Grade 5 · Science

Grade 5 science

Grade 5 science looks inside things: the body's organ systems, the particles that make up matter, and the forces acting on a bridge. Here is what it covers, where kids usually get stuck, and one way to help.

What your child learns this year

Topics differ by province and state, but most grade 5 classes cover several of these:

  • The human body. The organ systems (breathing, blood, digestion) and how they work together.
  • Matter and its changes. Solids, liquids and gases, and the difference between physical and chemical changes.
  • Forces on structures. How loads push and pull on buildings and bridges, and how designs resist them.
  • Energy and resources. Where our energy comes from, and how to conserve it.
  • Earth and space. In the US, Earth's systems and the Sun and stars are part of grade 5 too.

Where kids usually get stuck

  1. 1Deciding by whether a change can be undone. A crushed can can't be uncrushed, but it is still aluminum, so crushing is a physical change.
  2. 2Calling dissolving “melting”. Sugar in tea dissolves: it spreads out through the liquid. Melting is one substance turning liquid when it is heated.
  3. 3Thinking food is digested in the stomach alone. The stomach starts the job, but most food is broken down and taken into the blood in the small intestine.

One of Pip's tricks

New substance test

Use it when deciding whether a change is physical or chemical, like melting, cutting, rusting or baking.

  1. Ask: after the change, is it still the same substance, just a different shape, size or state?
  2. If yes, it is a physical change: melting, freezing, cutting, crushing, dissolving.
  3. If a new substance with new properties has formed, it is a chemical change: rusting, burning, baking, rotting.

Watch it work. Chocolate melts in your warm hand. After melting, is it still chocolate? Yes, only its state changed, from solid to liquid. No new substance formed, so it is a physical change.

Why it works: in a physical change the same particles are only moved around, while in a chemical change they rearrange into new ones, so a new substance with new properties appears.

Try three

Tap a choice to see if it is right, with the reason.

  1. 1.An iron nail left outside rusts. Physical or chemical change?

  2. 2.Sugar dissolves in tea. Physical or chemical change?

  3. 3.Cake batter bakes into a cake. Physical or chemical change?

How Sparkpip fits in

Pip, Sparkpip's tutor, works through questions like these with your child one small step at a time, using ways of thinking like the one above.

Start freeSee how it works

Your curriculum

Sparkpip is built on the grade 5 science curriculum for your province or state. The official pages:

Also: Grade 4 science · Grade 6 science · Grade 5 math · Grade 5 English