ELEMENTARY SCHOOL COURSES
Courses
Available as either semester or full year unless noted. All courses meet elective Graduation requirements unless stated as College Prep.
Language Arts
LANGUAGE ARTS 200
Language Arts/Reading 200 course builds core language arts and reading skills with opportunities for students to engage with different types of texts and writing structures.
LANGUAGE ARTS 300
Language Arts/Reading 300 builds on students’ basic language arts and reading skills by engaging them with different types of texts and a variety of writing forms and structures. The course helps students develop their command of the conventions of Standard English in writing and speaking, including grammar and usage, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. It also helps students expand their vocabulary and develop their listening skills. Course topics include:
-
Nouns and Pronouns
-
Writing Personal Narrative
-
Explanatory Writing
-
Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs
-
Opinion Writing
-
Writing That Compares
-
Expository Writing
-
Writing a Story
LANGUAGE ARTS 400
Language Arts 400 focuses on the sequential development and integration of communication skills in four major areas—reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It most specifically focuses on deepening and furthering students’ understanding in the following ways: Reading, Writing, Listening, and Special topics.
LANGUAGE ARTS 500
Language Arts 500 students will deepen their understanding of concepts about text and comprehension strategies. They will have many opportunities to apply what they have learned by integrating language arts with other subjects. Students will use writing as a tool for learning, and they will write for a variety of purposes and audiences. They will write in a variety of genres.
They will apply what they have learned about the author’s craft to their pieces. Fifth graders will increase their vocabulary by being involved in classroom discussion and word study.
Mathematics
MATH 200
Math 200 is a comprehensive course in various aspects. It begins by examining different and progressively challenging types of addition and subtraction. From there, it continues on to different types of graphs, surveys, and line plots, followed by counting money and telling time. Students will explore measurements, fractions, and different ways to skip count before completing the course with a small introduction to multiplication and division.
MATH 300
Math 300 provides an engaging learning experience for creative minds. Throughout this course, students learn about multiplication and division strategies within 100. They develop a strong foundation of fractions wherein they examine and compare fraction size. Students study rectangular arrays and solve to find the area of rectangles. They analyze two-dimensional shapes and their various attributes.
MATH 400
Math 400, students focus most on using all four operations – addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division – to solve multi-step word problems involving multi-digit numbers. Fourth-grade math extends their understanding of fractions, including equal (equivalent) fractions and ordering fractions.
MATH 500
Math 500 This course is designed to foster the development of number sense, with greater emphasis on decimals and fractions. Students with good number sense understand the meaning of numbers, develop multiple relationships and representations among numbers, and recognize the relative magnitude of numbers. They should learn the relative effect of operating on whole numbers, decimals and use mathematical symbols and language to represent problem situations. Number and operation sense continues to be the cornerstone of the curriculum.
Science
SCIENCE 200
The Grade 2 Science course investigates animal life, plant life, weather, water, and physics, as well as technology and astronomy.
Course topics include:
-
Plants and Animals
-
Food Chains and Life CyclesEarth’s Resources
-
Weather and Seasons
-
Matter, Energy, Forces, Motion, and Sound
-
Space and Technology
SCIENCE 300
Science 300 Students will investigate topics in life, Earth, and physical science. Students will explore states of matter, energy in different forms, force and motion, Earth’s natural processes, the solar system, ecosystems, and energy between organisms. Different types of scientists are introduced throughout this course, and students are encouraged to investigate how something works.
SCIENCE 400
Science 400 students are becoming more sophisticated in their ability to explain and describe scientific concepts. They will speculate about the observations they make. They will also connect the topics they are learning about to their own experiences.
Fourth graders explore three different branches of science this year: physical science, life science, and earth & space science.
Scientific inquiry and investigation:
-
Changes in matter and energy
-
Engineering & technology
-
Solar System & Universe
-
Living things, life cycles, and food webs
SCIENCE 500
Students will learn through engaging activities and virtual investigations as they discover new concepts that focus on the matter, Earth, and space at this level including:
-
Properties of matter
-
Chemical changes
-
Ecosystems
-
Interacting with Earth
Social Studies
SOCIAL STUDIES 200
Social Studies 200 course begins to explore how the student fits in the world as a member of a community, a country, and the world. It introduces maps and discusses how industry and government work in the U.S.A. Grade 2 Social Studies presents US History from the early Native American period to the Civil War and finishes with an introduction to world history.
SOCIAL STUDIES 300
Social Studies 300 focuses on the importance of communities – how they work together, how varying conditions may affect them, and how they have evolved over time. Students learn about United States history and the events that brought our nation to what it is today. They will study commerce, currency, and decision- making in connection with saving and spending.
SOCIAL STUDIES 400
Social Studies 400 – focus heavily on history and government where students continue to build a foundation of geography, economics, civics, and history knowledge this year.
-
Prehistoric and Ancient Civilizations
-
U.S. Revolution
-
Geography Tools and Vocabulary
-
U.S. Civics
-
Economics
-
Current Events
SOCIAL STUDIES 500
A fifth-grade social studies curriculum offers students an opportunity to not only learn about the history of the country they live in but also other parts of the world. This information allows them to explore the differences and similarities they share with other cultures, as well as discover how different societies from long ago contributed to their inventions and ideas that are a part of our lives today.