Fifth Grade
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Fifth Grade Curriculum
The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) creates instructional programs based on the North Carolina Standard Course of Study as specified by the NC Department of Public Instruction. For an overview of WCPSS instructional programs, see WCPSS Connections.
Salem Elementary supplements the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and WCPSS instructional program with the concepts of Core Knowledge.
What Is Core Knowledge?
Core Knowledge is an idea for promoting academic excellence, greater fairness, and higher
literacy in elementary and middle schools by implementing a solid, specific, shared core
curriculum. Core Knowledge is designed to help children establish strong foundations of
knowledge, grade by grade. For more information on Core Knowledge, see
http://www.coreknowledge.org/.
Fifth Grade Core Knowledge
Language Arts
World History and Geography
American History and Geography
Mathematics
Science
Language Arts I. Poetry A. Poems The Arrow And The Song (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) Barbara Frietchie (John Greenleaf Whittier) Battle Hymn of the Republic (Julia Ward Howe) A bird came down the walk (Emily Dickinson) Casey at the Bat (Ernest Lawrence Thayer) The Eagle (Alfred Lord Tennyson) I Hear America Singing (Walt Whitman) I like to see it lap the miles (Emily Dickinson) I, too, sing America (Langston Hughes) Incident (Countee Cullen) Jabberwocky (Lewis Carroll) Narcissa (Gwendolyn Brooks) O Captain! My Captain! (Walt Whitman) A Poison Tree (William Blake) The Road Not Taken (Robert Frost) The Snowstorm (Ralph Waldo Emerson) Some Opposites (Richard Wilbur) The Tiger (William Blake) A Wise Old Owl (Edward Hersey Richards) B. Terms Onomatopoeia Alliteration II. Fiction and Drama A. Stories The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain) Episodes from Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes) Little Women (First Part) (Louisa May Alcott) The secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Frederick Douglass) Tales of Sherlock Holmes, including "The Red-Headed League" (Arthur Conan Doyle) III. Speeches · Abraham Lincoln: The Gettysburg Address · Chief Joseph (Highh'moot Tooyalakekt): "I will fight no more forever" IV. Sayings and Phrases Birthday suit Bite the hand that feeds you. Chip on your shoulder Count your blessings. Eat crow Eleventh hour Eureka! Every cloud has a silver lining. Few and far between Forty winks The grass is always greener on the other side of the hill. To kill two birds with one stone Lock, stock and barrel Make a mountain out of a molehill A miss is as good as a mile. It's never too late to mend. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. A penny saved is a penny earned. Read between the lines. Sit on the fence Steal his/her thunder Take the bull by the horns. Till the cows come home Time heals all wounds. Tom, Dick and Harry Vice versa A watched pot never boils. Well begun is half done. What will be will be. World History and Geography I. Geography A. Spatial Sense (Working with Maps, Globes, and Other Geographic Tools) · Read maps and globes using longitude and latitude, coordinates, degrees · Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn: relation to seasons and temperature · Climate zones: Arctic, Tropic, Temperate · Time zones: prime Meridian (0 degrees); Greenwich, England, 180 o Line (International date Line) · Arctic Circle (Imaginary lines and boundaries) and Antarctic Circle · From a round globe to a flat map: Mercator projection, conic and plane projections B. Great Lakes of the World · Eurasia: Caspian Sea · Asia: Aral Sea · Africa: Victoria, Tanganyika, Chad · North America: Superior, Huron, Michigan · South America: Maracaibo, Titicaca II. European Exploration, Trade, and the Clash of Cultures A. Background · Beginning in the 1400s Europeans set forth in a great wave of exploration and trade. · European motivations Muslims controlled many trade routes. Profit through trade in goods such as gold, silver, silks, sugar, and spices Spread of Christianity: missionaries, Bartolome de las Casas speaks out against enslavement and mistreatment of native peoples · Geography of the spice trade The Moluccas, also called the "Spice Islands": part of present-day Indonesia Locate: the region known as Indochina, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines Definition of "archipelago" "Ring of Fire": earthquakes and volcanic activity B. European Exploration, Trade and Colonization · Portugal Prince Henry the Navigator, exploration of the West African coast Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope Vasco da Gama: spice trade with India, exploration of East Africa Portuguese conquer East African Swahili city-states Cabral claims Brazil · Spain Two worlds meet: Christopher Columbus and the Tainos Treaty of Tordesillas between Portugan and Spain Magellan crosses the Pacific, one of his ships returns to Spain, making the first round-the-world voyage Balboa reaches the Pacific · England and France Search for Northwest Passage Colonies in North America and West Indies Trading posts in India · Holland (The Netherlands) The Dutch take over Portuguese trade routes and colonies in Africa and the East indies The Dutch in South Africa, Cape Town The Dutch in North America: New Netherland, later lost to England C. Trade and Slavery · The sugar trade African slaves on Portuguese sugar plantations on islands off West African coast, such as Sao Tome Sugar plantations on Caribbean islands · Transatlantic slave trade: the "triangular trade" from Europe to Africa to colonies in the Caribbean and the Americas The "Slave Coast" in West Africa The Middle Passage III. Canada IV. Latin America American History and Geography I. Westward Expansion A. Westward Expansion Before the Civil war · Geography Erie Canal connecting the Hudson River and Lake Erie Rivers: James, Hudson, St. Lawrence, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Columbia, Rio Grande Appalachian and Rocky Mountains Great Plains stretching from Canada to Mexico Continental Divide and the flow of rivers: east of Rockies to the Arctic or Atlantic Oceans, west od Rockies to the Pacific Ocean · Indian resistance More and more settlers move onto Indian lands, treaties made and broken B. Westward Expansion After the Civil War · U.S. purchases Alaska from Russia, "Seward's folly" II. Native Americans: Cultures and Conflicts A. Culture and Life · Great Basin and Plateau (for example, Shoshone, Ute, Nez Perce) · Northern and Southern Plains (for example, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Lakota [Sioux], Shoshone, Blackfoot, Crow) Extermination of buffalo · Pacific Northwest (for example, Chinook, Kwakiutl, Yakima) B. American Government Policies · Bureau of Indian Affairs · Forced removal to reservations · Attempts to break down tribal life, assimilation policies, Carlisle School C. Conflicts · Sand Creek Massacre · Little Big Horn: Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Custer's Last Stand · Wounded Knee Ghost Dance III. U.S. Geography · Fifty states and capitals Mathematics I. Numbers and Number Sense II. Ratio and Percent III. Fractions and Decimals IV. Computation V. Measurement VI. Geometry VII. Probability and Statistics VIII. Pre-Algebra Science I. Geology: The Earth and Its Changes A. The earth's layers · Crust, mantle, core (outer core and inner core) · Movement of crustal plates · Earthquakes Faults, San Andreas fault Measuring intensity: seismograph and Richter Scale Tsunamis (also called tidal waves) · Volcanoes Magma lava and lava flow Active, dormant, or extinct Famous volcanoes: Vesuvius, Krakatoa, Mount St Helens · Hot springs and geysers: Old Faithful (m Yellowstone National Park) · Theories of how the continents and oceans were formed: Pangaea and continental drift B. How mountains are formed · Volcanic mountains, folded mountains, fault-block mountains, dome-shaped mountains · Undersea mountain peaks and trenches (Mariana Trench) C. Rocks · Formation and characteristics of metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary rock D. Weathering and erosion \ · Physical and chemical weathering · Weathering and erosion by water, wind, and glaciers · The formation of soil: topsoil, subsoil, bedrock II. Meteorology · The water cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation · Clouds: cirrus, stratus, cumulus · The atmosphere Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, ionosphere How the sun and the earth heat the atmosphere · Air movement wind direction and speed, prevailing winds, air pressure, low and high pressure, air masses · Cold and warm fronts: thunderheads, lightning and electric charge, thunder, tornadoes, hurricanes · Forecasting the weather: barometers (relation between changes in atmospheric pressure and weather), weather maps, weather satellites · Weather and climate: "weather" refers to daily changes in temperature, rainfall, sunshine, etc., while "climate" refers to weather trends that are longer than the cycle of the seasons. III. The Human Body A. Changes in human adolescence · Puberty B. The endocrine system · The human body has two types of glands: duct glands (such as the salivary glands), and ductless glands, also known as endocrine glands. · Endocrine glands secrete (give off) chemicals called hormones. Different hormones I control different body processes. · Pituitary gland: located at the bottom of the brain, secretes hormones that control other glands, and hormones that regulate growth · Thyroid gland: located below the voice box, secretes a hormone that controls the rate at : which the body burns and uses food · Pancreas: both a duct and ductless gland, secretes a hormone called insulin that regulates how the body uses and stores sugar, when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, a person has a sickness called diabetes (which can be controlled) · Adrenal glands: secrete a hormone called adrenaline, especially when a person is frightened or angry, causing rapid heartbeat and breathing C. The reproductive system · Females · Males · Sexual reproduction IV. Science Biographies Galileo Percy Lavon Julian Ernest Just Carl Linnaeus