Skip Navigation

FIFTH GRADE

Developmental Characteristics of Ten and Eleven Year Olds

Ten year olds tend to be relaxed and at ease.  They enjoy sharing new information and are eager to reach out and help others.  There muscle development continues as does their appreciation for hard work and pride in a job well done.  The transition to eleven comes with huge changes to mind, body and spirit.  At this age children can be quite moody and very concerned with social interactions.  They begin to develop the ability to reason and problem solve in more abstract ways.  They require much patience and ample opportunities to interact with peers!

 

English Language Arts - Reading

Students at this age should continue to work towards developing a deeper understanding for fiction and nonfiction texts.  They are consistently required to support answers with evidence from texts and to display their knowledge in multiple formats.

 

Curricular Materials and Resources:
  • Guided Reading and Leveled Library
  • Wordly Wise
  • Lucy Calkin’s Units of Study
  • Balanced Literacy Including Reader’s Workshop
  • Literature Circles

 

Students Will:
  • Used comprehension strategies such as previewing, predicting, questioning and analyzing
  • Focus on the literary elements of character development, plot, setting, foreshadowing, point of view and conflict
  • Explore techniques and strategies unique to an author’s style
  • Gain new information from a variety of primary and secondary source documents
  • Focus on developing a richer and more specific vocabulary
English Language Arts - Writing

In fifth grade students continue to view writing as a process while drafting pieces for a wide range of purposes. They become prolific writers drafting cohesive pieces of greater length.  Their ability to make meaningful and powerful revisions is enhanced.

 

Curricular Materials and Resources:
  • Guided Reading and Leveled Library
  • Step Up To Writing
  • Lucy Calkin’s Units of Study
  • Six Traits of Writing
  • Balanced Literacy including Writer’s Workshop

 

Students will:
  • Write opinion pieces on topics or texts supporting their point of view
  • Introduce a topic clearly and support with details and appropriate organizational structure
  • Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas
  • Link ideas within and across categories using appropriate transitions
  • Write descriptive narratives to develop experiences that are both real and imagined
  • Produce clear and coherent writing
  • Conduct research projects that require gathering information from multiple sources

 

Math

At this level instruction continues in each major mathematical strand.  Students are again moving toward symbolic representation of understanding.  A variety of instructional and assessment methods are used, including continued hands on learning opportunities.  Instruction is differentiated to meet the individual needs of students.

 

Curricular Materials and Resources:
  • Various math manipulatives and tools
  • Simple Solutions
  • McGraw Millhaven Textbook Series
  • Envisions Math Program

 

STUDENTS WILL FOCUS ON THE FOLLOWING STRANDS:
  • Operations and Algebraic Thinking
  • Write and interpret numerical expressions
  • Analyze patterns and relationships
  • Number and Operations
  • Understand the place value system at an advanced level
  • Perform operations with multi-digit whole numbers with decimals to hundredths
  • Number and Operations - Fractions
  • 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
  • Measurement and Data
  • Convert like measurement units within a given measurement system
  • Represent and interpret data
  • Understand concepts of volume and relate volume to multiplication and to addition
  • Geometry
  • Graph points on the coordinate plane to solve real-world and mathematical problems
  • Classify two-dimensional figures into categories based on their properties

 

Religion Objectives
  • Express an understanding of the liturgical year and recognize its impact on liturgical celebrations
  • Relate the feast of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit to the early Christians
  • Recite the Apostles Creed and the Memorare from memory
  • Discuss and define the sacraments of service, holy orders, and matrimony
  • Identify Mary’s faith and trust in God as a model of perfect Christianity.
  • Express understanding that the Mass is the great celebration of the Church

 

Theme Studies - Social Studies
  • Curricular objectives based upon the College, Career and Civic Life framework developed by the National Council for Social Studies.
  • Principles of the Republic
  • Identify important principles in the Declaration of Independence, such as inalienable rights and government consent
  • Identify important principles in the Constitution including separation of powers and limited government
  • Identify important principles in the Bill of Rights including basic rights and freedoms
  • Principles and Processes of Government Systems
  • Distinguish between powers and functions of local, state and national government
Missouri, United States and World History
  • Summarize the viability and diversity of Native American cultures before Europeans came
  • Outline the discovery, exploration and early settlement of America
  • Explain the American Revolution, including the perspectives of the patriots and loyalists
  • Investigate the causes and consequences of Westward Expansion
  • Examine cultural interactions among groups from colonial times to the Civil War
  • Identify political, economic and social causes and consequences of the Civil War and Reconstruction
  • Economic Concepts and Principles
  • Apply the economic principles of scarcity and supply and demand
  • Identify the role of technology in our economy and how our economy has changed

 

Theme Studies - Science

Curricular objectives based upon the Next Generation Science Standards and in partnership with Washington University’s MYSCI units of study.

Life Science Domain
  • How does matter cycle through an ecosystem?
  • Where does the energy in food come from and what is it used for?
Physical Science Domain
  • When matter changes does its weight change?
  • Can new substances be created by combining other substances?
Earth Science Domain
  • How much water can be found in different places on earth?
  • How do lengths and directions of shadows or relative lengths of days and night change from day to day?
  • How does the appearance of some stars change in different seasons?
Engineering and Design
  • Define a simple design solution reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success
  • Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem
  • Plan and carry out fair tests in which variable are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved