Fifth Grade
Reading Fifth grade students apply active reading strategies in order to develop interpretive skills, make inferences and connections, identify main ideas and themes, visualize, predict, question, and synthesize. In addition, students analyze stories for plot, setting, and character development. Students learn to construct evidence- based responses across a variety of genres. Students also engage in a leveled reading program and class novels. Grammar Students explore and practice parts of speech and a variety of sentence structures across various forms of writing. Word Work Students expand their understanding of word meaning through words in context in order to enhance their writing. Writing The fifth grade writing program includes further study of the writing process. Students develop an understanding of narrative, descriptive, persuasive, expository, creative, reader response, and research writing. Students work toward mastery of punctuation, capitalization, revising, and editing using Google Docs.
Mathematics In fifth grade, the Singapore Math approach is utilized through the Math in Focus curriculum. The concrete- pictorial-abstract methodology of introducing topics and problem solving skills through Math in Focus allows students to gain an understanding of whole numbers and four operations, adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions and mixed numbers, and the four operations of decimals. Social Studies Fifth grade social studies focuses on significant time periods in the early history of the United States. Fifth graders conduct multiple role playing projects in order to understand topics like America’s Indigenous peoples and their interactions with French voyageurs in the fur trade, along with colonial heritage and trade concepts. Students also investigate topics like the Underground Railroad and westward expansion to understand how different groups interacted throughout the nation’s history and conduct research projects on both well-known and lesser-known figures from different backgrounds in history. Fifth grade geography work focuses on “United States History,” allowing students to understand how geography has impacted major events (and vice versa). In addition to using historical maps, students will also learn to analyze photos, illustrations, and graphs in order to understand the impact of events from different time periods. Using Nystrom’s
2024-2025 ULS Curriculum Guide
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