Reading, writing, listening, speaking, spelling and handwriting are all-important components of language arts. Skills and strategies in each area are modeled, taught and practiced, taking into account the unique needs of each learner. Knowledge and skills are acquired through connected experiences between home, school and community. Students will read from a variety of texts, including fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Students will read and write daily. Our daily reading and writing will be focused throughout the literacy Units of Study listed below.

Community Unit: Citizenship & Government

This unit introduces several, foundational topics that will be threaded throughout the year to establish a strong learning community. Students will be learning how working together by being respectful, responsible, and independent learners help create a school community and global society. Students will take part in developing classroom agreements to provide a sense of ownership and to build their identities as learners. Students will read a variety of of narrative texts and through the close study of different characters will learn how to treat people.

Social Studies: Genealogy and Family History

This unit allows students to develop a deeper understanding of who we are as a community of unique individuals who are similar and different in many ways. The importance of this unit is focused on students building relationships with one another by learning about their families and individual cultures. Students start investigating their own culture, family structure and family. Students will also learn how culture has changed overtime.

PM Readers Series

This unit provides an opportunity to build fluency, develop concepts about print, and anchor to a predictable story structure. These series will help children become familiar with reading and writing personal narratives. They will learn how dialogue works and how to make writing decisions for their own readers.

Earth Science: Geology: Investigating Rocks and Soil

Students will have opportunities to learn through observations and research to build their identities as scientists. Students will inquire and conduct experiments while researching about rocks, soils, and objects made of earth materials. Students will begin to understand how to navigate through nonfiction text to find information.

Illustrator: Jan Brett

Jan Brett is an author and illustrator. Many authors write a lot of about what they know. Jan Brett does just that in her writing. She loves animals and most of her books are about animals. As authors and illustrators, students will learn to think about how their illustrations support their own writing and to choose writing topics of great interest.

Stem Unit: Living the Life of a Scientist -Penguins

This unit of study will invite students to inquire about the physical attributes, behaviors, and life cycles of six different penguins; rockhoppers, kings, little blues, gentoos, chinstraps, and emperors. They will begin to explore how some animals are alike in the ways they look and in the things they do, while other animals are very different from one another.

Author: Robert Munsch

Robert Munsch was a story teller before he started writing his stories down. His stories are about ordinary things that happen to children everyday. Students will enjoy reading his stories and listening to his creative word choices and use of onomatopoeia to help create rhythm in his writing. Using Robert Munsch as a mentor will allow students to learn how to write about similar topics again and again, in different ways, and in different books. Students will learn how to play around with humor and language in their stories like Robert Munsch.

Life Science: Entomology: Investigating Insects

This unit provides opportunities for students to become curious about the natural world around them. Students will study the life cycles of different insects by digging deeper into research as entomologists. Students will research, make observations, and record in their science journals about these different life cycles. They will observe living specimens to gather information about physical changes during the life cycle.