Growth theme

The Kindergarten classroom provides a place for students to learn about all the wonderful things that God has created in our world and beyond.  Integrated throughout the Kindergarten subject areas, God’s Word and His involvement in our lives serves as a strong foundation to support their academic, spiritual, and emotional growth.

 

Using Concordia’s Enduring Faith, the children learn a variety of Old and New Testament Bible Stories, including the Creation, Sin, the Flood, Jesus’ birth, Jesus’ miracles, His death, resurrection, and ascension to Heaven. Bible hero stories provide real-life applications and connections through role playing, music, and crafts. Daily prayer and Wednesday Chapel enhance the weekly topics, allowing students to know and receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

 

The Scott Foresman Reading Street curriculum include lessons that focus on developing oral language, vocabulary and comprehension skills. The curriculum uses fiction and non-fiction literature to extend and enrich the learning process. Students study the following elements: character identification, story setting, plot, illustrations, sequencing, classifying/categorizing, comparing/contrasting, predictions, main idea, fantasy/reality, cause/effect, and conclusions.

Kindergarten focuses on writing uppercase and lowercase letters, letter size, the form of the letters, and spacing of letters/words in sentences. The children use the Zaner-Bloser font style when learning to write.

 

Envision serves as the math curriculum tool used in Kindergarten. The skills taught with this program spiral throughout the year, resurfacing throughout the school year to promote mastery of each skill. Some of the major topics covered include the following:  identifying and using whole numbers; counting by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s and 10’s; recognizing geometric shapes and their attributes; recognizing, completing, and creating patterns; understanding charting and graphing; telling time; identifying/counting money; and simple addition/subtraction. Manipulatives, music, role playing and related math center activities serve to enrich the learning experience for students.

 

Mystery Science serves as the curriculum resource for Science. Topics of learning include living/non-living things, rocks/minerals, senses, body parts, pushes/pulls, landforms, habitats, daytime sky/nighttime sky, seasons, weather, plants, nutrition, resources and conservation.

 

Social Studies Weekly-American Foundations provides a variety of topics of study. Students learn about topics including:  rules, families, community helpers, maps and globes, Pilgrims/Native Americans, U.S. History – Presidents, Patriots and Monuments, Good Citizenship, U.S. Holidays, Money, Needs/Wants, Spending/Saving and Consumers/Producers.

 

First grade uses the Enduring Faith series for their study of religion. Throughout the year, students review and discuss 70 topics from the Old and New Testaments. Each topic provides a story overview and real-life connection to the student’s life. A weekly memory verse serves as a memory tool, supporting students as their knowledge of the Bible grows.

 

 

We use the Science of Reading and Reading Street curriculum in 1^st grade. Through daily hands-on lessons, weekly decodable readers and special writing activities, the students develop a deeper understanding of language arts. A weekly story integrates phonics and spelling concepts presented during the week. The Zaner-Bloser method supports handwriting development.

 

 

 

 

Aligning with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), 1^st grade uses the Mystery Science program to support the Science curriculum. To enrich and extend the science program, students work on STEAM projects throughout the school year, challenging students to dig deeper into a topic of interest.

 

The 1^st grade Social Studies program continues the introduction of United States history. Focusing on famous historical figures, the students research the important contributions each person made, the positive character traits exhibited by these people and the places where they lived. Students also explore basic economic concepts. The Georgia Studies Weekly series supplements the standards and topics addressed in 1st grade.

 

The Enduring Faith series for 2^nd grade covers a variety of topics over the school year. Focusing on God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, students learn of the many blessings received from all three. Students learn about the power of prayer, the truth of God’s promises and the forgiveness of our sins.

 

 

Second graders begin to transition from learning to read to reading to learn. They begin to read more often and for longer periods of time, selecting more complex texts including chapter books. Writing becomes a more independent activity for 2^nd graders. Becoming m ore conscientious about editing and revising their work, students begin to use more symbolic language and verbal interactions in their writing. The 2^nd grade students engage in a variety of language and literary activities as they gain independence and mastery of reading, writing, speaking and listening.

 

 

Second grade uses Envision Math to explore four primary areas of learning: place value (base-10 up to 1,200), addition and subtraction with multi-digit whole numbers, measuring length, and applying two-dimensional shape and three-dimensional solid understanding. 

Opportunities to practice the content occur throughout the instructional materials. Each lesson provides a mixture of videos, paper-and-pencil worksheets, and games, as well as opportunities for group, partner, and individual work.

enVisionmath2.0 features a proven and unique instructional design pairing independent problem solving and explicit instruction, resulting in deeper conceptual understanding. Problem-based tasks at the beginning of every lesson challenge students to connect prior learning, followed by explicit instruction that presents key math ideas visually.

 

 Science

 

The performance expectation in 2^nd grade helps students formulate answers to questions. Students develop proficiency in using models, planning and carrying out investigations, analyzing and interpreting data, constructing explanations and designing solutions, engaging in argument from evidence, and obtaining, evaluating and communicating information.

 

 

Following the Social Studies Georgia Standards of Excellence (2016), the focus of the 2^nd grade Social Studies curriculum focuses on important historical figures in Georgia and the Creek and Cherokee cultures in Georgia. The positive character traits of individuals and groups as well as the impact made by these people serves as a historical study for the 2^nd grade students. The concept of government and basic economics is also introduced.

 

The Enduring Faith series serves as a resource for the study of religion in the 3^rd grade classroom. During the 3^rd grade year, students learn about core Christian beliefs, the Holy Trinity, and the application of faith in their daily lives.

 

 

Third grade extends the language arts program by integrating novel studies to teach specific skills. The Scott Foresman Reading Street series serves as a baseline resource for the Language Arts curriculum. Focusing on reading comprehension, students develop an understanding of the author’s purpose, cause and effect, character and setting, main idea and supporting details, drawing conclusions, plot, sequencing and summarizing.

The Reading Street 3^rd Grade Spelling supports students as they practice spelling rules and incorporate those rules into their daily writing.

Shurley English supports grammar and writing. Students learn the eight parts of speech through jingles, classifying sentences and classroom activities. Throughout this program, students practice the writing process, developing traits of an effective writer including organization, word choice, voice, writing conventions and sentence fluency.

Third grade uses the Zaner-Bloser method reviewing manuscript letter and then focusing on cursive letters. The ability to demonstrate mastery of cursive writing remains a goal throughout the 3^rd grade program.

 

 

Savvas’ EnVision Math serves as a resource throughout the 3rd grade math curriculum. In 3rd grade, students develop and master the basic operational skills of multiplication and division in computation practice and using multi-step word problem solving. Students learn strategies to add and subtract numbers within 1,000, multiples of 10, and develop an understanding of fractions. Students learn geometry, perimeter, and capacity.

 

 

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) serve to guide the Science curriculum in 3^rd grade. These standards support teachers as they design lessons and activities for a variety of science topics. The topics of study include Animal survival and heredity, Plant life and heredity, Weather and climate, Forces, motion, and magnets and Engineering skills.

 

 

Students begin a three-year study of United States history. History, geography, civics/government and economics seamlessly integrate into the study. In 3^rd grade, the exploration and colonization of North America provide students with an extensive study of American Indian culture and the impact of European colonization of America. Students learn about our government and discuss the responsibilities of a good citizen. The Georgia Studies Weekly serves as a second resource to support topics covered throughout the year.

 

Fourth graders learn from stories written in the Bible. The Enduring Faith series assists students as they make life connections to the stories. The study begins with the Creation story in the Old Testament and continues into the New Testament, exploring stories about the early Christian church. Weekly memory verses solidify their knowledge and understanding of the Bible.

 

 

As an extension of the 3^rd grade program, novels continue to serve as an integral part of the 4^th grade Language Arts curriculum. Students extend their comprehension skills, focusing on the author’s purpose, cause and effect, inferencing, main idea and supporting details, drawing conclusions and summarizing.

The Reading Street 4^th Grade Spelling and Shurley English Level 4 support students as they continue to strengthen writing and grammar skills. Continued practice of these skills help students develop the traits of an effective writer.

 

 

Under Construction

The 4^th grade Science curriculum focuses on the study of the human body, Earth’s features and processes, sound waves and communication, energy and electricity, and various engineering skills. The Mystery Science series serves as a resource for these topics as teachers use the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as a guideline when designing lessons and activities.

 

 

Continuing the second year of a three-year study of United States history, 4^th graders begin with a study of the French and Indian War and end with the Reconstruction period. Students also explore the concepts and rights contained within our founding documents. The Georgia Studies Weekly series supplements the standards and topics addressed in 4^th grade.