How to Use This Curriculum

This curriculum is the natural sequel to Grade 4. Where Grade 4 spent the year inside one state's history, Grade 5 zooms out to the whole Western Hemisphere — the Americas from the Arctic to Tierra del Fuego — and traces the people, places, and systems that shaped it. The skills your child built last year (multi-paragraph writing, multi-digit operations, structured research) are now applied to a broader canvas.

Each week is structured Monday–Friday across four core subjects. The social studies thread is the backbone; ELA, math, and science continually braid into it. Reading texts come from the historical period being studied. Math word problems use real geographic and economic data. Science investigations explore the environments students are reading about.

Weekly Rhythm

• Morning block — Social studies anchor lesson and primary or close reading (~60 min).
• Mid-morning — Math instruction and practice (~60 min).
• After lunch — ELA: writing, grammar, novel study, vocabulary (~90 min spread across the day).
• Late afternoon — Science investigation or hands-on project (~45 min).

Adapt the order to fit your family. The sequence within a week is flexible; the sequence across the year is not — later units build on earlier ones.

What's New in Fifth Grade

• Reading

  Longer informational texts, multiple-source comparisons, theme analysis in literature.

• Writing

  Multi-paragraph essays in all three modes plus a formal research report.

• Math

  Fluent multi-digit multiplication & division, unlike-denominator fractions, decimals to thousandths, volume, and the coordinate plane.

• Science

  Four NGSS units — Matter, Ecosystems, Earth's Systems, Space Systems — one per quarter.

• Social Studies

  A hemispheric scope: ancient American civilizations, European exploration, comparative government, contemporary Americas.