
Topics: Food production choices and their consequences; weather and climate; land practices and uses. Create field journals comparing and contrasting farming practices, documentaries, and news. Cultural and social change in American history due to agricultural and climate trends.

Guiding questions:

1. What or how much of what I consume is locally produced?
   
2. What decisions and challenges do local farmers face in a changing economy?
   
3. How are local markets being created for consumers to buy farm products?
   
4. What farming practices are currently being used and developed to sustain a healthy environment?

Guided Reading and Lit Circles
Sustainability in Agriculture
History of Farming in North Carolina
Working the Land

Guided Reading and Lit Circles
Esperanza Rising
And Now Miguel
Children of the Dust
Films
The Grapes of Wrath
Art Reproductions
Jacob Lawrence—shift from agriculture to urban and the Great Northern Migration
Chagall
Other Texts
Cesar Chavez: A Biography

Healthy Rivers, Streams and the Interconnectedness of Ecosystems
Topics:  Rivers and streams; macro-invertebrates and water quality;  raise trout for release and conduct stream investigations; landforms and/or ecosystems and be prepared to teach a workshop on this topic at our four-day trip to Joyce Kilmer National Forest in May.

Guiding questions:

1. In what ways do humans have an impact on local streams?
2. How can streams support a healthy ecosystem?
3. What part does the water cycle play within a healthy ecosystem?

Guided Reading and Lit Circles
Macroinvertebrates
Stream Studies Guide
Healthy Streams
Come Back Salmon
Various non-fiction texts related to student workshop choices
The Water Cycle
Bill Nye Videos on weather and climate
Ecosystems
Geology and the Appalachians (USGS)
Biography of Rachel Carson

Field Work:
Health Adventure; Hickory Nut Gap Farm; Overmountain Victory Celebration;Day of the Dead at Warren Wilson; Senior Center Asheville Health Center; Nowhere Branch Angora Goat farm; visits with local farmers; Japanese Garden, Jack Jarvis; Greenlife Grocery; Asheville Water Treatment Center; Climatic Data Center, Trout Hatchery; Haw Creek and various other local streams; end-of-year camping at Joyce Kilmer.

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