Fifth Grade
Fifth Grade: A Parent's Guide
Students receive instruction in reading, writing, speaking, and listening in Literacy at Pea Ridge. Each year students experience this instruction through the context of building background knowledge in social science and science. The more students know about more topics, the better they comprehend what they read and the more likely they are able to make connections beyond the text they are reading.
In Fifth Grade, we learn about the topics below.
Cultures in Conflict
We will ask what it means to belong to a culture. How do the beliefs associated with a culture guide the actions of its people? And what happens when different cultures come into conflict?
We will read:
- Thunder Rolling in the Mountains
- Scott O’Dell and Elizabeth Hall
Our class will ask these questions as we read to learn more:
- How did the United States westward expansion impact Native American cultures in the West?
- How did the Nez Perce’s homeland sustain their lifestyle and culture?
- What role do stories play in Nez Perce culture?
Word Play
We will study the way we use words to define and organize our world. We will read playful stories to investigate wordplay and answer the question: How and why do writers play with words?
We will read:
- The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
Our class will ask these questions as we read to learn more:
- How can wordplay create confusion and humor?
- How can writers use wordplay to develop a story’s settings and characters?
- How can writers use wordplay to develop a story’s plot?
- How is The Phantom Tollbooth a story of transformation?
A War Between Us
Students are exposed to the many ways in which war affects people and the many consequences of war. We will read firsthand accounts and historical fiction to answer the question: How did the Civil War impact people?
We will read:
- The River Between Us, Richard Peck
Our class will ask these questions to learn more as we read:
- What factors led to the start of the Civil War?
- How did the Civil War impact soldiers?
- How did the Civil War impact girls and women?
- How did the Civil War impact free people of color in the South?
Breaking Barriers
Students are exposed to the power that sports have to affect how people view each other, to create opportunities for people, and to help people overcome and challenge barriers. Students will read and research a variety of informational texts about individual athletes, coaches, teams, and organizations to answer the question: How can sports influence individuals and societies?
Some of the books we are reading include:
- We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, Kadir Nelson
- “Raymond’s Run,” Toni Cade Bambara
Our class will ask these questions to learn more as we read:
- How can sports affect the way we view others?
- How can sports create opportunities for change?
- How can people challenge or overcome barriers through sports?
- How can sports influence individuals and societies?
Each grade level addresses learning in number sense, operations and algebraic thinking, numbers and operations, measurement and data, and geometry. Our students work to build a conceptual understanding in order to think mathematically. Here you will find helpful resources for supporting your learner unit-by-unit.
- Unit 1:Finding Volume
- Unit 2:Fractions as Quotients and Fraction Multiplication
- Unit 3:Multiplying and Dividing Fractions
- Unit 4:Wrapping Up Multiplication and Division
- Unit 5:Place Value Patterns and Decimal Operations
- Unit 6:More Decimal and Fraction Operations
- Unit 7:Shapes on the Coordinate Plane
- Unit 8:Putting It All Together
Students participate in learning in Art and Music each week. The Arkansas Fine Arts Academic Standards allow students to participate in the four artistic processes, both cognitive and physical, with which artists in every discipline learn and make art: creating, performing or presenting, responding, and connecting. These are the basis of the four domains that stretch across all disciplines, grade levels, and courses in the standards. For more information on grade level Arkansas standards for Visual Art and Music, click here.
Students participate in learning in Health and Physical Education each week. The Arkansas Health & Safety and Physical Education Standards provide opportunities for students to demonstrate competency in the following domains:
- Human Growth and Development
- Healthy Skills and Relationships
- Nutrition
- Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs
- Personal Health and Safety
- Disease Prevention and Control
- Mental and Emotional Health
- Physical Competence
- Knowledge and Understanding
- Motivation and Confidence