← All Standards

Grade 5

• Communication & Collaboration

  • 5.CC
  • 5.CC.1
  • 5.CC.2
  • 5.CC.4
  • 5.CC.5
  • 5.CC.6
  • 5.CC.7

• Reading: Comprehension

  • 5.RC
  • 5.RC.1
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  • 5.RC.3
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  • 5.RC.8
  • 5.RC.9
  • 5.RC.10
  • 5.RC.11
  • 5.RC.12
  • 5.RC.13
  • 5.RC.14

• Reading: Foundations

  • 5.RF.1

• Writing

  • 5.W
  • 5.W.1
  • 5.W.1.a
  • 5.W.1.c
  • 5.W.1.d
  • 5.W.1.e
  • 5.W.1.f
  • 5.W.2
  • 5.W.2.a
  • 5.W.2.c
  • 5.W.2.d
  • 5.W.2.e
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  • 5.W.3
  • 5.W.3.a
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  • 5.W.3.c
  • 5.W.3.d
  • 5.W.3.e
  • 5.W.4
  • 5.W.4.a
  • 5.W.4.b
  • 5.W.5
  • 5.W.5.a
  • 5.W.5.b
  • 5.W.5.c
  • 5.W.5.d
  • 5.W.5.e
  • 5.W.6
  • 5.W.6.a
  • 5.W.6.a.I
  • 5.W.6.b
  • 5.W.6.c
  • 5.W.7
  • 5.W.7.b
  • 5.W.7.b.I
  • 5.W.7.c

Indiana ELA Standard: 5.W.1

Write persuasive compositions in a variety of forms that:

Order and Chaos: Recipe or Instinct?

Two cooks make the same dinner. One follows the recipe to the exact gram. The other just throws things in by feel. Whose food turns out better — the ordered cook or the chaotic cook?

Order and Chaos: The Perfect Heartbeat

A heartbeat sounds steady, but a perfectly regular one is a warning sign — healthy hearts speed up and slow down a little. Is a healthy heart ordered or chaotic?

Order and Chaos: The Shuffle

Shuffling follows exact steps to make cards random. Are you creating chaos, or doing something very orderly?

Order and Chaos: No Traffic Lights

One town runs its intersections with signals. Another has no lights at all — drivers just work it out. Which town’s traffic is more orderly?

Order and Chaos: The Snowflake

A snowflake always has six sides, yet no two have ever matched. Is a snowflake order, or chaos?

Systems: Grandpa’s Axe

Grandpa’s axe broke, so he put on a new head. Years later the handle cracked, so he replaced that too. Now no original piece is left. Is it still the same axe, or a new one?

Systems: The Thermostat

A thermostat fights to keep a room the same — open a window and it just cranks the heat to undo you. In a system that pushes back like that, can you ever really change just one thing?

Systems: Watch vs. Forest

A watch stops dead if one tiny gear breaks. A forest can lose a whole species and barely notice. Which is the better-built system — the one where every part matters, or the one where no part is essential?

Systems: The Traffic Jam

Picture a jam where no one crashed and no one even stopped on purpose — everyone crawls for an hour, then it clears for no reason. Did anyone actually cause this traffic jam?

Systems: Pull One Thread

A sweater is really one long thread looped a thousand times. Pull the right loose end and the whole thing unravels in seconds. So is a system like that strong or fragile?

Change: The Caterpillar’s Bargain

To become a butterfly, a caterpillar doesn’t just sprout wings — inside the cocoon it dissolves into liquid first, almost nothing left, then rebuilds. Would you trade everything you are now to become something far greater?

Change: The Sealed Jar

You love a flower so much you seal it in a jar to keep it exactly as it is, forever. A month later it’s brown and crumbling. Did sealing it stop the change, or just hide it?

Change: The Tree’s Scar

A nail got hammered into a young tree. The tree didn’t push it out — it grew around it, sealing the nail inside a knot of new wood. Was that change the tree healing, or the tree getting damaged?

Change: One Domino

You nudge one domino. It tips the next, which tips two more, which tip four, until a thousand have fallen. Did you cause one change, or a thousand?

Change: Canyon vs. Earthquake

It took a river six million years to carve the Grand Canyon. An earthquake can drop a cliff into the sea in ten seconds. Which one changed the land more — the slow river or the fast quake?

Earth’s Layers: Who Contributes The Most?

Earth’s layers will disagree about which one contributes the most to the planet’s success.

Power and Traditions

We compare the power of traditions shared by millions with smaller traditions shared by perhaps just one family.

Power in Autumn

Autumn was once powerful because of the harvest. What gives Fall its power now?

Power – Blue Whale vs Krill

Sure, a Blue Whale is huge. But does a tiny krill have more power?

Holiday Shuffle – Day vs Date

Wouldn’t some holidays be better on a certain day of the week? Should Thanksgiving have a set date?

Tournament of Mythological Creatures

Who will win the tournament of mythological creatures!?

Tournament of Not-So-Famous Inventors

Which inventor and invention will win the tournament?

Domesticated Animals Tournament

Which domesticated animal will win the tournament?

Types of Energy Tournament

Which type of energy will win the tournament!?

Natural Disasters Tournament

Earthquake vs. hurricane. Tsunami vs. wildfire. Students set the criteria, argue their case, and crown a champion. Warning: it gets heated.

Robot Writing: Volcano

Read three pieces of writing from three different robots about the same beautiful painting of a volcano. Who wrote it best?

Robot Writing: Acropolis

One painting of ruins. Three robots. Three pieces of writing. Who wrote it best?

Robot Writing: The Bridge

One painting of a bridge. Three robots. Who wrote it best?

Plant Adaptation Tournament

Who will win in a tournament of eight plants with Interesting adaptations!?

Horde Chess Variant

What if one player had, say, 32 pawns?

Tournament: 8 Wonders of the Solar System

Which location is the most wondrous place in the solar system?

The 8th Wonder of the World Tournament

Which of these eight wonders deserves to become the Eighth Wonder of the World!?

Exploration Technology Tournament

Which of these pieces of exploration technology is most important? Most underrated? Most long-lasting?

Precipitation Tournament

Eight types of precipitation battle it out in this tournament.

Tournament of Ancient Inventions

Which of these inventions of the ancient world is most influential? Least useful today? Most taken-for-granted?

Animal Adaptation Tournament

Which animal has the most interesting, most valuable, or strangest adaptations?

Habitable Planets and Moons Tournament

Which object in the solar system is most habitable?

Parts of Speech Tournament

Which part of speech is most useful? Interesting? Strange?

Tournament of Presidents

So who was the strangest of these eight presidents?

Create A Civilization: A Change In Government

It’s a great moment for your civilization! Power is moving from the hands of a few to a more democratic government.

The Tournament of Biomes

Want to move beyond memorizing the characteristics of biomes? In this lesson, students work through a Tournament of Biomes, explaining which biome wins in each round (based on criteria you choose). In the end, they crown a 👑 Champion Biome!

Fraction Ordering Tournament

Which set of fractions would be the trickiest to order from least to greatest? Let’s have a tournament!

The Resiliency Tournament

Your students will set up a tournament to determine which person or character best demonstrated resiliency.

Propaganda and Logical Fallacies

Let’s see how propaganda techniques can make even something great seem bad.

Academic Love Letters

What if Kylo Ren wrote a love letter to Abe Lincoln or the Sahara Desert wrote one to the Moon?

Persuasion and Packaging: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

How does a drink’s packaging affect us emotionally and logically?

Teaching Criticism

For Teachers

Ask students to go beyond “I don’t like it” and form critical opinions based on a set of criteria. Students can produce written arguments or turn their opinion into oral presentations.