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English/Language Arts
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Particular attention is given to critical thinking, class discussion, and individual comprehension through in depth work with literature like Adventure on Dolphin Island, Nory Ryan’s Song, Sing Down the Moon, Dragon Wings, and others. Poetry is studied in depth through onomatopoeia, haiku, Native American cinquain, and free verse. Class discussions, map illustrations indicating comprehension, and cross-thematic work to the science curriculum are utilized. Journal writing and illustrations and weekly reading log all work to gain mastery of the content and the skills.
Writing is exercised through persuasive letters, descriptive writing, comparing and contrasting, summarizing news articles, research reports, inferences, and cause and effect. The students must think critically, write for an audience, persuade the audience, edit, and proofread. Introduction of a multiple paragraph essay begins in the spring term of the fifth grade year. There is a poetry slam and weekly journal writing.
Substantial focus is placed upon dramatic increase of vocabulary in the fifth grade. 400-600 words are learned throughout the fifth grade year. Memorization, phonics, spelling patterns, handwriting, and word study are some of the skills utilized. Weekly word study guides, weekly quizzes, handwriting, and essay writing are ways spelling mastery is assessed and refined.
Read Across America is a program that fifth grade participates in to inspire reading and geographical exploration. The students are encouraged to read for pleasure, documenting where, across the United States, their reading takes them. They learn civic literacy, media literacy on Google maps, and accountability. The students have a weekly log of miles (one mile for one page). There are quarterly plot summaries and site summaries, linking the students to the study of the 50 states.
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Math
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Fifth grade students begin the school year by understanding and reviewing place value, adding and subtracting whole numbers, multiplying and dividing decimals learning fractions, and fraction computation. The students learn critical thinking sequencing, memorization, fractions, and decimals.
The students learn geometry, measurement, ration, percent, and probability. Integers are introduced at the end of the fifth grade school year.
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Science
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The focus on hands-on, inquiry-based, real-life scientific learning continues in the fifth grade. Coral reefs are studied as a model for life science, nature versus human impact symbiosis, and mutualism. We review the scientific method and investigate the effects of co2 on the coal skeletons through egg and vinegar experiments. Fifth graders also identify sand properties through vinegar experiments. Fifth grade uses analysis of a myriad of media sources thus fostering critical thinking, observation and problem solving. The fifth grade does an intensive study on weather. Using real time data, the students study meteorology, weather investigation, data interpretation, prediction and human impact. The students are introduced to the periodic tables of elements and food chemistry. There are hands on investigations of buoyancy, density, mass, volume, and physical properties.
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History/Social Studies
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The fifth grade spends the fall months studying their ancestry. The ancestry project enables each student to gather data, analyze photographs and artifacts, interview someone in their family, learn first person accounting, integrate, and create information and present their ancestry. The students write a report on their ancestor and give a report to an audience of peers and parents.
The fifth grade also studies the United States—what it looks like, the cultural characteristics, the Great Seal and our own unique place in U.S. history. They learn the 44 presidents and study the development of the western hemisphere, from early migration through the four discrete Native American regions. The students complete an Explorer Journal Project and begin to prepare for the Age of Sail program that is launched in the spring of the fifth grade year.
Students work together on group research, reviewing and summarizing information from literature, photographs, and internet sites. They collaborate and problem solves and interprets data—thus drawing conclusions from maps. This exercise enables the students to understand the native versus emigrant viewpoints and how these two perspectives shaped the United States.
In the spring the fifth grade launches their Age of Sail. They study the struggle for colonization, pilgrims and puritans, religious freedom, and life in the English colonies leading up to the creation of the 13 colonies. The students use the Jamestown Project as a way to learn paired research skills, problem solving and group presentation. The must tap into their creativity and innovation. The entire class spends 24 hours aboard the tall ship, Balcutha, in the San Francisco Bay. This adventure is the culmination of a year’s worth of historical discovery.