CHS Curriculum Guide

Curriculum Guide

Kindness Belonging Pursuit of Knowledge Perseverance

Early Childhood Beginners, Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten At The Chestnut Hill School, our Early Childhood program supports children in developing the skills to cooperate and collaborate both within and beyond the classroom. With a focus on empathy, communication, and self-regulation, our students are given opportunities to direct their own learning and collaborate with their peers in order to create a sense of belonging and build community. Our intentional choice of diverse authors helps students to recognize differences, see themselves reflected in the curriculum, and start to develop a sense of agency. Whether they are learning about abilities and adaptations, heritage and identity, or changemakers in society, our youngest learners are exposed to a range of perspectives and experiences.

In our Early Childhood classrooms, we foster curiosity and joy in learning through a multidimensional program that develops the whole child. Students engage in regular and frequent interactions with print to enhance early literacy skills and become enthusiastic pre-readers. CHS teachers accomplish this through a rich and varied selection of texts and vocabulary, specific author studies, and handson book-making projects. Our math curriculum encourages students to persevere in problem solving, take risks, and apply mathematical skills to make sense of the world around them. In the classroom, CHS students use mathematical modeling, comparing, sorting, graphing, and recognizing patterns to build a strong foundation of numeracy and a love of math. Our special subject offerings provide a range of opportunities for students to pursue their passions, engage in active learning, and showcase cross-curricular connections.

Essential Questions Beginners • What makes me unique?

• What is a family?

• How are families similar and different?

Pre-Kindergarten • What makes a community?

• How can I contribute to my community?

• What are ways in which people care for themselves and for each other?

Kindergarten • What is unique to me and my family?

• How can I help care for our planet?

• What are ways that I can make a difference?

Lower School Grades 1, 2 and 3 As students become more sophisticated learners, our program continues to offer developmentally appropriate opportunities for critical, creative, and conceptual thinking. Students enter our Lower School as emerging readers and writers.

Using methodologies aligned with the science of reading, teachers offer small reading groups and receive targeted skills instruction to develop fluency and deepen comprehension. Writing units in the Lower School encompass a wide range of genres, such as poetry, persuasive essays, nonfiction, and script writing in order to introduce students to voice, audience, and purpose. In the Lower School, students continue developing foundational skills in the following mathematical domains: operations and algebraic thinking, algebra, numbers and operations in base 10, measurement and data, and geometry. Students demonstrate flexible thinking while they engage in rigorous problem solving, and are encouraged to find multiple ways to solve increasingly complex problems.

Our Lower School students engage in thoughtful reflection and examine what it means to be a leader through both an academic and socialemotional lens. Students are given opportunities to write their own plays and perform them for an audience. The Open Circle curriculum provides students explicit social-emotional strategies and skills. The diversity, equity, and inclusion strands that are based on the eight social identifiers are interwoven into our curriculum, providing students opportunities to take multiple perspectives and to recognize bias, prejudice, and stereotypes. Students are encouraged to be upstanders and allies, and to continue to contribute to our socially conscious community.

The Lower School trajectory offers multiple special subject classes, allowing students to explore and follow their passions.

Essential Questions Grade 1 • What are similarities and differences between habitats?

• How might a habitat influence the way people live?

• How do people adapt to different environments?

Grade 2 • What is culture?

• How might the environment impact culture?

• How can we make a positive impact on our world?

Grade 3 • What ideas from ancient cultures do we still see today?

• How have groups of people been treated over time?

• What were the beginnings of democracy?

Upper School Grades 4, 5 and 6 As students progress through our Upper School, they become curious, confident, engaged learners who are able to express their ideas with increasing sophistication and depth. Students hone these skills through intentional curricula that include independent reading journals, math problems that guide students to find multiple paths to solve a single problem, robotic challenges, and thoughtful cross-curricular integrations. Our graduates leave CHS ready to contribute fully in their next learning communities and confidently participate in complex conversations as curious and informed citizens and scholars.

Our Upper School students are given many opportunities to put the leadership skills they have developed in the Lower School into practice. Students lead their own family-teacher conferences by presenting their learning portfolios and identifying their own strengths and weaknesses in order to develop habits of excellence. In addition, our Upper School students are paired with our youngest Hawks in our Learning Partner program, and they meet weekly to engage in play and learning. This unique opportunity allows for our Upper School students to foster authentic relationships with our youngest learners for up to three years.

Research projects in the Upper School focus on inquiry and activism; students are encouraged to pursue topics of interest and explore the numerous strategies that leaders use to effect change. In the Upper School, students continue to build the skills to be successful students. In Grade 4, students hone their executive function skills. In Grade 5, the focus is on growth mindset and resilience. In Grade 6, our students engage in mindfulness exercises, self-reflection, and how to best model our core values as leaders of the school.

Essential Questions Grade 4 • How does the past inform the present?

• Who holds the social/political power?

• How does change occur?

Grade 5 • How can people effect change?

• What does it mean to be a leader?

• Who holds the social and political power?

Grade 6 • How have different groups been marginalized and empowered?

• How can we be activists in our own lives?

• What are ways that an individual or a collective group can advocate for others?

Special Subjects All Grades At every grade level, CHS offers a full array of special subjects that enrich the learning experience and complement the core subjects of reading, writing, math, and social studies. Special subjects allow students to acquire new skills and content, gain exposure to a wide range of disciplines, and foster cross-curricular connections at an early age.

Engineering & Technology (Grades 2-6)

Music & Chorus

Students are introduced to concepts of computer science, enabling them to be confident and comfortable with coding and computational thinking.

A cohesive program that grows with our students from year to year, music at CHS combines handson learning in class with impressive performances.

Art (Grades 2-6) Art class encompasses a wide variety of media including paint, graphic design, papier-mâché, yarn, fabric and clay to create authentic projects that often connect to themes explored in social studies class.

Research in Action (Grades 1-6) Our library program expands in the older grades to encompass teaching research, analytical, and communication skills in today’s digital age.

Library

Physical Education (Beginners - Grade 3) PE offers a dynamic and engaging program that provides a variety of developmentally appropriate physical activities.

Athletics (Grades 4-6) Students participate in interscholastic sports year-round: soccer, basketball, and softball/baseball. Students engage in regular practices and play competitively against other independent schools.

STEAM (Beginners - Grade 1)

The library program seeks to foster a love of reading and to encourage students to grow as life-long learners, explorers, and thinkers.

Students engage in active, hands-on learning during STEAM class by using an iterative design process that incorporates science, technology, engineering, art, and math.

Spanish

Science (Grades 2-6)

Using visual cues, manipulatives, songs, games, and experiential activities, our students build their knowledge of vocabulary and grammar in a joyful student-centered environment that encourages them to take risks.

Recognizing the importance of a thorough grounding in scientific principles, science is structured as a double period to allow for hands-on investigations and activities.

Beginners

• Begins to utilize appropriate pencil grip • Recognizes and produces rhymes

• Creates letter-like forms and shapes • Discusses “Letter of the Day”

Pre-K

• Supplies a word to complete a rhyme • Identifies initial sounds of words • Segments and claps syllables • Names and forms all uppercase

letters • Recalls information from read aloud stories • Matches all uppercase consonants to sounds

• Identifies some lowercase letters including those in their own name • Hears and recognizes word boundaries

• Creates stories with drawings • Attempts to spell words phonetically

Kindergarten

• Distinguishes between fiction and nonfiction texts • Makes logical predictions when listening to stories • Identifies main and supporting characters in stories • Sequences stories into beginning, middle, and end • Identifies the setting in stories • Recognizes sight words in

isolation & whole words in context • Generates sets of rhymes • Identifies syllables in words • Isolates initial, medial, and final sounds in words • Distinguishes between vowels and consonants; Identifies sound/symbol association for consonants and short vowels • Blends 3-4 sounds into a word

• Forms uppercase and lowercase letters • Spaces words appropriately • Generates ideas for independent writing • Responds to writing prompts • Writes a complete sentence • Develops and expands writing ideas • Applies sound/symbol knowledge in phonetic spelling

• Spells words with consonant and vowel sounds in writing • Capitalizes names and beginning of sentences • Ends sentences with punctuation • Identifies basic components of a sentence: capital letters, spacing between words, and punctuation

• Uses correct paper position and appropriate pencil grip • Forms uppercase and lowercase letters appropriately • Spaces letters and words appropriately • Generates ideas for writing independently • Responds relevantly to writing prompts • Adds sufficient details to written work

• Applies suggestions for revision • Applies knowledge of consonant and vowel sounds in spelling • Writes a complete sentence • Uses upper and lowercase letters appropriately • Genres: Small Moment Stories, Poetry, Nonfiction, Opinion, Realistic Fiction

• Forms manuscript letters appropriately • Writes legibly • Applies spelling rules in writing • Writes complete and expanded sentences • Writes a complete paragraph • Uses appropriate capitalization and punctuation • Generates ideas independently

• Adds sufficient details to written work • Applies suggestions for revision • Uses organizational tools effectively • Self-edits to improve content and mechanics • Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Research Paragraph, Speeches, Narrative, Expository, Persuasive Paragraph

Grade 3

• Reads fluently with appropriate rate, accuracy, phrasing and expression • Applies word attack skills to read multisyllabic words • Uses knowledge of word parts to support reading • Identifies main ideas in fiction and nonfiction text

• Forms manuscript letters appropriately • Forms cursive letters appropriately • Writes legibly • Incorporates effective vocabulary and description • Develops pieces with a clear beginning, middle, and end • Constructs a complete paragraph • Proofreads and edits for punctuation,

capitalization, and spelling • Applies steps in writing process in an organized manner • Applies spelling rules in writing • Writes complete and expanded sentences • Genres: Personal Narrative, Research Paragraph, Play Script, Wordless Picture Book Story, Persuasive Essay

Grade 4

• Reads multisyllabic words information accurately • Identifies cause and effect • Reads grade-level texts fluently relationships with appropriate rate, accuracy, • Compares and contrasts texts and expression in the same genre • Uses strategies to increase • Determines the meaning of literal and inferential words using context clues comprehension • Demonstrates comprehension • Identifies and describes orally and through writing narrative elements • Genres: Fantasy, Realistic • Summarizes text by Fiction, Historical Fiction, synthesizing relevant Mystery, Nonfiction

• Writes narrative with a clear conflict and resolution • Chooses interesting and effective words to convey meaning • Uses transition words and sentences effectively • Personalizes writing to establish clear voice • Proofreads and edits own writing; applies suggestions for revision • Offers constructive feedback in the peerediting process

• Uses figurative language in descriptive writing • Uses age-appropriate conventional spelling in everyday writing • Uses verbs in proper and consistent tenses • Uses prefixes and suffixes to determine word meaning • Identifies sentence fragments and run-ons • Demonstrates appropriate use of commas • Punctuates dialogue accurately • Genres: Personal Narrative, 5-Paragraph Essay, Fiction, Research Paper

• Reads grade-level texts fluently using higher level thinking with appropriate rate, accuracy, • Identifies and describes narrative and expression elements • Describes traits and development • Engages in rich conversations of characters about texts by making thoughtful • Forms and supports inferences cross-curricular connections and using text evidence connections to prior knowledge • Summarizes text by synthesizing • Genres: Verse Novel, Poetry, relevant information Realistic Fiction, Science Fiction, • Compares and contrasts texts Mystery, Historical Graphic Novel • Summarizes text by synthesizing • Engages in multiple perspectives relevant information using evidence from text • Compares and contrasts two or • Use effective study strategies more texts with regard to literary for formal reading assessments devices and author intent • Genres: Journalism, Historical • Identifies literary devices Fiction, Mystery, Fantasy/ of foreshadowing, imagery, Science Fiction, Short Stories, metaphor, and theme Speeches • Writes about literary elements • Reads and translates Latin using evidence from text

• Utilizes the writing process • Uses conventional spelling, appropriate to • Varies length and structure of sentences grade level • Establishes a clear and appropriate voice • Corrects run-ons, comma splices, and in writing sentence fragments • Maintains clear focus of ideas within a • Uses independent and dependent clauses narrative in complex sentences • Writes a well-organized five paragraph • Uses interesting and effective words to essay with an effective introduction and convey meaning conclusion • Genres: Poetry, Journaling, Essay, Mystery, • Develops a clear and well-supported thesis Research, Fantasy • Develops a clear and well-supported thesis • Utilizes figurative language in descriptive in expository writing writing • Writes a well-organized multi-paragraph • Uses conventional spelling appropriate to essay or report with an effective grade level in writing and uses capitalization introduction and conclusion and punctuation appropriate to grade level • Uses effective lead-ins and analysis of • Self-corrects run-ons, comma splices, and quotes in expository writing sentence fragments • Researches, synthesizes, and accurately • Genres: Journalism, 5-Paragraph Essay, cites information Short Story, Personal Narrative, Open • Establishes a clear and appropriate voice Letter, Creation Myth, Research Paper, in writing Speech

Grade 2

Grade 1

• Listens actively to read-alouds in a story, with support • Asks open-ended questions about • Retells a sequence in a story with read-alouds prompting • Responds to questions • Recognizes letters in their name • Predicts what might happen next

Grade 5

Writing

Grade 6

Reading

• Recognizes sight words in • Manipulates sounds within a word isolation • Isolates final sounds • Reads fluently with appropriate • Distinguishes sounds in rate and accuracy consonant blends • Uses punctuation cues to read • Identifies story elements with proper phrasing • Makes reasonable predictions • Reads with appropriate • Retells a story in sequence expression • Demonstrates literal • Accurately and automatically comprehension orally blends short words • References text for information • Reads two-syllable words • Genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, accurately Poetry, Readers Theater • Identifies characters and setting • Uses punctuation cues to read • Identifies problem and solution with proper phrasing • Sequences events in a story • Reads long and short vowels • Demonstrates literal accurately comprehension orally & in writing • Reads words with consonant • Makes basic inferences blends and digraphs • Identifies the main idea in a text • Reads words with two or more • Uses context clues to self correct syllables accurately • Reads fluently with appropriate • Genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, rate and accuracy Poetry • Demonstrates literal comprehension orally and in writing • Makes inferences independently • Identifies author’s purpose • References text for information • Genres: Fiction, Nonfiction, Fantasy, Fairytales, Myths

• Counts aloud to 29 • Counts with one-to-one correspondence to 15 • Recognizes and orders numbers 1 to 10 • Creates sets of objects 1 to 10 and compares quantity

• Theme: Me and My Community • Models combining and taking away • Units: community helpers, situations abilities, storytelling • Identifies and describes basic 2D shapes • Sorts and classifies by multiple attributes • Social & Cultural Competencies: understand • Reads and interprets simple graphs emotions and respond to

emotions of others, manage strong feelings, practice selfregulation with whole-body listening, handle big and small problems, cooperate with others

• Recognizes and names groups of up to 4 objects and images without counting • Counts groups of up to 20 objects • Finds the value of addition and subtraction expressions within 10 • Relates addition and subtraction expressions to story problems

• For any number from 1 to 9, finds the • Theme: The World Around Me number that makes 10 when added to the • Units: Who am I?; given number changemakers; maps of my • Compares weight and capacity of objects neighborhood, city and state; • Describes and compares threesustainability dimensional shapes • Social & Cultural • Fluently adds and subtracts within 5 Competencies: understand the

connection between emotions and behaviors, identify selfregulation strategies, resolve conflict, identify aspects of own heritage and/or family traditions, respect others

• Solves addition and subtraction story problems with unknowns in all positions • Writes equations to represent problems • Adds 2 two-digit numbers within 100, with and without composing a ten • Represents data and interprets data representations

• Determines length with non-standard • Theme: Regions and Habitats units • Units: geography and mapping, • Tells and writes time in hours and halfNorth American habitats, hours heritage and traditions of U.S. • Describes attributes of two-dimensional regions and three-dimensional shapes • Social & Cultural • Fluently adds and subtracts within 10 Competencies: identify

complex feelings, develop a growth mindset, engage in meaningful conversations, be an upstander, understand that place/location helps to shape heritage, identify windows and mirrors

• Solves one- and two-step problems using addition and subtraction within 100 • Represents and solves compare problems with unknowns in all positions within 100 • Adds and subtracts within 1,000 with and without composing or decomposing • Represents and interprets categorical data on picture and bar graphs • Measures/estimates length in standard units • Represents and solves multiplication problems involving arrays • Solves two-step word problems using addition, subtraction, and multiplication • Develops fluency with single-digit multiplication/division facts • Fluently subtracts within 1,000 using algorithms based on place value, properties of operations • Multiplies and divides within 100

• Recognizes and draws shapes having • Theme: Culture specified attributes • Partitions rectangles/circles and names the • Units: Charles River, Amazon River and Rainforest in Brazil, pieces using fraction notation/words Yangtze River in China • Tells and writes time to the nearest five • Social & Cultural minutes, using a.m. and p.m.

Competencies: utilize positive • Finds the value of a group of bills & coins self-talk, persevere through • Represents objects in an array as a sum of a difficult task, acknowledge equal addends • Fluently adds and subtracts within 20 • Understands a fraction as a number and • Theme: Ancient Civilizations represents fractions on the number line • Units: ancient civilizations of • Represents data with picture/bar graphs Maya, Egypt, Nubia, Greece and • Solves problems involving perimeter/area Rome • Measures/estimates weights and liquid • Social & Cultural volumes of objects Competencies: identify • Solves problems involving addition and challenges and strategies subtraction of time intervals in minutes to build resilience, accept • Identifies attributes of rhombuses, responsibility for own actions, rectangles, and squares

• Multiplies multi-digit whole numbers using the standard algorithm and divide numbers by one digit divisor • Adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides decimals to the hundredths • Multiplies fractions/mixed numbers by whole numbers and fractions by fractions • Divides a whole number by a unit fraction and a unit fraction by a whole number • Adds and subtracts fractions • Identifies equivalent ratios and uses ratio reasoning • Finds a percent of a quantity as a rate per 100 and solves problems with percents • Interprets and computes quotients of fractions • Fluently adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides multi-digit decimals • Compares and orders positive and negative numbers and absolute values • Evaluates numerical expressions where

• Theme: Revolution • Solves word problems with fractions • Units: early American history, • Finds the volume of a rectangular prism 1600s-1700s; American • Solves multi-step word problems involving Revolution; Constitution and Bill volume/measurement conversions of Rights; states & capitals • Classifies triangles/quadrilaterals in a • Social & Cultural Competencies: hierarchy based on angle measurements coping with stress and anxiety and side lengths in productive ways, establishing • Represents/interprets mathematical realistic and positive goals, problems on coordinate grid contributing to common letters stand for numbers • Theme: Activism • Uses tables, equations, and graphs to • Units: agrarian societies represent relationships and industrialization, settler • Represents/solves equations/inequalities colonialism, Civil War and • Calculates the area of parallelograms, Reconstruction, civil rights era triangles, and other polygons • Social & Cultural Competencies: • Connects polyhedra with equal nets and persevere and maintain calculates the surface area of polyhedra optimism; advocate • Creates dot plots, histograms, and box appropriately for self and others; plots to visualize data practice positive leadership; • Calculates measures of center/spread understand how strands of

respond flexibly to change, generate ideas for resolving interpersonal conflicts, understand the difference between equality and equity, respect that everyone has right to self-define and self-express, understand that all people should be treated equitably

Grade 3

that positive action impacts achievement; respond with empathy to needs of others; understand relationship between social identity, bias, and social justice; understand social privilege and social bias may be dependent on how one is categorized

Grade 4

good; understand relationship between social identity, bias and justice; utilize strategies to engage in unbiased and critical thinking; understand what social justice advocacy is and some ways in which to be an advocate; understand what makes a relationship healthy/positive my identity may intersect and interact; understand historical events that have both marginalized certain groups as well as increased acceptance and tolerance of others; understand effects of intolerance and injustice and can voice ways in which I can be an advocate for change.

Grade 5

• Solves multi-step problems using the four smaller units operations.

• Reasons about and finds unknown angle • Theme: Innovation and Trade • Finds factor pairs/multiples measurements and use a protractor to • Units: six cradles of civilization, • Reads, writes and compares whole numbers measure and draw angles art and architecture, within 1,000,000 and in decimal notation • Solves problems involving unknown side technology and golden age of • Multiplies and divides multi-digit whole lengths, perimeter, and area Islam, impact of the Silk Road numbers by one-digit divisors • Draws and identifies points, lines, rays, • Social & Cultural • Compares and orders fractions segments, paralleies, perpendicular, Competencies: manage • Adds/subtracts fractions with like intersecting lines, and lines of symmetry challenges and organize denominators • Identifies types of angles in twomaterials; monitor and • Represents/solves problems with fractions dimensional figures and classifies polygons regulate emotions; recognize • Converts units of measure from larger to based on their properties

perspectives of others, develop problem-solving strategies, understand that stereotypes and prejudice can result in people being mistreated, understand that a person’s appearance might not show who they are on the inside

Pre-K

make social connections, feel emotionally secure & safe in the classroom, recognize similarities/differences in ourselves and families

Kindergarten

• Theme: Me and My Family • Units: families and traditions, bees, frogs, butterflies, dinosaurs, bears, and nature • Social & Cultural Competencies:

Grade 1

• Distinguishes between sizes (taller/ smaller/shorter/longer) • Recognizes and produces two part patterns

Grade 2

• Recognizes numbers 1-10 • Engages in oral counting • Shows one-to-one correspondence • Compares and orders numbers 1-5 • Sorts by shape/color

Beginners

Social Studies

Grade 6

Mathematics

Science

• Compare and draw ancient Mayan glyphs and Egyptian hieroglyphs • Create a papier-mâché blue hippo decorated with simple patterns and blooming lotus flowers • Design paper mosaic panel and columns to be used as set decoration • Construct a Greek theater mask with different paper folding techniques to convey comedy or tragedy illuminated letters • Design four mechanical reproductions of a social justice leader studied in homeroom • Build an interactive art installation from giant cardboard sculptures inspired by Kusama • Draw own version of Basquiat’s signature motif on a ripped paper textured collage background

Grade 2

• Theme: Reflecting Culture through Art • Units: ancient civilizations of Egypt, Inca/ Maya, Greece, Rome • Create self portrait with handmade colored paper using colors to represent hidden identity • Draw in form and tradition of ancient Egyptians, focusing on two-dimensional figures and symbols • Design and create Egyptian mural depicting daily life

Grade 3

artist Eduardo Kobra • Weave yarn tapestry • Design headdresses inspired by students’ Amazon animal research • Design coffee-filter dragon tail inspired by contemporary artist Kaixuan Feng • Paint tea stained scroll • Craft a clay tea bowl with simple blue glazed details inspired by Chinese zodiac

• Units: weather and climate, • Research, make a poster, and flood design challenge, oceans, present findings of a climate biomes and food chains, invasive zone species • Discover various science and • Use various instruments to engineering techniques (stilts, collect weather data, learn how dams, levees) used in the real to read thermometers world to prevent floods from • Understand how Earth’s tilt damaging property causes seasons

Grade 4

• Theme: Reflecting Culture through Art • Units: Boston, The Amazon, and China; color theory; sewing and weaving (fiber arts) • Create self portrait with handmade colored paper using colors to represent hidden identity • Design and sew pillow of Charles River fish in Pop Art style of Romero Britto • Draw self portraits inspired by mural

• Units: living vs. non-living things, biodiversity of different ecosystems, sound, light, plants • Learn steps of scientific method with focus on making observations using senses • Identify different kinds of adaptations of plants and

• Theme: The Power of Visual Literacy • Units: earth science, earthquake energy, friction, force and motion • Units: Renaissance book-making; Pop Art design challenge, forces, motion, • Understand natural of Andy Warhol and Yayoi Kusama; Neoand energy, mini golf course resources classified as either Expressionism of Jean-Michel Basquiat design challenge, geology (rocks nonrenewable or renewable • Create a self portrait with handmade and minerals) • Research types of renewable colored paper using colors to represent • Learn about weathering, erosion, energy and create a poster about hidden identity deposition, plate tectonics, their pros and cons and how they • Construct a handmade book in the volcanoes, earthquakes can transfer energy to produce style of the Renaissance with drawing, • Explore potential energy, kinetic electricity printmaking, calligraphy and intricate

Grade 5

animals • Create a model of a watershed • Investigate sound and light • Keep observation log on growth of plant • Proper use of microscopes • Dissect and label parts of flower • Study process of pollination

Art

• Units: water and filtration, solar systems, planet research, scale models of the solar system, crater investigation • Test properties of water (turbidity, pH, temperature, and dissolved oxygen) to assess water quality • Experiment with permeability of various materials and their use in

filtering out pollutants • Design water filtration system to clean water and make it drinkable • Learn about endocrine system, reproductive systems, and the changes associated with puberty • Understand Earth’s movement in space (rotation, revolution, axis tilt) • Identify characteristics of moon

Grade 6

Science

Art

• Units: skeletal, muscular, cardiovascular, digestive, nervous systems; human growth and development, specifically the endocrine system, reproductive systems, and changes associated with puberty; genetics; chemistry • Create models of blood and heart; conduct experiments about artery size and blood flow • Model steps in digestion • Learn structure and functions of

neurons • Research and present about one of five senses • Understand DNA, genes, inheritable physical traits, dominant and recessive traits, Punnett squares • Learn periodic table, physical versus chemical changes in lab studies • Compete in First Lego League, theme integrated with Science

• Theme: Reflecting on Community techniques to make a portrait of of Billie Experiences through Art Holiday and Hazel Scott • Units: Harlem Renaissance; still life; artist • Render chosen objects realistically using study; color theory cross hatching and shading techniques • Create self portrait with handmade with a range of art materials colored paper using colors to represent • Inspired by Jordan Casteel, use hidden identity monochromatic color palette to paint CHS • Harlem Renaissance artist study to create community members from photos taken, an illustration in the style of their chosen building on skills of using highlights and artist shadows to create realism in a work of art • Use a variety of collage and paper-weaving

• Theme: Reflecting on Identity through Art • Units: studio art practice and independence; portraits; Learning Partners project; fiber art • Create self portrait with handmade colored paper using colors to represent hidden identity • Design a collaborative Learning

Partner project with Kindergarten that showcases learned skills and leadership • Apply collage techniques like mixing elements, color choice, using negative space, and pattern making • Use fiber art techniques to create colorcoded tapestries that represent realworld data in a tangible art form

silk for backyard birds to utilize as they begin building their nests • STEAM challenge of building a stable nest to safely house at least one egg • Study winter animal behaviors and adaptations • Explore a range of art materials and techniques including simple monoprints and exploring form with recycled material • Collaborative tempera painting of large-scale scenery for class presentation

• Units: land snails, lines, clay, painting, felting, magnetism, seasonal changes predictions, observing, and recording to habitat • Work collaboratively with Grade 6 learning partners • Observe the living land snail’s anatomy and movements; conduct simple • Design large-scale scenery for class play using tempera and acrylic paints experiments exploring food, light, and the conditions a snail needs to thrive; • Explore metal as a material and look for magnetic surfaces discuss estivation as a direct result of student curiosity • Investigate properties of aluminum foil; use as art medium to create a form • Create terracotta clay snails, use glaze, and visit kiln to learn about figure and as building material to create foil boats firing process; solve and engineer a solution to the real world problem of • Walking field trips to Houghton Garden to look for seasonal changes and transportation of fragile items collect water samples for further investigation • Develop their sense of the scientific method through questioning, making • Units: form and texture, shape and color; circuit boards; “My Place,” teeth, brain, clay bowl making, Lunar New Year dragon, sewing beanie bug • Create Hidden Name inspired by the work of concealment artist Liu Bolin • Develop understanding of scientific method: record predictions and data • Explore electricity and rudimentary circuit boards

• Observe seasonal changes in a chosen spot, “My Place;” record temperature and weather observations • Different functions of brain and construct a clay “brain bowl” • Paper manipulation to create elaborate paper dragon for Lunar New Year • Hand sew and create a felt, bean-filled “beanie bug”

Beginners Pre-K

• Units: seeds and seasonal changes, land snails, birds, recycled art • Joyful exploration of world around them through art, hands-on science investigation, problem-solving, and picture books • Close observations using various tools including Zoomy microscope • Create spiral shapes from various materials and tools for class kinetic sculpture • Investigate bird nests and make own nest balls filled with wool fibers and

Kindergarten

• Units: seasonal change, plant growth, land snails, color mixing • Explore animal behaviors and winter adaptations • Joyful exploration of world around them through art, hands-on science • Color mixing to make secondary colors using different types of paints, dyes, investigation, and picture books sensory additions such as ice and snow, and shaving foam • Close observations and investigation of local birds, nest building, emerging • Create large-scale scenery for their class presentation plant growth and land snails

Grade 1

STEAM

• Build wooden chime with sticks, wooden beads, and hand-powered drills • Construct straw rockets; experiment with design to gauge height vs. distance • Learn about some hidden figures from the aerospace industry

• Units: robotics, videography, biome engineering • Weather Reports (integrated with Science). Learn to record videos, use a green screen, and learn how to edit and export videos.

• Robotics with Lego Spike Prime, with a focus on accessibility and prosthetics

• Introduction to artificial intelligence • How do machines learn?

• Engineering a biome (integrated with Science) • Design and engineer biomes with recyclable materials

• Units: Minecraft, Tinkercad, digital complete specific challenges citizenship, Lego Robotics engineering, • Learn how to be an upstander; describe AI potential positive and negative • Minecraft: geology (integrated with outcomes of social interaction in online Science), energy and sustainability games (integrated with Science), artificial • Make mini-figure of themselves, intelligence photograph, change Google profile • Engineer the real-life version of wands image (integrated with reading); explore • Learn importance of adhering to Hogwarts in Minecraft and create wand copyright laws with use of downloaded with Tinkercad images and giving credit for the use • Robotics with Lego Spike Prime; build of others’ intellectual property with Rhinobot and explore the use of sensors Google Slides to help navigate a given space and • Units: Canva design, robotic engineering, create? introduction to generative AI block-based coding, Python, AI • Building an understanding of what a • Use of Canva to create an generative adversarial network (GAN) is autobiographical image, faculty and and how GANs use AI to produce art and staff trading cards, showcase research other media of immigrant women in STEM • Laser-cutting and engineering Automats • Give constructive feedback on a with cardboard, hot glue, and recyclable design using the acronym TAG (Tell materials. something you like, Ask a question, Give • Python programming to create colorful a suggestion) and implement changes as Pixel art designs with imagi: blink_rate, necessary for loops, range() functions • Artificial Intelligence: how do machines • Units: Lego robotic engineering, Python, clear() functions, frame durations AI, laser cutting • Artificial Intelligence: Explore coding AI • Research, problem-solving, coding, with Code.org and RISE Playground with and engineering to build and program a block-based coding LEGO robot that navigates the missions • Use Glowforge to create bookmarks out of a robot game through the First Lego of paper and leather; design and create League (FLL) program LED lamps with hand-drawn, text, and • Python programming with imagi: hidden elements using clear acrylic animations, loops, built-in character(),

Grade 4

• Units: digital citizenship, programming, engineering • Importance of screen-free time; privacy of information online • Block-based coding of Dash robot to push snowballs and river rocks to designated areas • Design scribble bot using cup, markers, batteries, motor, wires

Grade 5

go over a bridge, and go around the forest • Lego engineering of a playground with consideration of scale, colors, structure; integration with Research in Action unit of study

Grade 6

• Units: string art, block programming, Lego engineering • Sand block of wood, prime and paint, hammer nails, weave string • Program with Dash robot to train for Iditarod: navigate between cones,

Grade 3 Grade 2 Grade 1

Engineering & Technology

Beginners Pre-K

• Units: dance, fitness, locomotor activities • Increase student’s selfconfidence and skills • Learn and practice shared

• Units: games, fitness tasks, and responsibility and effective team challenges communication through • Foster a positive attitude cooperative games towards fitness and acquire • Line dances: Cha Cha Slide, sports skills Chicken Dance, Cuban Shuffle • Learn and practice shared

• Units: dance, fitness, and • Timed jog, various tag games, kicking skills and circuit training • Foster self-esteem, fitness, • Cooperation and importance team play, and development of of effort and fair play sports skills

• QTalk curriculum Juega Conmigo • Prepositions: al, en, de, and con • Daily Routine: Day of the week, date, • Share greetings, express likes/dislikes, weather, season, describe outfits with create affirmative sentences colors, and words of the week • Cultural classes: Hispanic Heritage • Third person singular of basic regular Month, exploration of Spanish speaking verbs; tener (to have), jugar (to play), ver (to countries, Cinco de Mayo, Dia de los see), llevar (to wear), hay (there is), gustar Muertos, Todo Sobre “Mi” project (to like), ir (to go), estar (to be)

• Units: soccer, football, running, • Flexibility, aerobic endurance, dance, cooperative activities balance • Build confidence and skills • Importance of effort, conditioning, hand-eye teamwork, and communication coordination, game rules

• QTalk curriculum Juega Conmigo (Following a book with visuals, words, exercises, games, conversations) • Share greetings, expressing likes/dislikes, create affirmative sentences, respond to directions/commands, express feelings • Days of the week, months in a year, seasons, weather, numbers 0-50, food, colors, clothing

• Units: soccer, football, running, • Flexibility, aerobic endurance, dance, cooperative activities balance • Build confidence and skills • Importance of effort, • Conditioning, hand-eye teamwork, and communication coordination, game rules

• QTalk curriculum Juega Conmigo see), llevar (to wear), hay (there is), gustar • Share greetings, expressing likes/dislikes, (to like), ir (to go), estar (to be), aprender create affirmative sentences, respond to (to learn), abrir / cerrar (to open / to close), directions/commands, express feelings usa/uses - escucha/listens / come/eats • Days of the week, months in a year, bebe/drinks - quiere/wants. seasons, weather patterns connected • Cultural classes: Todo sobre “Mi” project, with clothing, numbers 0-70, food, colors Hispanic Heritage Month, Día de los • Third person singular of basic regular Muertos, Cinco de mayo celebrations verbs; tener (to have), jugar (to play), ver (to

Grade 3

Grade 2

• Units: introduce games, fitness responsibility and effective tasks, and team challenges communication through • Foster a positive attitude cooperative games towards fitness and acquire • Line dances: Cha Cha Slide, sports skills Chicken Dance, Hokey Pokey • Learn and practice shared

Kindergarten

Spanish

Grade 1

PE

responsibility and effective communication through cooperative games • Balance, mirror, turn, catch, throw, and active stretching

Grade 4

• Seasons: soccer (fall), basketball (winter), baseball/ softball (spring) • Units: ultimate football, capture the flag, club guard, individual and team running challenges, floor hockey, tchoukball, net games (pickleball and nitro-ball), ultimate frisbee

Grade 6

• Units: soccer, ultimate football, • Strengthen physical club guard, team challenges, coordination and hand/eye obstacle courses, basketball, coordination floor hockey, tchoukball, • Skill development: dribbling, net games (pickleball and passing, defending, shooting nitro-ball), baseball/softball, techniques ultimate frisbee, capture the • Fitness development, flag teamwork, game strategies

Grade 5

Athletics

• Strengthen physical coordination and hand/eye coordination • Skill development: dribbling, passing, shooting, positional awareness • Fitness development, teamwork, sportsmanship, game strategies

• Seasons: soccer (fall), ultimate frisbee, capture the basketball (winter), baseball/ tennis ball softball (spring) • Strengthen leadership skills • Units: Field Day, ultimate and personal responsibility football, capture the flag, • Skill development: dribbling, club guard, individual and passing, defending, shooting team running challenges, floor • Fitness development, hockey, tchoukball, net games teamwork, sportsmanship, (pickleball and nitro-ball), game strategies

• Songs, movement activities, games, and read-alouds • Basic colors, numbers 1-10, foods, body parts, animals, feelings, clothing • Greetings: Hola (hello), cómo estás (how

are you), mi nombre es… (my name is…)

• Opposites: Grande/pequeño, frío/calor, • Verbs: Sí/no me gusta (I do/do not like), come (eats), duerme (sleeps), toca (touches), mueve (moves)

• Songs, movement activities, games, readalouds, and art projects • Basic greetings, introductions, emotions, colors, likes/dislikes, numbers 1-20, and seasonal words • Verbs: Comer (to eat), beber (to drink), gustar (to like), quiere (to want), hay (there is) • Introduce QTalk curriculum with ¡Vamos a Jugar!

• Greetings and personal introductions: Hola, ¿Cual es tu nombre? (Hello, what is your name?); Hola, mi nombre es… (Hello, my name is…)

• Question and answers about age, likes/ dislikes, locations, and objects • Third person singular of basic regular

• Stories: ¿De Qué Color Soy? (What color am I?), La Ardilla Lola (The Lola Squirrel), Una Nariz Para El Muñeco de Nieve (A Nose for the Snowman) • Cultural lessons about Hispanic Heritage Month, Cinco de Mayo, Dia de los Muertos verbs; tener (to have), jugar (to play), gustar (to like), ir (to go), estar (to be), escuchar (to hear), beber (to drink), comer (to eat) • Begin communicating using original simple sentences • Cultural classes: Hispanic Heritage Month, exploration of Spanish speaking countries, Cinco de Mayo, Dia de los Muertos, Todo Sobre “Mi” project, the letter Ññ

• Third person singular of basic regular verbs; tener (to have), jugar (to play), ver (to see), llevar (to wear), hay (there is), gustar (to like), ir (to go), estar (to be), aprender (to learn), abrir / cerrar (to open / to close) • Cultural classes: Todo sobre “Mi” project, Hispanic Heritage Month, Día de los Muertos, Cinco de mayo celebrations

• QTalk curriculum ¿De Dónde Vienes?

• Definite and indefinite articles, noun• Share greetings, expressing likes/dislikes, adjective agreement, gender+number, creating conversations, responding to possessive adjectives, possession using directions/commands, expressing feelings de, adverbs of frequency, expressions with • Days of the week, months in a year, tener que + hay que, time, verbs ser and seasons, weather patterns connected estar, interrogative words, yo/tú/usted/él/ with clothing, numbers 0-100, food, ella form (I, you informal, you formal, he, colors she) singular/plural verb forms.

• Increasingly complex vocabulary and • Cultural classes: Todo sobre “Mi” project, grammar structures when crafting longer Hispanic Heritage Month, Día de los paragraphs/stories Muertos, Cinco de mayo celebrations.

• QTalk curriculum ¿De Dónde Vienes? adjective agreement, gender+number, • Share greetings, expressing likes/dislikes, possessive adjectives, possession using creating conversations, responding to de, adverbs of frequency, expressions with directions/commands, expressing feelings tener que + hay que, time, verbs ser and • Days of the week, months in a year, seasons, estar, interrogative words, yo/tú/usted/él/ weather patterns connected with clothing, ella form (I, you informal, you formal, he, she) numbers 0-100, food, colors singular/plural verb forms • Increasingly complex vocabulary and • Cultural classes: Todo sobre “Mi” project. grammar structures when crafting longer Hispanic Heritage Month, Día de los paragraphs/stories Muertos, Cinco de mayo celebrations • Definite and indefinite articles, noun• QTalk curriculum ¿De Dónde Vienes? spoken/written language • Share greetings, expressing likes/dislikes, • Noun-adjective agreement, gender & creating and engaging in conversations, number, possessive adjectives, possession responding to directions/commands, using de, expanded adverbs of frequency, expressing feelings and expressions with tener que + hay que, • Days of the week, months in a year, seasons, verbs ser y estar, interrogative words, weather patterns connected with clothing, conversational verb conjugations of verbs numbers 0-100+, food, colors such as tener (to have) and estar (to be), • Complex vocabulary/grammar structures conjugate a reflexive verb. when crafting longer paragraphs/stories • Cultural classes: Todo sobre “Mi” project, • Express ideas independently in oral and Hispanic Heritage Month, Día de los written form; increasing comprehension of Muertos, Cinco de mayo celebrations.

demonstrate awareness of beat • Learn about tempo (fast vs. slow) and dynamics (soft vs. loud) • Use instruments such as drums, triangles, rhythm sticks, maracas, glockenspiels, shekere

• Foster a love of reading and literature • Develop listening and thinking skills

• Choose books with independence • Access information and resources

• Units: singing and movement, percussion instruments • Explore singing, steady beat, moving to music with various tempos, meters, dynamics, and genres • Perform on percussion instruments to demonstrate awareness of beat

• Learn about tempo (fast vs. slow) and dynamics (soft vs. loud) • Use instruments such as drums, triangles, rhythm sticks, maracas, glockenspiels, shekere • Learn basics of composition and improvisation

• Foster a love of reading and literature • Develop listening and thinking skills

• Choose books with independence • Access information and resources

• Foster a love of reading and literature • Develop listening and thinking skills

• Choose books with independence • Access information and resources

• Units: singing, note reading, dancing, playing instruments • Practice proper vocal technique: supported breathing and singing posture • Warm up with solfége (do, re, mi) and Curwen hand symbols, resonance ladders, and tongue twisters • Identify eighth, quarter, half, whole

notes, and mechanical elements of music, such as key signatures, repeat symbols, and measure lines • Develop an ear for music by listening to short melodic patterns and echoing with solfege syllables • Learn folk dancing, circle dancing, rotating partner dancing, line dancing

• Units: journalism project to create newspaper about life at CHS • Learn and apply several key information literacy skills: developing information seeking questions, identifying information sources, locating informational text features, and note-taking

• Units: singing, note reading, ukulele • Practice proper vocal technique: supported breathing and singing posture • Warm up with solfége (do, re, mi) and Curwen hand signs, resonance ladders, and tongue twisters • Identify eighth, quarter, half, whole

notes, and mechanical elements of music, such as key signatures, repeat symbols, and measure lines • Become leaders of lower school chorus and strengthen vocal confidence and accuracy • Play ukulele by reading sheet music and chord symbols

• Units: exploration of trees and the world, the importance of city trees, role of research in creative poetry and the ways in which trees serve writing as homes for many species • Read and analyze the novel • Examine maps about tree Wishtree by Katherine Applegate distribution in Boston and as inspiration for both writing and explore the concept of tree research practice equity: identifying relationships • Research how trees support and between tree cover, temperature, “communicate” with one another, household income, and distribution the history of wishtrees around the of ethnic and racial minorities

• Units: singing, note reading, ukulele, of four chords, reading chord bucket drums charts, singing and playing ukulele • Practice proper vocal technique: simultaneously, keeping a steady beat breathing, posture, pitch control while performing as an ensemble • Sight sing simple rhythmic and melodic • Master drumstick technique and utilize patterns; sing in rounds and harmony knowledge of quarter notes, eighth • Learn to read a chord score and notes, and triplets to practice 4-beat incorporate dynamics and expression rhythms on the bucket drums • Explore the ukulele: history, string • Compose and play rhythmic patterns as names and locations, and strumming a class, in small groups, and individually techniques, proper finger placement

• Units: harness the power of research in order to find inspiration, gather information, and create content for an original, self-published zine (or magazine) • Research process: form openended research questions, identify information sources, employ search strategies such as “click restraint,” take notes

• Units: singing, sheet reading, ukulele, of four chords, reading chord xylophones, guitar charts, singing and playing ukulele • Proper vocal technique: breathing, simultaneously, keeping a steady beat posture, pitch control while performing as an ensemble.

• Sight sing simple rhythmic and melodic • Review notes of the treble clef; perform patterns; sing in rounds and harmony various melodies on soprano, alto, and • Learn to read a chord score and bass xylophones incorporate dynamics and expressions • Get introduced to guitar and strum • Explore the ukulele: strumming basic chords techniques, proper finger placement

• Units: in-depth exploration of the in deciphering the trustworthiness, research process by preparing for a relevancy, and accuracy of fact and figure-driven team debate information: Who is behind this for why their topic is the “Smash information? What is its primary Boom Best.” purpose? What do other sources • Practice a variety of research say about the claims being made skills including: forming research and the organization making them? questions, identifying search terms, • Present arguments, offer a rebuttal, navigating search engines, and and participate in several followevaluating information up rounds that test creativity, • Use the following questions to help teamwork, and sense of humor

• Units: singing, sheet reading, guitar, and locations, strumming techniques, sample rock band instruments (piano, proper finger placement for up to six guitar, bass, and drum), musical drama chords, read chord charts, sing and play production simultaneously, keep a steady beat • Proper vocal technique: breathing, while performing as an ensemble posture, pitch control • Perform the 6th Grade Musical: • Sight sing simple rhythmic and melodic memorize lines, perfect choreography, patterns; sing in rounds and harmony paint scenery, and perform twice a year • Learn to read a chord score and for all-school and for families incorporate dynamics and expressions • Learn the guitar: history, string names

• Units: develop a school-wide • Learn how to independently find picture book bracket information by navigating the • Create a set of criteria that align catalog and physical space of with the school mission and two libraries (CHS and the Boston values to evaluate dozens of Public Library) along with several books for selection digital libraries • Engage in conversation and • Compose scripts and record and debate about which books should edit videos featuring selected move forward, citing evidence picture books from text to support opinions

in “nugget” form, and verify information by comparing sources • Gain practice in navigating books, databases, and search engines to research each mini topic of zines • Learn about zine culture and style, and experience the joy in trading and sharing zines

Grade 2 Grade 5

• Examine a variety of publications, identify their various parts, and analyze how these components deliver information to readers • Photograph school, interview and poll community members in addition to writing headlines, captions, letters, leads, and stories

Grade 6

• Units: playground design project books on simple machines, explores themes of accessibility, design, native trees and inclusivity, sustainability and wildflowers, drafting process community • Field trip to a Boston playground • Introduction to research process: to consider various design investigate, collect new ideas elements from a variety of nonfiction

Grade 1

ladders, and tongue twisters • Identify quarter and half notes and rests, note names on the treble clef • Practice pitch matching through singing solfege syllable patterns • Learn folk dancing, circle dancing, rotating partner dancing, line dancing

Grade 3

Research in Action

• Units: singing, note reading, folk dancing, xylophones, hand drums • Practice proper vocal technique: supported breathing and singing posture • Warm up with solfége (do, re, mi) and Curwen hand symbols, resonance

Grade 4

• Units: singing and movement, • Learn solfége (do, re, mi…) and identify percussion instruments rhythmic patterns; learn about tempo, • Explore singing, steady beat, moving dynamics, and basics of reading music to music with various tempos, meters, • Use instruments such as large dynamics, and genres; develop singing gathering drums, triangles, rhythm voices to sing with more pitch accuracy sticks, maracas, glockenspiels, shekere • Perform on percussion instruments to • Discover fundamentals of composition demonstrate awareness of beat, tempo, and improvisation on drums and and dynamics glockenspiels

Pre-K

• Units: singing and movement, percussion • Explore singing, steady beat, moving to music with various tempos, meters, dynamics, and genres • Perform on percussion instruments to

Beginners

Library

Kindergarten

Music/Chorus

Vision At The Chestnut Hill School, our vision is a world transformed by childhood optimism and enduring curiosity.

Mission The Chestnut Hill School is an inclusive community of joyful learners who think critically, embrace diversity, and act with empathy.

The Chestnut Hill School 428 Hammond Street Chestnut Hill, MA 02467