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Elementary Curriculum

English Language Arts, English, Social Studies, EL and World Language
As defined in our WPS Literacy Development Plan, the ultimate goal of teaching and learning in the Humanities Department is to help students build a passion for reading and writing texts that students love.  The love of reading and writing comes from acquiring strong foundational skills that build confidence and encourage students to expand their horizons through literary discovery.  Our department shares a common belief with literacy experts that the four key components of strong readers and writers include knowledge of words and parts of words, oral reading fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary acquisition.  As such, we make an extra effort to build student competency around these components.  Families can see this in some of the programs and assessments that we infuse into our core curriculum, such as Open Court Foundational Skills for K-2 and Words Their Way for 3-5 (word study), Benchmark Assessment System for K-5 (fluency and comprehension), and Easy CBM for K-5 (all four areas).

We also feel that it is important to address culturally and historically responsive literacy instruction through our book selections and unit concepts.  In all grades, students are encouraged to select texts that appeal to them by means of our classroom libraries and book club activities.  We are in the process of strengthening and broadening our literary offerings to include many more options written by authors with racial, ethnic, gender, and cultural diversity.  The Windsor Public Schoolsā€™ curriculum for Humanities provides inroads for students to explore their identities, build their skills and scholarship by means of the Connecticut Core Standards, as well as study texts with a critical eye.  In social studies and history, in particular, students are asked to assess the quality and validity of texts through the inquiry process.  The Humanities Department works closely with the Library Media Specialists to provide students with an access to a wide range of texts and research materials, as well as to help students build their ability to be fully literate in all types of media, both print and digital.  For those students who are developing their skills in English language proficiency, we also have a complete EL program in grades K-12.  

Fine and Performing Arts
Windsor Public Schools is proud to offer a robust Art and Music education program from K-12.  Students in all grades have access to art and music classes that build in complexity throughout their years of schooling.  At the elementary level, all students participate in general Art and Music classes; beginning in grade 2, students can begin to specialize in lessons with stringed instruments.  As students enter intermediate school, they can also select band and choral classes. 

Mathematics and Science
The WPS STEM Department's vision is to deliver comprehensive and high-quality STEM programming (Math, Science, Engineering and Technology) which will inspire lifelong learning within a collaborative environment where perseverance, problem-solving and risk-taking are the norms. 

As defined in our WPS STEM Vision, the ultimate goal of teaching and learning in the STEM Department is to help students build a passion for Math, Science Technology and Engineering.  

As a department, we believe that perseverance, problem-solving and risk-taking are just three of the most important characteristics of a successful STEM student. As such, we work hard to build students who will strive in a collaborative environment where these three characteristics are the norm. 

Our Math program includes a variety of tools and resources that support studentsā€™ learning. In grades Prek-2 students use a non language-based Mathematics program called ST Math to support their conceptual understanding of different Math concepts. In grades 3-5 students use Reflex for fact fluency, and I-ready for individualized instruction. 

In science, our students are exposed to a variety of concepts and topics that expands their knowledge of themselves as human beings and the world around them. We follow the next generation Science Standards and as a department have placed a great deal of emphasis on the Science and Engineering standards. These standards allow our students to experience science as scientists where they do science and not just read about science. 

Windsor Public Schools offer a variety of after-school programs for grades 3-5 in STEM and robotics for students who are interested in experiencing STEM in action.

Instructional Units are based on the Next Generation Science Standards.  These standards integrate science, engineering, and technology into student performance expectations.  Through exploration and collaboration,  teachers provide engaging classroom learning experiences that stimulate interest in Science.

Upper Elementary Schools - Grades 3-5 STEM

The students will spend the majority of their time working on these major cluster:

Grade 3

  • Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division.

  • Understand properties of multiplication and the relationship between multiplication and division.

  • Multiply and divide within 100

  • Solve problems involving the four operations, and identify and explain patterns in arithmetic

  • Develop understanding of fractions as numbers

  • Solve problems involving measurement and estimation of intervals of time, liquid volumes, and masses of objects.

  • Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition

Grade 4

  • Use the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems

  • Generalize place value understanding for multi-digit whole numbers

  • Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic

  • Extend understanding 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 compare decimal fractions

Grade 5

  • Understand the place value system

  • Perform operations with multi-digit whole numbers and with 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.

  • Geometric measurement: understand concepts of volume and relate volume to multiplication and to addition.

Focus:
The Common Core and other college- and career-ready (CCR) standards call for a greater focus in mathematics. Rather than racing to cover topics in a mile-wide, inch-deep curriculum, CCR standards require us to significantly narrow and deepen the way time and energy are spent in the math classroom. We focus deeply on the Major Clusters of each grade so that students can gain strong foundations: solid conceptual understanding, a high degree of procedural skill and fluency, and the ability to apply the math they know to solve problems inside and outside the math classroom.

The major Core Ideas that will be studied in Science at the upper elementary school level are:

Grade 3

  • Forces and Motion

  • Types of Interactions

  • Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and Resilience

  • Social Interactions and Group Behavior

  • Natural Selection

  • Adaptation

  • Biodiversity and Humans

  • Weather and Climate

  • Natural Hazards

Grade 4

  • Definitions of Energy

  • Relationship Between Energy and Energy Transfer

  • Relationship Between Energy and Forces

  • Energy in Chemical Processes and Everyday Life

  • Wave Properties

  • Electromagnetic Radiation

  • Information Technologies and Instrumentation

  • Structure and Function

  • Growth and Development of Organisms

  • Information Processing

  • Inheritance of Traits

  • Variation of Traits

  • Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity

  • The History of Planet Earth

  • Earth Materials and Systems

  • Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions

  • Biogeology

  • Natural Hazards

  • Defining and Delimiting an Engineering Problem

  • Developing Possible Solutions

  • Optimizing the Design Solution

Grade 5

  • Structure and Properties of Matter

  • Chemical Reactions

  • Types of Interactions

  • Organization for Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms

  • Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems

  • Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in Ecosystems

  • The Universe and Its Stars

  • The Earth and the Solar System

  • Earth Materials and Systems

  • The Roles of Water in Earthā€™s Surface Processes

  • Natural Hazards

Focus:
The Next Generation Science Standards. (NGSS ) enables teachers to offer all students interactive science instruction that promotes analysis and interpretation of data, critical thinking, problem solving, and connections across science disciplinesā€”with a high set of expectations for achievement in grades 3ā€“5. During these grades, your child will begin to form deeper connections between concepts and skills previously learned in grades Kā€“2, such as evaluating methods for collecting data, revising models based on evidence, and analyzing data to make sense of phenomena.  Through exploration and collaboration,  teachers provide engaging  classroom learning experiences that stimulate interest in Science.

Early Elementary Preschool-Grade 2 STEM

The major units of study in mathematics for early elementary are:

Preschool

  • Connecting with School, Friends, & Community

  • Community Helpers and Buildings

  • Cultural Celebrations & Holidays in Our Families

  • Weather, Climate, & Seasons

  • Our Big World

  • Transportation

  • Springtime & Nature

  • How Weā€™ve Grown

Kindergarten

  • Counting and Cardinality, Numbers 0-5

  • Counting and Cardinality, Numbers 6-9

  • Counting and Cardinality, Numbers to 10

  • Operations and Algebraic Thinking

  • Counting and Cardinality, Numbers 11āˆ’100 and Number and Operations in Base Ten

  • Measurement and Data

  • Geometry

Grade 1

  • Count, Add, and Subtract

  • Learn Facts to Ten

  •  Add and Subtract to Twenty

  • Tens

  • Tens and Ones

  • Shapes

  • How Many? How Much? How Long?

Grade 2

  • Operations and Algebraic Thinking

  • Numbers and Operations in Base Ten

  • Measurement & Data

  • Geometry

Focus:
 The Common Core and other college- and career-ready (CCR) standards call for a greater focus in mathematics. Rather than racing to cover topics in a mile-wide, inch-deep curriculum, CCR standards require us to significantly narrow and deepen the way time and energy are spent in the math classroom. We focus deeply on the Major Clusters of each grade so that students can gain strong foundations: solid conceptual understanding, a high degree of procedural skill and fluency, and the ability to apply the math they know to solve problems inside and outside the math classroom.  In pre-school, mathematical content is embedded into the thematic units, including counting, 1:1 matching, shapes & patterns.

The major units of study in science for early elementary are:

Preschool

  • Weather, Climate and the Seasons

  • Transportation

  • Springtime and Nature

Kindergarten

  • Science and Scientists

  • Weather and Climate

  • Push, Pull, PLAY!

  • Plants and Animals

Grade 1

  • Earth, Moon, and Sun

  • Communicating with Light and Sound

  • Built For Life

Grade 2

  • Beavers: Natureā€™s Engineers

  • Matter and Its Interactions

  • Koa Tree Mystery: Ecosystem Dynamics

Focus:
TheNext Generation Science Standards. (NGSS ) enables teachers to offer all students interactive science instruction that promotes analysis and interpretation of data, critical thinking, problem solving, and connections across science disciplinesā€”with a high set of expectations for achievement in grades 3ā€“5. During these grades, your child will begin to form deeper connections between concepts and skills previously learned in grades Kā€“2, such as evaluating methods for collecting data, revising models based on evidence, and analyzing data to make sense of phenomena.  Through exploration and collaboration,  teachers provide engaging  classroom learning experiences that stimulate interest in Science.