English Language Arts

Goldwood Primary is committed to a structured literacy model grounded in the Science of Reading. Our language arts program is direct, explicit, systematic, cumulative, and diagnostic. The five key concepts of reading include phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. These components will be delivered via the following curricula:

• Heggerty 

• Fundations

• Geodes

• Wit & Wisdom

Diagnostics are administered universally 3 times per year as well as formative and summative assessments completed in the classroom. These standards-based measures evaluate student knowledge which guide and tailor our instruction to best fit all students’ needs. 

Heggerty - Designed to supplement your existing literacy curriculum, the Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Kindergarten lessons easily integrate into half-day or full-day kindergarten programs. When lessons are taught consistently each day teachers see improvement in students’ reading, spelling, and writing, as the students learn to hear the sounds in words. 

Fundations -  Fundations® utilizes a structured literacy approach grounded in the science of reading to make learning to read fun while laying the groundwork for lifelong literacy. The program’s research-based approach and extensive materials allow K–3 teachers to confidently present a carefully structured reading, spelling, and handwriting curriculum using engaging, multisensory techniques. Fundations is aligned with the science of reading and guides teachers to provide effective instructional practices. 

• Fundations Orientation During the Fundations Orientation lessons, students will be working with their classroom teacher to establish various routines and new concepts that will guide their learning as they work with Fundations for the entire year. 

• K Fundations Unit 1-- Unit 1 contains many new concepts for our kindergarten readers. Each week introduces 2 or 3 letters. New concepts covered in Unit 1 include: Letter-Keyword-Sound for consonants and short vowels, letter formation for lowercase letters a-z, sound recognition for consonants and short vowels, print and word awareness, rhyming, phonemic awareness for initial and final sounds, story retelling, beginning composition skills, and fluency and phrasing with echo and choral reading. 

• K Fundations Unit 2-- Unit 2 is 4 weeks long, and new concepts include:

  • Phonemic awareness skills such as blending, segmenting, and manipulating sounds.

  • Blending and reading three-sound short vowel words. For example: map, mad, and rat.

  • Story prediction 

  • Alphabetical Order 

  • Upper-case letter formation

  • This unit will focus on tapping to blend and segment words correctly. We've learned 2 main strategies to help us hear all the sounds in words. You may see your students start using these strategies at home! Here is what “tapping out” a word should look and sound like if you were using your thumb and fingers to tap out the word "map". On one hand, touch your index finger to your thumb and say the /m/ sound. Then, have your middle finger touch your thumb and say the /a/ sound. Next, have your ring finger touch your thumb and say the /p/ sound. Blend the sounds together to say "map" and have all three fingers close on the thumb. 

  • Another tapping out strategy that may be a little easier is using our arms and hands. The student stretches one arm straight out in front of them and places their other hand on their shoulder. If we were using the word "map," the first sound /m/ would be when they tap their shoulder, The /a/ sound would be when they tap their elbow, and the /p/ sound would be when they tap their wrist. Then they blend it together by moving or making a smoothing motion from their shoulder to their wrist saying the whole word quickly like "map!" 

• K Fundations Unit 3-- Kindergarten Fundations Unit 3 focuses on tapping, tapping, tapping! This unit's concepts continue to build students' foundation of phonemic awareness skills such as blending, segmenting, and manipulating the sounds in words. Nonsense words are also introduced in the CVC word pattern. Examples of nonsense words include "bez" and "sut" We will also start to work on distinguishing between long and short vowels sounds. Trick words covered include: the, a, and, are, to, is, his as, has, and was. 

• K Fundations Unit 4-- Digraphs are the major concept learned in K Fundations Unit 4. The digraphs we focus on include wh, ch, sh, th, and ck. Students will start decoding three-sound words containing these digraphs such as bath, chop, and thick. The trick words covered in this unit include: we, she, he, be, me, I, you, and they. 

• K Fundations Unit 5-- Unit 5 in Kindergarten Fundations focuses on basic sentence structure. We will be practicing many writing concepts as we work in this unit such as an uppercase letter at the beginning of the sentence, spaces between words, and sight words spelled correctly. The trick words covered in this unit include: or, for, of, have, from, by, my, do, and one. 

Wit & Wisdom -  Wit & Wisdom® is our English curriculum. It builds knowledge of key topics in history, science, and literature through the study of excellent texts. By reading and responding to stories and nonfiction texts, we will build knowledge of the following topics: 

Module 1: The Five Senses 

Module 2: Once Upon a Farm 

Module 3: America, Then and Now 

Module 4: The Continents 

Math 

Eureka Math Squared- Eureka Math² emphasize building a strong foundation in number sense, focusing on counting to 20, writing numerals, understanding quantities and one-to-one correspondence, and early addition and subtraction concepts by composing and decomposing numbers up to 10. Other goals include classifying and organizing objects into categories and counting them, and developing mathematical reasoning through real-world applications.  

Science

National Geographic -  Our Science program focuses on the state of Ohio and consists of 4 units: Science, Engineering, and Technology, Life Science, Earth Science, and Physical Science. We will learn about the nature of science, how to solve problems, living and non-living things, Earth and sky, and objects in our world; all while following real life National Geographic Scientists who are solving real world problems.  

Social Studies

Pearson's myWorld Social Studies - Correlating with the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards, our Social Studies program highlights the importance of working in the 21st Century learning environment and skills needed in order to be a thoughtful and successful citizen in our community. The chapters focus on cooperating family and school environments, various jobs people have in our world, where we live, traditions, and life then and now.