Curriculum

Elementary Cirriculum

Grade K	Social Studies	- Meanings of holidays, traditions, and customs - Understanding and appreciating other cultures - Individual’s role in family, home, school, and community - Relationship of the individual to the group	- Work and jobs - Safety rules and symbols - Basic human needs - Self respect and self-awareness - Awareness of others - Location of home and school - Diagram of home and school

	Science	- Observation of everyday, familiar things - Common animals and plants - Classification of living things - Farm animals - Care of pets - Like and unlike plants - Indoor plants	- The Sun: Our principal source of energy - Weather and seasons - Light - Colors - Senses - Earth, moon, stars, plants - Simple measurements - Beginning experimentation - Temperature

	Language Arts	- Reading-readiness activities - Phonics - Choral reading - Listening to literature, music, poetry - Nursery rhymes, fairy tales, fables - Constructing visual images while listening - Social listening - Role play - Oral communication skills	- Following and giving directions - Paraphrasing and summarizing - Organizing ideas - Experience stories - Relating events and experiences using complete sentences - Listening for correct speech habits and word usage - Beginning writing process - Manuscript handwriting

	Health And Safety	- Personal hygiene - Good eating habits - Good grooming - Care of teeth	- Major body parts - Physical fitness - Safety to and from school

	Mathematics	- Simple counting to 20 - One-to-one relationship - Concepts of more, less, than, same - Sequence of events - Correspondence of quantities - Ordinal-cardinal relationships - Number-numeral relationship - Recognition of basic sets	- Meaning of addition and subtraction - Introduction to number line - Estimation - Elementary geometry (shapes) - Calendar and clock - Denominations of money - Basic problem-solving strategies - Basic chart and graph concepts


Social Studies	- Holiday, traditions, and customs - Our American heritage - Different cultures at different times - Family, school, neighborhood community	- Farm and zoo - Neighborhood helpers - Jobs and careers - Social skills and responsibilities - Basic geography terms
Science	- Grouping and classification - Living and nonliving things - Animals - Pets - Farm animals - Zoo and circus animals - Woodland animals - Common birds - Plant and animal habitats - Seeds, bulbs, plants, and flowers	- Weather and seasons - Day and night - Solids, liquids, and gases - Air and water - Magnets - Fire and temperature - Sun, moon, stars, and planets - Simple machines - Beginning experiments
Language Arts	- Reading - Phonetic analysis - Structural analysis - Establishing sight vocabulary - Reading informally: labels, and signs, for example - Simple pantomimes and dramatic play - Creating stories and poems -Telling favorite stories - Organizing ideas and impressions - Enunciation and pronunciation - Presenting information orally, in sequence and with clarity	- Book reports and critiques - Discussions skills: taking part in group discussion - Beginning dictionary skills: alphabetizing - Beginning spelling - Beginning grammar: nouns, verbs, and adjectives - Introduction to punctuation and capitalization - Manuscript handwriting - Handling books - Using table of contents - Development of class newspaper
Health And Safety	- Personal hygiene - Dental health - Good eating habit - Exercise and rest - Diseases	- Common cold - Dressing for weather and activity - Safety rules to and from school
Mathematics	- Counting and writing to 100 - Counting by 2′s to 40 - Simple number patterns - Beginning ordinal numbers - Using 10 as a basic unit - Simple properties of zero - Simple properties of sets - Beginning addition and subtraction facts - Number-line use - Place value and numeration - Concepts of quantity and size - Concepts of equality and size - Concepts of equality and inequality	- Concepts of ordinal and cardinal numbers - Using 1/2 and 1/4 appropriately - Estimation - Geometric patterns and figures - Basic customary and metric measurement - Recognizing time: clock and calendar - Value of penny, nickel, dime, quarter - Solving simple word problems - Basic probability and chance - Basic chart and graph concepts
Pinecrest School’s curriculum meets or exceeds California state content standards for each grade level.

Social Studies	- Holidays and festivals - Patriotic celebrations - Communities in other lands: past and present - Family and family history - Families around the world - Neighborhoods - Community services and helpers	- Shelters, stores, and food - Citizenship and social responsibility - Interdependence of people - Basic geography: oceans, continents - Map skills
Science	- Useful and harmful animals - Life cycle - Birds and insects - Animal defense of themselves and their young - Plants and animal food - Dinosaurs and other extinct animals - Food chain - Plant reproduction and growth - Habitats and homes - Weather and its effects on our earth	- Effects of the seasons on the lives of people, animals, and plants - Climate - Water cycle - Air and atmosphere - Magnets and forces - Gravity - Earth and sky - Sun, moon, and planets - Simple constellations - Exploring space
Language Arts	- Reading silently for specific purposes - Dramatizations and interpretation or oral reading - Use and meaning of quotation marks in reading - Story development: beginning, middle, end - Simple book reviews - Listening skills - Organizing ideas and impressions - Alphabetizing through second letter - Using dictionary guide words - Vocabulary development	- Homonyms, synonyms, antonyms - Methods of word attack - Ways to study spelling - Simple punctuation and capitalization - Refining manuscript handwriting - Writing independently in manuscript form - Brief and simple letters and journals - Narration, description, letters, poetry - Increasing skill in handling books: table of contents
Health And Safety	- Personal cleanliness - Dental hygiene - Basic food groups - Communicable diseases	- Preventive measures against disease - Neighborhood safety
Mathematics	- Counting, reading, and writing to 1,000 - Counting by 2′s, 3′s, 4′s, 5′s, 10′s - Ordinal numbers to 10 - Zero as a place holder - Using sets and number facts - Addition and subtraction facts to 20 - Basic multiplication and division facts - Multiplication and division facts as inverse operations - Multiplication properties of 0 and 1 - Place value through 100′s	- Fractions in daily life - Decimal numeration system - Basic concept of ratio - Geometry puzzles and activities - Estimation - Common customary and metric measures of time, weight, length, volume, shape, temperature - Telling time and using the calendar - Handling money (coins) - Problem solving - Charts and graphs
Pinecrest School’s curriculum meets or exceeds California state content standards for each grade level.

Social Studies	- Holidays and folk customs - Native Americans - Explorers and pioneers - Appreciation of different cultures, races, and religions - History and development of local community - Community helpers - Consumers and producers - Sources of our food and clothing - Shelters of animals and people	- History and development of transportation and communications - Citizenship and social responsibility - Basic human needs and wants - Local region’s geography and topography - U.S. geography and regions - The continents - Flat maps and globes
Science	- Animal helpers - Dinosaurs - Life cycle - Plants and animals of the desert - Plants and animals of the sea - Common birds, trees, and flowers - Forest plants - Conservation of plants and animals - Weather and climate	- Earth’s changing face - Magnets and electricity - Compass - Gravity - Light and color - Energy and its sources - Force and work - Machines - Moon and stars - Earth satellites
Language Arts	- Silent Reading - Reading prose and poetry aloud - Oral presentations: reporting experiences orally with accuracy - Alphabetizing through third letter - Dictionary skills - Developing word-attack methods - Synonyms, antonyms, homonyms	- Spelling - Beginning cursive writing - Concept of paragraph - Using period, comma, question mark, apostrophe, quotation marks - Writing short, original stories and poems - Post-writing skills: editing and proofreading - Increasing indexing skills
Health And Safety	- Care of eyes and ears - Dental health - Proper balance of activities - Healthful leisure activities - Prevention and control of diseases - Nutrition	- Health with relation to food, shelter, and clothing - School and community health services - Home safety standards - Safety in the community - Simple first aid
Mathematics	- Reading and writing numbers to 5 places - Beginning Roman numerals - Rounding numbers - Positive and negative numbers in daily life - Simple fractions and equivalents - Properties of one - Numeration systems - Addition and subtraction facts to 25 - Multiplication and division facts to 100	- Perimeter, area, volume - Geometric constructions - Similar and congruent figures - Properties of solid figures - Customary and metric measurements - Time to 1 and 5 minute measures - Estimation of outcomes - Problem-solving analysis - Word problems - Charts and graphs
Pinecrest School’s curriculum meets or exceeds California state content standards for each grade level.

Social Studies	- Types of community life - History and development of the local state - Relation of state to its region, nation, and the world - World cultures - Reasons for our laws - Regions of the world - Continents	- Time zones - Earth’s resources - Climatic regions: regions of the four seasons; hot, dry desert regions; cold, hot and mild regions; mountainous regions - Map skills: longitude, latitude, scale - Using a globe
Science	- Structure of plants - Environment of local state - Biological organizations - Classification systems - The insect world - Plants and animals of the past - Structure of plants - Seeds - Ecosystems - Balance of nature - Human body	- Weather influences - Weather instruments - Climate - Causes of seasons - Earth and its history - Oceans and the hydrosphere - Air and water pollution - Magnets and electricity - Light and color - Solar systems and the universe - Living in space
Language Arts	- Silent and oral reading - Choral reading - Listening skills - Telephone skills - Making and accepting simple instructions - Summarizing simple information - Listening to literature - Critical reading - Short stories, chapter books, poetry, plays - Spelling - Increasing dictionary skills	- Cursive handwriting - Simple outlining - Writing letters and informal notes - Written and oral book reports - Creative writing - Developing skills in locating information - Increasing indexing skills - Developing encyclopedia skills - Parts of a newspaper
Health and Safety	- Personal and mental hygiene - Dental health - The body and its functions - Skeletal and muscular system - Care and proper use of the body	- Principles of digestion - Basic food groups - Good nutrition habits - Diseases - Safety
Mathematics	- Reading and writing numbers - Roman numerals to C - Prime numbers less than 100 - Prime factoring - Numeration systems - Subsets - Decimal and fraction equivalence - Addition and subtraction facts to 7 places - Multiplication and division facts to 144 - 1-, 2-, 3-digit multiplication problems	- 2- and 3- digit dividend, 1-digit divisor problems - Meaning of mixed numbers - Finding simple averages - Geometric concepts - Customary and metric measurement - Time to the second - Problem-solving methods - Charts and graphs
Pinecrest School’s curriculum meets or exceeds California state content standards for each grade level.

Social Studies	- American exploration and discovery - Establishment and settlements in the New World - Colonial life in America - Pioneer life in America - Revolutionary War in America - Westward movement - Industrial and cultural growth - Democracy’s principles and documents - Life in the U.S. and its possessions	- Geography of the U.S. - Canada and Mexico - Relationship of the U.S. with Canada - Comparative cultures of Canada, -Countries and cultures of the Western Hemisphere: Central America, West Indies, South America - Map and globe skills
Science	- Biological adaptations - Biotic communities - Animal and plant classification - Fish - Reptiles - Bacteria - Molds - Trees - Plants and their food - Conservation - Cells -Human body	- Landforms - Properties of air and water - Time and seasons - Temperature and thermometers - Magnetic fields - Use and control of electricity - Conduction and convection - Light and optics - Force systems - Chemical systems - Sun and solar system - Space and space exploration
Language Arts	- Silent and oral reading - Types of literature - Presenting original plays - Listening skills - Dictionary use for word meaning, analysis, spelling - Common homonyms - Homophones and homographs - Synonyms and antonyms - Using a thesaurus - Spelling - Plurals and possessives - Kinds of sentences - Parts of sentences	- Cursive handwriting - Outlining - Paragraph writing - Writing letters, stories, reports, poems, plays - Preparing a simple bibliography - Proofreading skills - Parts of a newspaper - Using study materials: keys, tables, graphs, charts, legends, library file cards, index, table of contents, reference materials, maps
Health And Safety	- Dental hygiene - Or water supplies - Sewage disposal - Care of the eyes - Nutrition and diet	- Diseases - Germ-bearing insects and pests - Community health resources - Elementary first aid - Bicycle and water safety
Mathematics	- Reading and writing numbers to 10 places - Mixed numbers - Set of the integers - Numeration systems - Addition, subtraction, Multiplication, and division of whole numbers - Fundamental processes: whole numbers and common fractions - Common and decimal fractions	- Decimals to thousandths - Ratio and percent - Exponents - Customary and metric measurement - Extension of geometric concepts - Word problems in daily life - Charts and graphs (picture, bar, line, and circle graphs) - Concept of sampling
Pinecrest School’s curriculum meets or exceeds California state content standards for each grade level.

Social Studies

- Countries and cultures of the Eastern and Western hemispheres - The Roman Empire - Eurasia - Africa - Australia - Relationships among nations - Customs, traditions, and beliefs - Political and economic systems- United Nations

- Milestones in human achievement - Transportation and communication - World trade - Citizenship and social responsibility - World geography - Map and globe skills

Science

- Branches of Earth Science - Scientific Inquiry - Scientific Method - Lab Safety - Scientific Theory and Laws - Waves, Energy, & Heat - Earth’s Surface & Interior - Earth’s Systems - Map Skills - Rocks and Minerals - Weathering, Erosion, & Deposition

- Soil Conservation - Earthquakes & Volcanoes - Plate Tectonics - Sea-Floor Spreading - Air Pressure - Weather Patterns, & Climate - Populations & Communities - Ecosystems & Biomes - Changes in Matter - Energy Conservation - Recycling

Language Arts

- Critical reading skills - Introduction to mythology - Types of literature - Lyric, narrative, and dramatic poetry - Listening skills - Nonverbal communication - Extending dictionary skills - Vocabulary building - Homonyms, synonyms, antonyms

- Using roots, prefixes, and suffixes - Spelling - Concepts of noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, and adverb - Sentence structure - Diagramming sentences - Cursive handwriting - Types of writing: narration, description, exposition, persuasion

Study Skills

- Simple note taking - Writing outlines, letters, factual matter (reports, newspaper articles), verse (limericks, ballads), creative prose (diary, stories)

- Bibliography building - Organization of a book - Using reference books and indexes

Health and Safety

- Personal appearance - Dental health - Health maintenance - Our food supply - Exercise and fitness - Cure and prevention of common diseases

- The heart - Accident prevention - Safety and first aid - The health profession - Understanding emotions - Coping with stress and anxiety

Mathematics

- Exponents - Operation of powers - Set of the integers - Factoring - Fundamental operations with fractions and decimals - Fundamental operations with compound denominate numbers - Multiplying and dividing common fractions and mixed numbers - Relationship between common and decimal fractions - Problems in percent

- Properties, identification, and construction of geometric figures - Identification and measurement of angles - Concepts of similarity, congruence, and symmetry - Scale drawings - Customary and metric measurement - Problem analysis - Interpreting graphs - Concepts of average and sampling

Mathematics:

Basic Math: Reviews and expands upon the skills covered in sixth grade. Greater depth is given to decimals, fractions, graphs, and statistics. Students will explore number theories and patterns, geometric sequences, geometry, probability and predictions. An introduction to algebra is also presented to enable students to make the transition to higher math.

Pre-Algebra: Honors students will take an introduction to the basic algebraic concepts such as equations, inequalities, integers, and geometric properties. Course provides a solid foundation for later algebraic studies.

Life Science (Biology):

A study of the origin, characteristics and structure of living things from simple organisms to the human body. Topics covering nutrition, reproduction, diseases, biomes, biosphere and ecology are discussed. The effects of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco on the human body and our society are included. Science Fair in the spring requires a project, adhering to a scientific method procedure, focused on a life science experiment.

Literature:

Focuses on analysis of all types of literature, including short stories, poetry, and plays. Emphasis on author’s style and literary techniques. Includes planning and producing dramatization, and a study of myths and legends. Students will read several novels in addition to the textbook selections.

Language:

Emphasizes more advanced grammar skills including clauses and phrases, compound and complex sentences, and person, number and gender of nouns and pronouns. Continued practice with writing skills, but with a focus on the essay. Explores various forms of writing, from personal and expressive, to informative and persuasive. Covers more advanced research skills.

History:

Focus is on world history, beginning at the end of the Roman Empire. New societies of a more non-European influence are examined. The Muslim Empire, African Society, India, China, and Japan are covered. A study of Europe during the Middle Ages is emphasized. Examination of this period tries to show the connection to modern history. Major changes in society, religion, inventions and lifestyles are the main focus of the study. Advanced map and globe skills are also practiced.

Mathematics:

Pre-Algebra: An introduction to the basic algebraic concepts such as equations, inequalities, integers, and geometric properties. Provides a solid foundation for later algebraic studies.Algebra 1: Offers challenging problems on equations, inequalities, polynomials, factoring, statistics and probability. Basic trigonometry and geometry is incorporated for later success.

Physical Science:

Incorporates experiments, formulas and science projects. Resources include computer software and overhead projector material, which allow for clarity and concepts. Focuses on constructing graphs and tables, testing a hypothesis, classifying composition and chemical reaction, interpreting data and diagrams, controlling variables, and chemical equations. Spring Science Fair based on a Physics or chemical related project.

Literature:

A study of all types of literature including poetry, nonfiction and drama. Focuses on understanding of plot, setting, characterization and theme. Students will judge objectively, and analyze critically what is read. Includes an in-depth study of longer works of literature such as To Kill A Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Language:

Expository and creative wring will be included with an emphasis on the usage and mechanics of grammar. Students will be writing their own novels during this class. Also includes a study of poetry and the production of their own collection of poetry.

History:

Basic study of American history which covers the period from Pre-Revolutionary America through World War II. Major emphasis is placed on the concept of cause and effect in history, comprehension of ideas, vocabulary and geography. Special sections focus on the Declaration of Independence and The Constitution. Discussion of modern America is detailed in special seminars.