5th Grade
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RELIGION 5
The foundational text for this course is The Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism #2. The Baltimore Catechism was chosen for its simple question and answer format, which facilitates memorization and helps in understanding the truths of the Catholic faith. The course covers the first half of the text, "The Creed" and "The Commandments." Lesson plans include catechism assignments, Bible history readings, weekly postings, and reading the lives of St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Catherine Laboure. There are weekly auto-scored assessments for Bible history and catechism as well as audio-visual material to augment the assigned lesson content.
MATH 5
The Grade Five math curriculum covers five main skill sets: addition and subtraction, multiplication, division, geometry and measurement, and word problems. Students will work through three Kumon workbooks focusing on one skill at a time before progressing to the next. The lessons are taught in a step-by-step manner with plenty of repetition. Each week, students will watch a recorded video on the weekly skill and practice it through online practice and workbook exercises. Weekly quizzes will be administered to assess understanding, including review questions from previous weeks. It's noted that the workbooks prioritize practice over direct instruction in accordance with the Common Core standards.
LANGUAGE ARTS 5
This course addresses grammar, spelling, and vocabulary. We provide daily lesson plans and weekly online quizzes. Because spelling and vocabulary are individualized subjects, they are presented in a separate lesson plan for flexibility.
The Easy Grammar approach is a "divide and conquer" strategy that has proven to be very successful for many beginners. Students learn to identify prepositions first, thereby making it easier to identify other parts of speech.
READING COMPREHENSION 5
This first reading comprehension course provides short daily reading assignments, three to five online quizzes each week and suggested composition topics. A classical approach using Catholic stories and wholesome books. Each quarter the students share in a monitored discussion forum, provide a written response to a topic from the assigned readings, and comment on fellow students’ perspective.
HISTORY 5
This course explores the history of North America beginning with the Indian nations through the European colonization. It looks at the events that led to the founding of the United States and its history up to the 20th century. Weekly lesson plans, online chapter tests, and workbook activities are provided. The material is reviewed and reinforced through a variety of activities such as crosswords, map labeling, drawing, and online discussions. Optional literature suggestions will be provided for each time period as it is studied. These readers reinforce the course work and give the student a broader understanding, but are not be required.