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Our Curriculum

Within the Montessori learning environment, areas of development include practical life, sensorial, language, math, ecoliteracy, art, music, and a peace area. Maria Montessori’s observations and research allowed her to develop materials that nurtured the foundational skills of learning for each developmental area. This includes: control of error, work set out from easy concepts to more complex ones, and allowing freedom of movement for each child, as well as multisensory learning. Montessori learning activities follow a scope and sequence, and OFMS is intentional in regularly reviewing and analyzing our benchmarks to ensure they meet or exceed Indiana state standards and align with the Common Core standards. They also invite discovery and provide the tools that allow students to discover and problem-solve on their own.

 

Montessori learning activities and materials are designed to be used at every stage of development, moving from concrete ideas to abstract concepts. The materials are beautiful, complete, and purposeful. The child is allowed to explore materials repeatedly until he or she has mastered the concept. Once the student advances to master content concretely, the work becomes abstract and practiced through real-world experiences, field studies, and internships. For example, the Binomial Cube is presented as a Sensorial work to explore patterns, relationships, and order at the Primary level. At the Elementary and Secondary level, the lesson becomes an abstract algebraic concept with a deepened understanding of the actual formula, where students create real-world products using the formula.

 

It is our hope that this curriculum guide will serve as a map to familiarize you with our structures and programs.  Our curriculum guide visualizes the flow of holistic child, young adult developed content, introduced and mastered at each of the levels, organized under the headings: social-emotional development, math, language, culture (science, humanities, geography), peace, practical life, Spanish, technology, ecoliteracy, fine arts, and physical education. Of course, the real fun begins when you see our campus and community of learners in action. We welcome you to visit our beautiful campus with outstanding Montessori educators, mission-focused administrators, independent students, and committed families. 

Infant/Toddler (0-3)

Social & Emotional Development

  • Separates from caregivers or parents

  • Displays security

  • Displays self-confidence

  • Self-assertive

  • Makes eye contact

  • Displays interest in classroom activities and others

  • Expresses feelings and emotions

  • Shows concern for someone in distress

  • Demonstrates grace and courtesy

  • Maintains body control in a group setting

  • Respectfully works with a group and in parallel with others

Language

  • Non-verbally and verbally expresses needs

  • Imitates and repeats words or sounds

  • Combines sounds

  • Recognizes names of objects

  • Practices known words

  • Speaks in sentences

  • Converses with students and adults

  • Speaks with clarity, appropriate tone/volume

Culture/ Geography/ History

  • Observe seasons

  • Observe the geography of our location

Spanish

  • Colors

  • Numbers 1-10

  • Greetings

  • Body Parts

  • Farm Animals

  • Fruits

  • Family Members

  • Wild Animals

Ecoliteracy

  • Composting introduced

  • Care of the environment

  • Care for living creatures and plants in the classroom

  • Campus woods walks and exploration

Physical Education

  • Rolls front to back and back to front

  • Crosses at midline

  • Sits

  • Cross Crawls

  • Walks independently

  • Climbs

  • Carries a large/heavy object

  • Runs

  • Jumps with 2 feet

  • Balances on 1 foot

  • Pedals a tricycle

Math/ Sensorial/ Geometry

  • Exhibits memory

  • Tactile, visual, oral exploration

  • Displays problem-solving skills

  • Interest in constructing and putting things together

  • Displays preferences

  • Follows 2-step directions

  • Exhibits a sense of order

  • Categorizes/sorts objects

Culture: Science

  • Observes people, objects, and surroundings

  • Recognize relationships between living things

Practical Life

  • Explores with the index finger

  • Grasp and release

  • Uses pincer grasp

  • Pours, spoons, strings, tongs, and rolls rug

  • Eats independently

  • Follows guidelines and anticipates routines

  • Self-directed and completes an appropriate work cycle

  • Washes hands

  • Undresses and dresses, and shoes off and on

  • Toilets independently

  • Transfers hand to hand and turns with the hand easily (knobs, lids)

Technology

  • Early childhood students are developing critical skills for healthy brain function: hand-eye coordination, memory, gross and fine motor, and nonverbal cues.

  • These skills are best mastered through real, concrete experiences.

  • Young children learn best when all the senses are engaged

  • Technology is not used with students 0-3

Peace

  • Ability to self-calm

  • Respects self

  • Grace and courtesy practice

  • Community time

Primary (3-6)

Social & Emotional Development

  • The goal is to achieve focus and concentration

  • Independently takes care of personal needs

  • Uses utensils appropriately

  • Uses classroom materials respectfully

  • Respects self and others

  • Handle simple conflicts independently

  • Expresses emotions appropriately

  • Practices self-regulation

  • Recovers appropriately after making a mistake

Language

  • Rhyming

  • Can hear the separate sounds in CVC words

  • Names letter sounds

  • Hears and counts syllables

  • Pre-writing skills of hand readiness and basic strokes

  • Word  formation, spacing & punctuation when writing

  • Write the first name using proper capitalization

  • Writes using inventive spelling

  • Demonstrates reading simple sight words,  reading words (3 letter consonant- vowel- consonant), reading sentences, and reading books

  • Identifies parts of a book (author, illustrator, front cover, etc.)

  • Identifies nouns and verbs

  • Reads developmentally appropriate texts with appropriate pace and self-correcting strategies

Culture/ Geography/ History

  • Observe seasons

  • Observe the geography of our location

Spanish

  • Grace and courtesy

  • Greetings

  • Colors

  • Numbers 1-20

  • The life cycle of a butterfly

  • Parts of an apple

  • Tasting apples to learn their colors and flavors

  • The animals from the farm

  • The family

  • Shapes

  • Sizes

  • Fruits

  • Vegetables

  • Food

  • Weather

  • Seasons

  • Clothing

  • When and how to use “I like it” and “I don't like”

  • When and how to use “I have”, “I don't have,” and “I see”

  • Body parts

  • Dia de los muertos

  • La feria de abril

  • The alphabet

  • Feelings

  • Each topic comes to life through engaging shelf work and community activities that invite students to learn by singing, tasting, playing, and exploring with visual cards and real objects.

Ecoliteracy

  • Kinderforest

  • Outdoor exploration with a specialist (gardening, firewood, leaf collection, wildlife identification, bird watching)

  • Green Team activities- introduction to the concept of watershed, clean water, and using cleaning products that are safe for people and animals.

  • Food preparation and tasting from the garden

Fine Arts

Music

  • Rhythm: Beat, quarter notes, eighth notes, quarter rests

  • Pitch: High/low, melodic direction, pitch matching

  • Dynamics: Loud (forte)/soft (piano)

  • Tempo: Fast (allegro)/slow (adagio)

  • Articulation: Short (staccato)/long (legato)

  • Form: AB and ABA structures

  • Instrumental Technique: Pitched and unpitched percussion

Art

  • Paint and color mixing exploration

  • Primary and secondary colors

  • Modeling and forming clay

  • Stamping

  • Tearing and cutting paper

  • Chalk, crayon, and marker exploration

  • Collage

  • Art History correlating to work

  • Discussing Art with peers

  • Beginning portfolio work

Math/ Sensorial/ Geometry

  • Names and gathers 0-100

  • Understands ways to make 10

  • Counts up to 100

  • Skip counts by 5s and 10s

  • Understands place value: 1s, 10s, 100s, 1000s

  • Understands the concept of greater than & less than 0-10

  • Orders object by size

  • Names colors

  • Sorts objects

  • Names circle, triangle, square, & rectangle, cube, sphere, cone, cylinder

  • Introduction of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division

Culture: Science

  • Characteristics of animal groups

  • Characteristics of a plant

  • Plants and animals of the continents

  • Tells time to the hour

  • Living vs nonliving classification

  • Botany (naming leaf shapes, trees, flowers)

  • Observation and care of classroom plants and animals

Practical Life

  • Gross and fine motor control

  • Use of tools (sweeper, mop, hand tools, sewing, food prep)

  • Demonstrates a sense of order (left to right & top to bottom)

  • Keeps materials organized in the workspace

  • Returns material after use

  • Refocuses when working

  • Concentrates during community

  • Shows respect for the concentration of others

  • Manages transitions

  • Respects others’ personal space

  • Demonstrates control of the body when moving through the classroom

  • Chooses work independently

  • Demonstrates ability to do the right thing

  • Demonstrates desire to work & learn

  • Gets help appropriately

  • Holds and uses scissors correctly

Technology

  • Early childhood students are developing critical skills for healthy brain function: hand-eye coordination, memory, gross and fine motor, and nonverbal cues.

  • These skills are best mastered through real, concrete experiences.

  • Young children learn best when all the senses are engaged.

  • Technology is rarely used with students 3-6

Peace

  • Guiding principles

  • Read “Peace Rose” and practice using the rose during community

  • Find your peace

  • Making silence

  • Role-playing situations

  • Conversations about problems that arise

  • Compliments/acknowledgements

  • Grace and Courtesy lessons

Physical Education

  • Line walking

  • Balance beam

  • “Heal to toe”

  • Brain Gym

  • Body coordination

  • Spatial awareness

  • Throwing

  • Jumping

  • Pedaling

  • Running

  • Exercise stations

  • Cross midline

  • Breathing exercises

  • Grace & Courtesy

Lower Elementary (6-9)

Social & Emotional Development

  • Development of a reasoning mind

  • Curiosity and the power of imagination

  • Great desire for knowledge and facts

  • Interested in morality

  • Collaborative projects encouraged to practice listening, respect the thoughts and ideas of others

  • INITIATIVE: self-direction and personal accountability.

  • CONCENTRATION: focus, engagement, and positive participation.

  • EFFORT: determination to learn and grasp concepts.

  • MEMORY: working memory and ability to recall information

  • ACTION: self-awareness, patience  and self regulation

Language

  • Great Lesson of Communication & Writing

  • Research, creative, poetry, letter, and journal writing

  • Phonetic and sound relationships

  • Letter and sentence writing

  • Decoding and comprehension reading strategies

  • History of language (pictographs, hieroglyphics, early alphabets)

  • Word study: root words, prefixes, suffixes, word families – synonyms/antonyms/ homonyms

  • Alphabetical order, possessives, contractions, abbreviations, and rules for syllabication

  • Compound and Complex sentences • Sentence analysis: predicate, subject, direct object, indirect object, attributives

  • The Writing Process

  • Lower and upper case letters in cursive, constructing sentences; all capitalization and punctuation rules, constructing paragraphs, and spelling skills

  • Composition:

    • Creative writing, reports, journal, letters, descriptive writing, short story, poetry, biography

  • Reading

    • Short vowels, phonograms, consonant sounds, digraphs, silent letters, long vowels, double letters, ending sounds (interwoven with spelling work) • Interpretive reading, story elements; setting, characters, plot, action, predicting – genre • Novel study

    • Spoken Language: Oral reports

Practical Life

  • Navigate the physical and social world

  • Learn the social norms of a group

  • Managing short-term projects

  • Conflict resolution skills

  • Organizational skills

  • Cooking

  • Baking

  • Grocery shopping planning

  • Daily community jobs

Spanish

  • Greetings

  • Grace and courtesy

  • The sound of the vowels and the alphabet

  • The colors

  • Numbers: first grade 1-20, second grade 1-50, and third grade 1-100

  • The feelings

  • Objects of the classroom

  • Dia de los muertos

  • Planets

  • Days of the week

  • Months and seasons

  • The weather

  • Reading comprehension

  • New vocabulary every month

  • The house

  • The family

  • Articles

  • Verbs

  • Dance lessons with Latin American rhythms

  • Places to go around the city

  • Cooking lessons with a traditional Latin American dish

  • Christmas in Latinoamerica

  • Christmas songs

  • Animals from the farm

  • Animals from the zoo

  • The fruits and vegetables

  • Professions

  • La feria de abril (Spanish tradition)

  • Materials and experiences, including books, shelf work, songs, games, interactive oral and written activities, creative projects, worksheets, and cultural presentations

Ecoliteracy

Sustainability Activities

  • Composting

  • Gardening

  • Recycling

  • Food cycle

Basic Bushcraft Skills

  • Fire-making

  • Shelter

  • Water Sourcing

  • Orienteering

  • Foraging

  • Habitat recognition and identification

  • Respecting others and our environment

  • Plant Identification

  • Ice and fire safety

  • Native vs Non Native species

  • Life cycles of prominent fauna and flora found locally

  • Basic observations and documentation of seasonal changes

  • Historical and Indigenous land use knowledge

Fine Arts

Music

  • Rhythm: Quarter notes, eighth notes, half notes, whole notes, sixteenth notes, and corresponding rests

  • Melody: Treble clef note reading, solfège (do-re-me-fa-sol-la-ti-do), melodic intervals

  • Dynamics: Piano (p), forte (f), mezzo piano (mp), mezzo forte (mf), crescendo, decrescendo

  • Tempo: Largo, adagio, andante, moderato, allegro, presto, ritardando, accelerando

  • Articulation: Staccato, legato, accent

  • Form: AB, ABA, Rondo (ABACA), verse/chorus

  • Instrumental Technique: Pitched and unpitched percussion with proper posture, grip, and tone production

  • Music Literacy: Treble clef reading, rhythm notation, Italian terminology

Art

  • Art History/Movements

    • Prehistoric Art

    • Egyptian Art

    • Medieval Art

    • Renaissance Art

    • Impressionism

    • Surrealism

    • Expressionism

    • Abstract

    • Contemporary Art

Elements and Principles of Art

  • Line

  • Shape

  • Color

  • Value

  • Form

  • Space

  • Texture

  • Balance

  • Unity

  • Variety

  • Proportion

  • Emphasis

  • Pattern

  • Movement

  • Paint workspace set up and restore

  • Surface treatments

  • Watercolor and Acrylic paint

  • Basic color mixing (secondary colors)

  • Cardboard construction/ sculpture

  • Clay modeling and sculpture

  • Chalk and oil pastels

  • Collage

  • Drawing material exploration

  • Portrait drawing-proportions

Math/ Sensorial/ Geometry

  • Great Lesson of Numbers/ Numeration (Ancient Civilizations)

  • Review of Decimal system to 1,000

  • Place value to millions

  • Understanding of Operations (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division; Static, Dynamic and Abstraction)

  • Add and subtract 4 digit numbers or larger

  • Multiplies and divides by 2 digits

  • Understands, adds, subtracts, fractions

  • Identifies shapes in the Geometry cabinet

  • Introduction to Fractions (operations with common denominators, equivalent Fractions)

  • Introduction to Divisibility, Multiple and Factors

  • Introduction to graphing

  • Problem solving and logical reasoning

Culture: Science

  • Great Lesson of the Coming of the Universe & Earth

  • Great Lesson of the Coming of Life

  • Timeline of Life

  • Living vs. Nonliving

  • Classification

  • Botany

  • Zoology

  • Vertebrates and invertebrates

  • Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic Eras

  • Biomes and habitats

  • Functions and parts of plants

Culture:
Geography/ History

  • Great Lesson of the Coming of Humans

  • Timeline of Human History

  • Fundamental Needs of Humans Chart

  • Needs of People Cultural Studies

  • Solar system

  • Composition of the Earth

  • States of matter

  • Making maps

  • Identification of countries, cities, capitals, land, and water features

  • Intro to Ancient Civilizations

  • Cultures of the World

Technology

  • Students are continuing to master hand-eye coordination, working memory, gross and fine motor skills

  • Skills are best mastered with real experience when all senses are engaged through real, concrete experiences in nature and the environment

  • Limited use of technology in 6-9

Peace

  • Grace and courtesy lessons continue

  • Respecting others and our environment

  • Greeting people

  • Manners lessons

  • Politely interrupting

  • Respectful language/appropriate conversations

  • Positive Discipline community-building activities

  • Classroom meetings

  • Cosmic Education

Physical Education

  • Supports social, emotional, and physical growth through movement, stations, and games.

  • Balances healthy competition and teamwork.

  • Practices the three C’s: communication, collaboration, and cooperation.

  • Introduces sportsmanship: respect, kindness, and fairness.

  • Encourages lifelong fitness habits.

  • Fosters independence, grace, and respect for self, others, and the environment.

  • Develops motor skills: reaction time, hand and eye coordination, crossing the midline, skipping, throwing, balancing, jumping.

Upper Elementary (9-12)

Social & Emotional Development

  • Interest in wider society

  • Move from concrete to abstract thought

  • Continued interest in morality

  • Follows work cycle routines, completes goals, and prioritizes tasks

  • Sustains attention during independent projects

  • Maintains focus in small & large group work, shifts attention when necessary

  • Sustains positive attitude when facing difficulties

  • Time management skills and problem solving strategies

  • Prepared with materials and supplies, recalls/applies past information to new situations

  • Demonstrates patience when needs directions, towards classmates

  • Maintains control of physical needs/movements, respects personal space, organizes work space

Language

  • Second Level Great Lesson of Language – Communication in Signs (history of oral and written language)

  • Master spelling and grammar rules

  • Advanced Function of Words (all parts of speech including Verb Conjugations)

  • Sentence Analysis: Adverbial Extensions, attributives, predicate nouns, predicate

  • Adjectives, prepositional phrases

  • Clausal Analysis: independent, dependent, verbals, gerunds

  • Analysis of literature

  • The Writing Process

  • Mechanics: colon, semi-colon, contractions, run-on sentences, note-taking, paraphrasing, summarizing, topic sentences, sentence structure, paragraph construction, editing

  • Writing Reports, journal, letters, diary, invitations, letter writing, proposals, book reports, myths, fables, descriptive writing, short stories, poetry, plays, biographies, summaries Reading

  • All literary genres, including historical fiction, biographies, fantasy, poetry, Newbery Award Winners, adventure, classics, myths, and mysteries.

  • Interpretive reading and discussion

  • Novel study

  • Spoken Language: Oral reports, drama, history of Spoken Language (interwoven with History work)

Culture:
Geography/ History

  • Timeline of Human History

  • Fundamental Needs of Humans Chart

  • Needs of People Cultural Studies

  • Stories of Historical people and cultures

  • Ancient Civilizations of the Continents: (growth of civilizations, archeology/ anthropology of Maya, Aztecs, Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Sumerians. etc.

  • Intro to US History

  • Inquiry-based research

  • KIND (Kids Investigate Natural Disaster Year-long Project)

Spanish

  • Review of vowels, colors, numbers, alphabet, months, days of the week, and he weather

  • Greetings & conversations

  • The use of the special letters in the Spanish alphabet: ll, ñ, ch, h, qu, r, rr, and the use of the tilde.

  • Spanish-speaking countries

  • Cultural traditions: The Pachamama, Dia de los muertos

  • Cooking classes: dishes from different countries in Latin America

  • Christmas traditions and songs

  • Every 2 months, students choose a country to study the culture, gastronomy, tradition, and art

  • Food and ordering with a visit to a Latin American restaurant

  • Reading a book

  • Nouns and articles

  • Story of the yellow lady from Rockalingua

  • Personal pronouns

  • Possessive adjectives

  • Verb To be - “Ser” and “Estar”.

  • Feelings

  • Listening and reading comprehension

  • Prepositions

  • Places around the house and the school

  • Body parts

  • The family

  • Places to go

  • Outdoor exploring to learn new vocabulary

  • Animals and nature

  • Famous Spanish-speaking artists

  • Materials and experiences include books, shelf work, songs, games, interactive oral and written activities, creative projects, worksheets, and cultural presentations

Ecoliteracy

  • All 6-9 Eco Literacy work continues

  • Phenology: study of biological life cycles

  • Interdependence of living things in the world

  • Trail work and maintenance

  • Water quality sampling
    Dichotomous Keys for Identification

  • Reciprocity and stewardship

Fine Arts

Music

  • Rhythm: All note values, including dotted rhythms, syncopation, triplets, and compound meters

  • Melody: Advanced treble clef reading with leger lines, bass clef introduction, intervals, scales

  • Dynamics: Full dynamic range (pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff), gradual changes, terrace dynamics

  • Tempo: Complete Italian tempo vocabulary, tempo relationships, metric modulation

  • Articulation: Staccato, legato, accent, tenuto, marcato, slur, phrase markings

  • Form: Binary, ternary, rondo, theme & variations, sonata form introduction, popular song forms

  • Harmony: Chord progressions (I-IV-V-I), harmonic intervals, chord inversions

  • Instrumental Technique: Advanced pitched and unpitched percussion with emphasis on tone quality, blend, balance, and precision

  • Score Reading: Multi-part scores, transposition, rehearsal marks, D.S., D.C., codas

  • Collaboration: Ensemble skills, leadership, sectional work, peer teaching

Art

  • Art History/Movements

  • Prehistoric Art

  • Egyptian Art

  • Medieval Art

  • Renaissance Art

  • Impressionism

  • Surrealism

  • Expressionism

  • Abstract

  • Contemporary Art

  • Ceramic Clay basics

  • Paper Mache

  • Colored pencil blending

  • Cardboard construction/ sculpture

  • Advanced painting techniques:

  • Blending

  • Color mixing (tertiary and beyond)

  • Layering and details

  • Block printing

  • Drawing from observation

  • Portrait proportions

  • Pencil drawing: value and shading

  • Hand sewing/embroidery

  • Mosaics

  • Creative process to create art: observe, research, idea, creation, reflection, revision

  • Refine and continue to build material skills

  • Reflect through self-assessment

Theatre

  • Movement

  • Across different styles through games

  • Expression

  • Basic diction skills

  • Basic inflection skills

  • Memorization

  • Short lines in skits

  • Short monologues

  • Public speaking

  • Use of

  • Projection

  • Diction

  • Inflection

  • Body language

  • Creative writing

  • Skit creation

  • Elements of a story

  • Simple parodies

  • Collaboration/Teamwork

  • Collaborative storytelling

  • Team activities and games

  • Short performances

  • Text reading and analysis

  • Script study

  • Plot diagram

Math/ Sensorial/ Geometry

  • Great Lesson of Numbers (Ancient Civilizations and history of measurement)

  • Laws of Arithmetic- concrete materials (Communicative, Associative, & Distributive)

  • Proficiency of skills introduced in LE

  • Complete all whole number operations, (including long multiplication and division abstractly)

  • Review hierarchical values, expanded notation,comparison, rounding and estimating

  • Multiples

  • GCF, LCM, prime and composite numbers

  • Properties (commutative, associative, distributive)

  • Rules of divisibility,

  • Types of fractions: proper, improper, mixed, reducing fractions

  • Operations using fractions

  • Decimals

  • Equivalency, comparing and ordering, renaming

  • fractions as decimals, all four operations abstractly

  • Ratio and Percent

  • Ratios as fractions, as decimals, as percents, percents

  • as fractions/as decimals, percent of number

  • Statistics and Probability

  • Construct, read and interpret: tables, graphs of all types

  • Understand mean/ median/ range/ mode/ frequency/tree diagrams

  • Algebraic Ideas

  • Powers of numbers

  • Squaring and Cubing numbers

  • Exploration of other number bases, squaring of binomials and trinomials, cubing of binomials and trinomials, pre-algebra

  • Square Roots

  • Concept, concrete exploration, writing through to

  • abstraction

  • Order of operations

  • Integers, scientific notation, rational numbers

  • Problem-solving and logical reasoning

Culture: Science

  • Great Lesson of the Coming of the Universe & Earth

  • Great Lesson of the Coming of Life

  • Timeline of Life

  • Intro to Chemistry: matter, atomic structure, energy, and forces

  • Classification of plants and animals

  • Adaptations/ biomes/ food chains

  • Human anatomy

  • Taxonomy

  • Land forms

  • Year-long Phenology projects

Practical Life

  • Care of self, environment, and living things

  • Role modeling and mentoring

  • Cultural awareness

  • Organizational skills for year-long projects

  • Cooking

  • Event Planning

  • School outreach

  • Building projects to help the school community

  • Daily community jobs

  • Planning trips connected to the curriculum

Technology

  • Technology is used as an extension of the classroom resources for extension research, presentation, and practice throughout the curriculum

  • Internet safety and digital citizenship introduction

  • Word Processing and spreadsheet skills

  • Gale Research Database

  • Introduction to Google Slides and presentation skills

Peace

  • Grace and courtesy lessons continue

  • Respecting others and our environment

  • Greeting people

  • Manners Lessons

  • Politely interrupting

  • Respectful language/appropriate conversations

  • Teamwork games

  • Rights and Responsibilities

  • Guiding Principles

  • Low Ropes

  • Family Journal and discussion

  • “Going Out” trips to do service learning

  • Partner work

  • Cosmic Education

Physical Education

  • Promotes social, emotional, and physical growth through team challenges.

  • Encourages a balance between healthy competition and collaboration.

  • Deepens practice of the three C’s: communication, collaboration, and cooperation.

  • Units include cooperative games and team sports: basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, pickleball, floor hockey, flag football, wiffleball, kickball, handball, and gymnastics.

  • Emphasizes sportsmanship: respect, integrity, encouragement.

  • Builds awareness of lifelong fitness and personal well-being.

  • Strengthens leadership, self-discipline, and empathy.

  • Personal health through the McMillan Center:

    • Human Growth & Development, emotional changes, hygiene, physical changes, conception, and the benefits of abstinence.

    • Promotes positive self-image and reinforces that the changes of puberty are normal.

Middle School

Social & Emotional Development

  • Interest in wider society

  • Move from concrete to abstract thought

  • Continued interest in morality

  • Follows work cycle routines, completes goals, and prioritizes tasks

  • Sustains attention during independent projects

  • Maintains focus in small & large group work, shifts attention when necessary

  • Sustains positive attitude when facing difficulties

  • Time management skills and problem solving strategies

  • Prepared with materials and supplies, recalls/applies past information to new situations

  • Demonstrates patience when needs directions, towards classmates

  • Maintains control of physical needs/movements, respects personal space, organizes work space

Language

  • Second Level Great Lesson of Language – Communication in Signs (history of oral and written language)

  • Master spelling and grammar rules

  • Advanced Function of Words (all parts of speech including Verb Conjugations)

  • Sentence Analysis: Adverbial Extensions, attributives, predicate nouns, predicate

  • Adjectives, prepositional phrases

  • Clausal Analysis: independent, dependent, verbals, gerunds

  • Analysis of literature

  • The Writing Process

  • Mechanics: colon, semi-colon, contractions, run-on sentences, note-taking, paraphrasing, summarizing, topic sentences, sentence structure, paragraph construction, editing

  • Writing Reports, journal, letters, diary, invitations, letter writing, proposals, book reports, myths, fables, descriptive writing, short stories, poetry, plays, biographies, summaries Reading

  • All literary genres, including historical fiction, biographies, fantasy, poetry, Newbery Award Winners, adventure, classics, myths, and mysteries.

  • Interpretive reading and discussion

  • Novel study

  • Spoken Language: Oral reports, drama, history of Spoken Language (interwoven with History work)

Culture:
Geography/ History

  • Timeline of Human History

  • Fundamental Needs of Humans Chart

  • Needs of People Cultural Studies

  • Stories of Historical people and cultures

  • Ancient Civilizations of the Continents: (growth of civilizations, archeology/ anthropology of Maya, Aztecs, Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Sumerians. etc.

  • Intro to US History

  • Inquiry-based research

  • KIND (Kids Investigate Natural Disaster Year-long Project)

Spanish

  • Review of vowels, colors, numbers, alphabet, months, days of the week, and he weather

  • Greetings & conversations

  • The use of the special letters in the Spanish alphabet: ll, ñ, ch, h, qu, r, rr, and the use of the tilde.

  • Spanish-speaking countries

  • Cultural traditions: The Pachamama, Dia de los muertos

  • Cooking classes: dishes from different countries in Latin America

  • Christmas traditions and songs

  • Every 2 months, students choose a country to study the culture, gastronomy, tradition, and art

  • Food and ordering with a visit to a Latin American restaurant

  • Reading a book

  • Nouns and articles

  • Story of the yellow lady from Rockalingua

  • Personal pronouns

  • Possessive adjectives

  • Verb To be - “Ser” and “Estar”.

  • Feelings

  • Listening and reading comprehension

  • Prepositions

  • Places around the house and the school

  • Body parts

  • The family

  • Places to go

  • Outdoor exploring to learn new vocabulary

  • Animals and nature

  • Famous Spanish-speaking artists

  • Materials and experiences include books, shelf work, songs, games, interactive oral and written activities, creative projects, worksheets, and cultural presentations

Ecoliteracy

  • All 6-9 Eco Literacy work continues

  • Phenology: study of biological life cycles

  • Interdependence of living things in the world

  • Trail work and maintenance

  • Water quality sampling
    Dichotomous Keys for Identification

  • Reciprocity and stewardship

Fine Arts

Music

  • Rhythm: All note values, including dotted rhythms, syncopation, triplets, and compound meters

  • Melody: Advanced treble clef reading with leger lines, bass clef introduction, intervals, scales

  • Dynamics: Full dynamic range (pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff), gradual changes, terrace dynamics

  • Tempo: Complete Italian tempo vocabulary, tempo relationships, metric modulation

  • Articulation: Staccato, legato, accent, tenuto, marcato, slur, phrase markings

  • Form: Binary, ternary, rondo, theme & variations, sonata form introduction, popular song forms

  • Harmony: Chord progressions (I-IV-V-I), harmonic intervals, chord inversions

  • Instrumental Technique: Advanced pitched and unpitched percussion with emphasis on tone quality, blend, balance, and precision

  • Score Reading: Multi-part scores, transposition, rehearsal marks, D.S., D.C., codas

  • Collaboration: Ensemble skills, leadership, sectional work, peer teaching

Art

  • Art History/Movements

  • Prehistoric Art

  • Egyptian Art

  • Medieval Art

  • Renaissance Art

  • Impressionism

  • Surrealism

  • Expressionism

  • Abstract

  • Contemporary Art

  • Ceramic Clay basics

  • Paper Mache

  • Colored pencil blending

  • Cardboard construction/ sculpture

  • Advanced painting techniques:

  • Blending

  • Color mixing (tertiary and beyond)

  • Layering and details

  • Block printing

  • Drawing from observation

  • Portrait proportions

  • Pencil drawing: value and shading

  • Hand sewing/embroidery

  • Mosaics

  • Creative process to create art: observe, research, idea, creation, reflection, revision

  • Refine and continue to build material skills

  • Reflect through self-assessment

Theatre

  • Movement

  • Across different styles through games

  • Expression

  • Basic diction skills

  • Basic inflection skills

  • Memorization

  • Short lines in skits

  • Short monologues

  • Public speaking

  • Use of

  • Projection

  • Diction

  • Inflection

  • Body language

  • Creative writing

  • Skit creation

  • Elements of a story

  • Simple parodies

  • Collaboration/Teamwork

  • Collaborative storytelling

  • Team activities and games

  • Short performances

  • Text reading and analysis

  • Script study

  • Plot diagram

Math/ Sensorial/ Geometry

  • Great Lesson of Numbers (Ancient Civilizations and history of measurement)

  • Laws of Arithmetic- concrete materials (Communicative, Associative, & Distributive)

  • Proficiency of skills introduced in LE

  • Complete all whole number operations, (including long multiplication and division abstractly)

  • Review hierarchical values, expanded notation,comparison, rounding and estimating

  • Multiples

  • GCF, LCM, prime and composite numbers

  • Properties (commutative, associative, distributive)

  • Rules of divisibility,

  • Types of fractions: proper, improper, mixed, reducing fractions

  • Operations using fractions

  • Decimals

  • Equivalency, comparing and ordering, renaming

  • fractions as decimals, all four operations abstractly

  • Ratio and Percent

  • Ratios as fractions, as decimals, as percents, percents

  • as fractions/as decimals, percent of number

  • Statistics and Probability

  • Construct, read and interpret: tables, graphs of all types

  • Understand mean/ median/ range/ mode/ frequency/tree diagrams

  • Algebraic Ideas

  • Powers of numbers

  • Squaring and Cubing numbers

  • Exploration of other number bases, squaring of binomials and trinomials, cubing of binomials and trinomials, pre-algebra

  • Square Roots

  • Concept, concrete exploration, writing through to

  • abstraction

  • Order of operations

  • Integers, scientific notation, rational numbers

  • Problem-solving and logical reasoning

Culture: Science

  • Great Lesson of the Coming of the Universe & Earth

  • Great Lesson of the Coming of Life

  • Timeline of Life

  • Intro to Chemistry: matter, atomic structure, energy, and forces

  • Classification of plants and animals

  • Adaptations/ biomes/ food chains

  • Human anatomy

  • Taxonomy

  • Land forms

  • Year-long Phenology projects

Practical Life

  • Care of self, environment, and living things

  • Role modeling and mentoring

  • Cultural awareness

  • Organizational skills for year-long projects

  • Cooking

  • Event Planning

  • School outreach

  • Building projects to help the school community

  • Daily community jobs

  • Planning trips connected to the curriculum

Technology

  • Technology is used as an extension of the classroom resources for extension research, presentation, and practice throughout the curriculum

  • Internet safety and digital citizenship introduction

  • Word Processing and spreadsheet skills

  • Gale Research Database

  • Introduction to Google Slides and presentation skills

Peace

  • Grace and courtesy lessons continue

  • Respecting others and our environment

  • Greeting people

  • Manners Lessons

  • Politely interrupting

  • Respectful language/appropriate conversations

  • Teamwork games

  • Rights and Responsibilities

  • Guiding Principles

  • Low Ropes

  • Family Journal and discussion

  • “Going Out” trips to do service learning

  • Partner work

  • Cosmic Education

Physical Education

  • Promotes social, emotional, and physical growth through team challenges.

  • Encourages a balance between healthy competition and collaboration.

  • Deepens practice of the three C’s: communication, collaboration, and cooperation.

  • Units include cooperative games and team sports: basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, pickleball, floor hockey, flag football, wiffleball, kickball, handball, and gymnastics.

  • Emphasizes sportsmanship: respect, integrity, encouragement.

  • Builds awareness of lifelong fitness and personal well-being.

  • Strengthens leadership, self-discipline, and empathy.

  • Personal health through the McMillan Center:

    • Human Growth & Development, emotional changes, hygiene, physical changes, conception, and the benefits of abstinence.

    • Promotes positive self-image and reinforces that the changes of puberty are normal.

High School
Honors & AP Offered

Social & Emotional Development

  • Interest in wider society

  • Move from concrete to abstract thought

  • Continued interest in morality

  • Follows work cycle routines, completes goals, and prioritizes tasks

  • Sustains attention during independent projects

  • Maintains focus in small & large group work, shifts attention when necessary

  • Sustains positive attitude when facing difficulties

  • Time management skills and problem solving strategies

  • Prepared with materials and supplies, recalls/applies past information to new situations

  • Demonstrates patience when needs directions, towards classmates

  • Maintains control of physical needs/movements, respects personal space, organizes work space

Language

  • Second Level Great Lesson of Language – Communication in Signs (history of oral and written language)

  • Master spelling and grammar rules

  • Advanced Function of Words (all parts of speech including Verb Conjugations)

  • Sentence Analysis: Adverbial Extensions, attributives, predicate nouns, predicate

  • Adjectives, prepositional phrases

  • Clausal Analysis: independent, dependent, verbals, gerunds

  • Analysis of literature

  • The Writing Process

  • Mechanics: colon, semi-colon, contractions, run-on sentences, note-taking, paraphrasing, summarizing, topic sentences, sentence structure, paragraph construction, editing

  • Writing Reports, journal, letters, diary, invitations, letter writing, proposals, book reports, myths, fables, descriptive writing, short stories, poetry, plays, biographies, summaries Reading

  • All literary genres, including historical fiction, biographies, fantasy, poetry, Newbery Award Winners, adventure, classics, myths, and mysteries.

  • Interpretive reading and discussion

  • Novel study

  • Spoken Language: Oral reports, drama, history of Spoken Language (interwoven with History work)

Culture:
Geography/ History

  • Timeline of Human History

  • Fundamental Needs of Humans Chart

  • Needs of People Cultural Studies

  • Stories of Historical people and cultures

  • Ancient Civilizations of the Continents: (growth of civilizations, archeology/ anthropology of Maya, Aztecs, Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Sumerians. etc.

  • Intro to US History

  • Inquiry-based research

  • KIND (Kids Investigate Natural Disaster Year-long Project)

Spanish

  • Review of vowels, colors, numbers, alphabet, months, days of the week, and he weather

  • Greetings & conversations

  • The use of the special letters in the Spanish alphabet: ll, ñ, ch, h, qu, r, rr, and the use of the tilde.

  • Spanish-speaking countries

  • Cultural traditions: The Pachamama, Dia de los muertos

  • Cooking classes: dishes from different countries in Latin America

  • Christmas traditions and songs

  • Every 2 months, students choose a country to study the culture, gastronomy, tradition, and art

  • Food and ordering with a visit to a Latin American restaurant

  • Reading a book

  • Nouns and articles

  • Story of the yellow lady from Rockalingua

  • Personal pronouns

  • Possessive adjectives

  • Verb To be - “Ser” and “Estar”.

  • Feelings

  • Listening and reading comprehension

  • Prepositions

  • Places around the house and the school

  • Body parts

  • The family

  • Places to go

  • Outdoor exploring to learn new vocabulary

  • Animals and nature

  • Famous Spanish-speaking artists

  • Materials and experiences include books, shelf work, songs, games, interactive oral and written activities, creative projects, worksheets, and cultural presentations

Ecoliteracy

  • All 6-9 Eco Literacy work continues

  • Phenology: study of biological life cycles

  • Interdependence of living things in the world

  • Trail work and maintenance

  • Water quality sampling
    Dichotomous Keys for Identification

  • Reciprocity and stewardship

Fine Arts

Music

  • Rhythm: All note values, including dotted rhythms, syncopation, triplets, and compound meters

  • Melody: Advanced treble clef reading with leger lines, bass clef introduction, intervals, scales

  • Dynamics: Full dynamic range (pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff), gradual changes, terrace dynamics

  • Tempo: Complete Italian tempo vocabulary, tempo relationships, metric modulation

  • Articulation: Staccato, legato, accent, tenuto, marcato, slur, phrase markings

  • Form: Binary, ternary, rondo, theme & variations, sonata form introduction, popular song forms

  • Harmony: Chord progressions (I-IV-V-I), harmonic intervals, chord inversions

  • Instrumental Technique: Advanced pitched and unpitched percussion with emphasis on tone quality, blend, balance, and precision

  • Score Reading: Multi-part scores, transposition, rehearsal marks, D.S., D.C., codas

  • Collaboration: Ensemble skills, leadership, sectional work, peer teaching

Art

  • Art History/Movements

  • Prehistoric Art

  • Egyptian Art

  • Medieval Art

  • Renaissance Art

  • Impressionism

  • Surrealism

  • Expressionism

  • Abstract

  • Contemporary Art

  • Ceramic Clay basics

  • Paper Mache

  • Colored pencil blending

  • Cardboard construction/ sculpture

  • Advanced painting techniques:

  • Blending

  • Color mixing (tertiary and beyond)

  • Layering and details

  • Block printing

  • Drawing from observation

  • Portrait proportions

  • Pencil drawing: value and shading

  • Hand sewing/embroidery

  • Mosaics

  • Creative process to create art: observe, research, idea, creation, reflection, revision

  • Refine and continue to build material skills

  • Reflect through self-assessment

Theatre

  • Movement

  • Across different styles through games

  • Expression

  • Basic diction skills

  • Basic inflection skills

  • Memorization

  • Short lines in skits

  • Short monologues

  • Public speaking

  • Use of

  • Projection

  • Diction

  • Inflection

  • Body language

  • Creative writing

  • Skit creation

  • Elements of a story

  • Simple parodies

  • Collaboration/Teamwork

  • Collaborative storytelling

  • Team activities and games

  • Short performances

  • Text reading and analysis

  • Script study

  • Plot diagram

Math/ Sensorial/ Geometry

  • Great Lesson of Numbers (Ancient Civilizations and history of measurement)

  • Laws of Arithmetic- concrete materials (Communicative, Associative, & Distributive)

  • Proficiency of skills introduced in LE

  • Complete all whole number operations, (including long multiplication and division abstractly)

  • Review hierarchical values, expanded notation,comparison, rounding and estimating

  • Multiples

  • GCF, LCM, prime and composite numbers

  • Properties (commutative, associative, distributive)

  • Rules of divisibility,

  • Types of fractions: proper, improper, mixed, reducing fractions

  • Operations using fractions

  • Decimals

  • Equivalency, comparing and ordering, renaming

  • fractions as decimals, all four operations abstractly

  • Ratio and Percent

  • Ratios as fractions, as decimals, as percents, percents

  • as fractions/as decimals, percent of number

  • Statistics and Probability

  • Construct, read and interpret: tables, graphs of all types

  • Understand mean/ median/ range/ mode/ frequency/tree diagrams

  • Algebraic Ideas

  • Powers of numbers

  • Squaring and Cubing numbers

  • Exploration of other number bases, squaring of binomials and trinomials, cubing of binomials and trinomials, pre-algebra

  • Square Roots

  • Concept, concrete exploration, writing through to

  • abstraction

  • Order of operations

  • Integers, scientific notation, rational numbers

  • Problem-solving and logical reasoning

Culture: Science

  • Great Lesson of the Coming of the Universe & Earth

  • Great Lesson of the Coming of Life

  • Timeline of Life

  • Intro to Chemistry: matter, atomic structure, energy, and forces

  • Classification of plants and animals

  • Adaptations/ biomes/ food chains

  • Human anatomy

  • Taxonomy

  • Land forms

  • Year-long Phenology projects

Practical Life

  • Care of self, environment, and living things

  • Role modeling and mentoring

  • Cultural awareness

  • Organizational skills for year-long projects

  • Cooking

  • Event Planning

  • School outreach

  • Building projects to help the school community

  • Daily community jobs

  • Planning trips connected to the curriculum

Technology

  • Technology is used as an extension of the classroom resources for extension research, presentation, and practice throughout the curriculum

  • Internet safety and digital citizenship introduction

  • Word Processing and spreadsheet skills

  • Gale Research Database

  • Introduction to Google Slides and presentation skills

Peace

  • Grace and courtesy lessons continue

  • Respecting others and our environment

  • Greeting people

  • Manners Lessons

  • Politely interrupting

  • Respectful language/appropriate conversations

  • Teamwork games

  • Rights and Responsibilities

  • Guiding Principles

  • Low Ropes

  • Family Journal and discussion

  • “Going Out” trips to do service learning

  • Partner work

  • Cosmic Education

Physical Education

  • Promotes social, emotional, and physical growth through team challenges.

  • Encourages a balance between healthy competition and collaboration.

  • Deepens practice of the three C’s: communication, collaboration, and cooperation.

  • Units include cooperative games and team sports: basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, pickleball, floor hockey, flag football, wiffleball, kickball, handball, and gymnastics.

  • Emphasizes sportsmanship: respect, integrity, encouragement.

  • Builds awareness of lifelong fitness and personal well-being.

  • Strengthens leadership, self-discipline, and empathy.

  • Personal health through the McMillan Center:

    • Human Growth & Development, emotional changes, hygiene, physical changes, conception, and the benefits of abstinence.

    • Promotes positive self-image and reinforces that the changes of puberty are normal.

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