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 Encompass program, which focuses on hands-on geography to increase engagement, students will work cooperatively and analyze primary and secondary sources in order to explore our world. Project Work Project Approach strategies are used to guide students through in-depth studies of real-world topics. Students are highly motivated and actively involved in their own research and learning, leading them to produce high-quality work and to grow as individuals and collaborators. Presentations are frequently prepared and given to various audiences as a culmination of project work. These presentations come in many formats. Some examples of fifth grade projects include: • Voyageurs and the fur trade • Underground railroad • Colonial life • Westward movement Health Fifth grade students participate in activities and discussions about health and wellness topics. These topics include: nutrition, physical fitness, personal and cyber safety, dental hygiene, and social and emotional wellbeing. At this grade level, a unit on pubertal development is also introduced by facilitators, including the Director of Medical Services. Music In fifth grade, students synthesize their musical learning and step into greater artistic ownership. They identify, compose, and perform chord progressions and bass lines, connecting harmony, rhythm, and form. Choral singing advances to two-part arrangements, emphasizing blend, balance, and independence. Students sight-sing and perform melodies and instrumental parts using the full major scale, demonstrating mature pitch literacy. A key component of the year is an independent music project in which students explore a personal musical interest through listening, research, and performance. This work encourages curiosity, reflection, and a lasting connection to music beyond the classroom. Orchestra Students tackle longer melodies and more intricate string orchestra pieces, playing melody, harmony, and accompaniment parts. Lessons focus on music theory, literacy, and interpretation. Individual
practice becomes more independent and creative. Collaboration and regular performance opportunities, both solo and ensemble, encourage students to share their progress with peers and the broader community. Physical Education The fifth grade physical education program prepares students to join University Liggett School athletic teams. Students participate in the Project Adventure program, where they build teamwork and communication skills through a series of challenging collaborative activities. The curriculum includes a study of touch football, where students master the fundamentals of passing, receiving, and strategy on the gridiron. Students also practice soccer, including dribbling, passing, and shooting techniques. Students learn field hockey, including the art of stick handling, passing, and scoring. Students participate in tennis, working on serving and volleys. Students continue their ice skating lessons in McCann Ice Arena, and are introduced to floor hockey. Students learn how to dribble, pass, and shoot in basketball, and are introduced to essential game strategies. Students also learn the fundamentals of volleyball, track and field, lacrosse, softball, and baseball. This comprehensive program helps students develop essential skills for team sports, enhance their teamwork, communication, and sportsmanship skills, improve their cardiovascular health, agility, and coordination, and build confidence and a lifelong love of physical activity. Science Fifth graders take part in hands-on projects and investigations by collecting data, researching, writing, and formulating their analysis on particular topics, which are typically guided by student interest. They use the skills they have developed in previous grades to gain a deeper understanding of the processes and communicate their findings with others. They use an inquiry-based approach to better represent the content and their understanding. Visual Art Fifth grade art lends itself to various collaborative group work projects created for our campus, community events, performing arts scenery, and public installations. Students create a self-guided independent project from beginning to end, focusing on time management, planning, and problem solving. Students are introduced to one-point perspective and figure drawing. Hand-stitching, block printing, and ceramic glazing techniques are practiced. A fifth grade project might include, but is not limited to, designing fabric through block printing and sewing a decorative pillow with that fabric.
Fifth Grade
Literacy 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 Study Students expand their understanding of word meaning through words in context in order to enhance their writing. They investigate word patterns, structures and meanings. Students examine roots, syllabication, affixes, and context clues to enhance reading, writing, and vocabulary skills. 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 across a variety of platforms. 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,
2026-2027 ULS Curriculum Guide
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Lower School | Fifth Grade
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