Curriculum
1st/2nd Grades:
Major Units:
Think Like A (Engineer/Scientist/Entrepreneur):
Careers are everywhere. This career-related unit allows students to start the process of exploring the world of careers and the traits and characteristics required for these careers. With each learning experience, they gain a greater awareness of the nature of work and begin to form ideas about their future career roles.
3rd/4th Grades:
Major Units:
Agricultural Biotechnology "Food Safety":
Safe and nutritious food is the foundation of good health, and people in the United States have more food choices than ever before. Several of these choices are due to continuously improving technologies in food agriculture. Many people want to know more about how their food is produced so they can make the right choices for themselves. This unit aims to empower students to make those choices. It incorporates key scientific knowledge and education resources to help students understand how biotechnology is used to produce food for humans and animals.
Traveling Through Time:
Students will brainstorm and investigate the different philosophies of time travel, paradoxes, and problems. They will study the physics behind time travel so that they can debate the possibility, probability, and ethics of time travel being used in the future. The students will design their own time machine and present them to the class.
Destination Outer Space:
Knowledge about the solar system is more important than ever. It helps us appreciate the Earth. It gives us incentives to preserve and respect our natural resources. Planetary science or planetology, which is the study of planets, is one of the fastest-growing areas of scientific research. Through exploration and the engineering design process, students will experience what many engineers experience when working in a field of outer space.
Affective:
3rd grade: Critical Thinking:
(Multiplying Decimals)
Taco Truck Menu
Planning/Budgeting a Disney Trip
3rd grade: Creativity :
Taco Truck (design menu and physical scaled truck)
Theme Park
4th Grade Critical Thinking:
(Reading, Writing, and Solving Equations)
Alphabet Book (Equation Edition)
Water Rights
4th Grade Creativity:
-Mystery Location
-March Madness
ELA:
3rd grade: What Do You Think While Reading? Students read and analyze a poem to determine literal and nonliteral meanings of words. Then they will create an original visual poem in the style of the mentor poem by using Wevideo.
Characters Make Choices Too: Students read two stories by the same author with similar characters. Then composes a letter from the point of view of one of the characters, using traits, actions, and feelings of the character to explain the motivation behind choices made in the story.
Central Choices "Fables": Students recount stories (fables) from diverse cultures to determine the central message or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details. Students describe characters in a story and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events in the story and compose an original fable of my own.
Learn About Kennedy- In this lesson, students will demonstrate comprehension of nonfiction through answering a series of questions related to the text, and complete research on another historical figure to create a photobiography of the historical figure's life.
4th Grade:
Inventions: Students study and research famous inventions that impact society and create a museum exhibit from their research findings.
Interpretation of Poetry: In this lesson, students will demonstrate an understanding of the theme and structure of a poem through developing and presenting their own written version of the poem.
Metaphor Poetry: In this lesson, students will: demonstrate an understanding of figurative language by writing a poem using metaphor as a literary device.
Opinion Writing "Natural Disasters": In this lesson, students will use the knowledge gained from reading informational text in order to write an opinion essay on a topic.
5th Grade:
Major Units:
Economics of Life:
Throughout life, students will interact with money and make choices that can affect their daily needs and wants. This unit will help build financial responsibility as well as continue to improve the use of strategic problem-solving skills. This unit also gives students the opportunity to be creative with their choices within their life and be as successful as they can be.
House Design:
House Design will give students insights into the problems and pleasures of designing a house and will introduce the practical skills they will need to design a home of their own. Students will play the role of architect, interior designer, and contractor. With a budget, students will also be required to make real-life decisions such as house style, house grade, furnishings, and extra costs.
Affective:
Critical Thinking:
(Scale: Solving and Drawing)
Monuments
Clue Board Games
Golf Courses
Creativity:
Scaled Drawings
-Monuments (Research and Construction)
-Scaled Golf Courses
ELA:
Destination Antarctica- Students study Polar Exploration and do research to come up with recommendations for the next Polar Exploration. The students design an infographic to promote their recommendations and give a presentation.
Reader's Theater- Students perform a reader’s theater to build fluency, expression, creative performance skills, and confidence. Students perform for Hawthorn students.
A Hero is Born- Students will understand what a monomyth is and how to chart the stages of a hero's journey. Students will understand how to do a character analysis and identify archetypes in a narrative. Students will understand the plot arc of a narrative. Students will write a hero's journey story of their own using the proper monomyth structure and plot arc.
6th Grade:
Major Units:
Code Blue:
Students will improve critical thinking skills as well as problem-solving skills with real-world situations. Also, will gain knowledge of how the body systems work and how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
Shark Tank:
Students of all ages are very aware of the hard economic times that many are experiencing in the country, in their neighborhoods, and even in their own homes. This unit allows students to see that with creativity, ingenuity, organization, hard work, dedication, mathematical skills, and teamwork they can create a product to solve a problem and make MONEY!
Affective:
Critical Thinking:
(Transformations & Slope)
Superhero Transformations
Making The Band
Creativity:
Transformations Stained Glass
Desmos Slope Art
ELA:
Picturing Poetry: Students compare two poems about love and loss.
Podcasting: Students will brainstorm topics that interest their audience and learn how to use technology to create a finished audio podcast.
Students will storyboard their topic and organize a podcast with a unifying theme.
Middle School:
Major Units:
Neurology Unit: In this unit, students will dissect a sheep's brain and understand how the sheep's brain is similar to their own brain. Students will understand how their brain functions are affected by their sleep, and eating habits. Students will explore brain functions related to all aspects of their life.
Creating Your Own Country: Students will research how countries have been formed and the process necessary to create and run their own country. Students create their own country all the way down to the government, weather, flag, food, and even sporting events.
How to Effect Change in the Community and the World: In this unit, students will research famous activists and humanitarians and the various talents used to effect change in the world. Students will study photojournalism, and solutions journalism and consider ways to use their talents to solve real-world problems they find in their own communities. Students will work with the mayor and/or city members to come up with solutions to solve various problems.
Make Up Your Mind: Philosophy, Psychology, Ethics, and Debate
Make Up Your Mind Philosophy Unit. Philosophy means “the love of wisdom”. Philosophers want to become wise about everything (yourself, people around you, and the world we live in). The class will discuss, argue, and try to convince each other of their positions over the course of this unit. Students will be introduced to ideas that inspired and burdened some of the greatest thinkers of all time. Each generation should have the freedom, if not the obligation, to explore Western culture’s many debates. Students will sharpen their minds, gain a greater comprehension of what they read, and develop their abilities to engage in civil discussion and create their own manifesto.
Genius Hour: This is also called passion projects. Students work on projects that interest them. Every Monday, students have time to work through a six-phase process to complete a project of their own choosing. Students set their own goals and timelines to keep themselves on track. The students blog and vlog about their progress in their online total talent portfolios. When the project is complete, the students give a TEDTalk presentation at Shine Night to showcase their work.
Instant Challenges: On Fridays, students compete in instant challenges to develop their leadership, teamwork, creativity, and critically thinking skills. This is one of the highlights of the week. Students love the variety of challenges and the ideas that they are able to create.
Affective Lessons:
What does gifted mean? Loneliness, Boredom, Procrastination, Time Management, Personality, Self-Esteem, Strengths and Weaknesses, Identity, Sorting out Stress, Friends, and Connecting with Others