Kindergarten

Course Description

Kindergarten instruction forms a solid foundation for the structure of language and the use of print. Kindergartners develop language and literacy skills including phonemic awareness, letter identification, word knowledge, and concepts about print. Students will develop their communication skills when listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They will apply comprehension strategies to fiction and informational text. Kindergarten students will communicate ideas through drawing and writing of opinion, narrative, and informative pieces. Instruction may be in small groups, whole group, and/or individually, depending on the needs of the students.

Expected Course Outcomes

• Demonstrates Concepts About Print
• Demonstrates Phonological Awareness
• Identifies All Upper and Lowercase Letters in the Alphabet and Recognizes Letter/Sound Relationships
• Applies Word Analysis Skills when Solving Words
• Reads Text Fluently
• Comprehends Grade Appropriate Fiction and Informational Text
• Engages in Reading
• Writes Using Letter/Sound Relationships
• Writes Complete Sentences with Correct Capitalization and Punctuation
• Draws and Writes to Communicate Ideas
• Prints with Correct Letter Formation and Spacing
• Participates and Listens in Collaborative Conversations and Expresses Ideas Clearly when Speaking

Course Description

Kindergarten instruction will allow students to understand their roles as citizens. They will utilize maps, identify cultural and environmental characteristics of places, and share family traditions. They will connect the past to the present with national symbols and through their own personal lives. They will apply basic economic concepts of needs and wants. Instruction will introduce inquiry methods of questioning and analyzing sources.

Expected Course Outcomes

• Civics: Exhibit good citizenship.
• Geography: Identify and share family traditions.
• Geography: Read and construct a map of a familiar place.
• History: Create a chronological sequence of three to five personal events.
• History: Identify the flag as a symbol of the United States.
• Economics: Understand the economic concept of needs and wants

Course Description

This course focuses on building math routines, number sense, shape recognition, addition/subtraction, and measurement while applying these ideas to real world situations. Activities are discussion based, hands-on, and engaging to reach all students. By the end of this course, students will have a foundation of numbers skills that will be the basis for their elementary careers.

Expected Course Outcomes

• Counts within 0-100
• Reads and Writes Numbers 0-31
• Understands the Relationship Between Numbers and Quantities
• Compares Numbers
• Works With Numbers 11-19 To Gain Foundations for Place Value
• Understands Addition and Subtraction within 10
• Understands Shapes and Their Attributes
• Understands the Concept of Time
• Identifies Coins
• Identifies 2D and 3D Shapes
• Classifies Objects and Counts the Number of Objects in Each Category

Course Description

Seeing, Hearing, Smelling and Touching like a Scientist: Students will use scientific tools and processes to learn about things just like a scientist! Students engage in the science and engineering practices of planning and carrying out investigations in order to find out more information about the natural and designed world. Sun and Shade emphasizes two Crosscutting Concepts; Patterns and Cause and Effect. The students observe and record sun and shade patterns throughout the day. They discuss patterns related to temperature and shadows and the cause behind these changes. The students explore thermometers in order to collect data about changes in temperature of water as well as changes in temperature in different places outside throughout the day. Also, students are presented with the engineering design challenge, in which they design a shade structure to keep a bear cool. Make it Go!, Students are introduced to scientific ideas about pushes and pulls. This unit emphasizes the Crosscutting Concept of Cause and Effect as students design and carry out simple tests to see how pushes and pulls affect motion. Students begin this unit by exploring the difference between natural and engineered objects as an introduction to the unit’s Design Challenge. They also consider how engineered items are useful or help solve problems. Then, students hear a story about a boy who engineered his own toy called a Galimoto before thinking about what they might need to know to make a Galimoto toy of their own. Introduction to Plants and Animals allows students to explore the survival patterns of plants and animals. The Crosscutting Concepts of Patterns and Systems and System Models are featured prominently as students explore what living things need to survive and how living things interact with their environments.

Expected Course Outcomes

• Investigates human impact on the earth
• Investigates and collects data about assorted items
• Understands weather has patterns
• Analyzes severe weather forecasts
• Investigates the sun’s effect on earth
• Designs and constructs a shelter for shade
• Investigates pushes and pulls
• Designs an object to test pushes and pulls
• Communicates ways to change the motion of an object
• Evaluates data about plant and animal needs
• Develops a model to explain how plants and animals use the environment

Course Description

Kindergarten Art focuses on thinking creatively and critically through exploratory investigation and collaboration. Students will engage in the artistic processes of planning, creating, and reflecting through practicing the Studio Habits of Mind. A variety of skills, techniques, and media will be introduced, including but not limited to: drawing, painting, mixed media, collage, fibers, printmaking, sculpture, and ceramics. Students will be introduced to visual literacy strategies and develop empathy by relating to the arts of other times, places, and cultures and will communicate about their work throughout the artmaking process. Students will exhibit curiosity by exploring their interests and/or backgrounds while creating original ideas.

Expected Course Outcomes

• CREATING: Play & Ideation - Engage in exploration and imaginative play with materials. VA:Cr1A.k
• CREATING: Investigation - Engage collaboratively in creative art-making in response to an artistic problem. VA:Cr1B.k
• CREATING: Skill Acquisition - Through experimentation, build skills in various media and approaches to artmaking. VA:Cr2A.k
• CREATING: Reflect-Refine-Continue - Explain the process of making art while creating. VA:Cr3A.k
• Responding: Interpret - Interpret art by identifying subject matter and describing relevant details. VA:Re8A.k
• Responding: Evaluate - Explain reasons for selecting a preferred artwork. VA:Re9A.k

Course Description

This course will focus on exploring the musical processes of creating, performing, and responding, while forming connections within arts and non-arts disciplines. Students will develop the skills necessary to experience music as a performer and consumer, thus encouraging a lifelong appreciation of music.

Expected Course Outcomes

• Demonstrates knowledge of concepts through the creation of original music.
• Sings, plays instruments and moves to music.
• Evaluates and responds to music.

Course Description

The Kindergarten PE curriculum is based on participation in sequential and developmentally appropriate activities selected by the teachers from the suggested facilitating activities. The teachers will focus on and are not limited to, locomotor and non-locomotor skills, general space awareness, manipulative skills, health-related fitness, heart rate, decision making, problem-solving, risk-taking, sportsmanship, and safety.

Expected Course Outcomes

• Participate in health-enhancing physical activities
• Participate in a variety of activities that will increase and/or enhance their level of physical activity
• Demonstrate and apply locomotor and non-locomotor skills.
• Demonstrate and apply personal and social responsibilities.
• Demonstrate rhythmic and dance activities.
• Demonstrate and apply manipulative skills.

Course Description

Course Description

The goal of our program is to have students spend as much time in their regular classroom as possible. Each English Learner (EL) receives support from a certified ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Teacher. The ESOL teacher provides academic support in all content areas, and partners with classroom teachers and other education professionals to ensure that ELs’ needs (academic, social, personal) are met. Rockwood employs a variety of instructional models to support students’ needs. Students may receive services in class, in a small group, or one-on-one depending on their level of proficiency. All ELs also work on developing portfolios as another way to track their academic growth and their English language development.

Expected Course Outcomes

• English language learners communicate for social and instructional purposes within the school setting.
• English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of language arts.
• English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of mathematics.
• English language learners communicate information, ideas and concepts necessary for academic success in the content area of science.