Curriculum: Teaching and Learning
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Ignite the Spark: def. nurture the unique potential in every human being.
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Our K - 8 program empowers our students to develop voice and agency, explore their identities, and bolster their strengths and growth edges. In the lower grades they learn the importance of community, acclimating to a new school environment, learning new routines, protocols, and procedures. Using our People Power Skills, our students learn to navigate both interpersonal and intrapersonal attributes and characteristics.
Our older students continue to practice their critical thinking skills, interrogating narratives and deepening their understanding of themselves and the world around them. Students understand how to approach the WHY, which helps them walk toward their purpose.
Nayo Brooks, Lower School Director
Marcus Chang, Middle School Director
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Curriculum
Community Engaged Learning is an approach to education that involves active participation in and collaboration with communities outside of the classroom. This type of learning emphasizes the importance of community-based problem-solving, social justice, and civic engagement. It is often used to enhance students' academic learning, as well as to contribute to positive social change. In community engaged learning, students are encouraged to engage with community members and organizations to identify and address real-world issues. This can include conducting research, providing service, or creating and implementing projects that benefit the community. This type of learning often involves reflection and critical thinking, and it aims to develop students' sense of social responsibility and empathy for others.
- Analyzing an opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and using this analysis in a game situation
- Demonstrating appropriate sportsmanship in game situations
- Working cooperatively with all peers regardless of skill level
- Identifying personal activities for lifelong fitness
- Exploration and study of world music
- Year two drum ensemble
- Comparsa (Cuba)
- Focus on polyrhythms and syncopated music
- Featured performance at graduation
- Haitian Rara
- Performance band for instrumentalists
- Currency design: contour lines, values, shading, pattern, texture
- 2D design: logo development and applications
- Studio art: figure drawing and painting
- 3D design: current design trends, design thinking process, product re-design, and prototyping
- Silk screen political/social cause posters
- Installation art
- Independent projects
- Public art opportunities
- Use Total Physical Response storytelling model: Canechi y Chipote
- Use Realidades 2 textbook, workbook, and interactive website
- Communicate using four modalities: reading, listening, speaking, and writing
- Write short compositions in Spanish
- Mural critique field trip to the Mission district of San Francisco
- Quarterly self-assessments and action plans
- Use University of Texas at Austin Oral Proficiency site
- Properties of Matter
- Atomic Structure
- Molecules and Bonds
- Motion, Force and Energy
- Electromagnetism and Waves
- Weather and Climate Change
- Critical assessment of research and scientific literacy
- Refining and expanding skills and concepts of algebra
- Understanding the relationship between algebraic and geometric representations
- Setting up ratios and proportions to solve for unknown values
- Developing multiple representations, problem-solving strategies, and conceptual understanding through writing
- Valuing collaboration when solving problems in small groups
- United States history, culture, and geography; emphasis on Indigenous, African (Diaspora) American influences, Women's History, Personal Identity, American Ideology formation
- Development of critical thinking skills
- Analysis of primary source documents
- Expository text reading and note-taking skills
- Synthesis of a broad range of factual information
- Analysis of the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, and their application to current issues
- Personal and interpersonal awareness development
- Focus on expository, comparative, and creative writing
- Write responses to literature, persuasive arguments, poetry, and creative pieces
- Develop grammar skills: punctuation, parts of speech, and multi-clause sentence structure
- Strengthen vocabulary
- Strengthen proofreading, revision, and editing skills
- Master essay writing skills: thesis development, organization, paragraph writing, and structure
- Strengthen verbal responses and analysis of literature (discussion)
- Strengthen understanding of text, context, and subtext in literature (who is represented in literature and who may be absent and why)
- Examine the main story elements of plot, character development, setting, theme, and point of view in short stories and novels
- Examine literary devices of irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism in short stories, poetry, and novels
- Analyze character development and theme in novels and memoir
- Understand elements of poetry
- Analyzing an opponent’s strengths and weaknesses and using this analysis in a game situation
- Demonstrating appropriate sportsmanship in game situations
- Working cooperatively with all peers regardless of skill level
- Advanced drum ensemble workshop
- Year one drum ensemble
- 5-part 6/8 pattern
- Dividing beat into three and four parts
- Mayi, Ibo, Samba
- Featured performance at African American Cultural Celebration
- Exploration of the cultural role music plays in a community
- Performance band for instrumentalists
- Drawing: contour lines, shading, grid enlarging, layout, lettering
- Guided self-portraits: Chuck Close
- Day of the Dead papier-mache masks
- Print making: linoleum blocks
- Oaxacan animal sculptures
- Arts of Asia: India, China, and Japan
- Public art opportunities
- Project-based learning that focuses on authentic, meaningful situations. Verbal communication is highly emphasized
- Use Realidades textbook, workbook, and interactive website
- Active learning through Total Physical Response games, art, music, and dance
- Celebration of Latino culture through study of music, stories, dance, traditional holidays, and geography
- In-depth individual PowerPoint presentations on Mexico
- Interrogatives, the imperative, the preterit tense, formulas tener que + infinitivo and ir + a + infinitivo
- Work as a scientist: observe, research, develop controlled experiments, communicate findings
- Evolution
- The microbiome, viruses, the immune system
- Life processes: strategies and solutions from cells to plants to human beings
- Genetics and heredity
- Sex and drug education: accurate information leads to informed decisions
- Develop research skills, apply scientific method, create models, write scientific arguments
- Buddy science projects with Lower School students
- Proportional relationships
- Scale drawings
- Percent change
- Circles, angles, triangles, surface area, and volume
- Operations with negative numbers
- Expressions, equations, and inequalities
- Data analysis, probability, and graphing techniques
- Problem-solving strategies
- Interpret and solve problems about real-world situations
- Share multiple perspectives and communicate mathematical thinking
- Explore Medieval Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, West Africa, Japan, China, and The Americas
- Politics, Economics, Geography, and Society of different civilizations
- Note-taking skills: history notebook, document analysis, paragraph, and essay writing
- Cause, effect, and impact of historical events
- Comparison of present-day case studies and literature to historical studies
- Write multi paragraph essays (narrative, memoir, analysis and research paper)
- Practice debate skills in an end of the school year debate
- Practice Courageous Conversations (community circles)
- Focus on writing process: prewriting, writing, editing, and rewriting
- Develop research skills: internet and library
- Maintain a notebook and practice note-taking and organizational skills
- Strengthen vocabulary and grammar skills
- Make oral and visual presentations
- Analyze and write poetry, short stories, and fiction
- Read and explore novels, short stories, poems, and plays whose protagonists represent a variety of backgrounds and challenges
- Identify literary elements: metaphor, symbolism, foreshadowing, theme, and historical and cultural references
- Independent and in-class reading and literature criticism
- Analyze and identify literary themes: friendship, identity, tolerance, diversity, and beliefs
- Connect literature to history, author, personal experience, and the modern world through discussion, journal entries, and group work
Our sixth graders engage in ongoing work surrounding ecology and relationships with multiple partners including Lake Merritt Institute and Rotary Nature Center Friends in support of the health and understanding of Lake Merritt.
- Identifying proper warm-up and cool-down techniques
- Taking responsibility for independent practice
- Demonstrating appropriate sportsmanship in game situations
- Sixth grade choir
- Intermediate conga drum technique
- Develop drum ensemble concepts
- Dividing the beat, pattern development, and rhythm cycles
- Performance band for instrumentalists
- Drawing: one-point perspective
- Clay: animation
- Ancient civilizations: Prehistoric, Egyptian, and Greek
- Background – middle ground – foreground perspective collage
- Use Total Physical Response storytelling model: Canechi y Chipote
- Use Realidades B textbook, workbook, and interactive website
- Communicate using four modalities: reading, listening, speaking, and writing
- Paired communication activities and Mini Speaking Assessments
- One-on-one and small group conversation
- Present, preterite, and future tenses
- Use University of Texas at Austin Oral Proficiency site
- Lake Merritt - Ecology, biodiversity, stewardship
- Chemistry - The building blocks of our universe
- FBI Unit - Fungi, Bacteria, Infections
- Product Testing - Experiment Design, Media Literacy
- Physics - Kinematics: Science of Motion
- Ratio concepts
- Unit rates and percentages
- Area, surface area, and nets
- Operations using integers, fractions, and decimals
- Data collection, organization, and analysis
- Reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities
- Interpret and solve problems about real-world situations
- Problem-solving strategies
- Share multiple perspectives and communicate mathematical thinking
- Understand civilization’s cultural universals and their interconnectedness
- Dig 2: an introduction to archaeological methodology and ethics
- Ancient Civilizations: Egypt and Maya
- Study of farmworkers’ rights
- Public speaking skills: practice through simulations and presentations
- Research skills: finding and assessing quality of paper and electronic sources, taking organized notes
- Write effective response to literature, stories, poetry, and expository essays
- Journaling as a means of self-reflection and analysis of society
- Recognize sentence structure and parts of speech with grammar practice
- Develop critical thinking skills through analysis and editing of one’s own and others’ written work
- Increase breadth of vocabulary
- Read and discuss novels, short stories, memoirs, and poetry
- Develop critical thinking skills through literary analysis of character, setting, theme, and tone
- Analyze literature and improve comprehension: whole class discussion, literature groups, and group projects
- Connect literature to social studies; readings that are relevant to what’s happening in the world today and help students make these connections
- Read and extract main ideas from non-fiction sources
Our fifth grade students partner with The Gardens at Lake Merritt in connection with their science curriculum.
- Literature of Own Voices
- Literature of Notable history/events/holidays reflecting individual / diverse lifestyles and values
- Specialized movement skills related to team sports
- Health-enhancing physical activity
- Relationship between body type and movement skills
- American folk and popular songs
- Caribbean folk and popular songs
- Blues and pre-blues music
- Intermediate North Indian classical singing
- Touch stroke and heel-toe techniques on conga drums
- Scales and arpeggios in solfège
- Introduction to band for instrumentalists
- Introduction to Irish music
- Drawing: light/shade value studies
- Clay
- Mixed media collages: Romare Bearden
- Foreshortening
- Paint mixing
- Monochromatic painting
- Flower rangolis
- Gee's Bend quilts
- 3D artwork
- Digital Citizenship
- Rights, responsibilities, and opportunities of living, learning, and working in an interconnected digital world
- Information privacy, cyberbullying, copyright, plagiarism
- Google Applications: Drive, Docs, Slides, etc.
- Adobe Voice
- Accessing information in books and through online resources
- Website and database research skills and practice
- High-frequency words
- Reading of class novel Tumba and related comprehension and extension activities
- Understanding of culture through the study of geography and peoples of Spanish-speaking countries
- Listening and speaking skills
- Writing in Spanish through comprehension activities and “Timed Free Writes”
- The “súper siete” - the seven most frequently used verbs in Spanish Subject pronouns (yo, tú, él/ella/elle, usted, nosotros, ellos/ellas/elles)
- Articles (el/la/los/las)
- Spelling patterns
- Living Systems- Redwood Ecology
- Climate Change
- States of Matter
- Earth & Constellations
- Facility with four basic arithmetic operations applied to whole numbers, fractions, and decimals
- Measure of 2-D and 3-D shapes
- Polygons
- Rounding and estimating whole numbers and decimals
- Relationships among fractions, decimals, and percents
- Problem-solving strategies
- Collecting, organizing, and displaying data
- Primary and secondary sources
- African American Civil Rights movement
- European Resistance movement during World War II
- Activist movements throughout history
- Organized summaries and paragraphs relating literary events to personal experiences, other texts, and the world
- Narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events
- Opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view
- Grammar and spelling rules
- Research skills: taking notes and long-term writing assignments
- Informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information
- Publishing and presenting writing
- Vocabulary using Classical Roots
- Comprehension through oral and written responses to novels and non-fiction
- Critical thinking: make inferences, discuss themes, and analyze personal voice, point-of-view, and author purpose
- Novels, short stories, nonfiction, expository writing, and poetry
- Media for literal text and sub-text
- Thematic novel studies
- Meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes
Our fourth graders are partnered with Serenity House, an organization run by women to empower women. They also serve the wider community of unhoused and food or housing insecure folks. We are grateful to our current families for support of this partnership.
Literary genres
- Muscle strength and endurance
- Relationship between practice and performance
- Leadership and cooperation
- Intro to American folk music, Irish folk music, and North Indian classical music
- Intro to Caribbean percussion rhythms
- Intro to Caribbean folk and African repertoire
- Basic music terminology
- Singing scales and arpeggios
- Drawing: contour lines, proportion, portraiture, landscapes
- Painting: watercolor techniques
- Clay
- Printmaking: Andy Warhol/pop art
- Self portraits: Vincent Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo
- African masks and shields
- Equipment care
- Technology agreements and proper uses
- Typing and proper position
- Google docs, sheets, and presentations: creating, sharing, collaborating, and printing
- Device orientation
- Digital citizenship
- Class reading of El capibara con botas book and related activities
- Subject pronouns (yo, tú, él/ella/elle, usted, nosotros, ellos/ellas/elles)
- Regular and Irregular verb conjugations
- Conversational skills
- Spelling and vocabulary
- Articles (masculine, feminine)
- Culture through the study of geography and people of Spanish-speaking countries
- Listening and speaking skills through guided conversations with peers
- Energy transformations and collisions
- Waves and messaging (information transfer)
- Animal adaptations
- Natural disasters and mitigation techniques
- Increasing facility with number facts: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
- Developing problem solving strategies, organization, and note-taking skills
- Regrouping addition and subtraction; two-digit multiplication and division Fractions, probability, statistics and graphing, measurement and geometry, algebraic concepts, and decimals
- California, United States, and world geography
- Black Panther Party
- California artists and musicians
- Dustbowl and World War II in California
- Analysis of primary and secondary documents for point of view and bias
- Writer’s Workshop to strengthen writing
- Writing process with greater independence and effectiveness
- Strategies to improve spelling and grammar
- Proofreading and editing skills for thorough revisions
- Print and online dictionaries and thesaurus resources
- Public speaking skills
- Word recognition and expression in oral reading
- Independent reading skills
- Comprehension strategies
- Produce individual book projects
- Summarize information and re-tell stories
- Understand story elements: symbolism, plot, character, development, and tone
- Theme, character change, author's style, uncover structure, work on words, consider perspectives, compare texts, and use evidence
- Participate in whole-class and small-group literature groups and dramatic read alouds
Our third graders continue their longitudinal study in partnership with Cornell University Bird Lab. They are also connected with our sixth graders and their ongoing work at Lake Merritt.
- Independent book selection
- Refresh looking up information in a book
- African American report and bird research
- Twice a month supervised typing class
- Using feedback to improve performance
- Working independently and maintaining focus
- Using physical activity as a means of self-expression
- Sharing equipment appropriately with peers
- Rounds, two-part music, extended vocal range
- Solfège
- Rhythm work with percussion
- Refining performing arts elements of movement and drama
- Basic music terminology and singing including scales
- Drawing: expressive lines and shapes
- Painting: color wheel, color mixing
- Clay
- Bat study
- Collage animals: Eric Carle
- Sumi ink painting
- Fruit/flower paintings: Georgia O’Keefe
- Story quilt: Faith Ringgold
- Beginning keyboarding and word processing
- Introduction to online catalog searches
- Choosing information sources for research
- Participate in class reading of Edi el elefante book and related activities
- Subject pronouns (yo, tú, él/ella/elle, usted, nosotros, ellos/ellas/elles)
- Regular and Irregular verb conjugations
- Spelling and vocabulary
- Articles (masculine, feminine)
- Understand culture- geography and people of Spanish-speaking countries
- Listening and speaking skills through guided conversations with peers
- Investigation and Conservation of Birds
- Scientific Method (with Seventh Grade)
- Electricity
- Forces & Motion
- Place value to 100,000
- Telling time to the minute and determining elapsed time
- Multiplication and division to 12, with single- and double-digit problems
- Problem solving
- Measurement: length, mass, and volume with standard and metric measurements
- Fractions: identifying, ordering, and comparing
- 3-digit and 4-digit addition and subtraction
- Complex multi-step story problem solving
- Geometry: 2D and 3D shapes, lines, angles, area, perimeter, and volume
- Hands-on study of the Ohlone People, featuring field trips to the Oakland Museum, Arrowhead Marsh, UC Botanical Gardens, and at a regional park
- Geography of the Bay Area and regions of California
- Study of cultural groups in the Bay Area through performances and field trips
- Black American biography project
- Identity and heritage personal histories
- Impact of explorers and settlers on the Bay Area
- California history focusing on multicultural perspectives
- Utilize Writer’s Workshop
- Write a formal, well-developed informational paragraph
- Practice informational and report writing: Bird Study, Black American biography, and The Ohlone
- Write book reports, personal narratives, letters, responses to literature, and opinion pieces
- Use dialogue and similes in creative writing
- Practice grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling rules
- Learn cursive handwriting
- Develop presentation skills by presenting work to class, parents, and school
- Teach effective reading strategies
- Practice critical thinking and comprehension skills
- Read and discuss multicultural literature
- Read literature about Native American and Black American experiences
- Study literature through independent reading, readers' workshops, literature circles, reading groups, and being read to
Our second graders meet with senior residents at St. Paul’s Towers with our kindergarten buddies for a monthly sing-a-long. Towers residents come to school for paired reading time with our second grade students.
- Parts of a book
- Read Aloud - identify character traits in the protagonist
- Parts of a book
- Using nonfiction book features - looking up a topic for research
- Chasing, fleeing, and dodging
- Supporting body weight for climbing and hanging
- Identifying feelings related to challenges and successes
- Modeling good sportsmanship
- Playing cooperative games
- Swim Program
- Group singing and pitch recognition
- Continued solfège singing
- Rhythm work with percussion
- Movement and drama games
- Exploring media
- Creating in collaboration
- Projects based on famous artists and their techniques
- Painting: color wheel, color mixing
- Collaboration with Performing Arts: masks, puppets, performance props
- Digital Citizenship: online safety and unique usernames and passwords
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iPad - acceptable use, resilience, and persistence
- Songs for vocabulary development
- Pronunciation practice and speaking
- Comprehension practice
- Become multilingual and learn about cultures in our increasingly transnational society
- Amplify Science curriculum
- Plant & Animal Relationships / Investigation
- Properties of Materials / Engineering Design
- Changing Landforms / Modeling
- Use multiple strategies to solve problems, such as open number lines and splitting according to place value
- Pose and solve word problems
- Single and double-digit addition and subtraction
- Place value to 1,000
- Measurement: time and length
- Add coins within a dollar
- Geometry: shape attributes and vocabulary
- Sort, graph, and interpret data
- People Power Skills - Supporting friendships, creating community, caring for one another
- Change Makers - People who inspire change in their communities
- Identity - What makes us, us? Exploring gender, race, ethnicity, culture, and tradition
- Second Grade Zoo - creating a class zoo incorporating social justice, math, science, writing, and reading
- Writer’s Workshop model
- Personal narratives,
- Informational writing, poetry, and journal entries for reflection and responses to reading
- Writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing
- Study paragraph writing
- Parts of speech, capitalization, and basic sentence punctuation
- Manuscript letter formation- Handwriting Without Tears
- Presentation skills through chapel presentations, publishing parties, and sharing at morning meetings
- Develop reading comprehension strategies and vocabulary
- Practice fluency, expression, accuracy, and decoding strategies
- Predict, summarize, infer, and find the main idea in texts
- Use mentor texts as models for writing
- Identify non-fiction text features
- Identify character traits
- Build stamina with daily independent reading
- Use evidence to support responses to literature
Community Engaged Learning is an approach to education that involves active participation in and collaboration with communities outside of the classroom. This type of learning emphasizes the importance of community-based problem-solving, social justice, and civic engagement. It is often used to enhance students' academic learning, as well as to contribute to positive social change. In community engaged learning, students are encouraged to engage with community members and organizations to identify and address real-world issues. This can include conducting research, providing service, or creating and implementing projects that benefit the community. This type of learning often involves reflection and critical thinking, and it aims to develop students' sense of social responsibility and empathy for others.
- Parts of a book
- Fiction vs nonfiction
- Introduction to chapter books
- Identify character traits in the story
- Biographies
- Choosing books for practicing reading
- Community inclusion and looking at the world from someone else's perspective
- Holidays- immigrant traditions / experiences
- Traveling and changing direction quickly
- Engaging in sustained physical activity to increase heart and breathing rates
- Modeling good sportsmanship
- Playing cooperative games
- Swim program
- Group singing and pitch recognition
- Solfège
- Rhythm work with percussion
- Movement and drama games
- Line, shape, texture, and color
- Watercolor and tempera painting
- Decoupage
- Papier mâché
- Oil pastels
- Weaving
- Collage
- Drawing
- Cross-curricular projects
iPad use - unique passwords/passkeys and intellectual property
- Songs for vocabulary development
- Pronunciation and speaking
- Comprehension practice
- Spark students’ desire to become multilingual
- Learn about cultures in our increasingly transnational society.
- Blossoms, bees, and seeds- life cycles
- Engineering- How do human-designed objects work?
- Solar system- observing patterns
- Number formation and number sense to 100
- Identify odd and even numbers
- Addition and subtraction to 20
- Measurement: non-standard and standard
- Estimation and prediction
- Money: identifying and counting coins
- Telling time to the hour and half hour
- Identifying 2D and 3D shapes
- Problem solving
- Community- self, family, larger community
- Conflict resolution and friendships
- RAD Women A-Z
- People Power Skills
- Focus on a topic
- Respond to questions and suggestions from peers
- Add details to strengthen writing as needed
- Participate in shared research and writing projects (e.g., explore a number of "how-to" books on a given topic and use them to write a sequence of instructions)
- Recall information from experiences
- Gather information from provided sources to answer a question
- Recognize features of a sentence
- Spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonics)
- Strengthen decoding and comprehension through guided reading
- Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension
- Build stamina with daily independent silent reading
- Demonstrate understanding of the organization and basic features of print
We’ve rejoined our beloved senior residents at St. Paul’s Towers, where our kindergartners do monthly sing-a-long with their second grade buddies.
- Choosing books
- Book and library care
- How to check out and return materials
- How to use the library
- Wordless picture books / telling a story
- Word Families
- Define and give examples - author and illustrator
- Types of books
- Traveling safely through space: walking, running, jumping, galloping, sliding, and hopping
- Exploring balls: tossing, catching, striking, and kicking
- Modeling good sportsmanship and playing cooperative games
- Swim program
- Introduction to solfège singing and group singing
- Rhythm work with hand percussion
- Movement and drama games
- Color mixing
- Developing confidence in using art materials
- Cross-curricular art projects
- Exploration of various media and techniques
- Artist studies- Georgia O'Keefe, Yayoi Kusama, Jean-Michel Basquiat
- iPad introduction and acceptable use
- Design principles
- Active and fun lessons that include: songs for vocabulary development, pronunciation practice, speaking, and comprehension practice
- Engage with student understanding of cultures in our increasingly transnational society
- Exploration in physical science
- Forces and Motion- Pushes and Pulls
- Five Senses- Collaboration with 7th-grade
- Animals and Their Habitats- Rainforest
- Experimentation focusing on prediction and observation
- Sustainable environmental practices
- Numbers: recognizing, writing, sequencing (numbers 1-20), and exploring mathematical operations (simple addition and subtractions)
- One-to-one correspondence
- Patterning: creating, recognizing, and extending simple patterns
- Concepts of time: days, weeks, months, and seasons
- Graphing: measuring, sorting, and classifying
- Recognize and reproduce shapes
- Concepts of money (pennies and nickels)
- Concepts of more than, less than, and equal to
- Counting by 2's, 5's, and 10's
- Estimation strategies
- Building a safe, respectful, and empathetic community
- Conflict resolution
- People Power Skills
- Non-violent communication
- Developing awareness of diversity within families, cultures, and religions
- Developing awareness of growth and change
- Earth stewardship
- Relationships across grade levels through Buddy Projects
- Practice letter/sound correspondence
- Reinforce correct pencil grasp
- Practice correct letter formation
- Practice left-to-right progression in writing
- Use developmental continuum of spelling
- Write and draw in journals
- Begin Writer's Workshop
- Practice letter/sound correspondence
- Develop phonemic awareness and knowledge of phonics
- Grow as readers through explicit instruction in small groups
- Strengthen listening and comprehension skills through read-aloud activities
- Study literature genres
- Develop oral language skills
- Develop concepts about print
- Read with second grade buddies