

Fifth Grade Curriculum

Fifth grade curriculum encourages and challenges students to learn in an environment which inspires a harmonious relationship between productivity and creativity.  Hands-on curriculum generates a student that attains all skills necessary to master 5th grade and be fully prepared for middle school.

The Reading curriculum involves a mixture of literature circles, centers, project-based learning, and essential test taking skills. Our Treasures Reading Series provides students with reading comprehension strategies such as: comparison contrast, concept mapping, author’s purpose, similarities and differences, making inferences, and more.  Through our engaging stories and skill based reading assignments, students are able to learn about a plethora of subjects while adding to their reading abilities.

Language Arts is where students are inspired to build upon their written word through real-world inspirations.  For example, this school year students involved the presidential election into our studies and the students built upon research based skills, held debates, and wrote comparison-contrast essays on the political candidates while watching the live elections at home.  We even held a mock election in the classroom. The language arts curriculum teaches students linguistic abilities such as differentiating between antonyms and synonyms, homophones and homographs, deciphering the connotation and denotation of vocabulary plus utilizing context clues to create meanings for unfamiliar words.  These skills are applied to all subject areas and motivate students to express themselves through persuasive text, expository, narrative, poetic, and other creative venues.

Mathematics is problem-based and a cross-subject method is used to relate important skills to everyday life.  For example, while conducting experiments, students will gather personal data, graph it, and analyze the results through appropriate mean, median, and mode strategies as well develop an understanding of what these results mean.  We also provide an emphasis on solving fractions, geometry, integers, numbers and operations, and area in our curriculum.  Students will find ways to apply it to the world around them through our fun math problem solving and engaging lessons incorporating math relays, labs, and online assignments.

Science is a major part of the curriculum and we complete fun experiments on a weekly basis.  Science Fair was a major accomplishment this year, and that was one of the many times students were able to engage in the scientific process.  Through experimentation and the Interactive Science Workbooks students were able to not only read about Science, but become Scientists by inquiring, gathering data, creating experiments, and analyzing and making conclusions.  We cover Water Cycle, Energy, Force and Motion, Interdisciplinary, Earth Cycles, Disasters, the Human Body, and Weather through exciting presentations from OUC, doctors and nurses that visit, and our fun curriculum.

Social Studies takes a look at the history of the United States of America from it’s beginning stages on to Colonial America and the American Revolution toward the Western Expansion and more taking students through Civil Rights, World War II and beyond.  The students are challenged to relate their nation’s past to its current state of being and develop an understanding of how what we have experienced as a country, affect our behaviors and regulations today.

Overall, we provide a positive learning environment that welcomes inquisitive minds to explore their interests, develop themselves, and cater to their educational needs while inspiring them to invest in themselves as young adults.  We welcome you to Orlando Science Elementary School.