Curriculum - Canyon Rim

Elementary Curriculum

GPS Elementary Curriculum for core subjects kindergarten - 6th grade:

English Language Arts
Mathematics
Science
Social Studies

English Language Arts

ReadyGEN is the district adopted core reading program for grades K-6. ReadyGEN focuses on the reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language standards through an integrated approach to grow students’ understanding and expand their knowledge as they become proficient and independent readers.

Fundations is the adopted resource to teach the AZ ELA K-3 Foundational Standards. Fundations builds a foundation for reading and spelling through a multisensory structured literacy approach that is aligned to the science of reading. Fundations lessons utilize research-based materials and strategies to focus instruction on carefully sequenced skills that include print knowledge, alphabet awareness, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, decoding, vocabulary, fluency, spelling, and handwriting. Teachers incorporate a daily Fundations lesson in addition to the daily ReadyGEN lesson. Students apply foundational skills knowledge to rich literature experiences during this tier 1 reading and writing block. Targeted small group instruction is also provided for students in need of additional support.

Dyslexia Resources:

Arizona Department of Education Dyslexia Handbook

Arizona Department of Education Dyslexia Resource Guide for Families

Mathematics

GPS Math Vision: In Gilbert Public Schools, we collaboratively work to create confident, independent problem solvers capable of applying mathematical concepts and reasoning to the world around them. We create active classrooms where students do the thinking, participate in mathematics conversations, challenge misconceptions and persevere to deepen understanding.

GPS Elementary and Junior High Schools use the adopted iReady Classroom Mathematics by Curriculum Associates for Grades K-8. i-Ready Classroom Mathematics is designed to support all students in becoming critical thinkers, persistent problem solvers, and lifelong learners. Students learn key concepts over multiple days to foster deeper understanding by engaging in mathematical discourse and problem solving. While students share math thinking with their classmates, they use a variety of strategies to increase their math flexibility to solve problems. This allows students to solidify their learning, and make connections to the math they see in everyday life.

Science

GPS Science Mission: Developing curiosity, creatively & collaborative experiences every day in our GPS students.

GPS Science Vision: Ignite a passion for science by focusing on what can be done today to influence the discoveries & innovations of tomorrow.

GPS Science
Igniting Passion
Fostering Curiosity
Celebrating Discovery

Arizona’s new vision of teaching and learning science integrates three interconnected dimensions of science learning to make sense of the natural world and understand how science and engineering are practiced and experienced.

The 3-dimensions:

Disciplinary core ideas which develop learning progressions to coherently and logically build scientific literacy.

Crosscutting concepts which are ways to strengthen and support sense making and problem solving through a lens to gather evidence and support connections between contexts and disciplines.

Science and Engineering Practices which explore, examine and explain how and why phenomena occur and how to design solutions to problems.

In this three-dimensional learning, students will ask questions, gather information, reason about that information and connect it to scientific principles, analyze and interpret data to support or defend scientific claims, and build their research, communication, and analytical thinking skills to be able to effectively communicate their understanding and reasoning.

AZASS 3-D Snapshot

Students will experience hands-on, real-world exploration opportunities to help develop a passion for science. Students will work collaboratively, facilitate critical thinking skills, and make connections to their prior knowledge. Students will be exposed to STEM careers related to their topic as well as STEM Projects and Engineering Design Challenges.

The State AzSci Exam is given in grades 5, 8, & 11

Elementary Health Video Preview Request Form

Grade	Science Kit
Kindergarten	Senses, Weather, The Sun & Earth’s Surfaces, Living Things, Ladybugs
1st Grade	Light & Sound, Forces & Motion, Natural Resources, Plants and Animals
2nd Grade	Properties of Materials, Earth’s Changing Landscape, The Sun & the Moon, Life & Energy, Butterflies
3rd Grade	The Energy in Light & Sound, Information Processing & Living Things, Mystery Pellets and the Web of Life, Close Encounters of the Symbiotic Kind
4th Grade	Extinction, Water, Weather & Natural Hazards, Dynamic Earth, Energy, Electricity & Magnetism
5th Grade	Spaceship Earth, Forces & Energy, Heredity and Animals through Time, Structure & Properties of Matter, Engineering
6th Grade	Energy & the Solar System, Energy & Ecosystems, Energy & the Environment, Energy & Matter

Social Studies

The Arizona History and Social Science Standards, through the emphasis on content knowledge, disciplinary skills, and process and the integration of inquiry elements will prepare Arizona students to engage actively in civic life and meet the needs and challenges of the 21st century. As students utilize inquiry processes in their content area, they reinforce and use the ELA reading, writing, speaking, and listening standards.

To create a coherent sequence from one grade to the next each elementary grade level has a storyline and content focus for the year:

Kindergarten: Children as Citizens

Through an introduction to civics, geography, economics, and history, students will understand their roles and responsibilities as citizens within their own context.

First Grade: Communities: Living and Working Together

Through the study of civics, geography, economics, and history, students will understand how a community functions and how each member contributes to the community for the common good.

Second Grade: The World Around Me

Through the study of geography and economics, the students’ lenses expand to learn how their world is interconnected globally. Students will develop a spatial understanding of the world around them, so they can understand how other cultures and civilizations are interconnected.

Third Grade: Arizona Studies

Students will study Arizona within an integrated approach of civics, economics, geography and history from prehistoric times to the present day.

Fourth Grade: Regions and Cultures of the Americas

Students will study North, Central, and South America using an integrated approach of civics, economics, geography and history from pre-contact Americas to European settlements up to 1763.

Fifth Grade: United States Studies

Students will study the history of the United States within an integrated approach of civics, economics, geography and history from the time of the American Revolution through Industrialism.

Sixth Grade: Global Studies

Students will study world regions and cultures of the Eastern Hemisphere through a geographic and historical lens from the periods of Early Civilizations up to Renaissance and Reformation.