Curriculum by grade › 5th Grade › History & Social Studies

5th Grade homeschool history curriculum

All 36 weeks of 5th grade history, planned and ready, with the exact topic for every week below. Start with Week 1 free, no card needed.

Open the free Week 1 lesson See plans

How 5th grade history works

History is taught from primary sources: students read real documents, letters, and speeches, then analyze who wrote them and why.

Time: about 25–40 minutes a day
Scores go straight to the gradebook and report card
Print any lesson as a worksheet with an answer key
Parent tools: hours log, weekly report, portfolio
Family plan: up to 4 students, each with their own records

The full 36-week scope & sequence

Topics and standards come straight from the live course. Standards codes are listed for reference; Life Academy is built to help meet homeschool requirements in all 50 states.

Quarter 1 (weeks 1–9)

Week	Topic	Standards
1	Early 1800s United States: map of states and territories	C3 D2.Geo.2.3-5
2	Market revolution: canals, cotton, and factories	D2.His.1.3-5
3	Andrew Jackson and Indian Removal Act (1830) — the text and the Trail	C3 D2.Eco.1.3-5
4	Texas, Oregon, Mexican-American War — dates and maps, not slogans	D2.His.14.3-5
5	California Gold Rush (1848–49): migration and Native/Mexican Californians	C3 D2.His.14.3-5
6	Slavery as law and labor: Constitution's compromises and the cotton economy	D2.Civ.4.3-5
7	Abolitionists: Douglass, Garrison, Tubman — documents, not mascots	C3 D2.His.2.3-5
8	Women's rights: Seneca Falls (1848) Declaration of Sentiments excerpt	D2.Eco.2.3-5
9	Sectionalism: tariffs, territories, and the fugitive-slave crisis	D2.Civ.14.3-5

Quarter 2 (weeks 10–18)

Week	Topic	Standards
10	Compromise of 1850 and Kansas–Nebraska — why 'balance' failed	C3 D2.His.10.3-5
11	Lincoln's election (1860) and secession — chronology	D2.His.16.3-5
12	Civil War (1861–1865): Union, Confederacy, major turning points	D2.Eco.3.3-5
13	Emancipation as a war measure, then the 13th Amendment (1865)	D2.Geo.6.3-5
14	Gettysburg Address (1863): what it actually argues	D2.Civ.3.3-5
15	Home front: women, industry, and dissent	C3 D2.Civ.2.3-5
16	Reconstruction: 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments — the words	D2.His.2.3-5
17	Backlash: Black Codes, violence, and the end of Reconstruction (1877)	C3 D2.Civ.6.3-5
18	Midyear: 1830–1877 documents battery	C3 D2.Civ.14.3-5

Quarter 3 (weeks 19–27)

Week	Topic	Standards
19	Industrial United States: rail, steel, oil — facts of scale	D2.His.3.3-5
20	Immigration 1880–1920: who came, where they lived, nativism as a fact	C3 D2.Civ.3.3-5
21	Labor and cities: hours, tenements, and reformers	D2.Civ.12.3-5
22	Populists and Progressives: what they wanted in writing	CCSS SL.5.4
23	Spanish-American War (1898) and overseas power
24	World War I and the U.S. (1917–1918): reasons Congress declared war
25	1920s: cars, radio, and the 19th Amendment (1920)
26	Great Depression: unemployment as a number, New Deal as programs
27	World War II U.S. (1941–1945): Pearl Harbor, two theaters, home front

Quarter 4 (weeks 28–36)

Week	Topic	Standards
28	Japanese American incarceration: Executive Order 9066 as a document
29	United Nations (1945) and a bipolar Cold War preview
30	Civil Rights movement documents: Brown (1954), March on Washington (1963)
31	Citizenship: how a bill, a court case, and an amendment differ
32	Local civics: school board, city council, a real agenda item
33	Primary anthology: five U.S. documents from this year's stack
34	Thematic essay: expansion, slavery, and union
35	Oral defense: Reconstruction amendments in your own words
36	Grade 5 history portfolio: 1800–1965 timeline with sources

Need a little extra help?

Live 1:1 tutoring with David Clifford on Zoom or Google Meet: $35/hour, your first hour $25. See tutoring.

Same grade: 5th Grade math · 5th Grade English · 5th Grade science

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FAQ

Is this 5th grade history curriculum free?

Week 1 is free with no card needed: open the Week 1 history lesson. Weeks 2–36 unlock with a Student plan ($35/month) or a Family plan for up to 4 students ($69/month).

How long is a 5th grade history lesson?

Plan on about 25–40 minutes a day for history. There is one lesson per week of the school year, broken into short daily steps.

Is Life Academy accredited?

No. Life Academy is not accredited. It's built to help meet homeschool requirements in all 50 states, and parents are the school of record. Why that's usually fine.

Can I print it?

Yes. Every lesson prints as a worksheet with a separate parent answer key.

Life Academy is a parent-directed online K–12 curriculum, built to help meet homeschool requirements in all 50 states. It is not accredited, and parents issue the homeschool transcript. Nothing here is legal advice. Check your state's law at HSLDA. Questions? Email david.dukes77102@gmail.com.