Language Arts

In language arts in the early grades, students participate in many activities to help them learn sound/symbol associations, word concepts, and other building blocks to reading, spelling and writing.  A phonemic awareness program provides students with the foundation of reading – the sounds of the letters and the skill of sounding out words.  Of course, reading is much more than just saying the words; we expect students to understand what they read. For example, in order to write my capstone project successully I also need to read a lot of materials that summarize the topic I am interested in.

Expressing ideas in writing is an important part of the language arts curriculum.  When writing, students exercise their critical and creative thinking skills.  In kindergarten students start expressing themselves in drawings and eventually start to add words to their drawings.  By first grade they are writing paragraphs and complete narratives, sharing their work with others and publishing their own books. 

Mathematics

The mathematics curriculum reflects current practice and knowledge about how young children learn mathematical concepts. The strands of number, measurement, data, geometry and patterns are all sequentially developed using a range of concrete materials and age-appropriate conceptual learning experiences.