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The Fifth Grade English curriculum provides students with opportunities to become more critical readers and writers. They engage different genres of literature that focus on a range of themes, including but not limited to identity, social inequalities, and the power of relationships. Through small-group and whole-class discussions, students practice constructive dialogue with their peers while also developing their ability to annotate as they learn how to thoughtfully articulate insights and observations about a literary text. They become more confident in various modes of expressive, analytical, and imaginative writing assignments that emphasize prewriting, drafting, and revision. The spelling curriculum deepens and expands a word-specific knowledge base that is fundamental to meaningful communication. The literature studied and texts utilized: The Birchbark House, Esperanza Rising, The Pants Project, and Spelling Connections.

Fifth grade social studies begins the year by inviting fifth graders into the world of the upper campus, and orienting them to the skills and tools required to understand themselves as learners. Students develop and master the skill of creating and presenting slideshows on Google Slides. One recurring project that draws on these skills is the Newscaster project, in which students pick a current event and create a slideshow in order to educate their peers about the event. This project recurs four times over the course of the year, and requires students to work on becoming researchers and presenters, using images for storytelling. Students also focus on using models like Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences in order to understand their strengths as students, and advocate for their own learning. As the year progresses, fifth graders shift their focus to world geography, building a foundation of map skills and focusing on the five themes of geography: location, place, region, movement, and human- environment interaction. Many group and individual projects, as well as map quizzes and tests, help fifth graders to understand the fundamentals of geography that will be crucial for history classes later in the scope and sequence of their experience at IMS. Interdisciplinary connections between science work in biomes and social studies work in the natural and human elements of geography are also explored.

Mandarin III is an upper-intermediate language course that prepares students to develop their competency towards an advanced level. After studying Chinese in Mandarin IA, IB, and II at IMS or equivalent, the students will continue to develop their language skills on the following topics: online shopping, family gatherings, social and festival events, nature and environmental protection, sickness and healthcare, tourism, and exploring Chinese Culture. The students are expected to have learned approximately 1000 characters in total upon completion of the upper-intermediate level. The students will be able to express themselves, share points of view in discussions, and communicate in paragraph-length conversations on familiar topics as well as some new social and academic topics.