Fifth grade is the final year of elementary school at Draper Elementary! It is a wonderful year full of learning and fun.
What are some of the things that we learn about in fifth grade? In reading, we dive into stories with themes surrounding doing the right thing, adaptation, adventure, and more! We explore these stories by making inferences and looking at their story structure, character development, and text features. For writing, we work on composing informational, opinion, and narrative multi-paragraph essays. We focus heavily on correctly citing evidence and explaining our reasoning in our writing.
Moving on to math, we start the year exploring place value of whole numbers and decimals. We then focus on multiply and dividing whole numbers and decimals. After, decimals, we move to fractions. Fractions are an important part of the fifth grade! We add, subtract, multiply, and divide fractions with unlike denominators. Once we have honed our understanding of decimals and fractions, we apply these skills in areas such word problems, line plots, measurement, and more!
Science is another exciting part of the fifth grade! We start by learning about matter in its various states, and continue to look at matter and energy as it moves throughout our world. We study ecosystems, earth’s systems, and how the earth changes over time.
Moving on from academic fun, we have many exciting field trips and activities! To start off the school year, students begin the DARE program in the fall. In DARE, students learn valuable skills related to decision making and drug prevention from a Draper police officer. In the winter, we attend performances by Ballet West and the Utah Symphony in Salt Lake City. Another highlight of the winter, and of the fifth grade year as a whole, is JA City! JA City is an exciting experience that begins with students learning financial literacy and real-world skills, and culminates with a field trip where students “enter” the adult world for the day and are responsible for doing a job and handling their money. It is an experience that is often the highlight of many students’ year! Throughout the year, students can also choose to participate in the Great American program. This is a project that students complete independently, and it is comprised of learning the states and capitals, US presidents, the Preamble, researching a president, and more! At the end of the year, after working hard on the RISE, students can look forward to attending a Bee’s baseball game. On the very last day of the school year, we hold a graduation ceremony to celebrate all of fifth grade students’ accomplishments and to show that students are moving on from elementary to middle school.
