Grade 5

Grade 5 marks the entry point into the Middle School at ASL. Students experience a carefully structured transition from the Lower School, designed to provide continuity while fostering independence. With approximately 100 students in the grade, we divide students into eight advisories and six academic groups. These smaller learning groups ensure a supportive environment that maintains the close-knit feeling of ASL's Lower School, while preparing students for the expectations of middle school.

Advisory teachers prioritize building relationships and guiding RULER implementation to create a supportive advisory group centered around emotional intelligence, growth and meaningful connections. We teach the RULER approach through engaging activities and discussions that empower students to recognize, understand and regulate their emotions, fostering a positive and empathetic environment. Students meet in their advisory groups at the start of each day, and then participate in classes with different teachers for humanities, math, science, world languages, music, art, physical education drama, health.

Emphasis is placed on the development of skills needed to become independent, lifelong learners. Teachers strive to stimulate every child's interest and curiosity, while promoting a love of learning and a willingness to take risks. Children’s learning needs are assessed regularly, allowing teachers to provide instruction at an appropriate level.

Experiences new to Grade 5 students include receiving homework, having their own lockers, eating lunch in the Cafeteria, playing a musical instrument, choosing between Spanish, French, and Mandarin for their world language learning, and moving independently between classes and after-school activities. New middle school students embrace their increased sense of independence and responsibility.

Spring overnight trip
Toward the end of the academic year, Grade 5 students spend four days at Calshot Activities Centre, located on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire. The learning experiences that the children enjoy while away on a trip of this nature cannot be reproduced in the home or school environment. The program is varied, ranging from experiential activities to team-building challenges. These experiences inspire enthusiasm for learning, intelligent risk-taking, increased self-confidence, and a heightened awareness about how we can interact with the outdoors—all of which is of lasting value to each student.

Grade 5 by subject

Art

In Grade 5 art, students explore three key themes throughout the year: me and my world, which focuses on personal identity and what matters to them; understanding our object world through shape and form, which investigates how everyday objects can be transformed through art; and mapping a personal journey, a graphic novel unit where students explore storytelling through visual narrative.

Students engage with a wide range of 2-D and 3-D media, including watercolor, drawing, oil pastels, collage, wire sculpture and clay. They also explore storyboarding, bookmaking and graphic novel layout, developing both technical and storytelling skills.

Using the National Core Arts Standards and assessed through ASL’s Approaches to Learning, students are encouraged to take creative risks, solve problems imaginatively, and reflect meaningfully on their work. They document their artistic process and learning in a process portfolio, which serves as a space for planning, experimentation and self-assessment.

Through this varied and rich curriculum, students build confidence, express their ideas visually, and learn to make connections between personal experiences, art, and the wider world.

Humanities

In Grade 5, English and social studies are taught as part of the humanities program. At certain times during the year, the teaching of reading and writing is integrated within the social studies curriculum; at other times, the two areas are treated as distinct subjects.

Students are encouraged to become lifelong writers. Teachers expose students to a variety of writing styles, including realistic fiction, informational writing, persuasive writing, and poetry. Students are carefully guided through the writing process, and lessons are scaffolded to allow them to build upon strategies and skills acquired throughout the year. The organization of writing is a key focus, and our teachers help students hone their planning techniques, develop effective introductions and conclusions, understand proper paragraphing, and incorporate transition words to organize ideas. Teachers encourage revising and editing, helping students move independently through the writing process. Grammar is taught prescriptively in the context of mini-lessons, one-on-one conferencing, and practice exercises to help young writers make appropriate choices based on their thinking and aims.

In reading, students focus on developing critical thinking skills, increasing independence, and learning to analyze texts. Students are exposed to new novels and are encouraged to read for deeper understanding through discussion groups, book clubs, and independent work. We reinforce active reading strategies with particular focus on making inferences and summarizing. Independent reading is a critical component of being a successful reader, and this is heavily emphasized throughout our reading curriculum. As students progress through Grade 5, they become comfortable and adept at thinking, speaking, and writing about what they read. Teachers integrate reading and writing skills, enabling students to make valuable connections between the two areas.

Students often examine nonfiction reading and writing in the context of social studies education. Skills taught as part of social studies include reading for specific information, note-taking, organization, sequencing information, and editing. Students engage in several self-directed research projects, focusing on building effective research skills and integrating technology alongside the resources available in ASL’s Mellon Library. Emphasis is placed on how to formulate research questions, evaluate and cite sources, and effectively share information with a larger audience in multiple ways. Students also develop their presentation skills, speaking in front of an audience to present with presence and clarity.

The Grade 5 social studies curriculum explores ancient cultures. Students engage in units about Mesopotamia and ancient Greece. In both of these units, students study the seven characteristics that make up a civilization. They use these characteristics to compare cultures and identify patterns.

Throughout the year, students develop their independence across research, study habits, and time management. Students celebrate and reflect on their growth as readers, writers, speakers, listeners, and historians through project work and literature study alike.

Mathematics

Grade 5 Mathematics is based upon the Common Core State Standards for mathematics. In Grade 5, instructional time focuses on four critical areas: (1) understanding the structure of the base-ten number system and the relationships among decimal places; (2) developing flexibility and fluency with whole-number and decimal operations; (3) understanding what fractions represent and how fractions and decimals are related, as well as how to model fractions and decimals when solving problems; and (4) developing estimation skills. Measurement, data, and geometry topics covered include volume, measurement conversion, coordinate planes, data analysis, and the classification of polygons. A variety of resources are used in Grade 5, including Illustrative Mathematics, Amplify Desmos, and Connected Mathematics. Students engage in a wide range of tasks and activities that support the focus on rich mathematical conversations.

Throughout middle school, we place emphasis on developing a deeper understanding of concepts and how they are connected. We support problem-based learning, in which students are encouraged to make sense of situations in order to apply algorithms they understand. We also prioritize explaining mathematical thinking, and demonstrating mastery, by constructing viable arguments. When computation is not the focus of a given task, calculators may be used to support problem-solving.

Reporting to parents is made through fall and winter conferences and two report cards. Each student’s report card is informed by formative check-ins, summative assessments, and reflections. Homework completion is noted and considered in the report under “Approaches to Learning.” All students who have not yet met content area standards are given an opportunity to demonstrate their growth by making corrections to their assessments.

Teachers differentiate in order to meet the needs of each student. Instruction is responsive to each individual learner, and teachers consistently monitor the level of enrichment and reinforcement needed.

Grade 5 students begin instruction on a band or orchestral instrument in addition to participating in the Grade 5 choir. Each student chooses, with the assistance of the music faculty, an instrument that suits them, while also maintaining a balance in the instrumentation of the ensembles.

The instrumental program is designed to develop students’ understanding of music through ensemble participation. Students learn pieces from music method books along with age-appropriate concert music and other scales and exercises. Emphasis is placed on technical development, tone production, good posture, rehearsal etiquette, and the importance of regular, independent practice.

Choral music classes utilize two-part choral music to introduce the concepts of breathing, tone production, blend, balance, and musicianship. Early emphasis is placed on rehearsal skills and group cooperation. Students study a variety of choral literature, representing a broad range of time periods and musical styles.

Every Grade 5 student participates in drama once per eight-day cycle throughout the entire year. Students are introduced to drama as a collaborative art form that blends creativity, imagination, communication, commitment, and collaboration. Through different workshops and in-class projects, Grade 5 students explore new ways to use their imagination and creativity, and to develop physical storytelling skills.

Performing arts

Science

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are an integral part of the Grade 5 science program. All domains of science are studied while incorporating engineering practices and Design Thinking across the science areas. Learning is inspired by scientific phenomena, an observable event that is interesting and complex. The focus in Grade 5 science is on reading, writing, investigating and arguing as scientists. Students are encouraged to look at mistakes as opportunities to learn.

The unit names, questions and overviews for the year are:

Patterns of Earth and sky: Students observe and investigate patterns in the sky by day and by night with kinesthetic models, as well as using a digital simulation, and informational text. They learn that stars are all around us in space, develop an understanding of scale and distance in the universe, and discover how the spin and orbit of our planet causes us to observe daily and yearly patterns of stars.
Ecosystem and matter cycling: Students consider how plants are able to grow on nurse logs. They figure out that plants get matter primarily from air and water, and transfer energy from the Sun. Students then wonder how matter and energy are transferred between plants and animals. They model the movement of matter and energy through plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
The Earth system: Students use books, hands-on investigations, simulations, and modeling tools to figure out how water is distributed within the hydrosphere, how water moves between the hydrosphere and the atmosphere to cause rain, how the geosphere can interact with the hydrosphere and atmosphere to create patterns of rain, and how life forms in the biosphere depend on the hydrosphere. Students use their understanding of how parts of the Earth system interact to explain why one side of an island is experiencing a water shortage.
Matter properties: Students analyze and investigate water samples to make their samples healthier. They investigate the evidence for chemical reactions by planning investigations and analyzing data. Students are introduced to the idea that matter is made of particles too small to see and that each different substance is made of molecules that are unique. They develop an understanding of the idea that regardless of the type of change that matter undergoes, the total weight of matter is conserved. Students determine whether the mixing of two or more substances results in new substances.

The culminating unit incorporates physical, life and earth sciences. The students are challenged with figuring out why an island experiences rainfall on one side, but a water shortage on the other. Students help figure out what is causing the water shortage and engineer possible design solutions.

World languages and cultures

The middle school world languages program offers introductory courses (level Aa) in Mandarin, French, and Spanish to all Grade 5 students. These courses are designed for true beginners or those who have had minimal exposure to the target language. The Aa Spanish course is suitable for returning ASL students, who have been exposed to Spanish in the Lower School.

The Grade 5 world languages program aims to introduce students to the languages and cultures of the Mandarin-, French- and Spanish‐speaking worlds.

The program aims to develop students’ ability to communicate about themselves and their immediate environment using simple sentences containing basic vocabulary and language structures. Students practice and develop their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills through a variety of engaging activities.

Note: Grade 5 students already fluent in one of these languages may not enroll in the level Aa class for that language, as the level is designed for beginners.