In addition to core subjects, our students also have classes in Bible, art, computer, music and P.E. Our students in grades six through eight also take Spanish.
Curriculum Overview
Social Studies
The fifth grade social studies’ curriculum focuses on the United States, past, present, and future. Students will study the early peoples of the western and eastern hemispheres. Early North American explorers will be discussed. Students will study about the struggles and successes of the early settlers. They will also focus on specific early settlements and what can be learned from them. They will study the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the World Wars, the Cold War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Students will work on the geography skills of latitude and longitude; using different kinds of maps; using maps at different scales; using globes; reading elevation and relief maps; and reading time zone maps. Students will also work on the study skills involving reading time lines; reading line and circle graphs; reading climographs; and using reference sources.
Language Arts
The mechanical conventions of writing such as grammar, usage, and mechanics are strongly emphasized. Thinking and communication skills are developed through the integration of listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities. Development of thinking is also supported through the writing process as the student generates ideas, plans and organizes his/her work, creates drafts, reflects on his/her efforts, and makes decisions regarding revisions.
Grammatical skills are enhanced through the instruction of sentence structure, learning the types of sentences, sentence parts, sentence complements, word order in sentences, and even sentence diagramming. The standard nine parts of speech are extensively reviewed: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Pronouns, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Interjections, and Gerunds.
One quarter is dedicated to enhancing mechanical skills, beginning with an in-depth review of capitalization and spelling.
At the end of each unit is a vocabulary lesson that enhances the student's skills with compound words, antonyms, synonyms, homophones, homographs, prefixes, suffixes, base words, roots, context clues, idioms, denotation/connotation, etymologies, rhyming words, onomatopoeia, question words, and blended words.
Practical Application of grammatical and mechanical skills is enhanced through various Expository writing assignments, such as book reports assigned every other month, through weekly penmanship assignments, through creative writing opportunities in journals and through poetry writing. Weekly Journal writing also offers an opportunity for expression of freely recorded thoughts and ideas. Poetry is submitted in free verse and rhyming. Haiku is also studied and submitted. Twice a year students are encouraged (not required) to submit an original poem for publication through a poetry contest which recognizes students especially from the Midwest. There is also an anthology printed yearly by a company which always welcomes new young poets and in which the students are, again, encouraged to participate in.
Narrative writing is also explored in the form of personal narratives. Descriptive writing is submitted in the form of short stories, which often occur in the Journals. Persuasive writing is also highlighted.
Math
Problem Solving
1. Accounting for all possibilities
2. Use a formula
3. Interpret the remainder
Numbers and Quantitative Reasoning
1. Whole Numbers
a. Multiples
b. Divisibility
c. Prime and Composite
d. Least Common Multiple
e. Greatest Common Factors
f. Powers and Exponents
2. Decimals
a. Equivalent Decimals
b. Decimals and Percents
3. Fractions
a. Order, like/unlike decimals
b. Simplest form
c. Least common denominator
d. Fractions and percents
4. Integers
a. Negative Numbers
5. Rational Numbers
6. Real Numbers
7. Number Sense
a. Effects of operations
b. Meaning of percent
Algebra
Properties
Equations and expressions
Inequalities
Number lines
Relations and functions
Geometric patterns
Number patterns
Proportions
Geometry
Geometry and Spatial Reasoning
Solid figures
Plane figures
Measurement and Time
Length
Capacity
Weight and mass
Temperature
Clocks
Perimeter
Circumference
Area
Surface Area
Volume
Angles
Statistics, Graphing and Probability
Collecting and organizing data
Displaying and analyzing data
Probability
Mathematical
Experimental
Religion
The lessons in the religion curriculum teach the key concepts of faith such as Law, Gospel, confession, repentance, forgiveness, and grace while focusing specifically on the person, attributes, and work of God the Father. Each lessons centers on the cross of Christ and is grounded in the Word of God through which the Holy Spirit works to create, strengthen and sustain saving faith. It encourages students to daily live in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit. The lessons consist of selected, sequential Bible stories that span biblical history from Creation through the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
Science (Being updated)
Memory
Memory work is the names of the Books of the Old and New Testaments; the Ten Commandments; the Apostles’ Creed; Luther’s Morning and Evening Prayers; and selected Bible verses corresponding with the Religion lessons.
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