Science: Fifth Grade
Core Question 1:
What should my child know going into 5th grade?
Fifth graders need to understand that doing science teaches them about the natural world. Children are
naturally curious and have questions about how the world works. Children from a young age can explore
the world around them and describe what they observe. Fourth graders learned more about properties
in their Physical Science module called “Investigating Physical and Chemical Properties”. They
conducted investigations with five simple substances: salt, cornstarch, baking soda, alum and talcum
powder, mixing the substances with liquids such as water, vinegar, red cabbage juice and iodine. While
they were exploring these five substances, they kept written records, and charts, in a science notebook.
Writing helped the students to clarify their thinking and develop explanations, of what they learned,
with claims, evidence and reasoning.
In Earth Science, fourth graders learned about changes that happen to the surface of the Earth in the
module called “Investigating the Changing Earth”. The Earth’s surface is changing through processes
such as weathering, erosion, deposition, and volcanic eruptions. Because most of these changes to the
Earth’s surface happen very slowly (erosion) or very quickly (volcanic eruptions) and are difficult to
observe directly, fourth graders made models of the features of the Earth’s surface to observe, describe,
and compare the effects of these processes on those features. Students constructed a stream table to
model the erosion caused by the downhill movement of water. They also analyzed a model of a volcano
to test its validity. Students began to form the concept of the ongoing nature of the breaking down and
building up of the surface of Earth and realized that the surface of the Earth is constantly changing.
While they are exploring changes to the surface of the Earth, they kept written records, in a science
notebook.
Fourth graders learned more about plants and animals in their Life Science module called “Investigating
Ecosystems”. An ecosystem is a collection of living things (community) and nonliving things
(environment) that interact with each other. Through these interactions, energy from the sun transfers
through the system from plants to animals. Decomposers and nonliving materials (matter) are recycled
through food webs. To understand these interactions, students conducted investigations, observing
plants and animals in the classroom, the local community and on video. The students learned about
food webs within ecosystems, examined tree rings, and simulated the interactions between deer and
resources - food, water, shelter, and space in a forest ecosystem. By learning about the interconnections
of ecosystems local and far away, they developed an appreciation for the variety and complexity of the
natural world. While learning about ecology, students practiced skills important to scientists, such as
making careful observations, recording observations accurately in a science notebook, making complete
scientific explanations (claims, evidence, and reasoning) and sharing ideas to further understanding.
By the end of the fourth grade Physical Science module, your child should be able to show that they can:
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Observe changes, record, and share results when individual samples of five powders are mixed
with water.
Observe and record reactions when classroom powders and liquids (water, vinegar, red cabbage
juice, and iodine) are mixed.
Ask questions and investigate solubility of two powders (alum and salt).
Identify properties of five powders and interactions of each powder with water, vinegar, red
cabbage juice and iodine.
Compare properties of five white powders and record observations.
Identify contents of unknown, mixture of powders using data from previous investigations,
including how mixtures react to liquids.
Describe solubility as a property of substances and compare levels of solubility of alum and salt.
By the end of the fourth grade Earth Science module, your child should be able to show that they can:
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Ask questions about earth materials.
Propose ideas about what causes changes in rock structures..
Recognize that models help scientists explain some kinds of weathering.
Identify and describe the concepts of weathering, erosion and deposition and resulting physical
features (canyons and mountains).
Recognize that sand moves in response to wind.
Be aware that rocks can be broken down (weathered) by particles carried by the wind.
Recognize that earth materials move downhill, especially along steep slopes.
Recognize that water moves from higher elevations to lower elevations on Earth’s surface.
Realize that streams change the Earth’s surface and lead to erosion of earth materials.
By the end of the fourth Life Science module, your child should be able to show that they can:
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Ask and record questions about indoor and outdoor study systems.
Observe, describe, and record evidence that living and non-living components of indoor and
outdoor systems interact with each other.
Identify changes that all organisms cause to their environments and indicate which are
beneficial and which are harmful.
Describe a tree’s interactions with its environment.
Describe interactions within food chains and food webs in terms of the flow of energy, starting
with the sun.
Compare and contrast types of producers, consumers, and decomposers within ecosystems.
Explain why the sun should be included in every food chain and web.
Use food chains and food webs to show interactions between living and non-living components
of indoor and outdoor study sites.
Compare the game “Oh Deer” and its results with ecologists’ work investigating animal
populations in ecosystems.
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Create models of ecosystems such as dioramas and posters that demonstrate the interactions
between living and non-living components.
What can I do to help my child prepare for 5th grade?
Help your child remember what they learned in fourth grade. First, ask about your child’s investigations
in Physical Science class. Be sure to look at the science notebook that your child brought home after
completing this module. This notebook is a great achievement and shows how your child has
progressed in scientific inquiry, and in conducting simple investigations with various substances. It
includes data and charts about the properties of the five substances: salt, cornstarch, baking soda, alum
and talcum powder. Most importantly, it contains the explanations using claims, evidence, and
reasoning that show your child’s thinking and learning about this module. Review the vocabulary to this
module.
Fourth graders learned about chemistry. The physical science of chemistry has been defined as the
science that tries to answer questions about what materials are made of, how they are put together,
and how they change. Every material in the world is made of chemicals, so you can easily help your
child since home is full of chemistry lessons too. Walk around your home and point out to your child, all
the evidence of chemistry. In the bathroom there’s mom’s makeup, the family toothpaste, shampoo
and soap. All these products were developed through knowledge of chemistry. When mom does the
laundry, the detergent was developed using chemistry. When you go out to play, you wear sunscreen,
another product developed through chemistry. In the kitchen, chemistry plays a great part in meal
preparation. Food goes through a chemical change when it is cooked. Baking involves chemistry. Too
much or too little of an ingredient throws off the reactions needed in baking. You don’t want a flat
birthday cake. Knowing how chemistry works gives you a greater appreciation of the complex processes
behind the simplest things.
Cook together and let your child see chemistry at work as you mix up some Kool Aid, pudding or cook
spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, and eggs etc.
Your child worked with red cabbage juice in fourth grade. Here are some activities you can do together
with red cabbage juice and other household materials while you learn how to use the pH scale to
describe acids and bases. This is a colorful investigation with a data chart built into the experiment so
that your child can work like a chemist!
http://weirdsciencekids.com/Acidsandbases.html
Note: Denver Public Schools provides these websites as a suggestion for additional content and does not
assume responsibility for the quality or content provided.
Core Question 2:
How can I support my child’s learning through fifth grade?
Help your child understand and use the following vocabulary:
Investigating Physical and Chemical Properties Vocabulary
atom: very small particles that make up all substances.
chemical: substance composed of many atoms.
chemistry: the science that seeks to answer questions about what substances are made of, how they
are put together and how they can change.
crystal: powdery residue of a chemical after a liquid evaporates.
dissolve: to break up and liquefy.
property: physical characteristics such as the look, feel, sound of an object.
substance: a single chemical compound.
Changing Earth Vocabulary
deposition: when earth materials are laid down (or dropped) after they have been moved by erosion.
erosion: movement (or carrying away) of earth material to a new location.
flowmeter: scientific tool that measures how fast water flow through a stream.
flume: a scientific tool that measures speed and depth of water as the water flows through it.
streamload: amount of soil, rocks and sand that a stream can carry.
watershed: area of land around a body of water from which water drains into the body of water.
weathering: all the processes that break rock into smaller pieces.
Investigating Ecosystems Vocabulary
consumer: an organism that uses food, and/or other living things made by a producer.
decomposer: an organism that breaks down dead plants and animals and returns them to soil.
drought: a long period of time with very little or no rain.
ecologist: scientist who studies interactions between living and nonliving things in all kinds of places.
ecosystem: all living and nonliving things in a given area that interact with one another.
food chain: a diagram of the organisms according to the order in which each organism uses the nest
as a food source.
food web: a diagram of overlapping food chains.
interact: to act upon one another.
plankton: very small plants and animal that live in water.
producer: organisms that can make their own food.
Help your child relate their classroom learning to the natural world. As you walk around the
neighborhood, if there’s a breeze blowing, ask your child to describe whatever evidence s/he has of the
effects of the wind. Your child may talk about the trees, flags, plants etc., but often, in gusty wind, you
can feel sand hitting your face. Remind your child that wind can break down things made of rock after
long periods of time.
Another place to experience the sand carried by wind is in the sand box on the playground. Visit the
play area designated for younger children to see this firsthand.
Look at the buildings, statues, sidewalks, highway retaining walls. What are these structures made of?
How might they look in years to come?
When you travel in the car on a trip, point out the landforms such as rivers, mountains, lakes, canyons.
Ask how they look now and how they may look in the future. Focus attention on these natural features
to remind your child of the constant, but slow changing of the Earth’s surface.
Take a drive to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. This beautiful area has tall sandstone
formations that are an historical home for a Native American group. It is famous for its beauty and a
delightful place to spend time with your whole family. There is hiking, horseback riding, rock climbing,
biking and many photography opportunities. This is a tourist site so it is also a perfect place to see the
changes to the Earth’s surface that people make. There is a restaurant and a gift shop, roads, parking
lots and signs posted to make the rock formations accessible to visitors, but these additions have all
been done in a way to preserve the natural beauty. See this site for more information:
http://www.dreamcoloradosprings.com/garden-of-the-gods.html
This song gives an overview of the changing face of the Earth and the history of this change.
http://www.kidsknowit.com/educational-songs/play-educational-song.php?song=The Face of the
Earth
Follow the instructions on this site to do an erosion experiment with your child.
http://www.kidsgeo.com/geology-for-kids/0081-erosion-experiment.php
There are some great books at the library where your child can get more information on this fascinating
topic - The Changing Earth.
The Active Earth by David Lambert
Volcano by Christopher Lampton
Earth the Ever-Changing Planet by Dona
Take your child to the Denver Zoo. In class, your child learned about the rainforest so he/she would
enjoy visiting the rainforest ecosystem in the Tropical Discoveries section. The Tropical Discoveries also
has several aquatic ecosystems including: a cypress swamp, a coral reef, a mangrove swamp and a
marsh.
One great thing about science is that it is all around. When you want to help your child extend his/her
learning often a walk will be just the thing. To make it even more fun, if you have a hand lens or
binoculars, a ruler, or a small flag you can use them to increase your observations. Your own
neighborhood is an ecosystem. As you walk, look for different types of plants, animals, and nonliving
things around you. Bend down and observe a plant closely with your hand lens, measure it. Note if grass
is growing in cracks in the sidewalk. Are there weeds growing in the garden or in the vacant lot or on
the playground? Look up in the trees for birds and squirrels. Ask your child to tell you why s/he thinks
that each of the different things connects to the other things, both living and non-living. Do not forget
that air, water, soil and human-made structures are connected too. Hold out the flag to see how the
wind is blowing. After this walk your child will realize that an ecosystem exists in his/her own
neighborhood and learning about the outside world can be an enjoyable activity.
There are many different kinds of ecosystems. This site contains a variety. Click on some to enlarge
them and have your child tell you about the producers and consumers and decomposers.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-701s&va=ecosystems+for+kids
This site offers an explanation of the difference between a biome, an ecosystem and a habitat that will
be very helpful for your child as he/she reviews this module with you.
http://www.ehow.com/info_8163420_differences-between-biomes-ecosystems.html
In addition to the zoo, there are lots of places to visit in the Denver area to study ecosystems: the
Museum of Nature and Science, the Aquarium, the state parks, the Wildlife Experience, and the
Butterfly Pavilion.
We also have a fabulous ecosystem nearby that your child investigated, through video, in fourth grade –
the Rocky Mountain Forest ecosystem. This ecosystem is very special because it is a mountain
ecosystem. It gets more rain so there are lots of flowering plants. There is space for animals to move
freely making Rocky Mountain National Park one of the U.S. top wildlife watching destinations. You and
your child can hike, camp, bike, fish and look for animals. The Park is less than two hours away. Pack a
picnic and enjoy a day in a unique ecosystem!
http://www.rocky.mountain.national-park.com/
This video guides you through a walk in the woods in English or Spanish. The narrator reads to you and
teaches you about the plants in the woods. If you want to know more information, click on the nature
notes.
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/woods/24.html
If you get a big group of your child’s friends together, like for a birthday party, you can play Oh Deer!
This is a game that teaches about animals finding their needs for survival within the habitat of their
ecosystem.
http://www.riverventure.org/charleston/resources/pdf/population study game.pdf
This Magic School Bus video is called, “The Magic School Bus Gets Eaten”. It describes the ocean food
chain and the links between pond scum and a tuna fish sandwich. Ms. Frizzle mentions making
observations, which is just what your child does in science class. There is a science notebook in the
video that the kids use to make their reports. The kids make an important claim at the end – all food
chains begin with plants and plants grow because of the sun!
http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A2KLqIJb33xP5GQApnL7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMT
BrOTlpOGs3BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdnRpZANWMTE2?fr2=sg-gac&p=magic school bus gets
eaten&ei=utf-8&n=21&tnr=20
This game teaches about interdependence of living things in an ecosystem:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/10_11/interdependence_fs.shtml
Learn about how to set up an aquarium in your home with this site.
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/aquarium/aq.html
Here’s a great site that allows you and your child to explore the Sonoran Desert, the Arctic Coastal Plain
and the Everglades. Be sure to click on the highlighted words to learn more about the plants, animals
and food webs within these three diverse ecosystems.
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/exploring_ecosystems/
Grow some beautiful spike crystals using Epsom salts as you follow the directions on this Weird Science
site:
http://weirdsciencekids.com/crystalspikes.html
There are lots of great books to borrow from the library:
Earthwatch: Earth Cycles and Ecosystems by Beth Savan
The Brazilian Rainforest by Alexandra Siy
Weird Friends – Unlikely Allies in the Animal Kingdom by Joseph Aruego and Ariane Dewey
Have some more fun with your child doing chemistry in the kitchen! Use this site to make a froth that
overflows it container. The explanation for a cake rising is also explained. Did you know that a cake is
really solid foam?
http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/HomeExpts/FIZZFOAM.html
Bill Nye the Science Guy has a kid friendly website with lots of “Home Demos” that you can try with your
child:
http://www.billnye.com
There are many books about Physical and Chemical Properties at the library. Here are a few
suggestions:
175 More Science Experiments to Amuse and Amaze Your Friends: Experiments! Tricks! Things to
Make! by Terry Cash
Amazing Science Tricks by Kirk Charles
Super Science Concoctions: 50 Mysterious Mixtures for Fabulous Fun by Jill Frankel Hauser
This song gives an overview of the changing face of the Earth and the history of this change.
http://www.kidsknowit.com/educational-songs/play-educationalsong.php?song=The%20Face%20of%20the%20Earth
Follow the instructions on this site to do an erosion experiment with your child.
http://www.kidsgeo.com/geology-for-kids/0081-erosion-experiment.php
There are some great books at the library where your child can get more information on this fascinating
topic - The Changing Earth.
The Active Earth by David Lambert
Volcano by Christopher Lampton
Egressarth the Ever-Changing Planet by Donald M. Silver
Core Question 3:
How can I monitor my child’s progress?
Ask about your child’s investigations in Earth Science class. Be sure to look at the science notebook that
your child brought home after completing this module. This notebook is a great achievement and shows
how your child is progressing in scientific inquiry, and conducting simple investigations with various
substances and your child’s explanations using claims, evidence, and reasoning. It also includes data and
charts about the changing of the surface of the Earth by weathering, erosion, and deposition. Review
the vocabulary to this module.
The “Investigating the Changing Earth” module is an excellent science unit to share with your child. You
can help your child at home by continuing the investigations on an informal basis. Help your child find
examples of geologic processes, such as erosion, deposition and stream movement in the neighborhood
or community so he/she can compare what happened in the classroom with the natural world. Ask your
child to share the tombstone investigation with you. Make a sugar cube tombstone model together, by
gluing sugar cubes. Drop water on it to demonstrate weathering of rock. Here are suggestions for other
things to do together to enrich your child’s learning.
Also, ask about your child’s investigations in Life Science class. Be sure to look at the science notebook
that your child brought home after completing this module. This notebook is a great achievement and
shows how your child is progressing in scientific inquiry, and conducting investigations into various
ecosystems. It includes data, graphs, tables and charts about the interactions of the living and non-living
components of various ecosystems and your child’s explanations using claims, evidence and reasoning.
Review the vocabulary to this module with your child to remind them of what they learned in the
module. Ask them to tell you about an ecosystem that interests them.
The “Investigating Ecosystems” module is an excellent science unit to share with your child. It is an
exciting experience to be able to study how plants and animals interact in different places and how
living things interact with non-living things and also, how non-living things interact with other non-living
things.
http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=A2KLqIJb33xP5GQApnL7w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTBrOTlpO
Gs3BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdnRpZANWMTE2?fr2=sggac&p=magic%20school%20bus%20gets%20eaten&ei=utf-8&n=21&tnr=20
This game teaches about interdependence of living things in an ecosystem:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/10_11/interdependence_fs.shtml
Learn about how to set up an aquarium in your home with this site.
http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/aquarium/aq.html
Here’s a great site that allows you and your child to explore the Sonoran Desert, the Arctic Coastal Plain
and the Everglades. Be sure to click on the highlighted words to learn more about the plants, animals
and food webs within these three diverse ecosystems.
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/exploring_ecosystems/
There are lots of great books to borrow from the library:
Earthwatch: Earth Cycles and Ecosystems by Beth Savan
The Brazilian Rainforest by Alexandra Siy
Weird Friends – Unlikely Allies in the Animal Kingdom by Joseph Aruego and Ariane Dewey