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Elementary Ages

 

Who am I? Where do I come from? What is my community?

It is difficult to say just where the Kindergarten classroom at Hopkinton Independent School begins and where it ends. Utilizing all 63 acres of nature’s classroom, on any given day the teachers and children might be found on a nature walk, a snowshoe hike, a bird watching or animal tracking expedition or harvesting cranberries from the cranberry bog. Field trips to the public library, the theatre, police and fire stations and post office further enhance the curricular themes of this first year of school as the children broaden their understanding of their world and themselves. The small class size allows for individual/differentiated instruction as students begin to master the basic reading, writing and mathematical skills of the intentional curriculum. Project and inquiry based units allow multiple gateways through which children can access information and begin to integrate what they are learning into their own unique perspective on the world.

Students in their first grade year take a step beyond the world of self and community to explore New Hampshire and New England. Themes for this year include farms, orchards, Native American culture, Shakers, New Hampshire history, geography, habitats, animals and marine studies. Place-based lessons on habitats and farming provide the starting point for this year of local study and field trips to local farms and orchards, museums and science centers further compliment the first graders’ developing awareness of the larger world around them and of their place in it.

 

What is important to know about this topic? How do we share our learning with others? How can we best work together?

 Students in the second grade at Hopkinton Independent School ask and answer these types of questions throughout their year. Taking more ownership of their learning as they engage in inquiry and project-based units, students learn to problem solve and share ideas in small groups. Working together, they become collaborative learners who are participants in a deeply caring and nurturing community. Social Studies themes focus on the geography, history and the changing landscape of the United States, providing a rich context for our inquiry-based studies. Students explore the themes of Resistance and Resilience in the topics of the Original Thirteen Colonies, the Underground Railroad, the Great Depression ,the Dust Bowl,Westward Migration, and Immigration in the Early 20th Century.

 

 

How are we connected within a global community?

In grades 3 and 4 at Hopkinton Independent School students continue to push their geographical boundaries and develop global awareness through exploration and inquiry-based learning. Expanding their understanding of the world around them, reaching beyond their own community, state and country, they discover connections with the cultures and lives of people throughout the world. Student-driven experiential learning guides each investigation as the children gain understanding of the topics through individual and collaborative group projects. Curricular units focus on geography, art, culture, food, ethnic and environmental diversity and sustainability.

 

 

How can we make the world a better place? What can we contribute to our community?

 In the fifth and sixth grades students continue to grow in their knowledge of the world around them and begin to  gain awareness of some of the social, environmental and economic challenges facing the global community. Curricular themes are generated from students' own interests, but focus on the concepts of  sustainability and community building. In their sixth grade year students choose a community service project. This project  becomes the culmination of their elementary school experience as they learn first hand how to apply the skills and knowledge they have gained from all their inquiry based lessons to real life problems and situations.

Kindergarten
Reading

• Decoding:

o Recognizing upper and lower case letters
o Identifying consonant sounds and short vowel sounds
o Identifying beginning and ending sounds
o Recognizing rhyming sounds
o Distinguishing letters from words and words from sentences
o Demonstrating one-to-one correspondence between spoken and written words
o Demonstrating left to right, top to bottom movement with print
o Blending sounds to read words
o Using meaning and context cues


• Comprehension:
o Making predictions about story content
o Anticipating story endings
o Connecting text to life experiences
o Using picture clues and context to aid comprehension
o Retelling familiar stories
o Identifying characters, settings, and events in a story
o Distinguishing fantasy from reality
o Self correcting miscues that affect meaning
o Identifying main idea and plot

Writing

• Learning correct letter formation
• Writing from left to right and top to bottom
• Discussing ideas to include in a story
• Telling a story that another person will write
• Adding details to a main topic
• Using phonetic spelling to write independently
• Using knowledge of word families and high-frequency words to write independently

Mathematics
Curriculum used: Singapore Math, Math Their Way
• Identifying, extending, and creating simple patterns (AB, ABC, AABB)
• Identifying shapes
• Understanding calendar concepts
• Recognizing and printing numerals 0-20
• Counting by ones, fives and tens to 100
• Understanding the terms: more, less, same, and equal
• Understanding positional words (up, down, above, under, etc.)
• Solving addition problems to 10 using manipulatives
• Solving subtraction problems from 10 using manipulatives
• Estimating
• Using non-standard measuring tools
• Reading and interpreting simple graphs
• Using place value for ones and tens
• Telling time by the hour
• Identifying pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters

 

First Grade
Reading

• Reading habits:
o Reading orally with expression
• Decoding:
o Identifying consonant sounds, short vowel sounds, beginning digraphs and blends, and common word families
o Blending sounds to read words
o Using meaning and context cues
o Using sentence structure cues
o Self-correcting miscues that affect meaning
o Reading grade-level high-frequency words
• Comprehension:
o Retelling stories to reflect sequence, setting, characters, problem, and resolution
o Using story maps
o Anticipating story endings
o Identifying main idea and details of informational text

Writing

• Selecting a focus when writing
• Using writing to communicate ideas
• Working on one piece of writing over several days
• Adding details to a main topic
• Rereading writing and revises for content
• Using periods and capitalization
• Using correct letter formation
• Using phonetic spelling to write independently
• Using knowledge of word families and high-frequency words to write independently

Mathematics

• Recognizing and printing numerals 1-20
• Counting by ones and tens to 100
• Reading and interpreting simple graphs
• Solving addition problems to 10
• Solving subtraction problems to 10
• Adding two digit numbers without renaming
• Subtracting two digit numbers without renaming
• Solving simple word problems
• Telling time by the hour and half hour
• Identifying coins and uses value to count change to $1.00
• Recognizing fractions 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4
• Identifying common 2-d and 3-d shapes
• Measuring in standard and non-standard units

Second Grade
Reading


• Reading habits:
o Reading orally with expression and attention to punctuation
o Reading independently for a sustained period of time
o Reading and studying different genres: fiction, nonfiction, biography and poetry
• Decoding:
o Differentiating between short and long vowels
o Identifying long vowel patterns and r-influenced vowel patterns
o Using multiple decoding strategies automatically as needed
o Self-correcting miscues that affect meaning
o Reading high-frequency words
• Comprehension:
o Vocabulary development
o Identifying and summarizing setting, characters, problem, and resolution of fiction
o Making predictions & inferences that are supported by the text
o Identifying and summarizing topic, main idea, and details of informational text
o Using table of contents, captions, glossary, and index
Writing

• Using, planning and organizing tools for prewriting
• Using the prewriting process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing)
• Producing longer texts with several related ideas
• Narrative writing with a beginning, middle, and end
• Writing in different forms, including personal narratives, fiction, essays, friendly letters and poetry
• Working on writing over several days to produce more complex text
• Revising for content clarity
• Editing for punctuation, capitalization, and spelling
• Making near accurate or conventional attempts at spelling words
• Identifying nouns, verbs, and adjectives
• Using basic punctuation and capitalization
• Using correct letter formation

Mathematics
 

Solving addition facts to 20 with automaticity
• Solving subtraction facts within 20 with automaticity
• Solving multiplication facts
• Solving division facts
• Understanding tens, ones, and place value
• Using place value to add and subtract two-digit numbers
• Measuring length with English and metric units
• Measuring weight with English and metric units
• Telling time to the hour, half hour, and quarter hour
• Describing and classifying 2-d and 3-d shapes
• Creating and interpreting graphs
• Recognizing simple fractions of a whole
• Identifying coins and using value to count change to $1.00

Third Grade
Reading


• Independently selecting and reading books of appropriate difficulty
• Reading orally with fluency
• Sustaining interest and focus on texts that require several days to read
• Using several strategies to determine meaning of unknown words
• Reading books from a variety of genres
• Writing thoughtful responses to text
• Discussing responses to text with peers thoughtfully
• Making inferences, drawing conclusions, making predictions, and interpreting text

Writing

• Narrative writing with plot, character, and setting
• Informational writing with main topic and supporting facts
• Beginning research and report writing
• Writing with clarity and organization
• Demonstrating command of sentence structure & paragraphs
• Using the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing) independently
• Editing for punctuation, capitalization, and spelling independently
• Spelling most grade-level words conventionally and makes near attempts for many more words
• Identifying nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
• Developing dictionary skills

Spelling

• Identifying and using:
o Long vowel patterns
o R-influenced vowel patterns
o Homophones
o Three-letter blends
o Word endings
o Contractions
o Adding –ed and –ing to words
o Plurals
o Compound words
o Syllable junctures

Mathematics

• Reading and writing numbers and number-words to 1000
• Understanding and using place value to 1000
• Adding two and three digit numbers without renaming
• Subtracting two and three digit numbers without renaming
• Adding two and three digit numbers with renaming
• Subtracting two and three digit numbers with renaming
• Solving multiplication facts
• Solving division facts
• Solving word problems and showing work
• Finding the area of shapes in non-standard units
• Comparing and measuring capacity
• Measuring length with English and metric units
• Measuring weight with English and metric units

 

 



 

 

 

 


   
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