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5th Grade

Fifth Grade Curriculum Overview

Reading
Fifth graders enjoy a variety of literary pieces as well as informational and practical texts. They begin to pay more attention to detail, organization, and logic of what they read and the ways authors support ideas with evidence. They compare pieces they have read and defend their reading preferences. They detect the implied motives of characters as revealed in dialogue and action. They identify literary archetypes such as “heroes” and “villains.” They use appropriate reading strategies and word attack skills according to purpose of the text.

Writing
Fifth graders use written language to formulate hypotheses, evaluate information and ideas, present and support arguments, and influence the thinking of others. They make written presentations to inform or persuade, selecting vocabulary for impact. They include concrete images in poetry and in prose. They can complete routine forms they encounter as students and consumers and write social correspondence such as informal letters and invitations. They revise their writing for meaning and clarify and pay particular attention to organization and coherence among the paragraphs of the longer pieces they produce.

Mathematics
The mathematics curriculum is organized into five strands: (1) number and operations; (2) measurement; (3) geometry; (4) data analysis and probability; and, (5) algebra. Problem-solving strategies are embedded into each of the 5 strands.

Grade five is a pivotal year. It is a culmination and synthesis of what has come before in grades K through 4 and a transition to the greater independence and responsibilities students need to exhibit in middle grades.

Social Studies
Fifth graders build on concepts developed in fourth grade; however, they extend the focus to geographic regions of the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Students learn about people in the Western Hemisphere and their physical environments. Social, economic, and political institutions will be compared among societies.

Science
The focus for fifth grade students is on using evidence, models, and reasoning to form scientific explorations.
Science Concepts: interdependence of plants and animals, forces and motion in technological designs, understanding of landforms

Art/Music
Arts Education includes four separate and distinct disciplines; dance, music, theatre arts, and visual arts—each with its own body of knowledge and skills, The intent of the National Standards for Arts Education, along with the standard courses of study in each area, is that a comprehensive understanding of one or more of the arts is accomplished by each student throughout the K-12 Program.

Health/PE
The Healthful Living Education program promotes behaviors that contribute to a healthful life-style and improved quality of life for all students. The Healthful Living Education portions of the NC Standard Course of Study support and reinforce the goals and objectives of its two major components—health education and physical education.