St. John's Episcopal School

Third through fifth grades are departmentalized with class periods lasting 45 minutes. We further develop and refine all subject matter in these grades.

Science—Life science, earth science, physical science and the human body are studied. Each grade level adds more detailed components each year. Each grade is introduced to dissecting; third grade dissects flowers, fourth grade dissects owl pellets, and fifth grade dissects pigs. Many hands-on-projects are assigned for group completion.

Language Arts—Sentences such as phrases/clauses, kinds of sentences, parts of speech, adding adverbs, conjunctions, prepositional phrases, interjections, punctuation, capitalization, cursive handwriting as well as spelling. The writing phase includes the writing process, figurative language, stories, poems; paragraphs include descriptive, narrative, expository and persuasive.

Reading—Skills including main idea, context clues, cause and effect, fact and opinion, summarize, drawing conclusions, reference skills, vocabulary skills, and literary terms. Also included are poetry, Greek mythology, tall tales, four novels are read during the year, and plays. Accelerated Reading plays an important role in improving students’ reading skills.

Social Studies—Topics covered are communities, citizenship, government, American culture, immigrants, ancient communities, nation’s history, geography, map skills, regions of Texas, native American groups in Texas, Texas Revolution, Texas and the Civil War, Texas history, World War I & II, Revolutionary War, the Constitution, and the 50 states and capitals.

Math—Consists of understanding numbers and operations, money, time, multiplication, division, data, graphing, probability, geometry, measurements, fractions, decimals, problem solving strategies, and algebra.

Physical Education—students in preschool through fifth grade attend physical education classes at least two times a week. Students acquire the knowledge and skills for movement that provide the foundation for enjoyment, continued social development through physical activity, access to a physically-active lifestyle and the relationship between physical activity and health throughout their lifespan.

Music—students in preschool through fifth grade attend music classes at least two times a week. Students acquire rhythm activities, intro to percussion instruments, pitch training, musical language, different styles of music, and intro to great composers and periods in music.

Art—First and second grade students attend art classes one semester and third through fifth grade students attend classes the entire year. Students acquire knowledge of different artists and their techniques, color, texture, form, and line through hands-on activities.

Spanish— First and second grade students attend Spanish classes one semester and third through fifth grade students attend classes the entire year. Each student is introduced to the basic Spanish language such as alphabet, vocabulary, numbers, days of the week, months of the year, colors, parts of the body, types of clothing, food and older students continue with verb conjugation, sentence structure, sentences writing,

Computer—students in kindergarten through fifth grade attend classes twice a week. Students are introduced to keyboarding, computer parts, MS Word, MS Excel, MS Publisher, PowerPoint. Third through fifth learn to design a web page.

Study Skills—Third through fifth grade are taught test taking skills, note taking, and organizational skills that will be a life-long benefit.

Our fifth graders attend an annual “senior” trip to the Mayan Dude Ranch in early April. This is a great way to form lasting bonds and memories before entering middle school.

Also, a portfolio of each student’s work is kept throughout the fifth grade to be used as part of the public school’s Challenge Program requirements. A healthy portion of our fifth grade population is accepted into the Challenge Program and IB Program.