| | | Academics Grammar School [5th] |
| Fifth Grade Curriculum
| | Bible | The fifth graders study the life of Christ as it is presented in the four gospels, using the Veritas Press Bible Cards and The Journey Through the Bible. They generally have one lesson per week, and are required to memorize scripture and applicable catechism questions. We seek to bring the story of our Lord to life for the students.
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 | The fifth graders study the life of Christ as it is presented in the four gospels, using the Veritas Press Bible Cards and The Journey Through the Bible. They generally have one lesson per week, and are required to memorize scripture and applicable catechism questions. We seek to bring the story of our Lord to life for the students by presenting the life of Christ in its proper historical and geographical context. In addition to a weekly lesson on the life of Christ, the students memorize applicable scripture and catechism questions. | | The fifth graders pictured above are holding their 3-D maps of where Jesus walked. | |
| Grammar | | Fifth graders study Shurley Grammar Level 5. They learn the grammar of the English language through a combination of chants, jingles, drills, sentence classifications, and reviews. We focus on application of grammatical principles in writing in the grammar class, as well as in Bible, History, and Literature classes. Students are held accountable for the grammatical principles they have learned in grammar class in their writing across the curriculum.
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| History | | Fifth graders at ECCS study American history from pre-history / Native Americans (including South American through the sixteenth century) through the Missouri Compromise of 1820. (Sixth grade history carries American History from that point through the present.) We use the Veritas Press American History cards, as well as the History of US series by Joy Hakim. The students learn a history song, which enables them to remember the timeline of early American history.
We seek to instill in our students a love and respect for our nation’s history, as well as an appreciation for the sacrifices that were made by our forefathers to establish this remarkable nation in which we live. Throughout the year, we celebrate special days related to our history (Native American Day, Colonial Day, Revolutionary Day), We go on several field trips that are related to our study of history, including the George Washington Museum in Columbina, the Birmingham Museum of Art, where we see Native American art, and American Village. We cap the year off with a trip Jamestown, where we step aboard the replicas of the Godspeed, the Susan Constant, and the Discovery and walk in the footsteps of John Smith and Pocahontas. We travel to Mount Vernon and then to Washington, where we tour our nation's capital. | 
The students above teach their classmates a lesson on the Plains Indians.
These students show the class their model of an adobe Indian village.
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| Latin | | | Fifth graders at ECCS study Schola Latina, Book 2. Lingua Latina is also used for supplemental Latin reading. The students learn Latin through a combination of chants, recitations, drills, exercises, and readings. Games are utilized throughout the grammar school Latin curriculum. Fifth graders also look forward to forming a Roman Senate and to having Roman Market Day in the spring, where their Latin vocabulary and counting skills are put to the test. | |
| Literature | | We begin our year in literature talking about our two summer reading titles: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare and Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss. The Bronze Bow, which is set in Roman-occupied Israel during the life of Christ, helps set the stage for our students' study of the Gospels in Bible class. Swiss Family Robinson helps establish our theme of voyage and exploration that we will focus on both in literature class and in the first half of our study of history.
While we are studying Columbus, we read the novella Pedro's Journal by Pamela Conrad. Then we move on to Robinson Crusoe by Daniel DeFoe. The students write their own Robinsoniads (castaway fiction), and then we move on to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis in class, while the students read Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island as an independent book project.
By then, we are studying the Puritans in history, so we take a break from novels to study some classic Puritan literature by Anne Bradstreet, William Bradford, John Winthrop, Edward Taylor, and John Edwards. As a Christmas treat, the students read Charles Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol during the month of December.
We reinforce our study of the Salem Witch Trials by reading Elizabeth George Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond. Then we move on to The Sign of the Beaver, another Speare novel, set during the French and Indian War. As we study our founding fathers, we read excerpts from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. We cap off our historical fiction with the classic Johnny Tremain, as we study the Revolutionary War in history.
C.S. Lewis's The Silver Chair finishes off our fifth grade novels, and rainy day reads include a youth version of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Scattered throughout the year, we read selections of classic American poetry. | |
| Math | | | We use Saxon Math 76 as our fifth grade math text. Students participate in mental math exercises, speed drills, and math games and activities, as well as traditional math problem solving. Students typically have problems to work for homework each night, as well as one math test per week. | |
| Penmanship | | | Students practice cursive penmanship skills using A Reason for Handwriting, Level E. Students work a daily exercise in their penmanship books, but they are also held accountable for their penmanship in other subjects as well. We strive to teach them to strive for beauty and excellence--even in penmanship! | |
| Science | | We seek to integrate fifth grade science into our other subjects, especially history and Bible. Using A Reason for Science, Level E as a basis, we study physical forces (like magnetism and waves), life science (classification, plant kingdom, animal kingdom), and basic chemistry (matter, elements, atoms, molecules, etc.) We emphasize hands-on learning through experimentation, demonstrations, and modeling.
The students to the right are making styrofoam models of water molecules. |  |
| Spelling / Vocabulary | | | We use A Reason for Spelling, Level F to teach our students basic spelling concepts and rules. Each week's lesson consists of twenty-five words that are related phonetically. In addition, this year we have added Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Level 5. Every two weeks, the students are introduced to approximately ten new vocabulary words and the Latin or Greek root from which the word is derived. | |
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