Grade 5

Fifth-grade English Language Arts celebrates individual identity and the power of community as students develop their voice and sense of place. The curriculum nurtures thoughtful readers, flexible thinkers, and confident communicators through both written expression and speech.  Students strengthen the skills needed to analyze ideas from texts across genres, while enjoying supported leisure reading to foster lifelong reading habits. Literature and informational texts are integrated with an emphasis on comprehension, critical thinking, and evidence-based reasoning. Students write daily with an intentional focus on creative, narrative, and expository forms. Grammatical instruction focuses on parts of speech and is reinforced through writing workshops.

Students will:

• Strengthen comprehension using strategies such as annotation, questioning, and summarizing.
• Analyze key literary elements, including characters, setting, plot, theme, and author’s purpose.
• Explore a variety of genres to expand knowledge and perspective.
• Practice the writing process in creative, narrative, and expository forms, including planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
• Build vocabulary through reading, direct instruction, and word-study strategies, including a weekly focus on the Word of the Week.

The math program is based on children exploring and applying problem-solving skills through investigative units from the Math in Focus curriculum. Through the use of real-life problems, students learn mathematical operations with decimals and fractions, metric measurement, geometry, percent, probability and data analysis. Students spend time each day working on problem-solving activities where they are challenged to work through problems using a variety of strategies, moving toward the most efficient ones. Class projects, math explorations, and manipulatives are integral parts of the curriculum. Among the topics covered this year will be multiplying and dividing with 2-digit divisors; understanding fractions, mixed numbers and decimals; solving equations and evaluating inequalities; finding the probability of an event, and applying properties of angles, triangles, and quadrilaterals.

Fifth grade science emphasizes hands-on and minds-on exploration. The year begins with our robotics unit, which emphasizes exploration, collaboration, investigation, and problem-solving. Students apply the engineering design process using LEGO SPIKE robotics materials. They work together and learn basic physics as they design, construct, program, and modify robots to meet specific challenges. For the final project, students select a real-world problem and attempt to solve it with a robot of their own design.

The forensics unit builds on students’ scientific thinking skills. Using a variety of materials, students learn how scientists make observations, draw inferences, and tell a story. They conduct experiments to help solve a mystery, and a visit from a detective with the Andover Police Department provides a real-world connection to their learning.

In the spring, students explore sustainable cities through an interdisciplinary unit between science and history classes that focuses on researching, designing, and building scale models. They apply the experimental design process to study variables affecting alternative energy efficiency and use their knowledge to design the most effective renewable energy solution to power their city.

Fifth-grade history explores key events and narratives in United States history, with an emphasis on fostering inclusive, safe, and sustainable communities through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Students study units including the Road to Revolution, Industrialization and Urban Growth, the Civil Rights Movement, and Local Government. Using an inquiry-based approach, they analyze primary and secondary sources, conduct research, practice persuasive and informational writing, and engage in civil discourse through discussion and debate.

In the spring, students apply these skills in an interdisciplinary Sustainable Cities unit that blends concepts from their history and science classes. They design thoughtful and inclusive solutions and present their projects to educate Pike families, faculty, staff, and peers about building better communities for the future.

Emphasis is placed on developing basic speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in the student's chosen language (French or Spanish). Frequent review of key vocabulary and gradual introduction to new grammar concepts assure a supportive pace. Use of small and large group communicative activities is an integral part of the program. Key grammar concepts such as word order, present tense of regular and selected irregular verbs, and plurals of nouns and adjectives are studied in depth.

As students progress through their Arts learning at Pike, they continue to build their visual communication skills, with an emphasis on creative problem solving through student-centered and open-ended investigations. While working with a wide variety of two- and three-dimensional materials, they also learn the intellectual, physical, and technical skills of art making. Students will learn about significant contemporary and historical artists from all over the world while exploring increasingly complex processes and projects. 

Students have the opportunity to learn songs and play instruments in a contemporary music program that centers the music they know and love as vital pillars of their learning experience. In Fifth Grade, students are introduced to the bucket drums and develop the executive skills required to transition to the drum kit in Sixth Grade music. They continue to develop their ensemble skills on the ukulele and other classroom instruments by learning other songs throughout the year. The year culminates in the performance of a “class song” - selected by the students - and performed by the entire Fifth Grade class with each student on an instrument of their choice at their final concert of the year.

The physical education program for 5th Grade students uses a wide variety of large- and small-group games, cooperative activities, and games using sport-specific skills in preparation for team sports. The goals of the program are to encourage children to be versatile movers, to provide them with an improved movement vocabulary, and to help them understand the importance of developing a healthy, active lifestyle. Some of the activities include soccer in the fall, jump rope in the winter, and track and field in the spring. In any activity, we expect all students to strive for personal improvement, to cooperate with their classmates, and to respect the spirit and rules of fair play. 

Study Skills 5 is a year-long survey course for all fifth graders as they begin to adjust to Upper School. Students explore routines, assessment prep, time management, and what it means to be a more independent student over time. Writing practice is also prioritized. This is achieved through modeling, reflection, discussion, and small group projects.