GRADE FIVE - Curriculum
LANGUAGE ARTS
Reading, writing, listening, speaking, spelling and handwriting are all-important components of language arts. Skills and strategies in each area are modeled, taught and practiced, taking into account the unique needs of each learner.
Reading
Students read from a variety of texts, including fiction (short stories and novels), poetry, and nonfiction (newspapers, magazines, books). In fifth grade, our goal is to establish and hone the following reading skills:
- Improving and expanding vocabulary
- Distinguishing between fact and opinion
- Understanding ideas not explicitly stated (inferencing)
- Interpreting figurative language
- Using graphophonic (sounds), syntactic (language) and semantic (meaning) strategies to read and understand text
- Predicting, questioning, clarifying, connecting, summarizing and responding to literature
Writing
Students write for a variety of purposes on a daily basis. One main focus of fifth grade is on the organization of writing, especially in regards to essay writing. In fifth grade, our goal is to establish and hone the following writing skills:
- Planning, composing and revising pieces of writing
- Editing for grammar, capitalization, punctuation, spelling and sentence structure
- Essay writing: narrative (fiction and nonfiction), descriptive, clarification, and problem solution
- Business letter to request an action
- Spelling
MATH
Students use math on a daily basis. The curriculum is not only skill-based, but focuses on realistic problem solving. Math is also incorporated into other curricular areas. In fifth grade, our goal is to establish and hone the following math skills:
- Place Value
- Estimating and Rounding
- Addition and Subtraction (whole number and decimal)
- Multiplication and Division (whole number and decimal)
- Geometry
- Statistics, Probability and Graphing
- Fractions
- Measurement
SOCIAL STUDIES
The social studies curriculum provides the opportunity for each student to acquire knowledge and develop skills necessary for social, political and economic participation in a diverse, interdependent and changing world. Studies areas include: The Ancient World (Early People, Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, India, Greece, Rome) and The Middle Ages (Europe). In fifth grade our goal is to establish and hone the following social study skills:
- Difference between hunters/gatherers and farmers
- Characteristics of culture and examples of these components in a specific civilization
- Locating, organizing and presenting information
- Contributions of ancient civilizations to their time and to the modern world
- Examples of conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among individuals, groups and nations
- Mapping skills, geography, and current events
SCIENCE
The curriculum provides opportunities for students to learn science concepts through hands-on activities. Students learn to observe, compare, collect data, organize and analyze information, and communicate what they have learned. Science topics covered include:
- Variables (scientific reasoning)
- Activities that help students discover relationships through controlled experiments.
- Environments (life science)
- Study of terrestrial environments, plants, animals, ecosystems, and aquatic environments.
- Mixtures and Solutions (physical science)
- Experimenting with a variety of solutions, their concentration, saturation, and their reactions.
- Landforms
- Experimenting with topography, mapping, and erosion.
HEALTH
Students learn to take responsibility for aspects of their own health. Healthful decision making is emphasized. Topics covered include:
- Personal responsibililty for safety and wellness
- Healthy nutrition
- Tobacco, alcohol and drugs (mainly through the D.A.R.E. program)
- Human Growth and Development
- Diseases
- Consumer Health
- Safety and First Aid
- Decision Making
GUIDANCE
Guidance is integrated in all curricular areas. Its focus is on establishing goals, expectations, study habits, support systems and social/personal growth. Topics covered include:
- Improved academic self-concept
- Plan to achieve goals
- School success
- Organization and time management
- Self-knowledge
- Relationships