Intermediate (4-5)

Exhibit Independence

In the 4th and 5th grades, students enjoy increasing autonomy and responsibility as learners and as citizens. Across our curriculum, and through extracurricular offerings, students contribute their growing empathy and expertise to the Evergreen community. 

During weekly Advisor meetings, students learn to hold themselves accountable to schedules and routines while establishing and maintaining a personal organization system. Learning to manage assignments and responsibilities while setting and working towards short-term personal goals supports students’ executive functioning skills, adding texture to the regulation practices we already explore through mindfulness programming across grade levels.

As the Evergreen curriculum widens and deepens, we create a supportive yet challenging environment that inspires students to push themselves academically. We teach them respectful, effective ways to assert themselves and their independence. At the same time, we promote teamwork by creating conditions that reveal and build upon multiple perspectives. Evergreen students come to embrace complexity at a young age, preparing them to thrive in and help shape an increasingly complex wider world.

Signature Projects

The World Peace Game

This hands-on political simulation asks 4th grade social studies students to explore economic, environmental, and social connections as they work to prevent imminent war. Drawing on their studies of geography, culture, and political relations, students apply their understanding of history, as well as their argumentative reasoning skills, to a pressing theoretical problem.

Amazing Race

In 4th grade, students conduct the Evergreen Amazing Race. Students write clues, based on defining geographical features they have learned about in social studies, to lead peers in a virtual race around regions of the United States. They use maps, the internet, and print resources to research different features and present their information using a map and green screen.

Invented Civilizations

After studying the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, Kush, Maya, Aztec, and Greece, as well as the primary global religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, 5th graders create their own civilizations, considering how geography influences culture. They investigate the culture’s time period, setting, ethics, and values, creating and burying artifacts for a different class to uncover using archeological techniques. Archeologists in the partner class then make inferences about the unknown culture using analytical reasoning skills, then create and bury their own artifacts in turn.

Salmon Unit

Fifth grade students spend the year following the life journey of salmon. They investigate the integrity of the watershed ecosystem, including topography, streambed structure, and how these natural elements affect the salmon life cycle. Students also analyze the stream channel, water quality, indicator species, and oxygen levels of sample streams, taking field study trips to local bodies of water. Using design thinking, they become citizen scientists and solve a real-world problem by designing filters to clean pollutants out of street runoff. They also participate with the Thornton Creek Alliance to collect water samples and test for E. Coli and other bacteria, sharing their annual data with the City of Seattle for documentation.

4th-5th Grade Subjects:

  • Advisor
  • Reading
  • Writing
  • Math
  • Science
  • Social Studies
  • World Language
  • Art
  • Music-Theater
  • PE
  • Technology

A Focused Look at 4th-5th Grade Learning

From 4th through 5th grade, Evergreen students take on increasing independence, responsibility, and awareness of the world around them. We support their bigger-picture development by using Advisor time to think about strategies for calming down, cooperating, and communicating with others who are different from ourselves. We consider how to create organizational systems and keep ourselves accountable to short-term goals. These critical self-management skills ensure students can dig deeper into complex academic subjects, knowing they can handle setbacks and uncertainty with aplomb.

Some examples of this work in action include:

4th Grade - Advisor

KNOW

The attributes of a S.M.A.R.T. goals

Strategies for recognizing strong emotions and calming down

Four problem-solving steps to use after calming down

The definition of a stereotype

Organizational strategies

UNDERSTAND

Cooperation is necessary for success when working in a group

Stereotypes are simplified beliefs about a group and often have a negative impact

Having respect and empathy helps you get along with others

Strong emotions cause physical reactions which can be reversed by using strategies

Goals are dynamic, ever-evolving, and can help support growth

Organizational skills support success

DO

Write individualized goals pertinent to their learning and current needs

Monitor and revise short-term personal goals

Use an organization system to track, complete, and turn in daily assignments, homework, and long-term projects

Relate to people as individuals rather than representatives of groups

Use strategies for addressing stereotypes including interrupting stereotypical comments that they hear

Identify and understand their own and others' feelings

Calm themselves when experiencing strong emotions

Utilize a variety of strategies when working with a group

5th Grade - Technology

KNOW

Elements of Digital Citizenship

Technology Operations with Windows computers

Scratch Programming

Makey Makey Physical Computing

EV3/NXT LEGO Robotics

3D Modeling & Printing

HTML Multimedia

2D Vector and bitmap graphics and laser cutting

Circuits

Audio editing

UNDERSTAND

Our behaviors as community members and citizens have an online component and consequences

Solution of routine tasks or problems can be automated through software and hardware

Computer programming languages are very precise and exact

Productive struggle is an important part of the learning process in technology

Problem-solving and troubleshooting are skills of independent learners that can be learned and practiced

Technical skills (both software and hardware) are improved through practice and self-directed problem solving

Creativity emerges from bringing together multiple skills

DO

Apply knowledge of digital citizenship in day-to-day interactions

Troubleshoot common hardware and software issues and fix them independently

Use peers, teachers, and online resources to learn and to solve problems

Display craftsmanship in integrating knowledge of programming, physical computing, robotics, web design, multimedia, laser cutting, and 3D printing to create imaginative products

Demonstrate work habits such as listening, collaboration, growth mindset, persistence, flexibility, resourceful problem-solving, goal orientation, and productivity