Archive

Fifth grade social studies begins the year by inviting fifth graders into the world of the upper campus, and orienting them to the skills and tools required to understand themselves as learners. Students develop and master the skill of creating and presenting slideshows on Google Slides. One recurring project that draws on these skills is the Newscaster project, in which students pick a current event and create a slideshow in order to educate their peers about the event. This project recurs four times over the course of the year, and requires students to work on becoming researchers and presenters, using images for storytelling. Students also focus on using models like Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences in order to understand their strengths as students, and advocate for their own learning. As the year progresses, fifth graders shift their focus to world geography, building a foundation of map skills and focusing on the five themes of geography: location, place, region, movement, and human- environment interaction. Many group and individual projects, as well as map quizzes and tests, help fifth graders to understand the fundamentals of geography that will be crucial for history classes later in the scope and sequence of their experience at IMS. Interdisciplinary connections between science work in biomes and social studies work in the natural and human elements of geography are also explored.

Mandarin III is an upper-intermediate course designed to advance students toward a higher proficiency level. Building on Mandarin IA, IB, and II or equivalent experience, students will explore topics such as Chinese given names, the great thinkers Zhuangzi and Confucius, four-character idioms, the Spring Festival, and Beijing opera. By the end of the course, students are expected to have learned approximately 650 characters, enabling them to recognize up to 1800 words. They will engage with selected Chinese texts on cultural topics, and will be able to express themselves, participate in discussions, and communicate in paragraph-length conversations on both familiar and some new social and academic subjects.