Grade 5 Social Studies

5th Grade Social Studies has adopted a new program to start August 2025. This Curriculum Overview will be a work in progress.

Course Overview: students will work to develop basic Social Studies skills and grade level standards including:

• Daily Geography Practice (D.G.P.) Daily map examinations and answering map questions. 

• Reading and interpreting non fiction text 

• Regions and countries within the Western Hemisphere can be determined using geographic boundaries, landforms, climate, cultural, and economic characteristics

• Political, environmental, social, and economic factors cause people, products, and ideas to move resulting in diversity

• Government systems: Democracy, Monarchy, and Dictatorship. The role of citizens within the government system is examined.

• Interpreting data from circle graphs, images, charts, and tables

• Economics: Decision making has both present and future consequences. 

• Researching and recording information without plagiarizing; using both digital and non-digital resources

Textbook: Gallopade 5th Grade: Regions and People of the Western Hemisphere. Students access the Gallopade online Western Hemisphere digital text through their @alstudent.org Google account. Each student also has a Gallopade consumable workbook.

Additional Online Supplemental Materials: Readworks passages, Quizlet (flashcard review of concepts), Blooket (review game), Padlet (digital sticky note), Edulastic (digital assessment platform), and EdPuzzle (videos with questions embedded) are interactive educational sites students may be using throughout the year. These assignments are accessible through the Google Classroom.

Assessments: Gallopade provides vocabulary building activities, interactive galleries, review opportunities, study guides, quizzes, and formative assessments throughout each unit. 

Content

Quarter 1: Daily Geography Practice and Unit 1, History (Chapters 1-3)

•  Introduces concepts of time, early civilizations, and the effects of European exploration and colonization. 

Quarter 2: Daily Geography Practice and Unit 2, Geography (Chapters 4-10)

• Covers geographic tools, locations, regions, and cultural diversity found within the Western Hemisphere.  

Quarter 3: Daily Geography Practice and Unit 3, Government (Chapter 12)

• Examines how physical environments influence human activities, cultural groups, and the movement of people, products, and ideas. 

Quarter 4: Daily Geography Practice and Unit 4, Economics (Chapters 13-18)

• Examines productive resources, economic interdependence, and earning an income.