Elementary Curriculum
Choosing our Elementary School curriculum was not a decision that was made lightly. It was very important to our school that we provided research/evidenced based curriculums that were effective, weren’t too hard for teachers to implement and were still engaging for the kids. After much research, we decided on the following combination of curriculums and we are very confident that they will help achieve our value of providing advanced academics for all students.
Social Emotional: Responsive Classroom
Responsive Classroom is a student-centered, social and emotional learning approach to teaching and discipline. It is comprised of a set of research, and evidence-based practices designed to create safe, joyful, and engaging classrooms and school communities for both students and teachers. A focus of this approach is fostering community—one way this is achieved is starting with a daily Morning Meeting and ending with a closing circle. It also helps teachers set a positive tone in their classroom, helps ensure that every part of the day flows smoothly—arrival, recess, lunch, and dismissal times, as well as lessons, teaches positive discipline—investing children in the rules and building prosocial behavior skills that keep their learning going, and helps teachers present engaging academics—to spark motivation and lay the groundwork for high academic achievement.
Reading (K-2): UFLI Foundations & Geodes
UFLI is an explicit and systematic program that teaches students the foundational skills necessary for proficient reading. UFLI was built on The Science of Reading and is both research and evidence based. It follows a carefully developed scope and sequence designed to ensure that students systematically acquire each skill needed and learn to apply each skill with automaticity and confidence. UFLI Foundations strikes the perfect balance between structure and responsiveness to students’ needs. The program features ample opportunities for students to practice, along with built-in gradual release. UFLI Foundations targets the following foundational reading skills: Phoneme blending and segmentation practice, Accuracy and automaticity of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, Decoding automaticity of words with previously learned concepts, Explicit introduction of new concepts, Decoding and encoding practice, Reading and spelling irregular words, and Reading and spelling connected text. Geodes is a supplemental add-on that offers beautifully written, accessible books that align with what students are learning in phonics, allowing them to build confidence and fluency while enjoying real stories.
ELA (English Language Arts): Arts & Letters
We use Arts & Letters for ELA alongside our current and beloved phonics curriculum, UFLI. Arts & Letters is designed to build strong literacy skills while fostering a love of reading and writing, with a strong focus on building students’ knowledge of the world. Arts & Letters combines rich literature, engaging writing, and foundational skills to help students become confident readers, writers, and thinkers. Through thoughtfully chosen stories, poems, works of art and informational texts, students will explore big ideas, build their vocabulary, and develop a deep love of language.
Math: Eureka Math Squared
Eureka Math²™ is a revolutionary math program designed to ensure that students move beyond rote memorization to build enduring math knowledge through the intentional integration of digital resources and a focused approach to encouraging student discourse. Eureka Math² helps students establish a foundational understanding of mathematics (the why) rather than only relying on procedural skills (the how), to better prepare them for college and career. Eureka Math Squared utilizes engaging and hands-on teaching methods that all students will benefit from. Teachers will see students strengthening reasoning and critical-thinking skills that students can apply to solve real-world problems and that can be applied to many real-world situations.
Bible: Summit
Every month our Elementary students attend Chapel where they here a relevant message from one of our New Day Pastors as well has participate in engaging worship time. Bible is also a daily subject taught at our school. Summit’s Bible Curriculum equips teachers to go beyond just reading Bible stories with a life-changing biblical worldview curriculum. When kids grasp the truth, their lives change. This bible curriculum addresses 20 biblical truths that we believe all children should know and prepares them to live a life devoted to Christ. We help children go deeper to create a solid biblical worldview, make real life applications, and have strong apologetics so that they can defend their faith.
Science: Science Fusion
This curriculum is easy for teachers to implement while still effectively engaging students. The curriculum uses the effective 5E lesson design, which encourages students to Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate the science, in hands-on ways. Children learn through colorful, interactive lessons that activate children’s curiosity and teach them critical science skills along the way. Teachers also do experiments and hands-on activities using Into Science to extend lessons.
Social Studies: Studies Weekly
Studies weekly is a student-friendly core Social Studies curriculum organized thematically to the strands of civics and government, geography, economics, and history. Each week children receive a consumable, interactive newspaper that takes them through the lesson for the week.
