Grade Five Curriculum

The fifth grade year is often spoken of as “the golden year” because of the wonderful place to which the eleven-year-olds mature. They are more balanced and poised in themselves than they have ever been before, and than they will be again until the completion of the coming years of puberty and rapid intellectual development.

LANGUAGE ARTS
Students practice recitation every morning as a way to develop speech faculties and enrich main lesson work. Some of the speech work includes hexameter, seasonal poems and appropriate pedagogical themes.

They continue to explore parts of speech and practice verb tenses. The class proceeds to work on punctuation and sentence structure while writing some of their own compositions based on main lesson content. The teacher may also use dictation as a way for the children to practice compositional skills.

Spelling is practiced weekly. The words come from a combination of main lesson content and spelling rules.
The children are assigned several novels throughout the year about which they will either write a book report or have a comprehension test. Silent reading time is incorporated into the weekly schedule. Oral reports are also an important aspect of the language arts curriculum. The mythology of ancient India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and ancient Greece provide source materials upon which the children draw their inspiration for writing.

Book reports and simple research reports are assigned throughout the year. The research reports are related to the main lesson topic such as US geography (typically a report on one of the 50 states) or botany. Students learn basic encyclopedia and Library search skills.

MATHEMATICS
The students in grade five engage in more complex fractions studies. They learn skills including multiplying and dividing mixed numbers and mixing the four operations in a problem and are introduced to square, prime and abundant numbers. Decimals are introduced and students learn how to use all four operations with decimal fractions, followed by learning to convert fractions to decimals and vice versa. Fractions also resume in grade five, with concepts such as cross canceling and reciprocals. Prime numbers are introduced as a means to explore fundamental number qualities.
The teacher may use weekly quizzes and homework to assess the students’ strength and progress throughout the year. The students also practice freehand geometry.

NATURAL SCIENCE
The study of the plant world begins in grade five. The teacher begins with a higher plant (angiosperm) as an archetypal plant to contrast the lower plants. Through observation and class presentations, the students become intimately aware of the plant environment. This is a time when “from whole to parts” is literal. The class will start with the whole plant and move to learning about its individual parts. The class draws from observation and may also paint some of the plants they learn about.

GEOGRAPHY
The students branch out from their local geography to the geography of the Americas, with a particular emphasis on the 50 United States. The students complete a research report on one of the states and present it to the class. They study such major geographic features as mountains, rivers, lakes, vegetation and climate as well as natural resources and wildlife. They draw free-hand maps and often model a topographical map of the continent. Students look at how the natural features of a land correlate with the development of its communities and learn songs, anthems and verse invoking the American folk soul.

HISTORY
Fifth graders receive an enormous survey of humanity through the culture and history of the people of ancient India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece. The students are exposed to the mythology, art, music, food and customs of these civilizations, building respect and an understanding for people of other races and religions through the study of these great epochs in history and their significant figures. The students may enjoy a trip to the ancient civilizations section of the Metropolitan Museum in New York City.
The class also participates with other Waldorf schools in the Greek Pentathlon.