3rd-5th grade

3rd grade dives deep into STEM centers. It is the first year students are able to participate in the Science Fair. Each Friday is dedicated to “STEM Friday.”  On top of a strong academic year, third grade also has a solo play production in front of the entire school. It’s a great way to practice public speaking and leadership skills.

Nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs and abstract nouns. How to form and use regular and irregular verbs and pronouns in sentences. Identify simple, compound and complex sentences as well as coordinating and subordinating conjunctions. Using commas and quotation marks correctly. How to form and use possessives. Form and use comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs. Capitalization and punctuation. Sentence fragments and run-on sentences.

Writing focus on personal narratives, descriptive writing, persuasive writing, expository writing (learn how to investigate an idea, evaluate evidence, expand on the idea and set form an argument concerning the idea).

Reading focus on folktales, realistic fiction, information text, persuasive text, specific novels during the year, historical fiction, biographies and procedural texts.

Focus: Multiplication, 3-4 digit addition and subtraction, place value and how to collect and record data in graphs. Multiplication, properties of multiplication and equations. Measurements, calculating mass of objects and telling time. Division and fractions. Elapsed time, measuring to the nearest inch, quarter, and below. Area, perimeter, elapsed time, shapes and angles.

Focus: Everything weather- water cycles, types of clouds, severe weather and the difference between weather and climate. Fossils, classifying animals, inherited traits, acquired traits, learned behaviors and instincts. Scientific Method, force and motion. Life cycles of butterflies, frogs and plants.

Focus: Holy Trinity and parts of the Mass. Five basic forms of prayer and virtues. The Rosary, the Bible (gospels, parables, miracles, old and new testament) and the liturgical years. Paschal Mystery, church leaders, Lent and 7 sacraments. 4 marks of the church, communal life, 12 disciples, Easter, Holy Week and morality.

Focus: The nation’s symbols, national historic figures and national celebrations. Declaration of Independence and the constitution of the United States. Map skills. Human influence on the environment, irrigation, reforestation. Trading patterns between countries and regions. 5 regions in the United States. Recognize how land regions, river systems and interstate highways connect. Application of map and globe skills. Geographical regions of Alabama.

Fifth grade is a year of leadership. The teachers promote independence in preparation for middle school. Students will work on time management, study skills and independent task completion. 

 Students will get to run for class homeroom representatives, serve in the Student Government Association and serve the Parish as Altar Servers for the first time.  Students change classes between two teachers.  Fifth grade participates in a Veterans Day program and a  Colonial Day demonstration to bring to life  their Social Studied curriculum. Chrome Books and interactive classrooms are a big focus in fifth grade.

Focus: Information skills strategies (cause and effect, compare and contrast, sequencing etc.). Learning the four types of sentences, subjects and predicates, independent and dependent clauses. Compound and complex sentences, common & proper nouns, plural nouns, possessive nouns and verbs.  Comma, capitalization and spelling.

Reading skills: fictional skills, plot diagram, theme, characters and setting. Book reports.

RACE writing strategies. Fact-based opinion writing, narrative and informational writing. Personal and fictional narratives.

Focus: Place value, multiplying whole numbers. Dividing by 1 and 2 digit divisors. Add, subtract and multiply decimals. Expressions, patterns and measurements.  Fractions (adding, subtracting and multiplying fractions). Shapes and capacity.

Focus: Layers of Earth’s atmosphere and Earth spheres. Solid, liquid and gasses. Mixtures and solutions. Physical and chemical changes. Force. Plant and animal adaptation. Science Fair. Scientific Method. Food chains and food webs. Ecosystems.

Focus: Revelation, Trinity, Living Image of Jesus Christ, The Church’s Message, Morality, Forgiveness, Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of the Eucharist. Sacraments, Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost.

Focus: The first Americans, exploring the Americas, completing for colonies, colonial America. Life in the American colonies, spirit of independence. The American Revolution and the Constitution. The young republic, Civil War and reconstitution.