Curriculum

Children will learn to enhance their writing by responding to feedback with adult help. For example, a 5-year-old writes about a day at the zoo and draws a picture of animals they saw. An adult might ask, "What sounds did the animals make?" or a peer might suggest, "Write about the big elephant you saw!" The child can then add these details to their writing, such as "The lion roared loudly" or "The big elephant sprayed water with its trunk."

Children will explore using different digital tools to create and share their writing with the help of adults. For instance, a 5-year-old might use a simple storytelling app or a kid-friendly word processor to write about a picnic. An adult can guide them in typing out their story, adding digital pictures, or even recording their voice to narrate the story. They can then share these digital stories with classmates or collaborate by combining their stories into a class eBook, helping them understand the basics of digital publishing and collaboration.

Children will ask and answer questions about key details in a text. For example, after reading a story together, the teacher might prompt the class with questions like, "What was the main problem in the story?" or "Who are the main characters?" Students will then respond with answers such as, "The main problem was that the cat wanted to find its way home," or "The main characters are the cat and the dog."

Children will identify the main topic and retell key details of a text. For example, after reading a story about animals on a farm, the teacher might ask, "What is the main topic of this story?" The children could respond, "The main topic is farm animals." Then, the teacher may prompt them to retell key details by asking, "Can you tell me some important things that happened in the story?" The children might say, "The cow gives milk, the chickens lay eggs, and the pig likes to roll in the mud."

Children will describe the connection between two individuals, events, ideas, or pieces of information in a text. For example, after reading a story about a boy who helps a lost puppy find its way home, the teacher might ask, "How are the boy and the puppy connected in the story?" The children could respond, "The boy helps the puppy because it is lost." The teacher may then prompt them to think about an event, asking, "What happened when the boy met the puppy?" The children might say, "The boy felt happy when he found the puppy and decided to take care of it."

Children will ask and answer questions to help determine or clarify the meaning of words and phrases in a text. For example, if they read a sentence like "The brown bear hibernates in winter," they might ask, "What does 'hibernate' mean?" and find out that it means to sleep for a long time during winter. Similarly, if they come across a sentence like "Bees collect nectar from flowers," they might ask, "What is 'nectar'?" and learn that it is a sweet liquid that flowers make.

Children will know and use various text features to locate key facts or information in a text. This means they will learn to look at headings to see what a section is about, use the table of contents to find the right page for a topic, check the glossary to understand the meaning of new words, and click on icons in digital texts to get more information.

Children will distinguish between information provided by pictures or other illustrations and information provided by the words in a text. This means they will learn to notice what details come from the images and what details come from the written text. For example, if they see a picture of a dog playing in a park and read the sentence "The dog is running fast," they will understand that the picture shows how the dog looks and where it is, while the words describe what the dog is doing

Children will use the illustrations and details in a text to describe its key ideas. This means they will look at the pictures and read the text to understand the main points. For example, if they see a picture of a butterfly and read about how it grows from a caterpillar, they will use both the image and the words to explain the life cycle of a butterfly.

Children will identify the reasons an author gives to support points in a text. This means they will read and find specific explanations or examples that the author provides to explain their ideas. For example, if they read that "eating vegetables is healthy," they will look for reasons like "vegetables have vitamins" and "they make you strong" to see why the author thinks eating vegetables is good.