Grade Five

Fifth grade is a milestone year at Nantucket Intermediate School—a time when students grow into leaders, deepen their learning, and prepare for the exciting transition to middle school.

Developmentally, fifth graders are becoming more independent thinkers and problem-solvers. They’re ready to take on more responsibility, think critically, and explore complex ideas across all subjects. Socially and emotionally, they’re learning how to work as a team, express themselves with confidence, and build strong, respectful relationships.

This year is all about building the skills, habits, and mindset that will carry students forward with confidence. At NIS, we support every fifth grader as they grow into thoughtful, capable, and curious learners—ready for the next big step!

The Nantucket Intermediate School teaches to the standards of the Massachusetts Department of Education. The information below helps families understand those standards and measures of progress. The information is taken from the document linked at the bottom of the page.

New Expectations for Fifth Grade

• Quote directly from a text when speaking or writing about it. For example, write: When the author says the land is “like a pancake,” she means that it is flat.
• Understand the concept of genre (type of text). Recognize and write texts in different genres, such as myths, mysteries, and historical fiction.
• Compare various types of English used in texts: for example, think about why two characters in the same story might speak very differently.
• Choose verbs carefully when speaking or writing. For example, think about whether to say I ate it, I had eaten it, it was eaten, or it had been eaten.

By the End of Fifth Grade, Students Can

• Summarize audio, visual, and multimedia texts such as speeches, Internet pages, and videos.
• Explain how specific claims and pieces of evidence in a text are connected.
• Explain how an author’s or narrator’s point of view affects how a story is told.
• Compare and contrast different versions of the same story or information.
• Describe different ways in which authors organize information. For example, books on the history of sports might be organized by time period or by sport.
• Use paragraphs to organize writing clearly and logically. 
• Type at least two pages at a time on a computer.
• Use commas in sentences like Yes, thank you and It’s Monday, isn’t it?
• Combine and break up sentences to make writing clearer or more interesting.
• Sign their full names in cursive.

Focus Areas for Fifth Grade

• Solve word problems using addition and subtraction of fractions. For example, find how many cups of sauce are needed to make three batches of pasta.

• Solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems with decimals. For example, divide the cost of a dinner among three people.
• Understand and solve problems involving volume. For example, find out which of two fish
• tanks would hold more water.
• Solve problems using the coordinate grid (graphs). For example, discuss a graph showing how temperature changes over the course of a year.

By the End of Fifth Grade, Students Can

• Use rules (like add 3) to make patterns of numbers (like 2, 5, 8, 11…). 
• Write, explain, and compute math expressions: for example, explain that 2 x (8 + 7) is 30.
• Round decimal numbers to the nearest thousandth: for example, round 5.7936 to 5.794.
• Fluently (quickly and correctly) multiply multi-digit numbers using the standard algorithm.
• Divide numbers using various strategies (like the partial quotients method).
• Multiply fractions by other fractions and by whole numbers: for example, 2/3 x 4/5 or 4/5 x 8
• Divide with whole numbers (like 7) and unit fractions (fractions with 1 on the top): for example, 4 ÷ 1/3 or 1/5 ÷ 4.
• Solve word problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of fractions and whole numbers.
• Solve multi-step word problems that include converting measurement units (like from grams to kilograms).
• Classify shapes in a hierarchy: for example, all rectangles are parallelograms, but not all parallelograms are rectangles.

Focus Areas for Fifth Grade

• Understand the relationships between the Sun, Earth, Moon, and stars. For example, explain how the Earth orbits the Sun and the Moon orbits the Earth.
• Understand what a watershed is and how water moves through cycles on Earth: for example, how rain can evaporate into the air or be absorbed into the ground.
• Understand how people affect the Earth: for example, the effects of chemicals from factories and farms and how people can reduce those effects. 
• Understand how plants make their own food using water, air, and energy from the sun. Explore how the sun’s energy helps plants grow and reproduce.

By the End of Fifth Grade, Students Can

• Use models to explain day and night and how the sun, stars, and moon appear in different parts of the sky at different times during a day, month, and year.
• Graph and compare the amounts of salt water, fresh water, and frozen water (ice) on Earth.
• Test a simple system for filtering water. Suggest one way to improve it. 
• Explain how different living things produce (make), consume (eat), and decompose (break down and recycle) other things.
• Explain the changes that happen when liquids, gases, and solids are heated and cooled.
• Describe properties of various substances: for example, their colors, what happens when they are put in liquid, and how they react to heat or magnets.
• Explain gravity as a force that pushes objects toward the center of the Earth. 
• Use drawings to show how all the parts work together in a machine or a toy.

Focus Areas for Fifth Grade

• Explore the experiences of different people (Native Peoples, Europeans, enslaved Africans)  in the 13 American colonies.
• Learn about people and events involved in the westward expansion of the United States.
• Explain the conflicts over slavery that led to the United States Civil War.
• Understand the civil rights struggles (of African Americans, women, and others) in the
• United States during the 1800s and 1900s.

By the End of Fifth Grade, Students Can

• Describe the beginnings and early growth of the American colonies. 
• Explain the reasons for the American Revolution and how it involved Massachusetts people.
• Use primary sources (like letters and other texts from the 1700s) to explain the importance of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
• Describe the work of the first three United States presidents, the War of 1812, and conflicts with Native Peoples in the early 1800s.
• Explain why the Civil War was an important turning point in United States history.
• Explain how ideas and events from the 1800s contributed to civil rights movements in the 1900s and 2000s.
• Explain how the African American civil rights movement of the 1900s was a model for ther civil rights movements.
• Describe how voting rights in the United States expanded in the 1800s and 1900s.
• Analyze multiple accounts of the same historical event or topic (like books written from different perspectives).