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Welcome to Humanities 5! 

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In this class, students will demonstrate skills for solving problems, understanding different communities, processing different points-of-view, learning from mistakes, and communicating through listening, speaking and writing. Themes in Language Arts and Social Studies focus on how and why students engage their communities, and how and why communities engage each other. While the course is called Humanities, it integrates fine arts (particularly drama), social sciences, mathematics, and natural sciences to support these goals.


LANGUAGE ARTS
The Language Arts program asks students to consider themselves in relation to their immediate communities—family, friends and the people at school. Essential questions include, “How does making choices affect me?” and “What does ‘family’ mean to me?” and “What responsibilities do I have to my communities?” Such questions frame reading selections, writing assignments, classroom activities, projects and even skill assessment. Dramatic activities enhance the curriculum by giving students an opportunity to engage each other and the written word in unexpected contexts.

SOCIAL STUDIES
The Social Studies program asks students to consider the function of human communities and roles within them, as well as how and why communities interact with each other. Essential questions include, “Why do humans live together?” and “What is culture?” and “How do individuals change communities?” Such questions also frame reading selections, writing assignments, classroom activities, projects and even skill assessment. Dramatic activities enhance the curriculum by giving students an opportunity to “experience” such concepts as migration, geographic determinism, and cultural diffusion. We examine our own Lakeside community throughout the year, but draw comparisons by using historical “case studies” of Native American communities in Washington State, Mayan civilization in Central America, and experiences of people who migrate from one place to another. This study of the eastern Pacific Rim supplements the sixth grade study of the western Pacific Rim.