Grade 5 Science: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 5 science in the Prince Edward Island Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Life Science: Meeting Basic Needs and Maintaining a Healthy Body.
- Physical Science: Properties and Changes in materials.
- Physical Science: Forces and Simple Machines.
- Earth and Space Science: Weather.
Easy ways to practise science at home
- Turn everyday questions into investigations: “Which paper towel holds the most water?”
- Read a science news story together and ask what evidence it gives.
- Look up how a household machine works, such as a bike gear, a lamp or a fridge.
- Have your child draw and label a diagram of something they just learned.
What each unit covers
Digestion & Breathing
How food travels through the digestive system and air through the respiratory system, plus reading a breathing-rate table.
Heart, Bones & Muscles
The heart and blood vessels, bones, joints, muscles and tendons, how body systems work together, and heart-rate data.
Body Teamwork
The nervous and excretory systems, how body systems depend on each other, and which organs some common diseases and disorders affect.
Heart Rate and Reaction Time
Children investigate what affects breathing and heart rate, and how fast the body responds, and learn how the excretory system works.
Solid, Liquid, Gas
Matter as anything with mass and volume, how particles are arranged in solids, liquids and gases, and why materials are chosen for their properties.
Changes of State
Melting, freezing, evaporation and condensation at home and outdoors, and how matter absorbs or releases thermal energy when it changes state.
Physical or Chemical?
Telling a physical change from a chemical change, spotting the signs of a new substance, and how making and throwing away everyday products affects the environment.
Mixtures, Changes and Reactions
How matter changes state with temperature, the difference between a mixture, a physical change and a chemical reaction, and why no matter is gained or lost.
Simple Machines
The six simple machines, how machines trade force for distance, compound machines, and reading data from a ramp experiment.
Forces, Friction and Machines
Forces as pushes, pulls and twists, how friction affects motion, and how friction makes simple machines less efficient.
Weather and the Water Cycle
How the Sun, air, water and land interact to cause daily weather, the water cycle, tools for measuring weather, and why long-term forecasting is hard.
Weather Watchers
Children use instruments to measure temperature, wind, precipitation and cloud cover, classify clouds and record weather data.
Sun, Air and Weather
Children relate the sun’s energy to weather, learn that air takes up space and has mass, and see how warm and cold air and water masses move.
Measure, Stay Safe and Take Action
Choosing and using tools and SI units, displaying data, working safely, linking science to careers and hobbies, and thinking about actions to help the environment.
What the report card levels look like at home
- Beginning
- Just getting started with this idea. Short, regular practice with lots of support helps most.
- Approaching
- Understands parts of it and is building confidence. Keep practising the tricky parts.
- Meeting
- Has it! Mixed review now and then keeps it strong.
- Exceeding
- Applies it confidently, even in new or harder situations. Try challenge mode and real-life problems.
Your child’s teacher decides the level on the report card. Read the PEI report card guide.
Common questions
Turn everyday questions into investigations: “Which paper towel holds the most water?” Read a science news story together and ask what evidence it gives. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The Prince Edward Island Curriculum Grade 5 science units include digestion & breathing, heart, bones & muscles, body teamwork, heart rate and reaction time, solid, liquid, gas, changes of state.
Free printable Grade 5 science practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.