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Welcome to Fifth Grade
Fifth grade is an exciting time. The students are beginning the transition from elementary school to middle school. To help with this transition, the fourth and fifth grade teachers will be team-teaching. Mr. Brothers, the fourth grade teacher, will teach language arts and social studies for fourth and fifth grade. Mrs. Baur, the fifth grade teacher, will teach fourth and fifth grade math and science. She will also teach fifth grade religion and computer. With this approach, the students will further develop their organization skills, reinforce their study habits, and promote independence to ensure their success in middle school.
Curriculum:
Religion:
The students use the "Blest Are We" series for their religious studies. Each chapter introduces a theme with a prayer verse, some personal sharing and an activity. The students are then introduced to a Scripture store, passages from liturgy, a saint's biography or an inspirational story, and Church doctrine. Next, students read a story that helps them understand how the theme relates to their own lives. Each chapter ends with a prayer celebration and review.
The fifth grade's curriculum centers on the sacraments. Other units include the saints, the rosary, and special feast days. Family Life is taught during the months of April and May.
Math:
Math is an important skill for everyday life. Besides engaging in a variety of activities to learn the basic concepts, the students are grasping the connections that math has to their everyday lives. Students are given ample opportunities for problem solving. They do more than just find an answer; they learn how to think mathematically.
Fifth-Grade Units of Study:
- place value-identify place value with whole numbers and decimals, relate place value and exponents
- addition and subtraction of whole numbers-includes using addition properties to evaluate expressions
- multiplication-multiplication properties, multiply with one and two-digit multipliers
- division-divisibility rules, divide with one and two-digit divisors
- measurement-customary and metric
- graphing/data
- fractions-addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
- decimals-addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
- geometry
Science:
What child does not like to discover the world around them? Science is the observation, study, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena. The science curriculum allows the students to be active learners. It is not enough for students to just read about science; they must do science. The curriculum's hands-on approach allows the students to make observations, formulate hypotheses, test hypotheses, analyze, report, and evaluate findings.
Fifth-Grade Units of Study:
- Life Science- Living things- animal and plant classifications, cells, genetics, food webs, adaptations
- Physical Science- matter, motion, energy, electricity
- Earth Science- earth's layers, rocks, renewable/nonrenewable resources,
Social Studies:
Fifth grade students begin the year debating theories about who discovered America. They form debate teams, divide the labor, and organize their information in outlines. They take on the duties of an actual debate and compete against other groups in the class. As explorers, students research the Meso-American cultures in their preparation of their plans of discovery and conquest that they present to the King and Queen. As Loyalists and Patriots, students will take on the identities of those who decided our country’s fate at the Old South Church in Boston as they take on the question of independence. Students will take part in other performance based activities that surround the westward movement and the Civil War.
Language Arts:
In Reading, students study the elements of some multicultural writings and apply them in their own stories that they will translate into script and perform in front of the class. Students will identify other story elements and learn ways to introduce characters into their stories.
In writers workshop our young authors will work through the writing process as they write to persuade, inform and express their ideas in different arenas. Fourth and fifth grade are full of challenging concepts and experiences that will motivate our students to strive to achieve in an accepting and encouraging atmosphere.
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