Curriculum Overview
Lower School
Instructional
Philosophies
- Mathematics
- Humanities
- Science
- Spanish
- Art
- Physical Education
- Innovation
- Music
- Social Emotional Learning
Mathematics
Benchmarks
Kindergarten
- Know number names and count in sequence to 100
- Count to tell the number of objects accurately in the range of 1-20
- Count on from 10 to determine the total in a group
- Compare numbers to 10 using greater than, less than, and equal to
- Understand addition as putting together and adding to
- Understand subtraction as taking apart and taking from
- Represent numbers using objects, fingers, drawings, or numbers
- Work with numbers 11 - 19 to gain foundations for place value
- Describe and compare measurable attributes within length and weight
- Classify objects and count the number of objects in categories
- Identify, describe, and sort two and three-dimensional shapes
- Analyze, compare, create, and compose shapes
First Grade
- Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction with pictures, drawings, models, or objects
- Apply operations and understand the relationship between addition and subtraction
- Add and subtract to 20 using multiple strategies and find the unknown number in addition and subtraction equations
- Solve story problems
- Understand the commutative and associative properties of addition
- Understand the meaning of the equal sign and identify equations
- Count, read, and write by ones, twos, fives, and tens to 120
- Add and subtract two-digit numbers that are multiples of 10
- Use the greater than, less than, and equal symbols to compare two-digit numbers and understand that the digits indicate how many tens and ones are in the number
- Tell and write time to the hour and half hour on analog and digital clocks
- Read, construct, and answer questions about the data in a graph
- Measure length using non-standard units
- Identify and describe two- and three- dimensional shapes
- Divide circles and rectangles into two and four equal parts and describe the parts
Second Grade
- Tell whether a number is odd or even, and explain why
- Use addition to find the total number of objects arranged in a rectangular array with up to five rows and five columns
- Solve addition and subtraction in equation and story problems to 100
- Understand that the three digits of a 3-digit number represent amounts of hundreds, tens, and ones
- Read and write three-digit numbers using numerals and expanded notation (726 = 700 + 20 + 6)
- Skip-count by 5s, 10s, and 100s within 1,000
- Use symbols >, =, < to compare two- and three-digit numbers
- Mentally add and subtract 10 or 100 to or from numbers 100-900
- Add and subtract three-digit numbers using models, sketches, and/or numbers, and explain strategies
- Use a number line to show and solve two-digit addition problems, locate numbers on a number line and add and subtract on a number line
- Use appropriate tools to measure length in inches, feet, centimeters, and meters
- Tell and write time to the nearest 5 minutes on an analog and a digital clock
- Solve money word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, and use the cents and dollars signs correctly
- Construct and read picture graphs and bar graphs, and solve problems using the information in a graph
Third Grade
- Add and subtract three-digit problems fluently
- Write and solve multiplication and division story problems within 100
- Understand what it means to multiply and divide, and do so fluently
- Check for reasonable answers (rounding)
- Solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division multi-step story problems
- Divide shapes into equal parts and identify the area of each part as a fraction of the whole shape
- Locate and place fractions correctly on a number line
- Recognize and generate equivalent fractions
- Compare fractions
- Tell time to the minute, and solve story problems about time, including elapsed time
- Understand measurement and measure liquid volume, mass, and length in metric units
- Solve measurement word problems for liquid volume, mass, and length
- Solve area and perimeter problems
- Sort and classify shapes
Fourth Grade
- Use four operations with whole numbers to solve problems
- Generalize place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers
- Use place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers
- Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic
- Extend understanding of philosophy of fraction equivalence and ordering
- Build fractions from unit fractions by applying and extending previous understandings of operations on whole numbers
- Understand decimal notation for fractions, and compares decimal fractions
Humanities
Benchmarks
Kindergarten
Kindergarten uses a balanced literacy framework-- students engage with readers/writers’ workshop, and phonics/word-work (Fundations). Writer’s Workshop provides a student-centered, differentiated curriculum for all students. Teachers lead skill-based mini-lessons and then allow for a large amount of time spent in independent writing. During this time, students are conferenced with (either in small groups or individually) to ascertain individual writing goals and to scaffold them to that goal. We use the reader’s workshop model in kindergarten. Similar to the writer’s workshop curriculum, students participate in a short, 5-10 minute mini-lesson, where new reading skills are introduced and practiced, before moving into independent and then partner reading time.
Writing: in Writers’ Workshop, kindergarten students learn:
- The writing process: how to organize/plan their ideas, drafting, revising, editing, and finally how to self-assess and share with an audience.
- Spelling at this time starts as inventive, moves into phonetic, and finally ends with many snap words being spelled conventionally.
- Writing genres include: “show and tell,” fiction small moments, non-fiction “how to” books, opinion/persuasive writing reviews and poetry.
Grammar Skills: differentiating between letters and words, using spaces between words, capitalization and ending punctuation
Phonics: Fundations curriculum introduces students to proper pencil grip, correct upper/lowercase letter formation and letter/sound correspondence. Students should recognize the difference between consonants and vowels by the end of the year.
Reading: in Reader’s Workshop, each child has their own “book bag” that contains 5-10 leveled readers that he/she practices independently while the teacher pulls guided reading groups. These groups are leveled, and students are encouraged to practice their “just right” reading skills with the teacher and peers. By the end of kindergarten, students leave with a multitude of reading strategies:
- Using pictures
- One-to-one correspondence (pointing to each word read)
- Applying letter/sound awareness to sound out words
- A bank of “sight words” that promotes reading fluency
- Persistence in decoding unknown, or challenging text
- Most importantly, strong comprehension of texts read
Social Studies: Students are exposed to a few themes in social studies, likened to concentric circles designed to build knowledge around community and individuals play a role in communities of all types. The curriculum is designed to also support social and emotional learning in the classroom.
Course Highlights
Kindergarten students engage in an array of projects designed to help them understand how communities come together. Field trips and projects reinforce learnings on how communities are formed and how individuals support and operate within a community environment.
Key Questions
- Who am I: what is my role in the world and at school?
- How does my family impact a community?
- How do I relate to the world as a student?
First Grade
First grade students experience an integrated balanced literacy program. By studying reading skills and types of books in reading workshop, they then apply learned strategies to their own writing in a variety of genres. Students engage with writers workshop, reading workshop, along with interactive reading and writing, and a wonderful collection of read alouds throughout the year. Students will apply literacy skills to their social studies curriculum daily. They participate in a Roots and Shoots program that is also integrated into the entirety of the curriculum. Learners consider ecosystem, human community, and wildlife on our campus and then decide as a group what type of impact or change they want their project to bring to affect each of those things.
Writing: narrative small moments, how-to and non-fiction teaching books, hero writing, opinion reviews, poetry, and realistic fiction
Writing Skills: beginning, middle and end, add details that tell/teach more or support reasons, learn from mentor texts, combine types of writing to strengthen, develop continuous writing stamina, develop voice in writing
Grammar Skills: complete sentences, understand a noun and a verb and how a word can be both, ending punctuation, capitalization
Phonics: digraphs, glued sounds, suffixes -s, -ed, -ing, snap words (words that don’t apply general phonetic spelling), closed syllables, multisyllabic words, and a variety of spelling strategies to apply to their daily writing
Reading: fiction, non-fiction, poetry
Reading Skills: decoding tricky words, retelling with important details, make text to self and text to text connections, use books to develop complex understanding of the world, identify character traits
Social Studies: develop a sense of self, interpersonal skills, conflict resolution, growth mindset, critical thinking, develop a global perspective by culture studies of peers, service learning, voice, impact
Course Highlights
Roots and Shoots empowers student voice and teaches compassionate leadership. First grade students study the Woodland School community making note of the wildlife, ecosystem, and humans on campus. Students then decide what type of impact they want to make. Students stay in charge of their learning and responsible for problem solving, fundraising, design, and implementation of their project. First grade teachers facilitate ways that their project can be authentically weaved through the various other curriculum that first graders study.
Key Questions
- How do the choices I make impact the environment?
- How can I make a difference in the world?
- What is the relationship between school and the environment?
Second Grade
Second grade students shift from phonics to reading with a focus on developing their reading comprehension, fluency and understanding of different genres. The students use the Reader and Writer’s Workshop model for their literacy skills. In social studies, students will become authentic historians and social scientists, analyzing who they are as a class and learning about immigration to the United States. Combining the social studies year long unit of immigration, students weave in the interdisciplinary arc of six disciplines: reading, writing, social studies, innovation lab, art and social and emotional learning. The immigration plays reinforce the learning that takes place in the classroom and gives students a global perspective of “Why are we here?”
Writing: personal narratives, non-fiction/expert books, fiction books, persuasive letter writing, and poetry
Writing Skills: focus on small moments, organizing a chapter book with a table of contents, learn from mentor texts, fictional writing components with character, setting, plot, problem, solution and a conclusion, poetry writing with line breaks and stanzas, and giving valid reason to their voice through persuasive letter writing
Grammar Skills: recognizing that nouns, verbs and adjectives make up a sentence; knowing the difference between a phrase and a sentence; reaffirming that all sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a period unless it is a question; introduction to the use of quotation marks, contractions, metaphors, similes and comparisons
Phonics: students learn the vowel consonant /e/, double vowel, /r/ controlled, diagraph, glued sounds, open and closed syllables and words ending in -le rules; suffixes and prefixes are introduced and reviewed over the course of the year
Reading: fiction, non-fiction, poetry
Reading Skills: students apply all their skills to decipher harder words, to understand the author’s craft and build big ideas; exploration of fluency, comprehension, understanding figurative language and beginning series book clubs
Social Studies: students develop a sense of identity, awareness and acceptance of other cultures and compassionate global perspective
Course Highlights
Immigration play: Second grade students learn about the important role that immigrants have played in our country by performing an immigration play. This multidisciplinary approach to learning asks students to read historical fiction of famous immigrants, discuss their background and how they have helped shape our country. Students journal about journeys immigrants may have taken and visit Angel Island to solidify their knowledge.
Key Questions
- Why do people immigrate?
- What role does immigration play in helping our country?
- How do immigrants assimilate?
- Is immigration different in the East Coast and West Coast?
Third Grade
Reading and writing workshop, word study, and social studies make up the literacy program in third grade. Students begin the year by building onto the foundational skills started in previous grades, but transition to more sophisticated work during trimester two. Third graders shift from “learning to read” to “reading to learn,” focusing on deeper comprehension and stronger inferential skills in both fiction and non-fiction. In writing, students explore narrative, informational, and opinion writing, with an emphasis on strengthening organization, craft, and elaboration. Their work in social studies blends many of the skills practiced in reading and writing as students research the natural resources and groups of people living around us in both past and present.
Writing: narrative small moment stories, speeches, letters & petitions, expert-topic books, baby literature essays, poetry, animal research books, fairy tale adaptations
Writing Skills: organization (beginning, sequential/logical order, ending), variety and sophisticated transition words, strong and interesting word choices, elaboration, mechanics
Grammar skills: parts of speech, capitalization, punctuation, pronouns, verb-subject agreement, conjunctions, compound and complex sentences, proofreading
Word Study Skills: irregular endings, base words, prefixes, suffixes, Greek/Latin root words
Reading: high interest fiction, mysteries, nonfiction and biographies, Patricia Polacco author study, character studies, poetry, fairy tale classics and adaptations
Reading Skills: retelling and summarizing, envisioning and prediction, inferring about characters and other story elements, analyzing the author's craft and purpose, identifying central message or theme, identifying main idea and supporting details, cross-text synthesis, comparing and contrasting
Social Studies: Native American groups from the Bay Area, Native American groups California, regions of the United States
Social Studies Skills: geography and using maps, researching, making connections to the world around us, identifying change within communities
Course Highlights
Third Grade Zoo - In reading workshop, students research two California native animals, gathering information from multiple texts and synthesizing new information together. Then students transfer their research into writing. They write chapter books about their animal, breaking the book into five subtopics: appearance, diet, habitat, life cycle, and special adaptations. To end, they choose the most important and relevant information to share with the public on information boards. These information boards are displayed at the school wide “Third Grade Zoo,” along with a 3D replica of their animal built from recycled materials in art.
Ohlone Exhibition - Third graders research the Ohlone people (the Native American group from the Bay Area) through the lens of natural resources. They identify the variety of resources the Ohlone used for food, homes, clothing, and tools, integrating with science. Students also make baskets and collect acorns in art. The unit culminates with a final creative project displayed in a school-wide exhibition.
Key Questions
- How have we used California’s natural resources over time?
- How has this impacted our state?
- What role have native populations played in shaping the history of California?
- Has our perception of native populations changed over time?
- How has California’s varied geography played a role in settlement/development?
Fourth Grade
Fourth Grade Humanities focuses on perception and how literature, writing and history are shaped by the view one holds of the world. Using a multi-dimensional instructional approach, students embark on an integrated learning experience which includes reading, writing and social studies and is supported by science and visual arts. Readings present a broad cross-section of perspectives and character studies that examine the impact of choice, change and how historical events impact diverse populations. Students examine pivotal decision points with a critical eye, actively grappling with the complex dilemmas of the characters they study. Through careful reflection, students are encouraged to identify the impacts of perception and how that corresponds to motivation in fiction and non-fiction settings. Students acquire a complex understanding of California through student-centered learning activities. They are encouraged to deeply engage with the experiences of others through:
Grammar Skills: Students work on the conventions of language, including punctuation, capitalization, commonly confused words, and the use of adjectives and adverbs to grow writing skills.
Writing: Students practice persuasive, creative and informational writing skills, with particular emphasis on the formulation of a well-organized five paragraph essay. Students also study poetry and begin understanding the importance of figurative language and how poetry reflects societal problems.
Reading Skills: Students explore the perspectives of all stakeholders, including those traditionally underrepresented. Literature examined in fourth grade includes Island of the Blue Dolphins, Fish In a Tree, The Biography of George Washington Carver, By the Great Horned Spoon. Brown Girl Dreaming and the poetry of Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson and Maya Angelou.
Critical Thinking: Students are encouraged to consider sources, interests, and multiple perspectives in examining history.
Course Highlights
Multi-sensory learning experiences bring history to life through hands-on exploratory learning. Students create interdisciplinary projects including:
California Relief Map: Using mapping and geological knowledge gained in science, students create a three-dimensional map of Relief Map of California using any (non-online) medium. Students present the map and offer a reflective learning to classmates.
Living Museum: A culminating project, students explore and reflect on the contributions of a deceased famous person who has made a significant impact in transforming California and its culture. Students delve into the motivations and character of the individual, write a five-paragraph informational essay and short speech that they give dressed as the person. Figures studied have included Jackie Robinson, Cesar Chavez, Sally Ride, Steve Jobs, Joaquin Murrieta, Jack London, Lucille Ball and Julio Gallo. Students share their learning with fellow students, teachers and parents.
Key Questions
- How does geography affect culture?
- What happens when people have different perspectives?
- How do we use the past to build a future?
- Why do people move to a new area?
- How does culture affect perspective?
Science
Benchmarks
Kindergarten
- Participate in SCI-CON, a day that celebrates science in the Woodland Community
- Participate in Roots & Shoots, a youth service program
- Kindergarten through fourth grade students participate in campaigns to develop their compassionate leadership and stewardship skills
- Observe and record patterns and variations in local weather
- Predict, test and analyze the effects of different strengths of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object to analyze and devise a solution
- Identify what plants and animals need in order to survive.
- Explain the relationship of what living things need and where they live
First Grade
- Participate in SCI-CON, a day that celebrates science in the Woodland Community
- Maintain The Year Around the Woodland Apple Tree Journal. Students observe and record seasonal changes of the apple trees and the area around them
- Analyze the relationship between sound and vibrating materials
- Illustrate how the availability of light determines our ability to see objects
- Explain and illustrate how plants and animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow and meet their needs
- Compare how plants and animals are alike
- Observe, describe and predict patterns of movements of objects in the sky
Second Grade
- Participate in SCI-CON, a day that celebrates science in the Woodland Community
- Participate in Project FeederWatch, a Citizen Science project sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; second, third and fourth grade students help scientists track long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance.
- Participate in NestWatch, a Citizen Science project sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology; second, third and fourth grade students collect valuable data on the successes and failures of nesting birds.
- Identify what plants need to grow and how plants and animals depend on animals for seed dispersal and pollination
- Compare and contrast the diversity of life in different habitats
- Distinguish and describe observable properties of materials through analysis and classification
- Explain how wind and water change the shape of land
- Build models and use information to identify and represent landforms and bodies of water
Third Grade
- Participate in SCI-CON, a day that celebrates science in the Woodland Community
- Design a Shoe Box Village, a village in which shoe boxes are converted to houses, which the students design, decorate and electrify
- Explain and illustrate similarities and differences in organisms’ lifecycles
- Describe how organisms have inherited traits and how the environment can affect these traits
- Discuss how when the environment changes some organisms survive, some transform to fit the changes, some move to new locations and some die
- Determine and demonstrate the effects of magnetic and electrical forces on the interaction of two objects
Fourth Grade
- Participate in SCI-CON, which is a day that celebrates science in the Woodland and outside community
- Describe the effects of weathering and erosion by ice, wind, water, or vegetation
- Apply knowledge of Earth’s natural processes to generate and compare solutions to reduce impact of those processes on humans
- Design, test, and refine a device that converts energy from one form to another
Spanish
Benchmarks
Kindergarten
- Pronunciation, Identification, Listening and Repetition
- ¿Hello, how are you?
- ¿What Color is this?
- Let’s Start Counting
- Kind of Houses
- Things Around Me in the Classroom
- What Kind of Clothing Can I Wear
- Cultures, Connections and Communities
- Participate in culturally-authentic activities
- Make comparisons between cultures
- Recognize culturally-authentic activities and artifacts from various Spanish-speaking countries
First Grade
- Pronunciation, Identification, Listening and Repetition
- Let’s Start Counting II
- The Letters and Their Sounds
- My Birthday
- ¿Who Is Coming to the Party?
- ¿What We Are Going to Eat at the Party?
- Cultures, Connections and Communities building on foundations
- Participate in culturally-authentic activities
- Make comparisons between cultures
- Identify and discuss artifacts
Second Grade
- Pronunciation, Identification, Listening and Repetition
- All about Me
- All about Him or Her
- ¿What Are The Spanish-Speaking Countries?
- ¿Where Are You From?
- My House
- Big Numbers
- Cultures, Connections and Communities building on foundations
- Participate in culturally-authentic activities
- Make comparisons between cultures
- Investigate artifacts from Spanish speaking countries
- Recognize and identify products and practices from various Spanish-speaking countries
Third Grade
- Pronunciation, Identification, Listening and Repetition
- My Extended Family
- Things I Like and Dislike
- ¿What Is the Weather Like Today?
- Routines and Making Plans
- Recognize and identify some typical products and practices related to familiar everyday life to help students understand Spanish-speaking cultural perspectives
- Explore reflexive verbs, gender and plurality of nouns, the verb Ser, Estar, and Gustar
Fourth Grade
- Pronunciation, Identification, Listening and Repetition
- This Is Me
- Look, What a Nice Place!
- I Can Ask You a Lot of Questions
- Let's Go on a Trip
- ¿What Is Your Favorite Animal?
- Request and provide information by asking and answering practiced and some original questions using simple Spanish sentences
- Recognize and identify some typical products and practices related to familiar everyday life to help students understand Spanish-speaking cultural perspectives.
- Continue exploration of reflexive verbs, gender and plurality of nouns, the verb Ser, Estar, and Gustar
Art
Benchmarks
Kindergarten
- Understand and recognize simple patterns, name materials used (such as crayon, pen, watercolors, clay)
- Practice and explore the use of line, shape, and color
- Investigate the use of tools, such as clay tools, glue, and scissors
- Understand the use of line to express feelings
- Use geometric shapes in works of art and create images to tell a story with these basic shapes
- View and discuss art from different times and places
- Understand and use art vocabulary
- Explore drawing everyday objects, ex: a toothbrush, cup, food, shoe
- Point out different artworks, such as a painting, a drawing, a sculpture, a mural
First Grade
- Describe and replicate repeated patterns in nature and the environment
- Identify the elements of art in objects in nature and the environment, emphasizing line, color, shape, texture
- Use texture in 2D and 3D works of art
- Mix secondary colors from primary colors
- Beginning skills in the manipulation and use of sculptural materials (clay, paper, and papier-mâché) to create form and texture
- Use variations in line, shape/form, color, and texture to communicate ideas or feelings in works of art
- Create a representational sculpture based on people, animals, or buildings
- Draw or paint a still life, using secondary colors
- Create artwork based on observations of actual objects and everyday scenes
- View and describe art from various cultures (i.e. Japanese screen painting, Mexican tin art, African masks); compare and contrast what they have in common and how they differ
Second Grade
- Understand and describe repetition/ balance in nature, in the environment, and in works of art; discuss differences in mood created by warm and cool colors
- Identify the elements of art in nature, the environment, and works of art, emphasizing line, color, shape/form, texture, and space
- Show skill in the use of basic tools and art-making processes, such as printing, crayon rubbings, collage, and stencils
- Show skill in the use of art media, such as oil pastels, watercolors, and tempera
- Show the illusion of depth (space) in a work of art, using overlapping shapes, relative size, and placement within the picture
- Create a painting or drawing, using warm or cool colors expressively
- Use bilateral or radial symmetry to create visual balance
- Explain how artists use their work to share experiences or communicate ideas
- Identify and discuss how art is used in events and celebrations in various cultures, past and present, including the use in their own lives
- Compare different responses to the same work of art
Third Grade
- Introduce art movements, art vocabulary, comparisons and connections of art in the world
- Practice compositions, shading, color mixing, exploring the use of different art tools
- Understand illusions, representative and non-representative work
- Understand foreground, middle ground, background
- Create sketchbook exercises, still lifes, cityscapes and landscapes
- Combine a written piece with one’s art piece
- Create an art piece relating to a movement
- Identify an artist in today’s world
- Learn to thoughtfully critique one’s creations
- Analyze art and discuss comparisons/reactions
Fourth Grade
- Explore and understand the difference between negative/positive space
- Work on drawing/painting while pushing light and dark, textures and complementary colors
- Discover symmetry in art, diagrams, cartoons, maps
- Immerse the use of mixed media, simple structural forms, and weaving
- Discuss artists’ contributions to society and value of concept
- Look at art in our own state of California, past and present, and integrate in one’s work
Physical Education
Benchmarks
Kindergarten
- Demonstrate spatial awareness while changing speed and/or direction
- Develop hand-eye coordination through tossing, striking, kicking, and catching with proper technique
- Identify and independently use personal space, general space, and boundaries and discuss why they are important
- Recognize the locomotor skills of walk, jog, run, skip, hop, jump, slide, and gallop
- Sustain continuous movement for increasing periods of time while participating in moderate to vigorous physical activity
- Identify the body part(s) involved when stretching
- Learn that the heart is a muscle and that physical activity increases the heart rate
- Display a willingness to share personal feelings and recognize the feelings of others
- Describe how positive social interaction can make physical activity with others more enjoyable
- Participate as a leader and a follower during physical activities
First Grade
- Change speed and direction in response to tempos, rhythms and signals within a designated space
- Balance in symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes using body parts other than both feet as the base of support
- Continue to develop hand-eye coordination through tossing, striking, kicking and catching with proper technique
- Identify examples of underhand and overhand movement patterns and the point of release
- Determine and analyze how much force is needed to move the ball forward when dribbling with the hand and with the foot
- Demonstrate, for increasing periods of time, a “V” sit up position, a push up position, and a squat position
- Learn that strengthening and stretching muscles will prevent injury and that strong, flexible muscles will produce more force
- Practice mindfulness using breathing exercises and calming routines
- Identify and display acceptable responses to challenges and success
Second Grade
- Practice repetition of tossing, striking, kicking, catching at increased distance
- Move to open spaces within boundaries at increasing rates of speed
- Learn how to reduce the impact force of an oncoming object
- Perform curl-ups, planks, push-ups, lunges with proper form
- Demonstrate correct form for stretching hamstrings, hip flexors, quadriceps, calves, shoulders, biceps and triceps
- Discuss how the intensity and duration of exercise, along with nutritional choices and hydration, affect fuel use during physical activity
- Identify ways to increase time for physical activity outside of school
- Participate positively in games and activities with a variety of settings (partner, small group, large group)
- Acknowledge opponents and teammates before, during, and after an activity or game and give positive feedback on performance
- Demonstrate respect for self, others and equipment during physical activities
Third Grade
- Adjust speed in a timely manner according to the situation
- Greater emphasis on accuracy during partner passing drills and gameplay
- Recognize stationary vs moving targets and knowing the difference in the way to successfully get an object to that target
- Increase manipulative skill work with non-dominant hand/foot
- Stress the importance of proper hydration during periods of physical exercise
- Apply fundamental skills to more advanced skills (ex: stationary catching versus while diving, leaning, running)
- Reinforce the importance of stretching before gameplay to reduce the risk of injury
- Show how consistent positive mindset benefits the individual and team in both short-term and long-term goals
- Increase partner skill work versus individual skill work
- Reflect on and monitor growth in various physical activities
Fourth Grade
- Determine the spacing between offensive and defensive players based on the speed of the players
- Throw overhand at increasingly smaller targets, using proper follow through and mechanics
- Catch a fly ball above the head, below the waist, and away from the body
- Demonstrate how to kick a ball to a moving partner, using the inside of your foot
- Punt a ball dropped from your hands
- Manipulate an object by using a long and short handled implement
- Compare and contrast dribbling a ball without a defender and with a defender
- Participate in warm-up and cool down exercises for various physical activities
- Participate in continuous moderate to vigorous physical activities, increasing aerobic capacity
- Track and self-assess to meet minimum requirements for health related physical fitness
- Include others in physical activities and respect individual differences in skill and motivation
Innovation
Our computer science program starts with introducing students to block coding concepts in the early elementary grade levels through programs like Scratch Jr. and Scratch. With knowledge of block coding, students progress to robotics programs such as LEGO WeDo, Makey Makey and similar robotics. Taught in a developmentally-appropriate way that matches students’ cognitive, social and emotional stages, students learn an introductory programming language that allows them to create their own interactive games and stories. By connecting the I-Lab program to the core science, social studies, math and literacy curricula throughout the lower school grade levels, students develop new, hands-on ways to problem solve, express their ideas, organize their thinking, and bring their learning to life.
Benchmarks
Kindergarten
- Participate in Storybook Engineering Design Challenges - Themed group challenges for a particular month/holiday focus on design, build, and modify phases of Engineering Design Process
- Recognize parts of a computer
- Understand safe and responsible use of computer hardware and software
- Learn beginner keyboarding skills
- Discuss Digital Citizenship
- What is the internet?
- How do I go a website?
- How do I keep myself safe when I’m online?
- Create digital multimedia projects including drawings, movies, and text
- Explore Coding fundamentals unplugged and with Bee-Bot (directional coding, sequencing, debugging)
- Explore Osmo Coding and Scratch Jr. visual coding apps
First Grade
- Learn the features and uses of the six simple machines and then design, build, and modify
- Identify parts of a computer
- Gain deeper understanding of safe and responsible use of computer hardware and software
- Demonstrate keyboarding skills
- Discuss Digital Citizenship
- What is the internet?
- How do I go a website?
- How do I keep myself safe when I’m online?
- Create digital multimedia projects including drawings, movies, and text
- Learn coding fundamentals with Code.org
- Practice coding skills using Dash Robot with Blockly coding app
- Produce animated stories and learn game design using Scratch Jr. visual coding app
Second Grade
- Design, build, and modify complex machines using Lego, paper, and cardboard
- Apply keyboarding techniques
- Explore file management in Google Suite
- Create a multimedia presentation that incorporates text and imported images
- Learn coding fundamentals with Code.org
- Practice coding skills using Dash Robot with Blockly coding app
- Explore Scratch, visual coding app
Third Grade
- Explore Engineering Design Process - design for a specific user, learn how to interview user, and obtain requirements/constraints
- Design, build, test, and modify prototypes
- Use keyboarding techniques
- Apply file management in Google Suite
- Create a multimedia presentation that incorporates text, animation, and imported images
- Demonstrate coding fundamentals with Code.org
- Produce Scratch projects
- Practice coding skills using Lego WeDo 2.0
Fourth Grade
- Computer Science and Digital Literacy: explore decomposing a problem and functions using Scratch, Swift Playground, Makey Makey, and Brush Bots
- Robotics: introduce loops and conditionals using Wonder Workshop Dash
- Introduce beginning circuitry Snap Circuits
- Utilize Google Suite and strengthen keyboarding skills
- Design Thinking: apply building with a specific user in mind
- Explore Book Creator: great inventors
Music
Using each grade level’s core curriculum as a starting point, music connects thematically to endless subjects. An author study in humanities might result in the world premiere of student-composed operas. The study of habitats in nature might result in a song cycle about home and family. A fully staged musical might reinforce the rules of grammar. Students are introduced to rhythm, melody, and harmony through movement and musical games and perform for the wider community several times per year. Students are also tasked to communicate about and participate in meaningful works of art through critical listening, performance, and imaginative play.
Benchmarks
Kindergarten
- Create vocal sounds in a variety ways
- Perform a steady beat
- Create songs using different sound sources
- Recognize basic symbols in music
- Respond to music through active listening and movement
- Identify the many elements that make music sound different
- Articulate the connections made with music and other subjects
- Recognize that music comes from different places in the world
First Grade
- Sing songs and simple melodic patterns on pitch with expression
- Perform beat and rhythm
- Create music in the form of rhythmic or melodic patterns
- Read and write rhythms and melodies using basic music symbols
- Respond to music through active listening and movement
- Recognize how different elements create excitement and variety in musical compositions
- Articulate the connections made with music and other subjects
Second Grade
- Blend in vocal ensemble
- Accompany a variety of songs with classroom instruments
- Compose and improvise using voice or instruments
- Read and write rhythms and melodies on a staff using basic music symbols
- Listen to and describe the music and instrument
- Interpret how different elements create excitement and variety in musical compositions
- Describe how music comes from different places in the world and serves a variety of purposes
Third Grade
- Sing rounds and unison songs while interpreting a conductor's cues
- Play various melodies on an instrument with appropriate technique
- Create a structured phrase in music
- Use basic music symbols in reading and writing rhythms and melodies on the treble staff
- Actively listen to and describe music and instruments
- Describe how a music group achieves precision and expressiveness
- Interpret the relationships between music and other subjects
- Analyze how music comes from different places in the world and serves a variety of purposes
Fourth Grade
- Demonstrate how a partner song creates harmony
- Play an instrument in an ensemble setting following conductor's cues
- Create a musical piece with structure
- Use basic music symbols in reading and writing rhythms and melodies on the treble staff
- Aurally and visually identify instrument families and folk instruments
- Understand how musical elements interact in a piece
- Interpret the relationships between music and other subjects
- Understand music in a historical context
Social Emotional Learning
Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is core to each Lower School classroom. Woodland’s SEL curriculum is based on RULER, an evidence-based approach that has been developed and honed by researchers at Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence and has been named one of CASEL’s SELect Programs. RULER spans early childhood through adolescence, and focuses on (R)ecognizing emotions in oneself and others, (U)nderstanding the causes and consequences of emotions, (L)abeling emotions with a nuanced vocabulary, (E)xpressing emotions in accordance with cultural norms and social context, and (R)egulating emotions with helpful strategies
Highlights of Woodland’s SEL program include: kindergarten students discussing and practicing social-awareness skills; first grade students learning conflict resolution; second grade students exercising emotional-regulation techniques; third grade students building coping skills and strategies to help change their feelings about a situation; and fourth grade students identifying and practicing activities that are appropriate for regulating their emotions.
Middle School
Instructional
Philosophies
- Mathematics
- Humanities
- Science
- Spanish
- Art
- Physical Education
- Innovation
- Music
- Social Emotional Learning
Mathematics
Benchmarks
- Fifth Grade Level
- Fifth Grade Advanced/Sixth Grade Level
- Sixth Grade Advanced/Seventh Grade Level
- Seventh Grade Advanced/Eighth Grade Level
- Eighth Grade Advanced
Fifth Grade Level
- Understand the place value system
- Perform operations with multi-digit whole numbers and decimals to hundredths
- Use equivalent fractions as a strategy to add and subtract fractions
- Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to multiply and divide fractions
- Develop geometric measurement skills and relate volume to multiplication and division
- Represent and interpret data using scatterplots and line graphs
Fifth Grade Advanced/Sixth Grade Level
- Perform computation with decimals, fractions, and mixed numbers
- Make sense of multiple representations of portions
- Locate points on a number line and on a coordinate graph
- Prove the area formulas of quadrilaterals and triangles
- Simplify expressions with variables and solve one-step equations
- Display data with histograms and box-plots
Sixth Grade Advanced/Seventh Grade Level
Pre-Algebra
- Perform operations with signed fractions and decimals
- Evaluate expressions and using order of operations
- Understand unit rates and proportions
- Calculate area and perimeter of circles and composite figures
- Use multiple representations of linear equations
- Solve multi-step equations with fractions
- Develop spatial reasoning through transformations of geometric objects
Seventh Grade Advanced/Eighth Grade Level
Algebra
- Write and solve linear, exponential and quadratic equations
- Investigate properties of mathematical functions and domain and range
- Express numbers with exponents and scientific notation
- Solve simultaneous equations
- Analyze statistical data with linear and exponential models
- Multiply and factor polynomials
- Explore various representations of arithmetic and geometric sequences
Eighth Grade Advanced
Geometry
- Develop deductive reasoning skills, logic, and write two-column proofs
- Investigate, prove, and apply the properties of congruent triangles
- Prove lines are parallel and applications of parallel lines
- Explore properties and angle relationships of quadrilaterals and convex polygons
- Apply proportional reasoning with similar polygons
- Prove and apply the Pythagorean Theorem and introduce trigonometry with right triangles
- Extend congruent and similar triangles to discover properties of parts of circles
- Derive formulas for area of plane figures and surface area and volume of solids
Humanities
Benchmarks
Fifth Grade
Instruction in the mechanics of vocabulary and literary devices is delivered through verbal, visual, musical, and kinesthetic modalities through a weekly cadence of instruction, creative response, and assessment. Readings present a broad cross-section of historical perspectives that examine the impact of historical events on a diverse array of affected populations. Primary documents are examined carefully to determine the origins, influences and significance of key decisions in our nation’s formative years. Students examine pivotal decision points with a critical eye, actively grappling with the complex dilemmas of historical figures. Students are encouraged to see ambiguities and difficult trade-offs, eliciting empathy if not always agreement. Through careful reflection, students are encouraged to identify the impacts of past choices on modern life. Students gain a complex understanding of our nation’s foundation through student-centered learning activities. Students are encouraged to deeply engage with the experiences of others through:
Grammar Skills: Students work on the conventions of language, including punctuation, capitalization, commonly confused words, and tense agreement.
Writing: Students practice persuasive, creative and informational writing skills, with particular emphasis on the formulation of a well-organized thesis.
Reading Skills: Students explore the perspectives of all stakeholders, including those traditionally underrepresented. Primary sources such as The Declaration of Independence and Common Sense are examined in the context of their times.
Critical Thinking: Students are encouraged to consider sources, interests, and multiple perspectives in examining history.
Course Highlights
Multi-sensory learning experiences bring history to life through hands-on exploratory learning. Historical novels are examined in fireside chats; life in Colonial Williamsburg is brought to life in an immersive re-enactment; and seminal questions are tackled through lively musical debate. Deep interdisciplinary connections are explored through integration with music, science and mathematics. Finally, students lead school assembly in the third trimester.
Key Questions
- How are we shaped by conflict?
- What makes the United States unique?
- How do we reconcile differences?
- What is the United States’ role in the world?
Sixth Grade
Immersed in the wonder, dilemmas and challenges faced by archaeologists, sixth grade students carefully scrutinize artifacts and consider their own roles in creating and processing history. Students actively explore the building blocks of ancient civilizations through re-enactments, gallery walks, simulations, and other experiential exercises. Student persuasive essays anticipate counterarguments and employ thoughtful organization, diction, and literary devices. As writers, students continue to explore a variety of genres and authorial perspectives. Throughout the year, sixth grade students explore a variety of note-taking techniques, executive functioning skills, and the art of carefully considered dissent.
Grammar Skills: Students continue to work on conventions of language, including spelling, diction punctuation.
Writing Skills: Students continue to craft persuasive, expository, descriptive and narrative writing, with a continuing emphasis on the formulation of a well-organized thesis.
Reading Skills: Students continue to explore the perspectives of all stakeholders, carefully observing how characters, institutions and cultures change over time.
Critical Thinking and Interpersonal Skills: Students grapple with ambiguities, develop finesse in the art of respectful debate, and carefully manage their time to finish larger tasks over longer periods of time.
Course Highlights
To understand the nature of archaeologists’ work, students create original artifacts for their own time capsules to be opened upon their high school graduations. Each sixth grade student presents an ancient or modern wonder of the world at an all-school assembly, exercising their public speaking skills while modeling the spirit of thoughtful inquiry. Finally, students build their own societies from scratch, making key decisions with regard to culture and structure. Each society crafts its own anthem, map, motto, creed, flag and set of laws. Students approach each project with a sense of adventure and joyfully share with our school-wide learning community.
Key Questions
- How does water drive survival?
- What determines a source’s reliability?
- How does one consolidate power?
- How do beliefs influence governance?
- How is culture transmitted?
- Which factors cause influence to wax and wane?
- Which factors define an optimal society?
Seventh Grade
Seventh grade year is a pivotal hinge transitioning students into more challenging topics and studies in both writing, reading, and social studies. Students will increase their reading and critical thinking skills with their first introduction to Shakespeare and build stamina to interpret many primary source documents from their historical studies. Students continue to build upon the study of global history established in sixth grade, moving chronologically forward to analyze medieval Europe, the Islamic World, West Africa, China and Japan, the pre-colonial Americas, and returning to Europe for the Renaissance. Students will read hallmark pieces of literature from each of these regions such as Beowulf (Europe), Journey to the West (China), and Islamic poetry and will analyze them not only as pieces of literature, but as historical sources. Common themes emphasized and explored are ideas about gender, the role of religion in society, and the intersection of cultures through travel and trade. Skills emphasized are:
Grammar Skills: commonly confused words, punctuation for complex sentences, concise writing, subject-verb agreement errors, verb types
Writing: Shakespearean sonnets, persuasive essay, research paper, timed test-based writing, 50-word summaries
Skills: thesis statement sophistication, rhetorical appeals, introduction to MLA citation, finding credible sources, quote integration, use of transitions, strengthening analysis, formal/academic writing style
Reading Skills: read and interpret verse; understand and recognize authorial bias; evaluate texts through literary devices such as figurative language, imagery, irony, allusion, and satire
Critical Thinking Skills: primary and secondary source interpretation, analysis of perspective and bias, and construction of evidence-based arguments
Course Highlights
In seventh grade, students hone their research skills, discerning the difference between reliable and unreliable sources, and the difference between strong arguments and weak arguments. Students use these skills to craft essays that explore historical questions such as whether the Middle Ages in Europe were truly the “Dark Ages.” Students collaborate to construct proposed museum exhibits on the rise of Islam, podcasts, and other oral presentations. In addition to these research-focused activities, students develop historical empathy by immersing themselves in a given time period or region through role-playing activities or by constructing and learning to use medieval objects such as astrolabes and illuminated manuscripts.
Key Questions
- How do we read challenging texts?
- What are different systems (economic and government) and how do they change and evolve?
- How does authorial bias impact a source’s credibility?
- How do ideas about masculinity, manhood, and gender change across time and space?
Eighth Grade
Eighth grade humanities students prepare for the rigors of high school through a challenging yet engaging curriculum that encourages student voice and choice. Students intensively study the intricacies of grammar, refine their writing in a variety of genres, and explore topics through projects and debate. Vocabulary instruction will be an integral component of teaching academic writing and style. Students are heavily assessed on their ability to write argumentative and research papers that are stylistically appropriate for an academic audience. Readings are composed of literary novels, secondary sources, and primary sources. Students analyze each text to understand a myriad of historical perspectives across demographic groups in America. The intentional pairings of literature with social studies focus on identity and social justice themes which examine both the founding laws and institutions of the U.S. and how laws and policies have shaped our modern-day society.
Grammar Skills: build sophistication through the understanding of complex sentence structures, verb tense consistency, punctuation, and recognition of common punctuation errors; use of introductory phrases, appositive phrases, verbals, conjunctive adverbs, semicolon, colon
Writing Skills:
- Types of writing: argumentative writing, timed essay writing, literary analysis, research papers and descriptive narratives
- Skills Emphasized: thesis statement sophistication; rhetorical appeals; word choice and fluency, mastery over MLA and Chicago citation style, integration of multiple sources; succinct and academic writing style
Reading Skills: build stamina for challenging novels and primary sources; increase working vocabulary; evaluate historical texts to deconstruct widely held biases, examine cause and effect, evaluate change, and develop empathy; evaluate literary texts for sophisticated themes, historical merit, literary devices and figurative language.
Critical Thinking Skills: think critically about authorial purpose and audience for primary and secondary sources; analyze how historical laws and systems have shaped modern society; formulate effective debates for multiple sides of issues
Course Highlights
Eighth grade students complete projects and course assessments that deepen their analytical skills. They debate the legitimacy of the Revolutionary War following a Parliamentary debate structure. Students research credible sources to support their arguments and cite evidence appropriately. Additionally, students hone their verbal skills through text-based Socratic Seminars, town-hall simulations, and mock trials. Other key projects help students make interdisciplinary connections to business and economics; students create savvy “Shark Tank” style video pitches “selling” one of the original colonies to British investors and settlers alike. These projects combine elements of choice and creativity and through these various modalities, students build resilience and pursue creative solutions.
Key Questions
- What are the historical, modern, and personal connections to literature?
- How can we write for multiple audiences and genres?
- What are the foundations of the U.S. and how has the country adapted to modern challenges?
- How can we empathize with others and combat social injustice?
Science
Benchmarks
Fifth Grade
- Participate in SCI-CON, which is a day that celebrates science in the Woodland and outside community
- Explore the biodiversity of the rocky intertidal zone at Pillar Point through a guided, hands-on field trip
Physical Science
- Describe matter and the characteristics of solids, liquids, and gases
- Observe various matter and identify materials based on properties
- Design a model to demonstrate that matter has mass
- Carry out an investigation to prove that matter is conserved during phase changes and chemical reactions
- Understand basic atomic structure
Life Science
- Describe the flow of energy starting with the sun and following that energy through a food chain and subsequently a food web
- Carry out a photosynthesis experiment and observe the pigments contained in leaves
- Research a San Mateo ecosystem and gain an understanding of the complex interactions within such systems
- Design and carry out a biodiversity survey of the school field using a transect grid
Space Science
- Conduct an investigation exploring how the apparent brightness of stars is determined by their relative distance from Earth
- Graph patterns such as tides, length of day and night and light intensity
- Observe and distinguish the difference between weight and mass and argue that the gravitational force is directed down
- Research a space exploration mission and write a paper using MLA format
Earth Science
- Describe the interactions of the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere
- Explain the importance and value of fresh water and graph amounts of fresh water sources on Earth
- Research ways that communities are helping to protect Earth
Sixth Grade
- Participate in SCI-CON, which is a day that celebrates science in the Woodland and outside community
- Take a field trip to local museum to bolster our study of energy and physics
- Hike the Los Trancos Open Space Preserve to learn about earthquake geology along the San Andreas Fault
Physical Science
- Construct and interpret graphs illustrating relationships between kinetic energy, mass, and speed of an object
- Design an experiment to explore how variables such as height, mass, and friction influence both gravitational and potential energy
- Conduct an experiment to demonstrate the relationship between thermal energy, particle movement and temperature
- Build a Rube Goldberg machine utilizing knowledge of energy and simple machines
- Use evidence to support that gravitational interactions are attractive in nature and depend on the mass of the interacting bodies
Earth Science
- Examine Earth’s place in relation to the Solar System, Milky Way galaxy, and the universe
- Observe cyclic patterns of eclipses, and seasons
- Analyze geoscience data in order to understand the processes and events in Earth’s history
- Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions
- Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence from rock strata for how the geologic time scale is used to organize Earth's 4.6-billion-year-old history
Life Science
- Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells
- Build a model to describe how the cell functions as a whole and how parts of cells contribute to that function
- Create and use a model to describe why asexual reproduction results in offspring with identical genetic information and sexual reproduction results in offspring with genetic variation
Seventh Grade
- Participate in SCI-CON, which is a day that celebrates science in the Woodland and outside community
Physical Science
- Develop an understanding that pure substances are made from a single type of atom or molecule
- Apply an understanding that pure substances have characteristic physical and chemical properties
- Design an experiment to explain states of matter and changes between states
- Explain that chemical reactions involve regrouping atoms to form new substances and that atoms rearrange during chemical reactions
Life Science
- Analyze and interpret data, develop models, construct arguments, and demonstrate a deeper understanding of resources and cycling of matter and flow of energy in ecosystems
- Identify patterns and interactions among organisms with an ecosystem
- Consider biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem and the effects these factors have on an ecosystem
- Evaluate design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services
Earth Science
- Model the flow of energy and cycling of matter within systems
- Analyze real geoscience data
- Recognize that geoscience processes provide resources and cause natural hazards
- Develop an understanding of factors that control weather
- Examine feedback between systems such as energy from the sun is transferred between systems
Eighth Grade
- Participate in SCI-CON, which is a day that celebrates science in the Woodland and outside community
- Stanford researchers visit to help extend students’ knowledge on practical applications of waves
- Visit Cal Museum of Paleontology so that students may learn first hand about the fossil record and current research being done on past species
- Complete a gel electrophoresis lab in order to deepen students’ knowledge on genetics and inheritance patterns
Physical Science: Physics
- Describe and predict characteristic properties and behaviors of waves
- Describe a simple model for waves that includes how the amplitude of a wave is related to the energy in a wave with mathematical representations
- Develop and use a model to describe that waves are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted through various materials
- Integrate qualitative scientific and technical information to support the claim that digitized signals are a more reliable way to encode and transmit information than analog signals
- Apply Newton’s Third Law to problems involving the motion of two colliding objects
- Investigate and provide evidence that the change in an object’s motion depends on the sum of the forces on the object and the mass of the object
- Analyze data to determine the factors that affect the strength of electric and magnetic forces
- Investigate and provide evidence that fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other even though the objects are not in contact
Physical Science: Chemistry
- Use mathematical representations to support the claim that mass is conserved during a chemical reaction
- Gather evidence to provide an explanation about the effects of changing experimental factors, such as concentration or temperature, on the rate at which a reaction occurs
- Use the periodic table as a model to predict relative properties of elements based on patterns of electrons in the outermost energy level
- Compare and contrast gases to other states of matter and use mathematical models to better understand the properties of gases
- Adapt a definition of a simple chemical reaction based on the outermost electrons, trends in the periodic table, and patterns of chemical properties
Life Science
- Develop models to describe ways in which gene mutations and sexual reproduction contribute to genetic variation
- Create Punnett squares to predict possible offspring characteristics
- Analyze ideas of genetic variation in a population to explain how organisms survive, reproduce, and pass on traits
- Use fossil records and anatomical similarities to show relationships among organisms and species
Spanish
Benchmarks
Fifth Grade
- Pronunciation, Identification, Listening and Repetition
- Our Summer
- My Friends and I
- My Likes
- My Hobbies
- Personality Descriptions
- Request and provide information by asking and answering practiced and original questions on familiar and everyday topics
- Present personal information about their life and activities using simple sentences using a variety of practiced or memorized Spanish words, phrases, and simple sentences through spoken and written
- Identify typical products and practices related to familiar everyday life to help them understand Spanish-speaking cultural perspectives
- Communicate with others from Spanish-speaking cultures using memorized language and showing basic cultural awareness.
- Use appropriate rehearsed behaviors and recognize some obviously inappropriate behaviors in familiar everyday situations
- Exposure to subject pronouns, reflexive verbs, gender and plurality of nouns, the verbs Ser, Hablar, Tener, Estar, and Gustar, adjectives, and articles
Sixth Grade
- Pronunciation, Identification, Listening and Repetition
- My Family and My Home
- My Body
- My School Schedule
- My Weekly After School Activities
- My Neighborhood
- Interact with others to meet their basic needs related to routine everyday activities, using simple sentences and questions most of the time
- Express, ask about, and react to preferences, feelings, or opinions on familiar topics, using simple sentences and asking questions to keep the conversation on topic
- Express preferences on familiar and everyday topics, using simple sentences
- With grammar, students learn about gender and plurality of nouns, adjectives, and articles, subject pronouns, present tense regular, and verbs Ser and Estar, Gustar
Seventh Grade
- Pronunciation, Identification, Listening and Repetition
- School Time!
- What is Spain?
- Celebrations and Holidays
- Daily Routines
- Hispanic Folklore
- Hispanic Foods
- The Impact of Art
- Identify the main idea and related information from Hispanic folklore, art, holidays, daily routines and Hispanic cuisine
- Express, interact, and provide information on everyday topics while implementing application of gender and plurality of nouns, adjectives, and articles, subject pronouns, present tense regular and stem-changing conjugations, Ser / Estar, Gustar and other intransitive verbs, reflexive verbs, present progressive, future with “ir + a”, and affirmative commands
- Make comparisons between products and practices of Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries to help understand cultural perspectives and differences in behaviors
Eighth Grade
- Pronunciation, Identification, Listening and Repetition
- Back to School
- What is Puerto Rico?
- Las Fiestas
- Shopping!
- What happened there?
- The World and I
- Demonstrate an understanding of the main idea and related information from Hispanic culture, famous Spanish-speaking peoples, holidays, Hispanic legends, and immigration of Hispanic populations
- Express, interact, and provide information on everyday topics in the past, present and future while implementing application of gender and plurality of nouns, adjectives, and articles, subject pronouns, present tense regular and stem-changing conjugations, Ser vs. Estar, Conocer vs. Saber, Gustar and other intransitive verbs, reflexive verbs, irregular “yo” verbs, affirmative and negative commands, comparisons and superlatives, the regular and irregular preterite and imperfect tenses, and direct and indirect object pronouns
- Interact at a functional level in some familiar contexts with others in another culture in the optional service trip to a Spanish-speaking country
- In the 8th grade year, students engage in an intensive review and preparation for high school Spanish placement tests. Students will have completed the equivalent of one year of high school Spanish and be ready for high school Spanish level two or three.
Art
Benchmarks
Fifth Grade
- Implement perspectives, one and two point, understanding the use of geometrical shapes in art
- Practice gesture and contour/observational still life drawings
- Create expressive abstract works with mixed media, found objects
- Invent logo, branding, and iconic symbol creations
- Explore the viewpoint of expressing real and imagined characters
- Discuss meaning, purpose, and identity of artworks
- Communicate one’s art piece in written words
Sixth Grade
- Build observational drawings, two-point perspective, analyzing balance in art with symmetry, shape and color
- Construct complex art with materials, pushing mood, theme, concept, and color
- Examine a variety of cultures and explain the artworks verbally and in written form
- Highlight visual metaphors in art, characters and illustrations
- Notice art in theatre, advertising and public art
- Delve into recyclables for 3D projects and integrate metal, wood and clay
- Critique and articulate an idea to others both verbally and in writing
Seventh Grade
- Learn to identify, describe and create works independently linear with perspective and optical illusions
- Adapt the use of mixed media with intense design and developed paint skills
- Blend fantasy and reality; freedom of expression explored, developing a series to tell a story
- Write components to accompany artworks
- Research and discuss artworks from a variety of cultures and compare/contrast with today’s world
- Design a public art piece
- Question the power of art in social justice
- Learn to develop criteria to discuss and critique artworks
Eighth Grade
- Design a sculpture with additive/subtractive intentions in mind
- Generate a piece of art that is a social commentary in today’s world
- Demonstrate advanced technical skills and independence
- Establish the use of reasoning statements to develop theories on artists’ perspectives and opinions
- Become more independent on choice of materials used for creations
- Encounter value and be inspired by an artist past or present
- Study art and lead a constructive discussion on their perception of it
- Apprehend the use of editorial cartooning
- Master the concepts of: “Who is your audience?”, “What are you trying to visually say, and to whom?”, “What matters in art?”
Physical Education
Middle School Physical Education focuses on several key areas including basic movement concepts with sport theory, skills and rules. In addition, nutrition and wellness coupled with general strength and conditioning round out the program. Positive growth mindset is practiced daily in order to experience the joy of exercise through physical activity, sports and games, allowing self-expression, self-confidence and social interaction to grow, resulting in a long and healthy lifestyle.
Benchmarks
Fifth Grade
- Strengthen plyometric skills such as jumping for height, distance, core strength and power
- Throw, catch, kick, strike, dribble and roll an object individually, with a partner and in small group play with proper technique
- Explain the importance of open space in playing sport-related games
- Demonstrate how to warm up muscles and joints before running, jumping, kicking, throwing and striking
- Explain the elements and benefits of warm-up and cool-down activities
- Develop stamina and flexibility in continuous physical activities ranging from moderate to vigorous for increasing aerobic capacity
- Develop and describe short-term and long-term fitness goals through self-assessment and reflection
- Identify and measure the target heart rate before, during, and after vigorous physical activity
- Accommodate individual differences in others’ physical abilities in group activities
- Contribute ideas and listen to the ideas of others in cooperative problem-solving activities
- Learn to act in a safe, healthy, and respectful manner when confronted with adversity
Sixth Grade
- Develop the ability to dribble a ball and pass to a partner while being defended
- Throw an accurate object with advanced techniques (ex: overhand, underhand, sidearm)
- Kick an accurate object with advanced techniques (ex: inside, outside of foot)
- Show how the intended direction of an object is affected by the angle of implement or body of contact
- Distinguish between effective & ineffective warm-ups (wasted reps)
- Participate in cooperative group games that stress locomotor skills, object manipulation and strategy
- Analyze and correct errors in movement patterns
- Implement more continuous skill work versus start / stop (ex: volleying a ball off the wall rather than throw / catch / repeat)
- Participate productively while evaluating individual responsibility in group activities
Seventh Grade
- Demonstrate mature techniques of throwing, catching, kicking, dribbling, and striking
- Describe and utilize basic offensive and defensive strategies for individual and team activities
- Compare and contrast the effectiveness of practicing skills as a whole and practicing skills in smaller parts
- Demonstrate body management and object manipulation necessary for successful participation in activities and games
- Learn the effects of physical activity on heart rate during exercise, during the recovery phase, and while the body is at rest
- Develop physical fitness goals and assess progress
- Evaluate individual responsibility in the group’s effort toward a common goal
- Identify the importance of leadership, communication, and integrity
- Show an acceptance of differences in physical development and ability
Eighth Grade
- Describe and demonstrate how movement skills learned in one physical activity can be transferred and applied to another physical activity
- Diagram, explain and justify offensive and defensive strategies in individual, group and modified sports, games and activities
- Participate safely in moderate to vigorous physical activities when conditions are atypical due to weather, travel, or injury
- Explain the different types of conditioning in relation to a particular sport or activity
- Abide by the decision of the officials/coaches, accept the outcome of the game, and show appreciation for the opposing team
- Identify and reflect the contributions of fellow team members or opponents during group play
- Organize and work cooperatively with a group to achieve the goals of the group
- Accept the roles of group members within the structure of a game or activity
- Participate in physical activities for personal enjoyment and/or skill development
Innovation
Complementing their computer science skills, students utilize design thinking concepts to prototype ideas for objects they’d like to see in their lives and those that would serve the social good. From blueprint to fabrication, students create their ideas with CAD programs and produce prototypes with laser cutters and 3D printers. Curiosity, inquiry, collaboration and experiential learning are at the core of the Middle School Innovation Lab program as students navigate the acquisition of new skills, solve real-world problems together and analyze big picture ideas.
Benchmarks
Fifth Grade
- Computer Science and Digital Literacy: demonstrate designing algorithms in Scratch; computer input, output, storage and processing; simple circuits using Makey Makey musical instruments
- Explore soldering simple circuits
- Robotics: explore loops and variables using Sphero Bolt
- Apply Google Suite skills
- Engineering: introduce constraints & failure points
- Introduce CAD building basics and artifacts
- Digital Media: create video production: camera shots & angles, editing techniques in iMovie; resolution, layers and labels using Photoshop
Sixth Grade
- Computer Science: create and share content via web design; understanding syntax; debugging; HTML; Javascript
- Apply Digital Literacy & Citizenship: what we see, what we contribute
- Robotics: use single & complex variables using Wonder Workshop Cue
- Structural Engineering: apply CAD Architecture
- Digital Media: create video editing in iMovie, digital photo manipulation, blending using Photoshop; digital music editing in GarageBand
Seventh Grade
- Computer Science: create animations and develop interactive games using Javascript
- Robotics: apply data structures, Booleans, arrays using Wonder Workshop Cue
- Learn physical prototyping and rapid iteration
- Digital Literacy: analyze social media
- Digital Media: create green screen, stop motion animation, and special effects; podcasting & sound design using Garageband
Eighth Grade
- Computer Science and Digital Literacy: explore physical computing; game design using App Lab; sensors with Adafruit’s Circuit Playground; conditionals in JavaScript
- Engineering: introduce making and tinkering using Glowforge, Cricut, Mayku Formbox, 3D Printers
- Robotics: explore data analysis with Wonder Workshop Cue
- Digital Media: demonstrate video editing in iMovie, digital photo manipulation, blending using Photoshop; digital music editing in GarageBand; designing for target audiences
- Design thinking for social good: discuss global citizenship
Music
Students explore great musical works ranging from the pioneering dissonance of Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question and the boundary pushing minimalism of Philip Glass’ Einstein on the Beach to the sharp wit of Stephen Sondheim and Lin Manuel Miranda. Students are tasked to consider their own varied reactions to pieces, the social and historical context of musical work, and connections to the core subjects. Students routinely create original, thought-provoking pieces based on guiding creative principles as well as perform for the wider community several times per year. A student’s cumulative body of work, including fully staged musical productions, original songs, picture book adaptations of music, and biographical album covers, exemplifies each student’s varied aesthetic exploration as well as personal growth.
Benchmarks
Fifth Grade
Integrating the musical standards accomplished in Lower School Music:
- Analyze American Classical music as it connects to the identity of America post Revolution
- Learn and perform early American music in harmony
- Create original revolution songs rooted in Humanities research
- Collaborate in group performance
- Connect the core values of Revolution to an original song composition for contemporary context
Sixth Grade
Integrating the musical standards accomplished in Lower School Music:
- Explore the foundation of visionary thought through music
- Create music videos to tell the story of a seminal historical visionary
- Analyze musical adaptation of poetry
- Create original soundscape arrangements to communicate spoken word poetry
- Connect the impact of Ancient Civilizations on modern day with contemporary song references
- Listen to National Anthems from all over the world to find common themes and variations
- Compose an original anthem that celebrates the unique Utopia created in Humanities
- Perform original pieces for peers and school community
Seventh Grade
Integrating the musical standards accomplished in Lower School Music:
- Compare and contrast contemporary songs to find the moral of a story
- Explore differing perspectives on moral centers in seminal musical narratives
- Compose conflict resolution Haiku poetry and arrange accompaniment for spoken word performances
- Explore and analyze the storytelling devices in minimalism through composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass
- Compose minimalist adaptations of the moral stories told in The Little Prince
- Introduction to Medieval History through student-directed parody musical theater scenes
- Compare and contrast agency through music via seminal protest songs from all genres
- Adapt a student-selected protest song into a children’s book simplified and illustrated to communicate the power of song to a younger audience
- Connect music to map language; create musical maps with moral compass based on songs uniquely connected to each student
Eighth Grade
Integrating the musical standards accomplished in Lower School Music:
- Investigate the components of music that inform algorithms and reflect on seminal Songs of the Summer
- Sing, play, and perform group selected pieces for various performances throughout the year
- Use music to tell the story of their lives with carefully chosen biographical playlists
- Study album cover design process and production with real world experts in the field
- Design album covers for their Soundtrack of my Life playlists
- Compose and perform original songs
- Analyze and research selected songs to create entertaining and informative podcasts
Social Emotional Learning
At Woodland, Social Emotional Learning (SEL) is highlighted and practiced during Advisory periods and reinforced during class time. Woodland’s SEL curriculum is based on RULER, an evidence-based approach that has been developed and honed by researchers at Yale’s Center for Emotional Intelligence and has been named one of CASEL’s SELect Programs. RULER spans early childhood through adolescence, and focuses on (R)ecognizing emotions in oneself and others, (U)nderstanding the causes and consequences of emotions, (L)abeling emotions with a nuanced vocabulary, (E)xpressing emotions in accordance with cultural norms and social context, and (R)egulating emotions with helpful strategies.
Highlights of Woodland’s SEL program include: fifth grade students learning which coping skills and strategies (guided and unguided) are beneficial to calming emotions; sixth and seventh grade students explore coping strategies they can do within themselves, without others being aware of their thoughts; and eighth grade students learn how to strategize and delegate tasks with a goal of improving their time management.
Integrated Units
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projects by grade
- Eighth Grade
- Seventh Grade
- Sixth Grade
- Fifth Grade
- Fourth Grade
- Third Grade
- Second Grade
- First Grade
- Kindergarten
Eighth Grade
Capstone Project
A hallmark of the middle school experience, the Eighth-Grade Capstone project provides students with a yearlong, intensive opportunity to research a topic of local and global significance and ultimately present their findings to the Woodland community. The Capstone is designed to encourage students’ greater understanding of the wide-ranging impact of their subject, both in their local communities and on a global scale. Capstone provides students with the opportunity to immerse themselves in inquiry and action regarding issues of global significance. They step outside their comfort zone and the boundaries of the standard curriculum in this yearlong project. To complete the project, each student chooses a topic, conducts independent research, interviews experts, produces a paper, presents his or her findings to the community, and launches an action piece to create an impact, or sustainable change in the area of study.
Culminating their years at Woodland, the Capstone journey empowers students to put passion and agency to work, drawing inspiration from their learning throughout all disciplines, lessons, projects, and discussions. Student action pieces often integrate multiple subject areas and ideas, the contributions of each uniquely articulated through each student’s voice and choice. Over the years, students have recorded documentaries, led service-learning projects, created websites and apps, drafted bills to local politicians, written curriculum, led seminars, and organized community events, to name a few of the countless, lasting contributions made through the Eighth Grade Capstone at Woodland.
Seventh Grade
Graphic Novel Project
In this project, students explored the art of graphic novels from multiple angles and created their own utilizing skills learned in Humanities, Math, Spanish, and Art. They combined creativity with rigid lines and equations and expressed themselves in multiple languages to produce novellas that told stories of revolution and showcased the connection between historical context and art.
Humanities Connection:
For our final unit of the year, 7th-grade humanities students focus on revolutions and paradigm shifts. In this unit, students study the graphic novel Persepolis to learn about both the Iranian revolution (and the major ideological shifts accompanying and driving it) and the unique form of storytelling found in the graphic novel format. Students then utilize this knowledge to create and design their graphic novellas (6-8 booklet pages) exploring the life and message of a Spanish artist. They explore his or her background, his or her art and legacy, and what life was like for the artist (the historical time period), using graphic techniques to help bring their piece to life.
Math Connection:
Students’ graphic novel front cover designs come to life through a graphing project in Desmos, an online graphing calculator. By restricting the domain and range of linear, quadratic, exponential, inverse, conic and trigonometric functions, students design their graphic novel cover page complete with their names. Students also practice using their transformation skills to shift parent functions. In the end, students used hundreds of equations to design each cover page.
Spanish Connection:
Seventh-grade students spend the year studying Spain. As part of learning about Spain’s rich and diverse culture, students initially worked in pairs researching and learning about Spanish artists and art. These first research projects ranged from the amazing Roman architecture still standing today to contemporary artists such as Enrique Iglesias. From that varied foundation, students continued their work in Art and Humanities. With the culminating project of a graphic novel about a different Spanish artist, students applied both their language and cultural knowledge that they had learned throughout the year. They were able to write the exposition completely in Spanish as well as include communicative vocabulary such as fillers and expressions into the novel’s bubbles.
Art Connection:
The Graphic Novel
Students create with recycled old Barbies, a new creature/superhero made of a few found objects, wires and plaster. After naming their invention, listing superpower strengths, the artists began writing a 300-word adventure. The 300-word adventure launched the Graphic Novel. Materials used range from markers, colored pencils, graphite, and watercolors. The size is 8 1/2”x 11” with approximately 15 pages.
Inspiration from Spain
Integrated with studies from the 7th grade Spanish class, students researched and selected a Spanish painter that inspires them. The students needed to understand who this painter is/was and what works of art they created before they began. Finally, students will create a rough draft in their sketchbooks, then onto the 16”x20” canvas with acrylics.
Sixth Grade
Utopia Project
Students create utopian civilizations based on the precedents found in the ancient civilizations studied in humanities throughout the year. They utilize knowledge from science and math to determine specifics of energy, agriculture, and demographics and art and music to create their maps, flags, and musical presentations. The project culminates in a trifold poster presentation at the end of T3 to parents and other grades.
Science Connection:
Throughout the year, students learn how the natural world around them functions and how we can harness that power as sources of energy. Students then used this knowledge to help power their ancient civilizations and to determine which geographic location suited them best (based on the natural resources and desired agricultural style). Finally, they examined how to create a sustainable system, working in tangent with their environment.
Math Connection:
Students created a time-series graph of two or more related demographic, industrial, or economic measurement that tells a story about the development of their utopias, including specific momentous events, focusing on the relationship between the measurements and final impacts.
Humanities Connection:
The utopia projects serve as the culmination of historical study done in 6th grade humanities and asks students to use all of their new knowledge in order to create a new world. With a focus on historical precedent, students examined the philosophies, laws, and even sewer systems of ancient civilizations to inform their decisions and altered or combined them to match new cultural ideals.
Art Connection:
Students utilized their artistic skills and perspectives to build flags and maps with recognizable symbols that represented their utopia from a geographic and symbolic perspective.
Music Connection:
Music is inherently connected to culture, and our Utopias were no exception. Students created national anthems, musical advertisements to promote tourism, and post-cultural odes to ancient days, exploring cultural references from a musical perspective.
Presentation Skills:
Students worked with a local expert, Anita Satish, a program manager at Quest Diagnostics, who gave them strategies for presenting in a group forum, including how to best utilize their poster, prepare for questions, and create an elevator pitch.
Fifth Grade
Musical Debate Project
To revolt or not to revolt? This is the question our fifth graders recently tackled this question in their Musical Debate. Students studied the perspectives of larger-than-life historical figures of pre-Revolutionary America, carefully examined their motivations, and set their sentiments to music. Samuel Adams, Lord Dunmore and others delivered their strongest arguments in a match-up that had us all on the edges of our seats. Thanks to incisive questions from our panel of journalists and excellent teamwork, the debate was a thought-provoking exercise for all involved.
English and Social Studies Connections:
Students deeply examined the root causes of the revolution and created thoughtful questions that called for careful analysis and argumentation from each historical figure.
Music Connection:
Using the competitive, increasingly complex rhythms of The Farmer Refuted from Hamilton as a jumping off point, students used early American tunes and wrote original lyrics to express their Loyalist/Patriot viewpoints. Fifth graders also followed up their in-class debate performances with selections from a student directed musical about the American Revolution for parents and friends.
Spanish Connection:
Students chose 10 words (or full sentences, depending on their proficiency level) from their Loyalist or Patriot argument to translate and be sung in Spanish. In particular, students displayed an impressive adeptness at shifting languages mid-song and at communicating subtle shades of meaning. The use of “Spanglish” in this integration project was a great pedagogical resource in helping students recognize, draw on, and extend the skills already embedded in their use of both languages.
Fourth Grade
California Relief Map Project
Students review geographic vocabulary and learn the location of California and its regions, landforms and important waterways as they craft a relief map of the state. Integrated with Science, Math, Geography, and Humanities, students learn about how California’s location and make-up has impacted its economic and social development over time.
Essential Questions:
- How do California’s physical features and location shape the world of its inhabitants?
- Why are we here? Why did others come here? History of immigration to San Mateo County.
Key Ideas and Conceptual Understandings:
- California has a diverse geography. Various maps can be used to represent and examine the geography of California.
- Physical and thematic maps can be used to explore California’s diverse geography.
- California can be represented using a political map that shows cities, capital, and boundaries.
- Maps serve as primary sources to reinforce social studies learnings.
Social Studies Connections:
Geographic Reasoning
- Use location terms and geographic representations (maps and models) to describe where places are in relation to each other, to describe connections among places, and to evaluate the benefits of particular places for purposeful activities.
Research - Using and Interpreting Evidence
- Research California maps depicting geography, culture, climate and populations from varied times. Includes study of Native Californians, Spanish and Rancho California, and how topography influenced population migration and cultural perceptions.
- Develop questions about a world community.
- Recognize and use different forms of evidence to make meaning in social studies (e.g. sources such as art and photographs, artifacts, oral histories, maps, and graphs).
Reading and Writing Connections:
- Students read primary and secondary sources to understand Native California, Spanish and Rancho California and how geography affected migration and culture.
- Students synthesize information and take notes to enable them to engage in small group discussions about geography, culture and perception.
- A reflective essay is completed that highlights student learning, including lessons from creating the Relief Map. Reflections include content and project management learnings.
- An oral presentation is drafted and students highlight their learning to peers.
Science Connections:
- Earth’s Systems: Processes that shape the earth. California geology and geography are as diverse as her people; includes teaching topography and creating topographical maps in science class
- Longitude/latitude and elevation in the natural regions
- Major plates
- Land formations
- Rock cycle
- Impact of Earth processes on humans
- Human impact on environment and landscapes
Math Connections:
- Convert one unit of measurement to another (e.g. from feet to miles; from centimeters to inches).
- Construct scale models, maps, and appropriately labeled diagrams to communicate scientific knowledge (e.g., motion of Earth’s plates and cell structure).
- Measurement and Geometry
- Construct, read, and analyze drawings and models made to scale
Third Grade
Native Animal Project
Students researched two California native animals. They gathered information from multiple texts and synthesized all the new information together. Students transferred this research from reading into writing. All students wrote chapter books about their animal, breaking the book into the following subtopics: appearance, diet, habitat, life cycle, and special adaptations. After visiting the San Francisco Zoo and observing how information about animals is displayed, students chose the most important and relevant information to share with the public on informational boards. Throughout the writing process, students focused on strong organization, fluid transitional phrases and sentences, and endings. In Art, students designed a 3-D replica of their animal and then built it from recycled materials. All final products were displayed at the Third Grade Zoo.
Reading Connections:
- Read multiple texts on animal of their choosing
- Skills of researching and taking notes
- graphic organizers
- boxes and bullets - sequential steps
- main idea and supporting details
- compare and contrast - comparing multiple animals
- cause and effect - predators hunting at night and their various adaptations
- sequential - life cycle
- Synthesizing research from multiple texts
Writing Connections:
- Organization - writing chapters based on one subtopic (appearance, diet, habitat, life cycle, and special adaptations, but also working on generating paragraphs; how to thread thoughts and facts together
- Grouping similar information together; logical order
- Sophisticated transitions
- Introductions and conclusions - within and between multiple paragraphs
- Using “expert words” as a craft move - glossaries to explain specific terminology
Art Connections:
- Designed and sketched animals
- Used recycled materials to create skeleton for animal’s frame
- Papier-mâché
- Paint
SEL:
- Sharing resources
- Collaboration
- Compromise
- Organizational skills
- Communication
- Executive functioning
- Time management
- How to give helpful/positive critical feedback
- How to receive feedback
Deep Dive/Extension:
- Students further researched problems these animals might be facing
- Students created theories (i.e. humans can affect the welfare of an animal)
- Students researched human impact (overfishing/hunting/deforestation)
Second Grade
Immigration Project
Immigration is central to the identity of the U.S. as a nation and to the history of its citizens. Studying immigration provides an excellent natural context for children to be introduced to the incredible diversity of ethnicity and cultures in the U.S., and for children to imagine a nation of people coming together, all sharing the common experience of migration, albeit from different places. This unit focuses on the huge movement of the late 1800s and 1900s. Students learn stories of famous people who immigrated to the United States in the years past and of those whose parents have immigrated to the US. The students whose parents are immigrants or students themselves are immigrants share their journey, cultures and experiences of coming to America. This unit emphasizes the importance of diversity in the United States. Students leave this unit celebrating that we all come from many different places, but now we’re all together in the same state, in the same country, playing on the same playground, coloring, and reading and learning together.
Language Arts Connections:
- Oral speaking and writing - interviewing family ancestors about their journey to America
- Discuss and analyze Emma Lazarus’s poem: “The New Colossus”
- Create souvenir booklets on the inspiration for and creation of The Statue of Liberty
- Learn through three mentor texts: two historical fiction and one nonfiction
- Listen to primary source accounts through family storytelling of their own immigration journey along with foods, customs, and traditions that travel with members as they migrate to new places
Social Studies Connections:
- Discover unknown origins and genealogy
- Research historical events connected to family ancestry
- Spotlight on historical immigrants: Irving Berlin, Andrew Carnegie, Albert Sabin and their contributions to society, specifically to America at the time
- Compare and contrast current events in US immigration vs. the causes of immigration at the turn of the 20th Century
Science Connections:
- Study human migration and travel by shipping routes from Europe through ports of entry located at Ellis Island, NY
- Discuss and debate the guiding question: Why do people migrate to new locations and lands?
Math Connections:
- Establish timelines for periods of human migration to the East Coast from other parts of the world
- Estimate population shifts through migration to developing cities throughout America
Music Connections:
- Singing songs with lyrics that tie into the theme of immigration
Art Connections:
- Design and create individual Playbill to launch the East Coast immigration play for parents
Innovation Lab Connections:
- Create immigrant doll using the Makey Makey app with a recording of their family history
First Grade
Garden Project
Roots and Shoots empowers student voice and teaches compassionate leadership. Our first grade students studied the Woodland School community making note of the wildlife, ecosystem, and humans on campus. Students then decided they wanted to bring more nature to the first grade area where they saw too much asphalt. They named themselves the "Nature Kids" and got started! As the year progressed we found that our measurement, geometry, and money skills from our math units really helped us with our project. We studied gardening and building in our non fiction books, and even wrote teaching books about these topics as we became experts. The Roots and Shoots garden project authentically weaved throughout our foundational curriculum, supporting the students' deeper level understanding of their first grade content. Students were able to apply their learned skills to the project and experience how their learning helped them meet their goals in and outside the classroom.
Math Connections:
- Measurement: The students measured the designated area we planned to build in with unifix cubes, then with craft sticks, before finally measuring in standard units using a yardstick. They worked together to measure the boxes in feet to prepare to purchase the wood.
- Money: The students were told they needed to raise $800 for supplies. They figured out they needed to do more than just host a bake sale and sold their old toys, as well. Independently managing the exchange of money at the First Grade Store, they ultimately raised $1068. Students learned how to stay within their budget.
- Geometry: Building the garden boxes and working with real materials made 3D shapes a part of their real world interactions. Students had to work together to figure out how the wood pieces would fit together to create a rectangular prism.
- Volume/Area: Students estimated how much soil would need to fit inside the garden boxes by considering how much space one bucket would fill. Students then worked with a garden expert to space out their plants to ensure healthy growth and enough space for roots.
Literacy Connections:
- Fiction Writing: Peaceful gardens stories, the story of their garden, stories that include planting, service projects, and more.
- Small Moments: "The Time Jane Goodall came to Our Classroom."
- Nonfiction: Teaching books about building, gardening, Jane Goodall, and planting.
- Opinion Writing: Why planting is important? Why certain plants should be planted?
- Poetry: Using personification and imagery to write poems from the heart about nature.
Reading Connections:
- Research: How to read for knowledge and apply learned information.
- Text to Life Connections: Reading books about kids making a difference and realizing they are change makers, too.
Science Connections:
- Sun Mapping: Students checked on the garden area at various times throughout the day to map out when and how long the sun shone on it.
- Researching Skills: Students used iPads and books to find shady plants that would grow well in our garden. They then did a deeper dive at home into one specific plant, checking off qualifications we learned from our expert.
- Gardening Skills: Students have been planting and watering and replanting!
- Plant life cycle: First grade studies the life cycle of plants, developing an understanding of how they grow and what makes them grow well.
- Animal protection and care: Our experts visitors taught us that certain plants will attract animals and insects, while some might keep them away. We learned about what creatures were good for our garden and how to manage animal and plant life together.
SEL connections:
- Core virtues
- Partners
- Compromise
- Patience
Kindergarten
Family Project
The kindergarten family project integrates math, writing, reading, listening, and speaking through various concepts and applied skills. From reading books about families and sharing our favorite family traditions, to writing about our family homes and designing a blueprint and 3D model of one important room, kindergarteners explore what family means to each of them on a deep academic and emotional level.
The children enjoy this project as it is very hands on, creative, and personal. Students begin by learning a lot about each other's families through our suitcases. Each child brings in a suitcase with 5 items that represent their family. The items are things that are special/important to the members of the family’s household, and should be able to fit inside a suitcase. From these suitcases, discussions about culture, identity, and customs spontaneously happen amongst the students.
Some examples might be:
- A family heirloom
- A plate or bowl used at family dinners
- An item that represents a holiday or event important to you
- A clothing item of a family member
- A ticket from an event that you went to
- A photograph of a loved one
- A souvenir from a family trip
- A painting/sculpture by a family member
Reading connections:
Kindergarten reads many books about families together as a class, followed by guided questions such as:
- What is a family?
- How is a family different from friends?
- What makes a family unique?
- How does a family work together?
Together, the class comes up with a list of vocabulary words that describe members of a family such as mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, etc.
Writing connections:
To extend our Show and Tell writing unit, students write books about their families. The children write about a room their family likes to gather in, who is in their family while labeling each family member’s name, and a page about one of their suitcase items. Additionally, the children label parts of their room during the mapping phase of the Family Room project.
Math connections:
Students begin discussing what a “birds eye view” is and think about themselves as a bird flying over a room. Through this exercise, the students begin to understand the importance of seeing things from the top, including what shape and size the room would look like. From here, students map out the parts of the room using unifix cubes while having conversations about orientation, measuring, and scale. From there, students take their designs to paper and create a map on paper.
SEL connections:
- Community
- Identity
- Friendship
- Kindness
- Active listening skills