All About 5th Grade
At Grace, 5th and 6th graders are being prepared for Junior High. Mrs. Nelson is the 5th grade teacher, but she works very closely with Mrs. Underhill (6th grade teacher). Together, they collaborate and teach both classes. Mrs. Nelson’s area of expertise is English Language Arts.
English Language Arts
Students work hard on building their vocabulary through a study of Greek and Latin roots using Word Trek. For reading, they have book groups once each trimester. Here are some of the books that are used in book groups:
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Rauf
The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani
The Books of Elsewhere by Jaqueline West
Chasing Vermeer by Brett Helquist
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
Poetry
Once each trimester the class has a poetry unit where they read, analyze, and write poetry. Students create a poetry anthology, and end the year with a poetry café.
Social Studies
Students learn about the exploration and founding of the Americas, with a focus on the founding and development of the United States of America. They do a variety of hands-on activities and role playing. They take a field trip to The Old Graue Mill, to see living history presentations from the period surrounding the US Civil War. There are lots of mini research projects related to special times of the year, such as Latin History Month, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and Asia Pacific Islander History Month. They learn about people, study the geography, and try new foods!
Math
Fifth grade math follows the common core curriculum. Students regularly start class with a review activity and class challenges using white boards. IXL’s, Boom Cards, scavenger hunts, task cards as well as classic worksheets and note taking are all a part of the 5th grade math learning process. Overall, 5th grade math places a great deal of time mastering fraction and decimal operations, understanding volume, and early algebra concepts of order of operations and numerical expressions.
Science
Fifth Grade Science is a mixture of basics in life science, earth science and physical science. Learning happens through a combination of reading, discussions, exploring, experiments, online activities, and projects. The main goal is to create curiosity about the world around us while laying a foundation for the basics of science. Highlights are our taste lab, oyster reef model, unwelcomed inhabitant project, and our renewable resources unit.
5th graders participate in service projects. Grace loves to introduce students to opportunities of leadership and service. It is all a part of our mission to build up and send out disciples for Jesus.
5th grade has the opportunity to lead chapel once within the school year. The entire school, including Early Childhood, will attend chapel in the sanctuary on that day.
5th grade students have 2nd grade chapel buddies! They will get to spend time with each other periodically throughout the school year. Chapel buddies will sit together during chapel when a Grace class is leading the service.
5th grade students can participate in Orchestra, Band, Choir opportunities, Volleyball, Basketball, Cross Country, and Track & Field. They have several field trips throughout the school year including a trip to the Irish American Heritage Center and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Other in and after school activities available to 5th graders are the Newsletter club, Art club, and the Reading Olympics.
5th/6th graders and 3rd/4th graders take turns every other year putting on a theatrical performance. This 22-23 school year, 5th and 6th graders performed the play A Thousand Cranes.
If you would like more information about 5th grade and/or would like to begin the admissions process, please send an email to agarcia@graceriverforest.org to be connected with our Director of Enrollment and Marketing.
