Last reviewed: 25 October 2026
English is the language of instruction for most learning areas from Grade 4, so a child who is weak in English often drops marks in Science, Social Studies and even Mathematics word problems. Grade 5 is a good year to fix this, because the pressure of KPSEA in Grade 6 has not yet arrived. This guide breaks Grade 5 English into its main parts and gives parents a practical plan. The full list of topics is in KICD’s Grade 5 curriculum designs, under English.
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The Four Skills in Grade 5 English
CBC English is built around listening and speaking, reading, grammar in use, and writing. Classroom assessment touches all four, so revision should too.
- Listening and speaking: following instructions, retelling a story, using polite language and pronouncing words clearly.
- Reading: reading fluently and with expression, understanding passages, and working out word meanings from context.
- Grammar in use: nouns and their plurals, pronouns, verbs and tenses, adjectives and their order, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and punctuation.
- Writing: neat handwriting, composition, friendly letters, and short functional pieces such as notices and messages.
Grammar: Revise in Small Blocks
Grammar is where many Grade 5 learners lose easy marks. Pick one item a week. For tenses, for example, ask your child to write five sentences about yesterday, five about today and five about tomorrow, then check the verbs together. For punctuation, take a paragraph from a newspaper, remove the capital letters and full stops, and ask your child to put them back. Short, repeated practice sticks better than a long grammar list.
Comprehension: Read Every Day
Reading comprehension cannot be crammed. The single best thing a parent can do is make sure the child reads something every day: a storybook, a class reader, a children’s magazine or a newspaper article. After reading, ask three kinds of question:
- A fact question: “Where did the boy go?”
- A meaning question: “What does the word ‘reluctant’ mean here?”
- An opinion question: “Was the girl right to tell her teacher? Why?”
Comprehension tasks in school follow the same pattern, so this habit prepares your child without feeling like extra homework.
Vocabulary
Keep a small vocabulary notebook. Each time your child meets a new word, they write it down, write its meaning in their own words, and use it in a sentence. Review the notebook once a week. Ten new words a week adds up to hundreds by the end of the year.
Composition Writing
A good Grade 5 composition has a clear beginning, middle and end, correct tenses, paragraphs, and a few interesting words. Help your child plan before writing: three quick notes on what happens first, next and last. Then let them write without interruption, and mark afterwards for one thing only, such as paragraphs or full stops. Correcting everything at once is discouraging.
A Simple Weekly Plan
- Daily: 15–20 minutes of reading, with three questions afterwards.
- Twice a week: one grammar block of about 15 minutes.
- Once a week: a short composition or letter.
- Once a fortnight: a mixed English practice paper.
Where to Find Practice Material
Our revision papers include English papers by grade, and the Grade 5 hub brings together every Grade 5 resource on the site. For school breaks, see the holiday homework packs. If you are already looking ahead, the KPSEA Grade 6 page explains what comes next year.
Above all, keep English revision positive. Praise effort, read together when you can, and let your child see you reading too.
Speaking Counts Too
Oral skills are easy to forget at home. Ask your child to tell you about their day in English for two minutes at dinner, or to read a short passage aloud with expression. Gently model correct pronunciation instead of interrupting. Confident speakers usually become confident writers, and the habit costs nothing.
Want it done for you? A cbcguide membership unlocks full revision papers with marking guides for every grade, from KSh 500 a month. See membership options.
Ten-minute check: try the free Grade 5 CBC Challenge. It has 10 questions, each marked on the spot with the working, and it shows which topics to practise next.