5th Grade

Literacy instruction in fifth grade teaches students to apply a wide variety of comprehension strategies as they interpret and analyze both literary and nonfiction texts. Fifth graders read a broad range of literary genres and informational texts to build background knowledge and deepen their understanding of the human experience. Vocabulary instruction focuses on interpreting the meaning of words in context, and expanding knowledge of root word meanings and relationships. Students practice writing narratives to communicate a message, and learn effective research strategies to write informative essays and persuasive arguments.

Social studies units emphasize the causes and consequences of historical eras and events including early encounters between native peoples and Europeans, European exploration of the New World, and the American Revolution. Students also become familiar with economic concepts and financial institutions

Instruction in fifth grade mathematics focuses on building a strong conceptual foundation as students learn to:

• Understand the place value system.
• Perform operations with multi-digit whole numbers and with decimals to hundredths.
• Use equivalent fractions as a strategy to add and subtract fractions.
• Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to multiply and divide fractions.
• Concepts of volume and relate volume to multiplication and to addition.

Fifth grade science units teach students to support scientific claims with evidence in the context of learning about:

• Earth's systems and interactions between the Earth, moon, and sun
• The structure and interactions of matter, as well as the difference between a physical and chemical change in matter.
• Living systems including human body systems, eco-systems, and the interaction between living things and the environment.

In all subjects students practice collaborating effectively as group members, listening actively and respectfully, posing thoughtful questions, and acknowledging the ideas of others.