David Zittergruen 5th and 6th Grade P: 952-474-5181 x37 E: david.zittergruen@oslcs.org Read Full Profile »

Grades 5-8 at Our Savior Lutheran School are departmentalized. Grade 5 is the transition year into the middle school. This means that students will have several teachers during their school day that are specialists in a particular field of study. In order to maintain a family-like atmosphere, each class also has a home-room teacher charged with monitoring the overall academic, social, and spiritual progress of individual students as well as the class as a whole.

Religion

The fifth grade materials in the Voyages curriculum are designed to teach students about the key concepts of faith, such as Law and Gospel, confession repentance, forgiveness and faith. The majority of the lessons provide a summary of the life and teachings of Martin Luther as well as Old Testament biblical history. Each lesson centers on the cross of Christ and is grounded in the word of God.

Language Arts

Reading
The fifth grade reading curriculum has six themes of reading material. These include: Wild Animals, Personal Stories, Catastrophes, Historical, and Humor with both fiction and nonfiction stories. There is instruction in language concepts as well as study and reading skills. The stories hold students’ attention and help them to connect with the world around them.

English
Learning the parts of speech; a variety of sentence structures; paragraphing, and story, theme, research paper, letter, and poetry writing develops the structure of the language curriculum.

Spelling
The spelling curriculum is based on the basic principle of using phonetic patterns. It also develops vocabulary. The lists include words that are commonly used by the students and are appropriate for educational use. Students will use context clues, antonyms, and synonyms. They will also practice capitalization and punctuation.

Handwriting
Through practice and practical applications, students will make a thorough review of the basic elements of legible writing: letter size, slant, alignment, line, quality, and smoothness of line.

Math

Math at Our Savior Lutheran School provides theory, practice, and practical applications of the four processes (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) in whole numbers, decimals, fractions, ratios, proportions, integers, and percents. Pre-algebra concepts and variables are also introduced. The fifth grade curriculum focuses on the four processes and their relationships to decimals and fractions as well as geometry, probability, and graphing. The students demonstrate their skills and knowledge in daily assignments, quizzes, and tests.

Science

The more we learn about God’s marvelous creation the more we marvel at God’s amazing power and wisdom which he uses to care for us. The 5th and 6th grades join in a combined class for a general science course that introduces many different areas of science; cellular biology, plate tectonics, the nature of matter, oceanography and physical science, our solar system and beyond, energy and motion, light and sound and more. Classes include demonstrations and hands on activities. Students are Often encouraged to work in groups to help each other learn. Children are encouraged to use the scientific method to explore God’s amazing creation.

Art

The students are exposed to a wide variety of art media and techniques. Art allows students to express their creativity. The students will be exposed to various art forms including drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, and design.

Minnesota History

The curriculum has been designed to capture students’ imaginations with the stories of people who have come together to share, create, and be transformed by the place we call Minnesota. Each chapter tells the stories of real people facing the challenges of their time. These stories are the building blocks of our state’s history. Students will learn that understanding history is a process of uncovering and interpreting all sorts of historical evidence. They will examine historical documents of all types.

Technology

Through the use of technology equipment, your child will: perform basic keyboarding skills, use the computer for educational research; understand the many functions of the computer; and understand and produce a PowerPoint presentation.