Curriculum Overviews > Fifth Grade

At The Branch School, the following objectives are taught through an integrated, developmental, hands-on, and in-depth approach that teaches critical thinking, problem-solving, and cooperative learning.

• Students refine and master previously learned knowledge and skills in increasingly complex presentations, reading selections, and written compositions.
• Students can identify a speaker's persuasive technique such as promises, dares, and flattery in presentations.
• Students read from classic and contemporary selections and informational text.
• Students are able to judge the internal consistency or logic of stories and texts.
• Students recognize the way an author organizes information and engage in more sophisticated analysis of characters, plots, and settings.
• Students are able to select and use different forms of writing for specific purposes such as to inform, persuade, or entertain.
• Students vary sentence structure and use conjunctions to connect ideas.
• Students are able to use literary devices such as suspense, dialogue, and figurative language in their writing.
• Students edit their writing based on their knowledge of grammar and usage, spelling, punctuation, and other conventions of written language.
• Students produce final, error-free pieces of written composition on a regular basis.
• Students search out multiple texts to complete research reports or projects. Students use visuals to support their research projects.

• Students compare and order fractions and decimals, applying multiplication and division, and developing ideas related to congruence and symmetry.
• Students understand in number, operation, and quantitative reasoning; patterns, relationships, and algebraic thinking; geometry and spatial reasoning; measurement; and probability and statistics.
• Students use algorithms for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division as generalizations connected to concrete experiences; and they concretely develop basic concepts of fractions and decimals.
• Students use appropriate language and organizational structures such as tables and charts to represent and communicate relationships, make predictions, and solve problems.
• Students select and use formal language to describe their reasoning as they identify, compare, and classify shapes and solids; and they use numbers, standard units, and measurement tools to describe and compare objects, make estimates, and solve application problems.
• Students organize data, choose an appropriate method to display the data, and interpret the data to make decisions and predictions and solve problems.

• Land and Water
• Microworlds
• Space
• Motors and Magnets
• Time and Measurement
• Ecosystems

• Students learn about a variety of regions in the United States that result from physical features and human activity and identify how people adapt to and modify the environment.
• Students explain the characteristics and benefits of the free enterprise system and describe economic activities in the United States.
• Students identify the roots of representative government in this nation as well as the important ideas in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
• Students recite and explain the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance. Students examine the importance of effective leadership in a democratic society and identify important leaders in the national government.
• Students examine fundamental rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.
• Students use critical-thinking skills including sequencing, categorizing, and summarizing information and drawing inferences and conclusions.

• Students are exposed to the basic elements of art and explore them in detail through projects that emphasize each specific art principle. Students engage in exciting exploration with a variety of media such as painting, clay, pastels, etc.

• They are read books appropriate to their level as well as given help, if necessary, checking out books.

• Students express themselves through singing and movement, and by playing simple instruments. Children learn to experiment with music concepts, volume, tempo, and sound. They begin to appreciate different types of music. Students attend at least one live concert. They perform several times a year at school-wide events.

• Students learn to empathize with, feel comfortable in, and understand fundamental processes of nature. We do this through a “working wildscape” partly accessible to children on the playground, partly fenced to allow more habitat development, and through horticulture activities from growing vegetables to propagating plants.

• Students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development through physical activity, and access to a physically active lifestyle. Students learn group games as well as sportsmanship.

• Students are taught the importance of peacemaking with their classmates. They learn conflict resolution as well as communication skills. They learn to be life-long peacemakers. In addition, a curriculum on ethical decision-making designed by the Institute for Global Ethics is implemented. It is based on Rushworth Kidder’s book, How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living.
• Students practice creative thinking through brainstorming solutions to a variety of spontaneous problems. Students also are given opportunities to compose, create, and implement at least one school-wide program. The students are responsible for designing the sets, writing the scripts, and creating the costumes.

• Students are immersed in the Spanish language through a Spanish program three times a week.

• Students use engaging, age-appropriate, and challenging software and technology to extend their knowledge and to enrich their learning of curriculum content and concepts. Children learn the basic functions of the computer and related technologies.