5th Grade Curriculum Overview

Secular Curriculum Overview

Reading
Word Analysis and Vocabulary Development: The student uses knowledge of word origins and word relationships as well as literary context clues to determine the meaning of grade-level-appropriate vocabulary words.

Reading Comprehension: The student reads and understands grade-level-appropriate text. The student will use his developing knowledge of text stucture, organization, and purpose to connect the essential ideas and derive meaning from his reading. The selections in Buckle Down Reading for the F-CAT and S.A.T practice books testify to the complexity and diversity of literary material presented to the pupil each year. In addition, in grade five, the student reads Old Yeller, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, Toliver’s Secret, The Black Pearl, and Iron Thunder, as well as folktales and various non-fiction sources to accompany the social studies and science curriculum. This grouping of literature represents both a supreme variety in genre and grade-level-appropriate text which heralds each student toward mastery in this standard. 

Comprehension and Analysis: The student will understand and derive meaning from spoken and written language by providing a summary of grade-level text, either orally or in written form; identify themes and topics in texts by categorizing ideas into fact and fiction; identify the parts of story (i.e., exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution); identify literary elements (i.e., setting, characters, conflicts, etc.) in basic text; evaluate the role literary elements (i.e., setting, characters, conflicts, etc.) play in comprehending text; implement self-monitoring tools, including predicting and questioning techniques, graphic and semantic organizers, and note-taking to clarify basic text; draw inferences/predictions and conclusions about the text and support them with textual evidence and prior knowledge; discern main ideas and concepts presented in text, assessing evidence in support of those ideas; and recognize a variety of text structures, including comparison/contrast, cause/effect, and sequence of events, and then identify how each impacts the meaning of the text.

Literary Analysis: The student reads and responds to grade-level-appropriate text. He begins to uncover strategies to analyze and compare different works of literature as well as refine skills of literary response.

Structural Elements of Literature: The student will read and demonstrate knowledge of the characteristics of various genres (i.e., poetry, fiction, historical fiction, short stories, etc.) as forms with distinct features and purposes.

Conceptual Analysis: The student will locate and analyze the elements of plot structure, including: exposition, setting, character development, rising/falling action, problem/resolution, and theme in a variety of fiction; identify an author’s theme (whether implied or stated directly) and use details from the text to explain how the author developed that theme; describe the function and effect of common literary devices (i.e., imagery, metaphor, symbolism, etc.); write a book report, review, or critique that identifies the main idea, character(s), setting, sequence of events, conflict, crisis, and resolution; demonstrate how rhythm and repetition as well as descriptive and figurative language help to communicate meaning in a poem; identify and explain an author’s use of descriptive, idiomatic, and figurative language (i.e., personification, similes, metaphors, symbolism, etc.) and examine how it is used to describe people, feelings, and objects; and demonstrate an understanding of the basic characteristics of a literary form by oral expression and/or illustration.

Writing
Writing Strategies: The student writes clear, coherent essays. Essays contain a formal introduction, supporting evidence, and a conclusion. The student continues to progress through the steps of the writing process, refining his skills. The student will demonstrate the ability to write one-paragraph compositions with frequency. The student will create multi-paragraph compositions. The student will pre-write by generating ideas and formulating a plan. The student will draft a composition appropriate to the topic, audience, and purpose of the given assignment. The student will revise by evaluating the draft for clarity and efficacy.The student will edit and correct the draft for correct use of standard language conventions. The student will publish/write a final product for the intended audience.

Writing Applications: The student writes narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive text in one-paragraph or multi-paragraph compositions. The student’s writing demonstrates a command of standard American English as well as the drafting, research, and organizational strategies.

Creative and Narrative Writing: The student will write narratives, fables, and folktales that establish a situation and plot, expose a conflict, and provide a resolution; write a variety of expressive forms that include figurative language and sensory details to enhance writing; develop a short story demonstrating a knowledge of story structure and its respective parts (i.e., exposition, character development, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, etc.); and understand how the use of figurative language enhances writing.

Expository Writing: The student will write in a variety of technical/informational forms, including step-by-step processes; write a variety of communications intended for a specific audience and purpose, including: friendly letters, thank-you notes, invitations, etc.; and write informational and expository essays that contain introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs.

Persuasive Writing: The student will write persuasive text that establishes and develops a simple controlling position and includes supporting arguments for the validity of the proposed ideas; and includes simple persuasive techniques, including: word choice, repetition, and emotional appeal. 

Mathematics
The student will read, write, compare, and order whole numbers through the billions. The student will represent, read, write, compare, and order decimals through the thousandths. The student will round, estimate, add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers, decimals, and fractions. The student will multiply and divide by two-digit numbers. The student will identify and use multiplication and division properties. The student will write and evaluate addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division expressions and will use order of operations to evaluate. The student will complete function tables. The student will write and solve multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction equations. The student will name points on a coordinate grid. The student will find a function rule in problem-solving. The student will display and interpret data such as mean, median, mode, range, line plots, frequency tables, bar graphs, and line graphs. The student will develop fraction concepts such as improper fractions, mixed numbers, rounding fractions and decimals, common factors, prime and composite numbers, equivalent fractions, simplest form, converting fractions to decimals to percent, addition, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions, finding discount, and using fractions to describe probability. The student will choose and convert appropriate units of measure for measuring customary and metric units. The student will identify characteristics of geometric shapes. The student will find perimeter of polygons, areas of rectangles and squares, volume of prisms, and surface area of prisms.

Social Studies
The students will study the history of the United States from the Native Americans to the present day. The students will study the government of the United States including the Constitution and the voting process. The students will write and share current events weekly. The students will find locations on the world map and the map of the United States.

Science
Fifth grade Science is a comprehensive program designed to introduce students to the basics of the following topics: Scientific Method/Variables; Living Systems (Kingdoms); Cells; Senses; Human Anatomy; Water and Oceans; Plants; Earth (Rocks & Volcanoes); Weathering and Erosion; Space Science – Planets; Sound and Light; Scientific Methods/Variables; and Decomposition and Conservation.

Judaic Curriculum Overview

Tefillah
Students practice reading from the Siddur and increase the Tefillot as the year progresses. As each new Tefillah is introduced, the students practice reading and are also taught the meaning and significance of each Tefillah.

Chumash
Students continue to see the development of the Jewish Nation as they grow in Egypt and emerge as a large nation prepared to accept the Torah at Har Sinai. The Parshiot covered in the fifth grade are Shmot, Vaeira, Bo and Beshalach. Students learn the historical events of the Jewish people in Egypt. Students gain insight into the lives of Moshe, Aharon and Miriam, and, in particular, learn why Moshe was chosen as the leader of the Jewish people. Students see the hand of Hashem in the deliverance of the entire Nation from the bondage of Egypt and in Hashem’s providing for the needs of the Nation through the forty years in the Midbar. Students learn to see Hashem’s hand in historical events and are taught to look for the same in their daily lives. Some of the skills students will gain are: accurate and fluent reading of the text; ability to identify the Parsha, Perek and Possuk in the text; accurate translation of the text; decoding the words into root, prefix, suffix and tense; and reading proficiency in Rashi commentary.  Students continue to develop skills in reading and understanding the approach of Rashi to the Torah text, and higher order thinking skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation are applied.

Parshat Hashavua
Each Friday, the teacher reviews an aspect of the Parsha, with a discussion and lesson for the children to share at home. A basic review of the weekly Torah portion is transmitted in order to refresh and re-familiarize the students with the details and sequence of events in the Torah portions.

Navi
Students learn the Book of Shoftim in the fifth grade. The goal in this Sefer is to relate the events and to understand the origins of Jewish life and the conquest of Eretz Yisrael as well as to learn the famous personalities (Shoftim-Judges) that helped shape Am Yisrael. 

Mishna
Students in the fifth grade learn the foundations of Mishna. Students learn the clarification of the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. Students learn how the Mishna is arranged and are introduced to some of the famous Tanaim.  Select Mishnayot are chosen that pertain to the Chagim, Shabbat and Berachot.

Dinim
The laws and customs of each holiday and special event in the Jewish cycle of the calendar are taught in great depth. Students also learn the Dinim that pertain to rising in the morning and to the Amidah.

Ivrit
Students in the fifth grade will demonstrate reading comprehension; use male and female forms of nouns, verbs and adjectives; use personal and possessive pronouns; conjugate verbs in the past, present, and future tenses; use prepositions and conjunctions; tell time in Hebrew; use colors with the appropriate genders; use the infinitive verb in the correct syntax; write book reports; and count, tell time and understand gematria.

Tzionut
Once a week, the B’not Sherut Leumi teach the students about Medinat Yisrael. The focus is on the government in Israel and some of the famous personalities that helped Israel develop into a country.