Teacher:

Mrs. Staci Lanning

Fifth Grade Class Summary

Language Arts:
Fifth Grade expands on skills gained in Fourth Grade including story structure, reading comprehension, sentence structure, higher level questioning, context vocabulary, and identifying and reading different types of literature. The students analyze poetry for mood, tone, point of view, imagery, and personification. Students begin to study character development within a fictional story. Individual reading is promoted through the Book-It program, Accelerated Reader, and class readings of Roald Dahl books throughout the year.

The foundation of grammar skills established in previous grades is built upon in Fifth Grade. Fifth Grade studies the parts of speech, parts of a sentence, capitalization, and punctuation. The students’ knowledge and understanding of adverbs is developed, and they are introduced to prepositions and prepositional phrases.

Students build paragraphs from beginning sentences to ending sentences. Included in this skill are combining sentences, trimming rambling sentences, and using more exact words to convey thoughts. Students study antonyms and synonyms through the use of a thesaurus. Much emphasis is placed on writing. Students compose letters, tall tales, narratives, poems, an autobiography, summaries, reports/essays, and reflective journal entries. Dictionary skills are reinforced. Students are also introduced to editing marks and note-taking skills.

Fifth Grade students improve their listening skills through lectures, group discussions, and conversations. Students improve their speaking abilities by answering questions orally, leading group discussions, and by oral presentations.

Text:
Houghton Mifflin English, 1995
Houghton Mifflin Reading, 2006

Supplemental Materials:
Reading series workbooks
Reference books, library, “Book-It program”, charts, Accelerated Reader
Weekly Reader.
Edhelper.com
Roald Dahl novels

Methods:
English is taught as a separate subject every day. Grammar is taught with a text, supplemental workbooks, activity sheets, and games. Skills are practiced in many varied writing assignments. Library and research skills are taught and utilized in projects across the curriculum.

Reading is taught each day by using varieties of text, a supplemental workbook, cooperative learning activities, graphic organizers, and silent reading time. The students read and write a variety of types of literature.

Students work on spelling using words from the Reading workbook. This culminates in a weekly spelling test.

 

Mathematics:
Fifth Grade Math includes the following topics: number theory, estimation and computation, beginning geometry concepts, division, fractions, percents, decimals, organizing data into charts, exponents, negative numbers, rations, coordinate graphing, area, volume, beginning algebra concepts, and probability. Much emphasis and time is spent with multiplication, division, fractions, decimals, and percents. Manipulatives, games, worksheets, and workbooks are used weekly.

Text:
Everyday Mathematics Series, 2004 (reference book and workbook)

Supplemental Materials:
Manipulatives
Games
Math Topics 5-6 Supplemental Worksheets
Edhelper.com

Methods:
Math is taught each day using a text, supplemental worksheets, and a workbook. Manipulatives are used when needed, especially when learning fractions and decimals. Skills in graphing, measuring, and problem solving are tied in with other subjects frequently.

 

Social Studies:
Fifth Grade Social Studies reviews and reinforces previously learned map skills, so that maps can be used as familiar tools. The Fifth Grade reviews the geographical regions of the United States. United States History begins with the first Native Americans, European exploration, and colonization. The students learn about the struggles and wars that resulted from the growth of America and the influential ideas and factors that led to the establishment of a democracy. A look at westward expansion follows, and students study the economic and social factors leading to the Civil War. Students then study the rebuilding of the nation, the Industrial Revolution and the influx of immigrants. The class studies the events surrounding America’s emergence as a world power and its survival of several wars. Finally, the students study the modern age, with America’s struggle for Equal Rights and its effort to maintain its place as a world power. Great emphasis is placed on how to study Social Studies through the five themes of Geography, questioning, and application to real-world situations. Many group activities, graphic organizers, reading comprehension skills, and interactive assignments aid in the understanding of these important concepts.

Text:
Social Studies, 2002 (Harcourt Brace)

Supplemental Materials:
Maps
Weekly Reader Newspaper
Field trips
Multimedia Presentations

Methods:
The Fifth Grade American History curriculum is taught each day using a text and group activities. Emphasis is put on reading comprehension and critical thinking. Wall maps and a globe are used as visual aids.

 

Science/Health:
Through experiments, discussions, readings, and simulations, the students participate in the scientific processes of observing, classifying, inferring, predicting, measuring, interpreting data, controlling variables, hypothesizing, and communicating conclusions. The Science curriculum addresses the following five areas of concentration: Plants, Invertebrates, Our Changing Earth, Space, and Matter. The last nine weeks is spent focused on nutrition and the human body. Several field trips are scheduled in correlation with the curriculum, specifically the Earth and space. Our current science textbook series emphasizes the fact that God is the Creator of the physical universe and its inhabitants. The science curriculum is created with this concept as its foundation and God’s Word is integrated throughout our scientific studies.

Text:
A Beka Book: Observing God’s World, 2001
A Beka Book: Choosing Good Health, 2001

Supplemental Materials:
Online Experiments
Edhelper.com

Methods:
Science is taught every day using a text and hands-on experiments to facilitate learning through discovery. They learn to predict, measure, record data, and formulate conclusions.

 

Bible:
The Bible curriculum for Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grades will cover the entire Bible in three years. Each grade studies the following major topics: The Law, Poetry and Literature, History, Major Prophets, Minor Prophets, the Gospels, Acts, the Epistles, and Revelation. The Fifth Grade theme is God’s expectations of His people. Memory work is assigned periodically.

Text:
Holy Bible (New King James Version)
What the Bible is About

Supplemental Materials:
Maps and timelines

Methods:
Bible is taught every day in a wide variety of ways depending on the text. Frequent reference to maps and a Biblical time line are used. Periodic tests are given on memory work (verses, books of the Bible, apostles, etc.). The goal is to provide the student with knowledge that the Bible is God’s Word and a guide for our daily living.