The Intermediate Years

In the intermediate grades, our Religion curriculum deepens students’ understanding of the Catholic faith and invites them into a more personal and reflective relationship with God. Students explore the nature of the Holy Trinity, the role of the Holy Spirit, and the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ. They grow in their understanding of sin, conscience, and the call to live a moral life rooted in prayer and worship.

Our students also develop a richer appreciation for the sacramental and liturgical life of the Church, the power of the Rosary, and the various forms of prayer. A strong emphasis on the Works of Mercy and the Church’s call to justice reminds students that faith is not only personal but communal, and that they are called to work toward a more just and compassionate world.

By the completion of fifth grade, our students are growing into young people of deep faith who understand what they believe, why they believe it, and how they are called to live it out every day.

Visit the AOB Curriculum portal to learn more.

In 4th and 5th grades, our English Language Arts program challenges students to engage more deeply with a diverse range of literature and informational texts. Students sharpen their ability to analyze text structure, identify themes, compare and contrast ideas, and support their thinking with evidence drawn directly from what they read.

Writing becomes increasingly sophisticated as students develop their skills across multiple genres, including informative, opinion, and narrative writing, while also building their research skills through both short and extended projects. Strong participation in class discussions, command of grammar and language conventions, and the ability to communicate clearly and persuasively are hallmarks of our upper elementary ELA experience.

By the time students complete fifth grade, they are confident, independent readers and writers who are well prepared for the rigors of middle school and beyond.

Visit the AOB Curriculum portal to learn more.

Our Intermediate Mathematics curriculum builds on the foundational skills of the early grades and challenges students to think more deeply and reason more independently. Students develop fluency with all four operations, work with factors, multiples, fractions, and decimals, and begin to explore more complex concepts such as patterns, geometry, and measurement.

By fifth grade, students are writing and interpreting numerical expressions, performing operations with multi-digit numbers and decimals, working with volume and coordinate planes, and classifying two dimensional figures. Our upper elementary math program emphasizes both computational fluency and critical thinking, ensuring that students are well prepared for the rigors of middle school mathematics.

Visit the AOB Curriculum portal to learn more.

In science and social studies, students ask questions, investigate ideas, and communicate what they discover. They learn to consider more than one approach to a problem and to explain why a solution makes sense. Purposeful use of books, hands-on materials, discussion, and digital tools helps them create and share their work.

Visit the AOB Curriculum portal to learn more.