This is such an exciting year for students as they are enjoying their last year in elementary school and preparing for that journey into middle school.

Students will have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of activities this year: Field Day, Safety Patrol, K-Kids, Battle of the Books, Family Life, Fire Safety, 5th grade party/dance, and of course, the 5th grade Promotion Ceremony.

In fifth grade, teachers challenge students with long-term projects that require planning and organization. Parents, guardians and teachers can play a critical role in listening, reassuring and supporting the new individuals that are starting to emerge.

There is an emphasis on reading comprehension by comparing fiction and nonfiction texts. Fifth grade instruction emphasizes nonfiction reading; students will identify organizational patterns and use texts to support opinions and conclusions and continue to expand vocabulary using knowledge of roots, affixes, synonyms, antonyms and homophones. Teachers encourage the development of reading skills foundational to effective comprehension and critical thinking.

Students continue to develop as readers and writers as they write in a variety of forms including narrative, descriptive, expository and persuasive while writing multi paragraph compositions including evidence to inform or persuade an audience. Precise and descriptive vocabulary and varied sentence structure will become important tools for creating tone and voice within a text. Teachers encourage the development of writing skills foundational to effective written communication and critical thinking.

Emphasis is on number sense with whole numbers, fractions and decimals. This focus includes concepts of prime and composite numbers, identifying even and odd numbers and solving problems using order of operations for positive whole numbers. Students develop proficiency in the use of fractions and decimals to solve problems. Students collect, display and analyze data in a variety of ways and solve probability problems using a sample space or tree diagram.

Rational numbers and algebraic concepts are emphasized. Students use ratios to compare data sets; recognize decimals, fractions and percents as ratios; solve single-step and multistep problems, using rational numbers; and gain a foundation in the understanding of integers. Students will solve linear equations and use algebraic terminology and work with π (pi), focus on applications of statistics, explore the coordinate plane and apply proportions to solve practical problems.

Students delve more deeply into foundational concepts in physical science and begin making connections between energy and matter. Students explore how energy is transformed and learn about electricity, sound and light. They also learn about the composition of matter and how energy can change phases of matter. Students apply an understanding of force, matter and energy when they explore how the Earth’s surface changes. Students continue to use the engineering design process to apply their scientific knowledge to solve problems.

The World Studies curriculum is county-created and serves as a bridge between the study of the ancients in third grade and the world history courses in high school. Students will study Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The content is international in scope, with an emphasis on geography and history along with economic development, political systems and current world issues from selected countries.