Language Arts
Teacher: Kari Raymer

Core Textbooks:
Great Strides, by Rigby, 2008; English, by Houghton Mifflin, 2006

Course Overview:
The Elementary Language Arts program implements Great Strides, by Rigby and English, by Houghton Mifflin. The curriculum is a comprehensive reading and writing program that provides direct and explicit instruction to link whole and small group instruction, as well as independent reading and writing. The essential comprehension skills: literal, inferential, and critical thinking are encompassed throughout the curriculum. 

Through the use of leveled readers and a variety of high interest expository and narrative texts, students will be exposed to engaging theme based stories, while acquiring comprehension strategies that are based on grade-level standards. Students will further practice comprehension strategies during small group and independent reading. 

Course Goals (as determined through curricular assessments):

• Students will enhance their phonemic awareness, through engagement of phoneme blending, isolation, and substitution; syllable awareness, and word rhyming.
  
• Students will develop grammar skills through daily word study.
  
• Students will identify genres and features of fiction and non-fiction text.
  
• Students will develop their comprehension of text through the use of key strategies: make connections, infer, synthesize, create images, ask questions, determine importance, monitor understanding, and use fix-up strategies.
  
• Students will foster oral reading fluency through read-aloud and shared-reading activities.
  
• Students will learn to write a paragraph that includes a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding sentence.
  
• Students will utilize a six-step writing process to compose narrative and expository essays.
  
• Students will fortify and employ the use of essential comprehension skills: literal, inferential, and critical thinking.
  

Mathematics
Teacher: Kari Raymer

Core Textbook:
Math: Diamond Edition (Scott Foresman), 2008 

Course Overview: 
Students will learn number sense (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), algebra, measurement, and geometry. To finish the year, students will learn about probability and mathematical reasoning. The class will be encouraged to use critical and analytical thinking skills, as well as manipulatives, puzzles, and technology to facilitate understanding and mastery. Goals encompass the California State Mathematic Standards.

Course Goals:

• Count, read, write, and order whole numbers to 10,000.
  
• Find the sum and difference of whole numbers.
  
• Model and solve simple problems using multiplication and division.
  
• Solve addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems by using data from charts, graphs, pictures, and number sentences.
  
• Measure the length of objects using standard or nonstandard units.
  
• Tell time and know the relationships of time (minutes in an hour, days in a month, etc).
  
• Recognize, describe, and extend patterns.
  
• Determine approach, materials, and strategies to set up a problem.    
  

Science
Teacher: Kari Raymer

Core Textbook:
HSP Science, Harcourt School Publishers, 2009 

Course Overview:
Students will learn concepts in Physical, Life, and Earth Sciences; California State Science Content Standards are upheld. Students will achieve the following goals through classroom instruction and discussion, as well as investigation and experimentation. 

Course Goals:

• The dependency of organisms on each other and their environment to survive.
  
• Properties of rocks and minerals reflect the processes that formed them.
  
• How waves, wind, water, and ice shaped and continue to reshape the Earth’s land surface.
  
• The Earth’s place in the solar system and how the Earth interacts with the Moon.
  
• The properties of matter.
  
• What energy is and how it is used.
  

Social Studies
Teacher: Kari Raymer

Core Textbooks:
Our Golden State (McMillan-McGraw Hill), 2007; California Communities (McMillan-McGraw Hill), 2007

Course Overview:
Students will explore California history, the geography of the state, and the important people both past and present. Goals encompass the California State History-Social Science Content Standards.

Course Goals:

• Students will know how California became connected to the rest of the world from stagecoach to railroad.
  
• Students will identify and explain the businesses that led to economic growth for California.
  
• Students will develop a greater understanding of how a society grows and the changes that come with that growth.
  
• Students draw from historical and community resources to organize the sequences of historical events, both local and state.
  
• Students will develop an understanding of how geography affects communities.
  
• Students will identify why a community needs government.