How do Individual Differences Enrich the Learning Community?

Grade Five Curriculum Overview

Introduction: This curriculum letter provides a broad overview of learning outcomes, instructional
approaches and assessment focus over the upcoming months in Grade Five.
Time Frame: January to March 2015
Overarching Question:
As students participate in the authentic experience of Outdoor School they will be given opportunities
to live the democratic process before, during and after the Outdoor School experience. Throughout
the term students will inquire into the question How do individual differences enrich the learning
community? What we can learn from those around us? Students will be given the opportunity to
collaborate with Grade 6 students to build skills in cooperation, conflict resolution and consensus
building.
Calgary Board of Educations Result Statements for Students:
In the coming months students will have opportunities to develop their understanding and application
of Character, Citizenship and Personal Development through cross-curricular areas and learning
tasks.
Character:
-Reflects on and takes responsibility for the impact of actions and decisions.
-Shows respect for contributions and achievements of others.
Citizenship:
- Exercises democratic rights and responsibilities within the learning community.
- Takes responsibility and action to help the group work smoothly.
Personal Development:
-Plans a strategic approach to meeting goals, solving problems and performing tasks
-Assumes leadership or contributing roles to advance learning and community goals.
Language Arts
Over the next three months students will be working to build a representation to reflect the story of
their Outdoor School experience as an individual and as part of a collective.
Students will complete a variety of authentic writing tasks where they will develop and apply
writing skills and processes that will assess reflective, responsive and expository content.
Read a variety of texts from different genres and cultures.
Reflect on areas of personal accomplishment, and set personal goals to improve language
learning and use.
Add and Organize details in my writing
Listen and respond during group work and take responsibility for fulfilling roles as a group

member.
Mathematics
Through engaging in problem solving tasks and authentic math projects, students will explore and
develop their understanding of Number Sense and Patterns and Relations.
Represent and describe whole numbers.
Use estimation and mental math strategies to solve problems.
Understand fractions and decimals and represent them concretely, pictorially, and
symbolically.
Represent algebraic expressions in multiple ways.
Identify the unknown in a problem, represent it with an equation and solve it using
diagrams and symbols.
Science
Students will observe, describe and experience an authentic ecosystem in Kananaskis and in their
own community.
Communicate with group members to share and evaluate ideas.
Use suitable methods to record, compile, interpret and evaluate observations.
Appreciation of the benefits gained from shared effort and cooperation.
Describe living and non-living parts of an ecosystem and how the parts interact.
State an inference.
Social Studies
Students will critically examine the complex histories and stories that have shaped Canadas
democracy and understand the difference between individual and collective identity.
Analyze how people in Canada interact with the environment.
Examine ways of life of aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Understand how historical events shaped collective identity in Canada.
Think of strategies independently or in a group to achieve a goal.
Assessment
Parents will be able to see a portion of this process documented within their childs personalized
learning plan through setting and reflecting on goals and teacher feedback within IRIS. Parents will
also receive feedback about their childs progress through Friday Journals and various assessment
samples in their Assessment Folders, leading to Student-Led conferences in March.