5th Grade
Meet Our Teachers
Curriculum Highlights
- In reading, students demonstrate understanding of higher level critical thinking skills through in-depth analysis of main character’s words and actions, plot sequence, main themes, author’s purpose, and specific audiences and purposes. They write clear coherent explanations, instructions, and factual reports on a range of issues and topics. Students also deliver simple speeches with expression.
- Vocabulary will be a new addition to their studies. We will spend a lot of time going over this new subject so they get a great foundation and learn how to properly decode and learn new vocabulary.
- In math, students focus on place value, decimals through ten thousandths, expanded notation, greatest common factors, multiples, and least common multiples, geometry, and adding and subtracting fractions and mixed numbers. Students continue to build on problem solving strategies to evaluate word problems.
- In science and social studies, students are required to not only new concepts and ideas, but to also analyze them and apply them to current issues in society. More specifically, fifth graders compare and contrast turning points, major ideas, and people from different continents, which affected the formation of the U.S. They interpret historical events and issues and describe their impact on people then and now.
- Similarly in science, students apply knowledge, inquiry, and problem solving to better understand scientific processes. Students collect, organize, and display data. They begin to take the initiative to plan, design, and conduct scientific investigations in areas such as physical compositions and processes within a variety of systems.
Religion
Religion class will be taught daily. Our Goals:
- To develop personal and ongoing relationship with God
- To build reverence for and knowledge of Holy Scripture
- Purposeful emphasis on Catholic practices, images and models of faith
- Incorporate five forms of prayer in each student’s personal devotion
- Encourage family devotion
- Stress Christian values
Reading
- Genres include all Fiction/Literature and Nonfiction
- 7-8 New Vocabulary Words each week
- Listening Comprehension Skills – Read aloud & Model Oral Fluency
- Focus Skills (Examples: Plot, Conflict Resolution)
- Thinking Comprehension Skills (Examples: Summarizing, Questioning, Author’s Purpose)
- Novel Studies: Reinforces Comprehension Strategies & Focus Skills, Includes weekly vocabulary
- Time for Kids Magazine: Non-fiction Informational text and Comprehension Packets to help supplement Standards
- Book Reports: 3 reports due per quarter
- Silent Reading Books: All students are expected to have a silent reading book with them at all times
Spelling
- Each Lesson Words are given as a weekly handout
Vocabulary
- 5th Grade uses the Sadlier-Oxford Vocabulary Workshop
Science
- Unit C – Earth Science
- The Changing Earth
- The Earth’s Resources
- Climate
- Astronomy
- Unit A – Life Science
- Comparing Living Things
- Reproduction and Change
- Adaptations
- Ecology
- Unit C Physical Science
- Classifying Matter
- Investigating Motion
- Forms of Energy
- Electrical Energy
Math
- Numbers and Operations in Base 10
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- Estimating, Place Value, Operations with Whole Numbers and Decimals
- Multiply and Divide, Powers of 10, Divide by 2-digit numbers
- Decimal Division
- Partial Product & Quotients & Area Models
- Factors and Multiples & Patterns
- Prime and Composite
- Numbers and Operations as Fractions
- Fractions on a number line, visually, comparing and ordering
- Making Equivalent Fractions & Simplifying
- Greatest Common Factor (GCF) & Least Common Multiple (LCM)
- Add/Subtract: UnLike Denominators
- Mixed Number Addition and Subtraction with Renaming
- Multiply Fractions
- Dividing Whole Numbers by Fractions
- Relate Fractions to Decimals
- Comparing & Ordering Decimals
- Geometry
- Polygons: Quadrilaterals, Triangles, Angles
- Perimeter & Area
- Volume
- 3-Dimensional Prisms and Pyramids
- Measurement
- Line Plot, Graphing on Coordinate grid
- Converting Customary Units
- Converting Metric Units
- Elapsed Time
- Operations & Algebraic Thinking
- Solve Using a variable, Numerical Patterns and Analyzing Relationship
- Equations, Order of Operations
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- Test Improvement Packet (TIP) allowed per Quarter for tests below 70%
Social Studies
Early Life, East and West
- Life in the Western Hemisphere
- Native Americans of North America
- Life in the Eastern Hemisphere
Connections Across Continents
- Spain Builds an Empire
- The Struggle to Found Colonies
Colonial Life in North America
- Life in the English Colonies
- The Fight for a Continent
The American Revolution
- The Road to War
- Winning the Revolution
Life in a New Nation
- Forming a New Nation
- The Young United States
A Growing Nation
- Time of Change
- People Moving South and West
War Divides the Nation
- A Divided Nation
- War and Reconstruction
Expansion and Change
- Crossing the Continent
- Into the Twenty-First Century
Language Arts
Grammar and Mechanics
- Types of Sentences
- Nouns
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- Pronouns
- Adverbs
- Prepositions
Writing / Emphasis on 6-traits of Writing
- Personal Narrative
- Comparative
- Persuasive
- Explanatory
- Expository
- Various responses to informational texts
Building Skills
- Note taking and summarizing
- Informal outlining
- Vocabulary
- Fact and opinion
- Test taking strategies
- Using reference materials
Composition Skills
- Identify main idea and detail
- Writing leads and endings
- Organization
- Writing dialogue
- Revise and editing