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An atmosphere of faith and love.

Grade 5

SES nurtures the development of each student to achieve their spiritual, intellectual, physical and social potential. Catholic values matter!

Curriculum that exceeds all standards.

Religion

Blest Are We RCL Benziger
Our religion text is based on the structure of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The curriculum is taught through text discussions, small group work, weekly attendance at Mass and prayer formation. The students learn about the Catholic faith through weekly school-wide mass. Lessons are based on the religion curriculum and weekly Homilies. Students have a monthly focus on character development, which is called our Virtue of the Month program. Students are guided to follow the footsteps of Jesus by taking an oath monthly to incorporate the virtues into their daily lives.

The 5th grade curriculum focuses on the seven sacraments. Each chapter explores the sacraments from the perspective of one of the four pillars of the Church which are: what Catholics believe, how Catholics worship, how Catholics live, and how Catholics pray. The main-focus is to always ask ourselves, am sharing my time and talent to make this world a better place?

Structure and method that enhances critical thinking.

Language Arts/Literacy

Journeys Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Daily lessons are delivered in accordance with the Diocese of Venice curriculum guide. The writing process is also used to practice and improve language skills. Students write about a variety of genres throughout the school year which are directly connected with the mini-lessons taught from this reading series.

Fifth grade students learn and practice grammar, usage, and mechanics skills including: sentence structure, parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs), capitalization and punctuation. Students also learn vocabulary-building tools which include: synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, and suffixes.

The writing process includes: writing narratives, descriptive, expository, research, and writing to persuade. Most forms of writing begin with brainstorming and planning. Students are guided through the planning process by creating structured maps to take their thoughts and develop a detailed organization plan. Students will then move onto the first draft, proof reading, detail suggestions and the final copy. Students type the final copy on their iPad using Microsoft Word.

The fifth-grade students will strengthen their reading skills through the following: independent and class reading of the text selections, whole group and small group discussions, introduction and use of vocabulary words, and comprehension building strategies. The story selections used in this reading series offers many opportunities for students to make connections with their work across the curriculum.

Students will be able to develop and improve reading comprehension by: applying research skills, utilizing context clues, sequencing events, identifying main idea and authors’ purpose, and drawing conclusions. They will be able to make predictions about text, self-question what they have read, dig deeper with meaning by writing reflections. Students will use reference materials, including the use of technology, to build vocabulary as well as knowledge of synonyms and antonyms, classification, structure and comparison.

Math

Go Math! Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
The students will learn Math through practice of concepts taught in daily lessons, the use of manipulatives, real world experiences and multi-media technology. The iPad is incorporated into the learning process because each lesson has an online component through ThinkCentral. Students are able to integrate technology by viewing the individual lessons on their iPad. These lessons have questions in which the students may interact and complete step-by-step.

The 5th grade students will learn the following: place value of whole numbers and decimals, the addition, subtraction and multiplication of whole numbers, division of one-digit and two-digit numbers, all four mathematical operations of fractions and decimals, geometry and measurement, ratios, proportions, percent, and probability.

Social Studies

Timelinks Macmillian/McGraw-Hill
Students will be introduced to and understand the origin and development of the United States of America through the following: text discussions, small group work, independent research projects, sequencing of events, visual aids, technology, and cross curriculum activities.

The 5th grade students will gain an understanding of the following: early life in the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Native Americans, Europeans traveling to Americans, the colonization and resulting conflicts, America gaining independence, the formation of our government, slavery and emancipation, immigration and the development of industry, World War I and World War II.

Students take guided notes on their iPads of concepts taught from the textbook/online resources. The students will also complete a research project called The Wax Museum. Students choose a historical figure, conduct research using resources from ThinkCentral, create a cardboard presentation, and supply artifacts. Families of the 5th grade class will attend a night event to learn about these historical figures by pressing a button and the Wax Museum comes to life! The school children also attend the event during the day!

Science

Pearson Scott Foresman
Daily text lessons are supplemented with multi-media technology, various concept maps, and participating in small hands-on experiments. Scientific thinking is promoted in a process that includes: making/recording observations, developing a hypothesis, recording and analyzing information, and drawing conclusions. Cross-curriculum activities keep students aware of how science is a real-world subject.

The Diocese of Venice also adopted an online resource called Mystery Science. This online program enhances our teaching of Science by supplying information for hands-on learning through experiments. This program along with the Science textbook provide a well-rounded approach to the world in which we live!