Curriculum Detail - Grade 5

Fifth Grade

Fifth Grade Curriculum-at-a-Glance

The Fifth Grade curriculum is both place-based and inquiry-based. Girls build an understanding of the world around them through authentic learning experiences focusing on researching natural ecosystems, exploring perspectives and restoring natural systems. Fifth Graders engage in book groups, interdisciplinary units of inquiry, and differentiated mathematics groups while continuing to focus on reaching their individual and community promise. During Fifth Grade, girls complete student-led research and restoration projects. The units integrate proposal writing, academic research, scientific inquiry and applied math skills. As the girls learn about different cultures through a global-minded lens, they connect their own experience at the Butler Campus to the world around them. The year culminates with our Research at Butler unit. This inquiry-based unit is student-guided, utilizing the research and writing skills developed over the course of the year. The girls inquire about and research the needs of our Butler community. Using the data collected, they write and present a proposal for improving our campus focusing on restoration or sustainability.

Fifth Grade English
- Learn how to integrate knowledge into formal and spontaneous writing
- Employ concrete strategies to broaden vocabulary, practice implementing grammar skills and correct spelling in writing
- Recognize and use correct parts of speech and employ appropriate sentence, paragraph and essay structures
- Utilize prewriting strategies to strengthen finished pieces
- Write across disciplines using the Writing Revolution framework
- Construct written works including narratives, reflections, a scientific report, informative and opinion pieces
- Connect with characters and settings from a variety of international contexts; discuss literature and develop comprehension through class texts such as The War That Saved My Life, The War I Finally Won, Esperanza Rising, The Birchbark House, The Game of Silence and The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Fifth Grade Social Studies
- Examine reasons for human migration and the push/pull factors that influence movement
- Contemplate how geography affects the way people live, how humans create, share and adapt to culture, and how human and physical geography interact
- Discover the impact of humans on where they live and the impact of geography on how they live; recognize that the world is a diverse place shaped by its physical geography
- Explore perspectives and cultures through integrated literature and social studies lessons
Fifth Grade Mathematics
- Write and interpret numerical expressions
- Analyze patterns and relationships
- Understand the place value system
- Perform operations with multi-digit whole numbers and with decimals to hundredths
- Use equivalent fractions as a strategy to add and subtract fractions
- Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to multiply and divide fractions
- Convert like measurement units within a given measurement system
- Represent and interpret data
- Geometric measurement: understand concepts of volume and relate volume to multiplication and to addition
- Graph points on the coordinate plane to solve real-world and mathematical problems
- Classify two-dimensional figures based on their properties
- Use Hands-On Equations/Math Tiles–concrete, visual and kinesthetic problem-solving and working with algebraic equations–as a supplemental enrichment activity for all students
Fifth Grade Science
- Observe and ask questions about the world that can be answered through scientific investigations
- Design and conduct scientific investigations using appropriate safety techniques
- Use appropriate mathematics, tools, and techniques to gather data and information
- Develop and communicate descriptions, models, explanations and predictions
- Think critically and ask questions about the observations and explanations of others
- Communicate scientific procedures and explanations
- Apply knowledge of science content to real-world challenges
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the above practices within the following content units:
- - Renewable Energy: Investigate renewable resources, such as wind and solar; study energy transformation; evaluate the environmental and economic impacts of converting to renewable energy. Collaborate to solve a real-world energy challenge using the engineering design process.
  - Interactions within Ecosystems: Model how energy and matter flow through an ecosystem. Identify interdependent relationships within terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Examine interactions between the biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and geosphere
  - Garden Science: Explore introductory botany and horticulture topics including plant adaptations, growing requirements, planting zones, and the human relationship to plants
  - Human Impact: Research the effects of environmental change (e.g. deforestation, climate change, pollution, fire, drought, flooding, decreased oxygen levels, invasive species) on organisms in an ecosystem and design a plan to restore the area to a more balanced state. Explore human dependence on limited resources and examine the ecological consequences of everyday decisions.
  - Restoration: Through purposeful work, contribute to habitat restoration on the Butler Campus by spreading native species and controlling invasive species; students research the importance of native species to our local ecosystem and share that knowledge with the community through a symposium and native plant sale
Fifth Grade Technology
- Practice safe and appropriate use of school-provided device
- Understand the impact of creating a digital footprint
- Learn to navigate online spaces and become a good digital citizen using lessons from The Social Institute
- Explore coding and computational thinking concepts
Fifth Grade Art
- Develop personal expression through self-reflection
- Focus on experiential and interdisciplinary learning
- Experience drawing from observation of the natural world including scientific drawings
- Use natural materials to create expressive art
- Continue the examination of line, space, form, pattern, texture and color
- Engage in interdisciplinary experiences
- Build sculptures using natural materials
- Learn one point perspective
- Work with classroom themes to create art
- Understand how to create the illusion of depth of field with paper sculptures
- Learn how to create beaded art in the style of the Ojibwe Culture
- Incorporate proportion into drawings to create a more realistic representation
Fifth Grade Drama
- Practice speaking and movement skills
- Develop a performance based on interdisciplinary studies
Fifth Grade Music
- Enjoy musical experiences through small- and large-group activities and ensemble work
- Recognize that beats can be divided into different patterns creating complex rhythms and syncopations
- Identify and perform syncopated rhythms and the pitches of the C, F, and G Major scales on the ukulele
- Practice singing while playing a variety of strumming patterns and accompanimental chords on the ukulele
- Explore extending vocal range and vocal independence
- Engage in solo, ensemble, classroom, grade-level and all-division performances
Fifth Grade Physical Education
- Reflect on and discuss the ways in which physical fitness enhances daily life
- Engage in sports and creative games to develop sports-based and game-play strategies
- Use individual goal setting to build self-esteem while striving to challenge oneself on the Project Adventure Course
- Embrace the outdoors and learn life-long skills like orienteering, biking and hiking
- Continue to build confidence in bike repair, maintenance, and safety while using a bike to traverse the Butler Campus
Fifth Grade Spanish
- Discover that Spanish uses an inflected system for verbs and nouns and accent marks to emphasize syllables
- Learn and practice words and phrases on everyday topics; use regular and irregular inflections in the present tense
- Converse, give and ask for contact information; conduct introductions; and exchange information about family, school and activities

3-5 Curricula

In Grades 3-5, our interdisciplinary curriculum is inspired by findings from Laurel’s Center for Research for Girls. Grade-level themes shape deep investigations of big ideas and help girls strengthen their understandings by connecting learning in each subject. In addition to thought-provoking integrated themes, students in Grades 3-5 are immersed in the big systems thinking that comes from time spent learning in and about our natural world.

Faculty

James Aguilar

Primary School Math Specialist

Education: University of Phoenix - B.S.

jAguilar@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2022
Melynda Byrnes

Director of STEAM Education, K-5; STEAM Teacher

Education: University of Utah - B.S.
Vassar College - B.A.

mByrnes@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2009
Grace D'Amico

Fifth Grade Teacher

Education: Santa Clara University - B.A.
Northwestern University - M.Ed.

gDAmico@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2025
Emily Felderman

Visual Art Teacher, Primary School

Education: Case Western Reserve University - B.S.

eFelderman@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2006
Dennis Ficklin

Spanish Teacher, Upper and Middle School

Education: Baldwin Wallace University - B.A.

dFicklin@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2023
Ann Gasser

Fifth Grade Teacher

Education: Grove City College - B.S.

aGasser@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2022
Shannon Lukz

Associate Director of Primary School, Grades 3-5 and Outdoor PreK

Education: Miami University - B.S.
Western Michigan University - M.A.

sLukz@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2005
Veronica McDowell

Latin Teacher, Middle School

Education: John Carroll University - B.A.

vMcDowell@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2024
Abigail Murphy '04

Librarian, Grades 1-5

Education: Brown University - M.A.
Yale University - B.A.
National University of Ireland

afmurphy@laurelschool.org

Hired: 2020
Bella Patel

Director of Early Childhood and Primary Schools

Education: Vassar College - B.A.
Teachers College, Columbia University - M.A.

bPatel@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2003
Ilissa Pearlman

School Psychologist, Grades K-5

Education: University of Michigan - B.A.
Ohio State University - M.A.
Ursuline College - M.A.
Case Western Reserve University - Ph.D.

iPearlman@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2005
Karen Redmond

Technology Innovation Specialist & Maker Mentor

Education: Kent State University - B.A.
Ohio State University - M.A.
Ursuline College - M.Ed.
Baldwin Wallace College

kRedmond@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2002
Cara Tweed '99

Music Teacher, Primary School

Education: Cleveland State University - M.A
Cleveland Institute of Music - B.M.E

cTweed@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2012
Dale Versteegen

Physical Education Teacher and Project Adventure Coordinator

Education: RMIT University - B.S
La Trobe University - B.S.
Assumption College - Cert

dVersteegen@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2022
Karen Yusko

Teacher, Laurel@Butler

Education: University of Iowa - B.S.
Fordham University - M.S.

kYusko@LaurelSchool.org

Hired: 2010