English Language Arts K encompasses reading, writing, speaking, spelling, and listening skills for students who are emerging learners. This course places a heavy emphasis on the alphabet, as students learn letter names and both uppercase and lowercase letters. Students also learn letter sounds and how to articulate and blend those sounds. English Language Arts K focuses on building reading skills using high-frequency sight words—common prepositions, nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Through grade-level appropriate readings, students explore story elements and the ways in which pictures relate to text. They also learn to summarize a text and to compare characters, events, and ideas within texts. This course teaches foundational grammar and writing skills, including proper capitalization, spacing between words, and sentence punctuation. Students learn to print words and write complete sentences. Finally, interactive activities throughout the academic year help students develop their speaking and listening skills as well. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

English Language Arts 1 focuses on developing reading, writing, spelling, speaking, and listening skills. In this course, students begin to understand that spoken and written language can be broken into phonemes. They use rhyming, blending, and segmenting to develop the foundation needed to become an emergent reader. Students read prose, poetry, and informational texts for comprehension. They learn to interpret the ways in which stories and poems appeal to the senses and to identify the main topic and key ideas within texts. Students increase their vocabulary by learning to use morphemic and contextual analysis to determine the meaning of unknown words. Students learn to spell new words using various spelling rules. In English Language Arts 1, students hone their writing skills by practicing grammar rules for noun usage, personal possessive and indefinite pronouns, verb tenses, capitalization, commas, and end punctuation. In doing so, they learn to produce and expand sentences and to write opinion pieces, informational pieces, and narratives. This year, students begin learning how to research information and how to use their research to answer questions. They identify and use various parts of a book, such as headings and the table of contents. They also use digital tools to publish their writing. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

English Language Arts 2 central concepts are reading, writing, spelling, speaking, and listening. This year, students begin to transition from learning to read to reading to learn. In this course, students continue to develop their phonemic awareness by learning to recognize word families, word origins, and irregularly spelled words. They also begin to use linking words to connect opinions and reasons and time-order words to signal the order of events. While reading, students work to distinguish fact from opinion, decipher an author’s reason, and identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text. Students sample multiple genres of literature, including fiction, nonfiction, poetry, folktales, and fables, while exploring story elements such as plot, setting, characterization, and the author’s point of view. They also learn to distinguish between the main idea and the theme of a story. Students develop their writing skills by composing narrative, persuasive, and informative essays, as well as creative writing pieces. Additionally, they practice their research skills by finding facts in multiple sources and using them to produce a science report. Students use a dictionary to reinforce phonetic punctuation and spelling and to identify words with multiple meanings. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

English Language Arts 3 focuses on expanding students’ reading, writing, spelling, speaking, and listening skills. In this course, students read more complex texts and write to express themselves with greater sophistication. They practice reading at a natural pace while using intonation and expression appropriately. While reading, they interpret texts in more complex ways, by identifying cause and effect, determining tone and mood, and distinguishing shades of meaning in figurative language. This course introduces students to new genres, including opinion pieces, biographies, and blogs, while they continue to work with narratives, fiction, and informational texts. An emphasis is placed on grammar, punctuation, and spelling as students explore the functions of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; categorize nouns; explain the differences between various verb tenses; write simple, complex, and compound sentences; and use capitalization, commas, and quotation marks correctly. They learn the spelling of words with various prefixes and suffixes; regular and irregular nouns, verbs, and adjectives; and contractions, compound words, homophones, and words with various vowel sounds. Students develop their speaking and listening skills by planning, writing, and delivering an oral presentation and by creating visual aids to accompany the presentation. English Language Arts 3 also introduces students to new forms of writing, such as scripts, autobiographies, and outlines. They practice drafting and revising their writing through the development of journal entries, short stories, opinion pieces, and narratives. Students expand their research skills by learning to take notes while researching and to organize their notes into categories. They also gather information using both print and electronic sources. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Students in English Language Arts 4 focus on expanding their reading, writing, spelling, speaking, and listening skills, with a heavy emphasis on solidifying their writing skills. They use narrative, descriptive, opinion, persuasive, and informative pieces to learn to state ideas, facts, and opinions clearly while correctly using introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs. Students create a plan for writing, revising and editing their work, and improve their writing using feedback from an adult. Through their writing, they continue to master the conventions of English grammar, including quotations, relative pronouns, progressive verb tenses, modal auxiliaries, prepositional phrases, antecedents, coordinating conjunctions, compound sentences, capitalization, and punctuation, while avoiding sentence fragments and run-on sentences. They learn to spell words with a wide variety of prefixes and suffixes in addition to homophones, possessives, compound words, and words with silent letters. While reading, students identify, describe, and analyze story elements and compare these elements in stories, myths, and literature from various cultures. Students further develop their research skills by conducting short research projects, taking notes during research, and creating bibliographies. They develop more concrete speaking skills by creating and delivering presentations on various topics. In addition, students create audio recordings and visual aids to supplement their presentations. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

In English Language Arts 5, students solidify their foundational skills in reading, writing, spelling, speaking, and listening. Students read a variety of texts this year, including fiction, nonfiction, and informational texts. They identify the author’s purpose in multiple forms of writing, such as descriptive, expository, technical, persuasive, and narrative passages. Through these texts, they learn to make inferences and analyze multiple accounts of the same event. They also identify, interpret, and compare similes, metaphors, and idioms used in writing and learn to draw a plot diagram and to identify common themes in literature. This year, students write a five-paragraph essay and an effective thesis statement. They follow the writing process to develop essays, create outlines to organize their ideas, and revise and improve their original draft. Students also write a persuasive letter, a speech, and a script. This course teaches and reinforces spelling rules, such as i before e, while also focusing on the spelling of words ending in a silent e, commonly misspelled words, and words with multiple syllables. Students sharpen their research skills by learning to use notecards for research, gathering information about the same topic from multiple sources, and understanding plagiarism and the importance of writing in their own words. They also practice citing sources by creating a bibliography. Students enhance their presentation skills by reporting on a text or topic, telling a story, retelling an experience, or presenting an opinion in an organized way while using facts and details to support the main idea. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

In Mathematics K, students explore the world of mathematics all around them. They begin to develop foundational mathematics skills such as number identification, rote counting to 100 by memory, and place value. They learn the difference between more than and less than and explore the ways in which numbers can be decomposed. Students compare measurements, such as longer and shorter and heavier and lighter. They begin to develop problem-solving skills as they engage with simple addition and subtraction equations and word problems. Finally, students are introduced to basic geometry and learn the names and basic attributes of shapes. This course includes a Parent and Teacher Guide that supports student learning.

In Mathematics 1, students begin to learn mathematics in a more formal way. They focus on rote counting to 120 and practice reading and writing these numbers. In addition to strengthening their addition and subtraction skills, they compare two10
digit numbers using place values and the comparison symbols for greater than, less than, and equal to. Students measure lengths and use measurements to compare the lengths of multiple objects using nonstandard measuring and units. They strengthen their geometry skills by drawing two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes, and they explore fractions by dividing those shapes into halves and quarters. Students also organize, represent, and interpret data in pictures, tables, and charts. Additionally, they tell and write times in hours and half-hours. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

In Mathematics 2, students begin to develop the skills to solve problems mentally and to explain how they solved a problem aloud or through writing. They count to 1,000 and identify even and odd numbers. Students discover multiple strategies for adding and subtracting numbers and determine which strategies work best for various problem types. They work with number lines and use them to represent whole numbers and their sums and differences. In this course, students expand their knowledge of place value to include thousands and use this concept to compare numbers. They use standard units of measurement to express the length of objects in inches, feet, centimeters, and meters. Mathematics 2 introduces digital and analog time and presents students with word problems involving money. In addition to learning monetary values, students also learn to use the dollar and cent symbols appropriately. Students also deepen their understanding of geometric shapes while exploring fractions by dividing shapes into halves, thirds, and fourths. They are introduced to new ways of representing data, including line plots, picture graphs, and bar graphs. This course uses mathematics' manipulatives to help students visualize problems in addition to a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Students in Mathematics 3 focus on multiplication and division, as this course aims to build strong foundational skills in these areas. Students explore the relationship between multiplication and division and practice using the order of operations to solve problems, including one-and two-step word problems. In addition to using place value to perform multi digit arithmetic, students round numbers to the nearest ten or hundred. They refine their mathematics skills in relation to money by making change using a combination of bills and coins. Mathematics 3 presents area and perimeter to students as they explore linear and area measurements. They also work with fractions as numbers in this course, representing them on number lines, generating equivalent fractions, and comparing fractions with the same numerator and denominator. Finally, students explore the ways in which various types of data can be displayed. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

In Mathematics 4, students refine their skills in the areas of place value, measurement, geometry, fractions, and decimals. They use the order of operations to solve problems with whole numbers up to 1 million, and they explore factors and multiples ranging from 1 to 100. Students use equations, arrays, and area models to explain multiplication calculations. They compare multi-digit whole numbers, fractions, and decimals using the symbols for greater than, less than, and equal to. Students practice converting measurements, such as feet to inches, and they use their understanding of size to determine whether measurements are reasonable answers to problems. Mathematics 4 introduces students to the protractor, which they use to measure angles in whole number degrees. Students learn to identify right triangles, and they sketch angles, lines, segments, and rays. Students look closely at fractions and decimals in this course by writing equivalent fractions, ordering fractions from least to greatest, comparing fractions with different numerators and denominators, and writing fractions as decimals and vice versa. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student's learning.

Mathematics 5 focuses on developing students’ math skills and problem-solving strategies. Problems and activities are designed to get students reasoning abstractly and quantitatively, constructing arguments, and modeling with mathematics. Students add, subtract, and multiply fractions, divide fractions by whole numbers, and divide whole numbers by fractions. They perform multiple operations with decimals in addition to comparing, ordering, and rounding them. They use exponents to denote powers of 10. Students are introduced to volume and how to calculate it and classify two-dimensional shapes into categories. They also graph data on a plot line and the coordinate plane, using graphs to solve real-word and mathematical problems. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Science K introduces emerging learners to the knowledge and skills that will help them discover and understand the natural world around them. In this course, students learn to formulate questions, to predict, and to investigate. They use basic scientific tools, such as a magnifying glass, a ruler, and a thermometer, to make observations and draw on those observations to communicate their findings. They learn to use their five senses as observational tools as well. They deploy their observational skills to describe animals and plants, their basic needs for survival, and their environments. Students discover the effect of sunlight on Earth's surfaces and the difference between sun and shade. Students explore weather types, weather patterns, and seasonal changes. They also examine the characteristics of force, including the difference between a push and a pull. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Science 1 extends students’ exploration of the natural world. Along the way, students practice making predictions and observations, experimenting, and using scientific tools and problem-solving skills. In this course, students investigate animals and plants, identify the basic needs of all living things, and compare plant and animal families. They examine how humans solve problems by mimicking plant and animal structures and functions. This course also introduces patterns of the sun, moon, stars, and Earth that can be predicted. Students observe and discover the properties of light and sound and learn ways to communicate with light and sound. Finally, students develop their ability to distinguish problems from solutions and recognize the relationship between cause and effect. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that supports student learning.

Science Science 2 encourages students to make sense of the world around them by observing and experimenting. Through focused readings and hands-on activities, students explore Earth and the matter that makes up its surface. They study the relationship between plants and animals through pollination and seed dispersion. They look deeply into several habitats on Earth and the plants and animals that live and grow there. Students examine and compare many different landforms and bodies of water. They research topics and formulate questions, make predictions, and then use scientific tools to observe and test their experiments. By recognizing patterns, solving problems, and identifying cause and effect, students develop the ability to make inferences and communicate their findings. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Science 3 guides students on an exploration of the natural world, its animals, its plants, and its terrain. They learn how clouds form, what causes the cycles of seasons and of day and night on Earth, and that light and sound are actually energy. Students examine the Earth’s eight major biomes and identify how adaptations help plants and animals to survive varying conditions. They become junior meteorologists, able to explain weather and climate and to use weather instruments and knowledge of patterns to observe and predict the weather. Students recognize the information fossils can provide about the Earth’s past and use geologic time scales to identify the eras when fossilized organisms lived. They explain how chemical reactions can change the properties of matter, and they investigate energy, magnetism, and electricity. Finally, students research topics and formulate questions, make predictions and observations, experiment and measure using scientific tools, and draw inferences and identify patterns based on their scientific inquiries. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Science 4 lays a foundation for future excellence in the STEM fields by introducing technology and engineering concepts, such as simple and complex machines and the steps of the engineering design process. This course encourages students to become innovative problem-solvers equipped with the skills and knowledge necessary to address twenty-first-century issues. Students explore the technical and sometimes surprising facts behind the things they see and experience every day. They expand their knowledge and understanding of topics in the areas of physics, chemistry, Earth science, ecology, biology, and space science. Students investigate genetics and the physical characteristics of living things, ecosystems and extinction, agriculture and sustainable resources, and pollution and recycling. They get to know the Earth’s landforms and the types of rocks and soil and extend their learning beyond the Earth to the solar system and the Milky Way. Finally, students encounter important concepts in physics, such as the types and properties of waves, and in chemistry, such as atoms, molecules, and the conservation of mass. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Science Science 5 puts the emphasis on doing science. Students build their knowledge by crafting models, conducting experiments, creating terrariums, and making electromagnets. They learn about plant and animal cells and their functions, photosynthesis, and the roles of producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem. Students explore the global water cycle, the negative impacts of weather, and the relationship between weather and climate. They deepen their understanding of their home planet by investigating landforms, volcanic activity, the layers of the Earth’s atmosphere and geosphere, the tilt of the Earth’s axis, the impacts of its revolution around the Sun, and the Sun’s role as the source of energy for life on Earth. Students are introduced to elements as the basic substances of all matter and the relationship between matter and particles; they also encounter such core concepts of physics as energy transformation, gravitation, and Newton’s first and second laws of motion. They design simple and parallel circuits and use the engineering design process to generate solutions to real-world problems. Finally, they conduct research, formulate questions, make predictions and observations, conduct fair tests using the scientific method, record their findings, and draw conclusions for future investigation. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Social Studies K introduces emerging learners to the knowledge and skills that will help them to become active and valued participants in their community. Students discover the importance of rules and regulations in guiding community behavior, and they explore good citizenship and values such as respect, democracy, cooperation, and equality. Social Studies K establishes students' understanding of the past by teaching them the importance of a sequence of events and developing their skill in distinguishing fact from opinion. Finally, students learn about the world around them, including how geography influences society, how maps represent places, and how communities rely on trade in goods and services. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Social Studies 1 leads students beyond their local community to consider their place in their state, the nation, and the world. They explore the function and characteristics of government in the United States, including the role of rules and laws and the rights and responsibilities of citizens. Students also learn how to ask questions and gather information to understand history. The course focuses on developing students’ knowledge of the interplay between the physical world and human societies, as they learn basic geography skills, such as map reading, and examine the impact of the environment on how and where people live and how regional variations drive trade in both goods and services. Finally, students build their understanding of good citizenship by identifying ways to contribute to the community and avoid conflict and by interacting respectfully with others. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Social Studies 2 empowers students to become productive citizens by developing their knowledge and skills in civics, history, geography, and economics. They deepen their understanding of the U.S. government by explaining the role of the three branches of government and of the U.S. Constitution. Students extend their knowledge of U.S. history to recognize the impact of important figures and movements of the past, and they begin to think like historians by identifying reliable sources, crafting compelling questions, distinguishing fact and opinion, and using timelines to structure a series of events. The course highlights the role of international relations, including both alliances and international trade, as well as the importance of geography and regional variations in resources and production. Finally, students learn core concepts of economics, including supply and demand, scarcity, and cost and benefits, as well as the functions of banks, and relate these concepts to individuals and communities. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Social Studies 3 focuses on the United States, including its government and its laws. Students are encouraged to think about what it means to be productive, responsible citizens of both the nation and their own local communities. To support their learning about U.S. history and differing cultures and perspectives, students develop and research compelling questions on historical topics, work with credible sources, and distinguish between fact and opinion. Additionally, they learn to evaluate the validity of sources, especially websites. Students develop presentation skills that include constructing arguments to support their opinions and using visual aids to add interest to oral reports. They also expand their map-reading skills and learn the fundamentals of financial literacy. In addition to studying the United States, students examine the geography, culture, history, government, and economy of three other world communities: Canada, Mexico, and India. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.

Social Studies 4 introduces students to critical analysis as they develop detailed knowledge of the United States, its regions, and the influence of individual perspectives on documents and events. Students assess and use a wide variety of primary and secondary sources to research compelling questions through supporting questions and present interpretations and arguments in both written and oral forms, supporting their positions with details drawn from reliable sources. Students learn the rights and responsibilities of citizens and how people and groups can work together to accomplish common goals. Students also explore how regional differences in physical environments and cultures affect how people live and work. This course fosters a command of the concepts and tools of geography, such as latitude, longitude, maps of various kinds, and scales. Students will also gain an understanding of core aspects of economics, including resources, production, consumption, and international trade. This course includes a Parent and Teacher guide that supports student learning.

Social Studies 5 puts American history front and center, as students learn about the Native American civilizations of the Americas, the discovery of the New World by European explorers, the founding of the United States, westward expansion, and the coming of the Industrial Revolution. Students leverage research skills to analyze historical events and documents, and they present their findings using arguments based on reliable sources with supporting facts. They refine their ability to distinguish fact from opinion in the context of historical investigation. Students also broaden their understanding of government by recognizing how the system of checks and balances works at both national and state levels, and they identify and interpret important songs and symbols of the United States. Civic responsibility is woven throughout the curriculum, and students recognize the value of public service and the traits of good leaders. Social Studies 5 also explores the themes, tools, and techniques of geography. Students learn how human interaction with the environment has caused change, both beneficial and detrimental, in the past and in the present. Finally, they learn how the U.S. economy functions, including the role of government and multinational organizations in domestic and international trade. This course includes a printed Parent and Teacher Guide that will help you support your student’s learning.