Curriculum

 October/November 2016

Writing: Personal Narratives   

This is a personal narrative unit designed to be taught early in the year to help all children understand that they have stories to tell and can share these experiences with others through their writing.  This unit emphasizes story telling and responsive listening, which are crucial to literacy development of children.  Children will be exposed to a variety of mentor texts to build their understanding of narrative writing.  The big idea behind the unit is helping students to retell events from their lives sequentially.  Students will be exposed to various strategies to help them plan their stories sequentially across pages.  Emphasis will also be placed on building students volume and stamina across the unit.

Children will learn:

*         Everyone has stories to tell about their life

*         Writers think and plan before they write

*         Writers re-read and revise their writing

Reading: Readers Choose Just Right Books

Choice is a powerful and motivating teaching tool. Teaching students book-matching strategies helps them select appropriate books independently. Students also learn how to evaluate whether a book is at the right reading level and length for their abilities and purpose i.e. just-right.

Children will learn:

·               readers will grow most as readers by reading lots of appropriate texts

·               readers understand that they will grow most as readers by reading lots of appropriate texts.

·               readers determine "just-right" books by self monitoring for accuracy, fluency and making meaning.

Units of Study -  August/September

Writing: Launching Writer’s Workshop using pattern books

The goals of this unit are to build students' image of themselves as writers and to enable them to be successful while the systems of workshop are being established.  Students will use familiar text with strong patterns to create their own pieces.  They will write adaptations and innovations of these familiar text using the structure and language provided in the text.

Children will learn:

*         Writers talk about their writing.

*         Writers learn from other writers and use some of their techniques.

*         Writers have writerly habits

Reading: Readers Build Good Habits

This unit will focus on the importance of establishing classroom reading routines.  The unit will explore why people read, and how people treat books.  Additionally, partner talk routines will be introduced, stressing the value of readers discussing what they’ve read with others.

Children will learn:

- Reading is a window to the world

- Readers choose texts for a variety of purposes

- Readers care for books

- Readers learn through discussing what they’ve read

Math: Unit 1 – Math Is More Than Just Numbers

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Unit of Inquiry: Community – Caring For Each Other

We believe that the social curriculum is as important as the academic curriculum.  We also believe that the greatest cognitive growth occurs through social interaction.  Therefore children need a set of social skills in order to be successful.  These skills are based on cooperation, assertion, responsibility, empathy and self-control.

Children will learn:

       *         Within our classroom, each of us has roles and responsibilities.  
*         We all deserve to be treated fairly and respectfully. 
*         Rules are designed to help our classroom community work together for the common good.

*         To work independently and cooperatively to accomplish goals.

Unit 1: Numbers All Around Us
In this unit your child will:

• ❚  Quickly recognize how many objects are in a collection (up to 10), without counting from 1
  
• ❚  Identify 1 more and 1 less than a given number
  
• ❚  Explore number combinations that add up to 5
  and 10
  
• ❚  Count by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s
  
• ❚  Make and read simple graphs using pictures and tally marks