Grade 5 Social Studies: how to help at home
What your child learns in Grade 5 social studies in the Prince Edward Island Curriculum, and simple things to try at home.
The Big Ideas this year
- Citizenship, Power, and Governance. Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and the origins, functions, and sources of power, authority, and governance.
- Culture and Diversity. Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of culture, diversity, and world view, recognizing the similarities and differences reflected in various personal, cultural, racial, and ethnic perspectives.
- Individuals, Societies, and Economic Decisions. Students will be expected to demonstrate the ability to make responsible economic decisions as individuals and as members of society.
- Interdependence. Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the interdependent relationship among individuals, societies, and the environment — locally, nationally, and globally — and the implications for a sustainable future.
- People, Place, and Environment. Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the interactions among people, places, and the environment.
- Time, Continuity, and Change. Students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the past and how it affects the present and the future.
Easy ways to practise social studies at home
- Follow a current event together and ask who is affected and why people see it differently.
- Build a timeline of a family event or a historical topic they are studying.
- Use an atlas or online map to trace a trade or travel route.
- Ask “Whose voice is missing from this story?” when reading about the past.
What each unit covers
Maps, Sources and Fair Thinking
Reading and building maps with latitude and longitude, telling primary from secondary sources and fact from opinion, comparing points of view, and working fairly with others.
Investigate It
Sorting primary and secondary sources, checking a source, asking good inquiry questions and reading maps.
Where and When?
Where early civilizations grew up (the Nile, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, China, the Mediterranean, the Americas) and how to read BCE and CE dates. The peoples of the Americas are shown as living peoples.
Land and Water
How the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Andes, the Greek coast and the lakes of Mexico shaped farming, homes, tools and trade, and how droughts and floods created challenges.
Rise and Fall
Food surplus, rivers, trade and strong leaders helped civilizations rise. Drought, invasion, fighting inside and worn-out farmland could lead to decline, usually through several causes together.
Life in the Middle Ages
Children explain why social structure mattered in a society of the Middle Ages.
First Nations and Inuit Societies
Children learn about the diverse societies of First Nations and Inuit in what later became Canada.
Deciding Together
Children examine how decisions were made in First Nations and Inuit societies in what later became Atlantic Canada.
Meeting in Atlantic Canada
Children examine interactions between the English, the French, and First Nations and Inuit in what later became Atlantic Canada.
Gifts from the Past
What ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, China, Greece, Rome, the Maya and the Inca left behind, such as writing, a 60-minute hour, paper, democracy, roads and languages.
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
Follow a current event together and ask who is affected and why people see it differently. Build a timeline of a family event or a historical topic they are studying. Keep sessions short, about 10 to 15 minutes, and stop on a success.
The Prince Edward Island Curriculum Grade 5 social studies units include maps, sources and fair thinking, investigate it, where and when?, land and water, rise and fall, life in the middle ages.
Free printable Grade 5 social studies practice sheet
Questions from every unit, with an answer key.