5th Grade

Hi! My name is Brian Soderberg and I am extremely excited for my second year of teaching fifth grade at Holy Family. I was born and grew up in a small town in Nebraska. I played baseball at and graduated from Washburn University. I have previously taught at Landon Middle School and Washburn Rural MS, and enjoyed my time subbing here at Holy Family. This will be my 34th year of teaching. I have a wife (Michelle) of 18 years and we have a junior daughter-Myiah. I enjoy reading, fishing, and nature walks and am excited to be at Holy Family and look forward to a great year!

Portrait of a Mustang-5th Grade

During 5th grade, students participate in an awesome field trip to STAR Base at Forbes Field. There they explore many STEM activities. Students experience different robots, chemical reactions and even building their own space station.  Also, they build their own rockets to launch.  

 At Holy Family students engage in technology by creating mazes for dash robots to complete. To be successful, the robots need to maneuver through the maze without knocking down any walls. Students program a code into the robot to make sure it moves through at the correct speed and make all the turns it needs to get to the finish line. 

 Also, in science, students learn about different bridges and how they are made.  Students are grouped and given different types of materials to build their own bridge, with the goal to see who can hold the most weight. 

 In Social Studies, students learn about the Revolutionary war, including those involved and which battles occurred. Most importantly, students learn about the bases for the U.S. Constitution and how it was created. We end the year learning similar things about the Civil War. 

 In ELA students learn about different types of poems and at the end of our study, they have a collection of 11 poems once the unit is completed. This is one of my favorites units as it requires creative imagination and patience and perseverance in the students to complete them. Furthermore, students examine the fiction genre through a classic novel, Don Quixote. Students focus on character and plot, as well as on literary elements such as characterization.

In Religion, students learn about the meaning and purpose of different parts of Mass. They also learn about the origins of the Catholic Church, the difference between sacred scripture and sacred tradition, spreading the good news of Christ, Celebrations of Sacraments, along with comparing vows, creeds and sacraments.