Curriculum Overview – Grade 5
The fifth grade curriculum is dictated and guided by the Arlington Public School
District and is aligned with the Common Core Standards. The curriculum has been
developed to challenge each child to the best of his/her abilities. Teaching
modalities include team teaching, whole class instruction, small group instruction,
and cooperative peer learning opportunities. There is an emphasis on real life
applications, critical thinking, discussion and subject integration.
Reading
 Daily 40 – 60 minute reading block.
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Guided reading program involving shared reading, small group work and
independent activity.
Using the six reading strategies: connecting, guessing, wondering, picturing,
noticing, figuring out
Fiction Unit: Emphasis on literary elements (characterization, plot, setting,
problem/conflict, theme, points of view). The use of Close Reads to better
understand these elements.
Class sets of leveled books across all fiction genres will be used. Examples
of texts used in past fiction units have been The Great Gilly Hopkins, The
Fighting Ground, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Rules, Bridge To
Terabithia, The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Black Pearl.
Non-Fiction Unit: Exploration of a variety of informational text structures:
main idea/supporting details, cause and effect, chronological, compare and
contrast as well as informational text features: Headings, subheadings,
photographs, captions, sidebars, etc.
Informational texts will integrate with science and social studies curriculum
and will also include National Geographic Magazine for Kids.
Students will be exposed to and expected to read from a variety of genres
including realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction,
traditional literature, poetry, biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, and
information text.
Independent reading – a minimum of 30 minutes a day. A reading log is due
every Friday with a reading response due once every four weeks.
Writing
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Four forty minute writing blocks per week.
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Lucy Calkin’s Writer’s Workshop format
Five Units of Study: Personal Narrative, Literary Essay, Personal Essay,
Memoir, Poetry
The six traits of effective writing (Ideas, Organization, Word Choice,
Sentence Fluency, Voice, Conventions) will be incorporated into each unit.
Students will be encouraged to follow all of the steps in the writing process:
Brainstorming, Drafting, Editing/Revising, Final Drafting
In addition to writer’s workshop, there will be an emphasis on expository
writing (open responses in all subjects). This will include research
skills/report writing.
Students will have a writer’s notebook in which they will have the
opportunity to free write, respond to weekly prompts, or do whatever form
of writing that prompts them to write!
Students will be encouraged to use word processing to revise, edit, and
publish their work.
Vocabulary
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Development from all curricular areas
Word of the Week
Morning Riddle
Mathematics
This year we will develop awareness of mathematics by relating it to the real world.
We will strengthen mathematical thinking and reasoning, number sense and the use
of mathematical language. Students will communicate their mathematical thinking
and reasoning both verbally and in writing and will utilize pictures, numbers and
words. There are five sixty minute math blocks per week and units of study are as
follows:
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Number Puzzles and Multiple Towers: Students will understand that
numbers have relationships and or properties that can help them solve
problems. They will reason about numbers and factors and understand the
relationship between multiplication and division. An emphasis will be on
learning and applying various strategies to solve complex multiplication
problems.
Thousands of Miles/Thousands of Seats: Students will extend their
knowledge of the number system to 100,000 and beyond, review adding and
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subtracting accurately and efficiently, and understand the place value
relationships between 10, 100, 1000 and 10,000.
What’s that Portion?: The emphasis of this unit is fractions, fractions and
more fractions! A sampling of topics that will be taught are comparing and
ordering fractions, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions,
and finding the decimal and percent equivalents for fractions.
Decimals on Grids and Number Lines: Emphasis on reading, writing and
comparing decimals. Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing decimals
will also be taught. Lastly, students will convert measurements within a given
measurement system.
How Many People, How Many Teams? : Students will work with existing
multiplication strategies as well as be taught the standard U.S. algorithm.
An emphasis will be on learning and applying various strategies to solve
division problems with a two divisor.
Measuring Polygon: Finding area and perimeter, classifying triangles and
quadrilaterals, describing and measuring angles, creating and describing
similar shapes, describing and classifying 2-D shapes, graphing ordered pairs
on a coordinate grid
Prisms and Pyramids: Emphasis will be on finding the volume of 3-D shapes
and taking a closer look at what happens to the dimensions of a prism when
the volume is doubled or halved.
Patterns, Functions and Change: Students will use graphs and tables to
represent change, plot graphs, and describe and represent situations in
which the rate of change is constant.
How Long Can You Stand on One Foot?: Students will represent, describe,
summarize, compare analyze and interpret data.
Science
A wealth of science topics are covered in fifth grade. There will be an emphasis on
the scientific process: inquiry, experimenting, discovery, drawing conclusions,
recording through words, charts and illustrations. There are four forty minute
science blocks per week. Units of study are as follows:
 Soil, Erosion, Weathering
 Plants, Plant Adaptations, Plant Life Cycle
 Animal Classification, Adaptations, and Life Cycles
 Climate, Biomes, Ecosystems, Food Chains
 Matter
 Forms of Energy (Sound, Light, Electrical, Magnetic, Heat, Chemical)
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Weather and the Water Cycle
Electromagnets
The Moon and Solar System
Simple Machines
Rocks and Minerals
Experiments
Social Studies
Fifth grade social studies focuses on United States History from the first
inhabitants to the Age of European Exploration all the way through to the
development of our existing government. There is a focus on relating history to
life today (similarities, differences, conclusions). There are four forty minute
social studies blocks per week and units of study are as follows:
 People Come to the Americas
 European Exploration
 Early English Settlements
 The Thirteen Original Colonies
 Road to Revolution – The Revolutionary War
 Becoming a Nation: Our Constitution
 United States Government Today
Instructional materials include Social Studies Alive! America’s Past by Teacher’s
Curriculum Institute, various videos and internet resources, and field trips to
correlate with the curriculum (Duck Tour, Freedom Trail).
Health
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Health topics are taught via the “Great Body Shop Program”. Units are
taught collaboratively among the classroom teacher, the physical education
teacher and the school nurse. Unit overviews in the form of parent letters
will be sent home with the students at the start of each unit.
Great body shop units are taught one week a month and are as follows: First
Aid, Central Nervous System, Nutrition, Respiratory System, Drugs,
Circulatory System and AIDS, Smart Consumerism, Skeletal System,
Emotions, Endocrine System: Growing Up
Open Circle
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A comprehensive social and emotional learning program that supports
elementary school children in developing the skills needed to be good
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learners and to form healthy, positive relationships with people throughout
their lives.
Weekly discussion topics will include being a good listener, including one
another, cooperating, teasing, recognizing and accepting differences among
people, problem solving, positive self-talk, tolerance, discrimination and
more. The goals of the lessons are to create a cooperative classroom
environment and to give children the skills they need to solve interpersonal
problems and to build positive relationships.