|
Area
|
Concepts
and Skills |
Activities/Materials/Topics
to Support Development |
| Community
Building |
- Listening to each other
- Developing compassion
- Collaborating
- Accepting limits
- Group problem solving
|
 Circle
time and class meetings, when problems arise, throughout the
day and embedded in all the curriculum Appreciation
of similarities and differences
|
| Language
Arts
|
Phonemic awareness; phonics
- Sound/symbol correspondence
- Attention to initial and final consonant sounds
- Syllabification
|
Oral language games (e.g. rhyming,
alliteration)
- Matching games
- Big books
- Poetry
- Songs
- Morning Message
- Word Wall
- Guided reading
- Environmental print
- Group reading
- Experience charts
- Reading aloud
- Writing Workshop
- Handwriting practice
- Class books
- Shared writing
|
Reading Units
- Readers Build Good Habits
- Readers Read Familiar Storybooks
- Readers Talk about Books to Grow Ideas
- Story Theater
- Readers Read “Just Right” Books and Use Conventional
Print Strategies
- Non-fiction Reading Strategies
- Printwork: Strategies to Deepen Comprehension and
Fluency
|
Writing Units
- We Are All Writers—The Writing Life
- Writers Write for Many Purposes
- Small Moments
- “Can You Read This?”
- Author Study
- Poetry
- How-To Books
|
|
Concepts about Print
- Print conveys a message
- Relationship between written and spoken words
- Directionality of print
- Recognizing patterns
|
Reading strategies—decoding
- Context and picture cues
- Sounding out
- Recognizing patterns
|
Reading strategies—comprehension
- Prediction
- Sequencing
- Summarizing/retelling
|
Writing strategies—encoding
- Approximate spelling
- Word spacing and other conventions
- Letter formation
- Writing to express meaning
|
| Math |
Number sense and counting
- Equivalency, comparison
- One-to-one correspondence
- Addition
- Subtraction
- Beginning place value
Math language and symbols
- Recognizing, reading, and writing numbers, numerals,
and symbols
- Patterns
- Shapes—geometry
- Measurement
- Estimation
- Problem-solving
- Categorization
- Symmetry
|
- Sorting by attributes
- Patterning
- Graphing
- Estimating quantity
- Counting objects
- Measuring
- Comparing size and number
- Cuisenaire Rods
- Blocks
- Other manipulatives (pattern blocks, snap cubes, unifix
cubes, color tiles, geo blocks, geo boards, etc.)
- Counting by rote, using various patterns (2s, 5s, 10s,
etc.)
- Cooking
- Calendar work—counting days
|
| Inquiry
in Social and Natural Science |
Concepts:
- Interaction of objects and beings
- Life cycle
- Interdependence
- Cultural diversity
Skills:
- Prediction
- Hypothesis
- Research
- Observation
- Recording
|
Our overall study of the environment
in the Lower School leads us to studies of some or all of the
topics below
- Nutrition
- Environment
- Seasons
- Ourselves
- The School
- Community
- Animal and plant life
- Water—sink and float
- Shadows
- Other ideas from the children
|
| World Language |
French (half the year) |
Review
of commands Colors Shapes Forest
animals Numbers
1-20 Songs Math
+/- The
family The
house Cooking
activity |
| Spanish (half the year) |
Review
of commands Colors Shapes Sizes Numbers
1-20 Classroom
objects Days
of the week Animals Weather El
CoquÌ Cooking
activity |
| Art |
Emphasis on learning basic skills and
becoming independent in the art studio |
Drawing
with a variety of materials Painting
with tempera and watercolors Collage
and image making with paper Printing
with stamps Sculpting
with modeling clay and paper Rubbings
with crayon |
| Music |
Orff approach to music and movement |
Continued
singing/movement/drama games which reinforce basic elements of
music Pitch discrimination Introduction
to reading rhythmic notation
Creative improvisation with repeating patterns (ostinatos),
echo, and question/answer using body Percussion
and the Orff instrumentarium (percussion and mallet instruments) |
| Physical
Education |
- Group games
- Gymnastics
- Movement and yoga
|
Activities
and instruction in basic movement focusing on force, time, space,
flexibility, and coordination Development
of social skills and control in the context of large and small
group activities |
