This parent guide supports parents in helping their child at home with the 5th grade ELA content.

In this unit, students explore Colonial America through the building of timelines and investigating primary and secondary sources. This study of significant events in the colonization of North America and the aspects of everyday life in Colonial America is designed for students to gather, record, and organize their own Colonial Notebook. Students will take on the role of colonist in a given region and work with other 'colonists' of the same region to develop a report and presentation. The study will take students through the life and times of those early settlers and will have them preparing a colonial meal representative of their region of focus

In this lesson, students begin by discussing the meaning of “common good” and the impact of this concept on rights and responsibilities in the lives of US citizens. They then examine the Bill of Rights and other amendments to the US Constitution, focusing on how amendments over time have focused on the common good and have responded to current issues and problems. Finally, the students apply their understanding of common good and individual rights and responsibilities to the proposal of a new amendment to the US Constitution. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson plan, the character of Mama, in Emily's Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary, writes to the State Librarian asking for help starting a library in their town. Inspired by the actions in Cleary’s book, students write to their school librarian, requesting that a specific text be added to the school library collection. Students use persuasive writing skills as well as online tools to write letters stating their cases. Students then have an opportunity to share their letters with the librarian.

Students read and discuss the Founding Fathers of our country indulgence in gripe sessions. In fact, a list of grievances comprises the longest section of the Declaration of Independence; however, the source of the document's power is its firm philosophic foundation. You can capitalize on the inclination of your students to complain to increase student awareness of the precedents behind the Declaration of Independence. Students will summarize the contributions of the "Founding Fathers" to the development of our county as well as explain how key historical figures exemplified values of American democracy.

In this lesson, students are placed in a role-playing scenario that builds off of the one described in the book/movie entitled "Divergent." A group of revolutionaries calling themselves "Emergent" organizes factions that must develop expertise on different aspects of the Bill of Rights. Students use their faction's expertise to collaboratively stop the "Secret Committee Against Rights for Everyone."

In the essay “Mother Tongue,” Amy Tan explains that she “began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with.” How these “different Englishes” or even a language other than English contribute to identity is a crucial issue for adolescents.
In this lesson, students explore this issue by brainstorming the different languages they use in speaking and writing, and when and where these languages are appropriate. They write in their journals about a time when someone made an assumption about them based on their use of language, and share their writing with the class. Students then read and discuss Amy Tan's essay “Mother Tongue.” Finally, they write a literacy narrative describing two different languages they use and when and where they use these languages.

In this lesson, students practice formal and informal English, spoken and written, based on audience and purpose.

This lesson gives learners the chance to delve deeply in to the lives of the Founding Fathers and Mothers to discover the personal characteristics that enabled them to become leaders and revolutionaries. This would be a good assignment for students who compact out of a portion of a unit on early American history. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

Share PowerPoint, Poster and Travel Log - Students will get to teach their peers and teacher about their country of study. They will share the research that they did over the first 2 days by presenting their Powerpoints, posters and travel logs. This lesson was developed by Tia Gilliam as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

Students will gather their group instruments, posters, and scripts and will present the making of the instrument, the learning process about poverty, as well as perform the instrument sound. Group members will assess themselves as well as other members of their group. The assessment will include each student's individual contribution and effectiveness in participating in the presentation. Students also will assess other groups' work and rate the effectiveness of the presentation. The teacher will write an assessment for each group which will be shared individually by the teacher with the groups. This lesson was developed by Angela Windley as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

In this lesson, the students will have the opportunity to come up with possible solutions to an environmental issue. Students will conduct research using the internet to discover a variety of environmental issues. Students will choose an environmental issue that is of most interest to them, create a solution, and present their poster to the class. They will complete this lesson with a learning poster that demonstrates their understanding and learning of environmental issues, along with a solution. These include but are not limited to: pollution, wasting energy, littering, wasting water, and deforestation. Students will collaborate within small groups to explore and discuss environmental issues that not only occur locally, but globally as well. This lesson was developed by Christina Hartzell as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

After this lesson students will be able to combine word choice and procedural writing; thus enhancing their overall writing skills.

This unit is designed for students to learn to make judgments and decisions based on facts, and to use informational and imaginative speech to present their personal viewpoint and opinion to others. Students experience, first hand, taxation without representation, and will develop a very real sense for the need to preserve the inherent freedoms of man. Using the American flag as a graphic organizer, students will develop a clear understanding of the actions and reactions of the American colonists to British rule and to our most important national holiday, the 4th of July. Historically significant events will be studied and organized through exploration of facts and opinions and interaction with informational text and class discussion.

Water covers 71% of the earth?s surface?does it get the instructional time it deserves in your busy curriculum? Students wade right in to the study of bodies of water as they read and discuss science trade books and work together to develop Readers Theater scripts based on selected titles.

In this lesson, students research the various types of clouds using print and online materials. Then students write haikus using the Haiku App or the Haiku Poem Interactive, but they do not include the names of the clouds. The students share their haikus and guess what type of cloud each haiku describes.

Fifth grade task cards for all seven MITECS and ISTE Standards for Students

In this lesson, students will compare John Smith's account of the Powhatan Indians with other primary source material about the Powhatans. They will then compare ideas and facts from each source to determine similarities and differerences.

Students are required to act out their favorite character from the book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Students will also develop an opinion of the main character, Hugo Cabret. They must decide if he is a diligent or obsessed person. Students will then create their own Hugo Cabret puppet using a paper plate and cut out body parts. The puppet will convey two reasons why the student felt the way they did about Hugo, as well as two references from the text to support their opinion.

This course was created by the Rethink Education Content Development Team. This course is aligned to the NC Standards for 5th Grade ELA.