Science

Curriculum: The Creative Curriculum

Learning Objectives: 

• Uses number concepts and operations
  • Counts
  • Quantifies
  • Connects numerals with their quantities
  • Understands and uses place value and base ten
  • Applies properties of mathematical operations and relationships
  • Applies number combinations and mental number strategies in mathematical operations
• Explores and describes spatial relationships and shapes
  • Understands spatial relationships
  • Understands shapes
• Compares and measures
  • Measures objects
  • Measures time and money
  • Represents and analyzes data
• Demonstrates knowledge of patterns

Content Learned from The Creative Curriculum:

• The First Six Weeks
• Beginning the Year
• Balls
• Boxes
• Bread 
• Buildings
• Clothes 
• Exercise
• Gardening
• Insects
• Music Making
• Pets
• Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
• Roads
• Sand
• Signs
• Simple Machines
• Tubes and Tunnels
• Trees
• Water
• Wheels
• Getting Ready for Kindergarten
• Light
• Investigation: How Does Rain Change the Environment?
• Investigation: What Jobs Do We Do at Home or at School?
• Investigation: How Can We Say "Thank You" to People in Our Community?
• Cameras
• Building a Bridge to Kindergarten: Summer Program

Kindergarten students explore 3 areas of study: 

• What plants and animals need to survive and how animals can change the environment to their needs
• How forces and motion work through pushes and pulls
• Learn about weather and how the sun impacts the earth.

Washington State Learning Standards: NGSS Standards for Kindergarten

Curriculum: Mystery Science & All Circles of Learning (Forces in Motion)

Content Learned Trimester 1:

• Plant and Animal Secrets

Content Learned Trimester 2:

• Forces and Motion

Content Learned Trimester 3:

• Weather Watching

First grade students explore 3 areas of study:

• How trees change throughout the seasons and how patterns are evident throughout nature
• Learn about plant and animal body functions and how each animal is designed similar but not exactly like their parent and why that is
• Explore sound and light as energy and what roles they play in being able to design and communicate

Washington State Learning Standards: NGSS Standards for First Grade 

Curriculum: Mystery Science & All Circles of Learning (Astronomy: Trees through the Seasons)

Content Learned Trimester 1:

• Astronomy

Content Learned Trimester 2:

• Plant and Animal Superpowers
• Asronomy

Content Learned Trimester 3:

• Light and Sounds
• Astronomy

Third Grade students explore 4 areas of study:

• Studying how plants reproduce, how they pass on their traits,  and how humans have shaped the lives of plants
• Understand the importance of animals, in this case orcas, that live in groups and how they pass on survival traits
• Study the difference between weather and climate and how those shape the lives of the animals and plants that live in that biome
• Study pushes and pulls that operate our world, including their first scientific look at magnetism

Washington State Learning Standards: NGSS Standards for Third Grade

Curriculum: Mystery Science & All Circles of Learning (Orcas)

Content Learned Trimester 1:

• Power of Flowers

Content Learned Trimester 2:

• Orcas

Content Learned Trimester 3:

• Stormy Skies 
• Invisible Forces

Fourth Grade students explore 4 areas of study:

• Students learn every rock has a story and helps tell us the processes that shape the earth.  Students will also learn about fossils and the stories they tell us
• Students learn about animal functions by thinking about our bodies being built like a machine.  Human and animal functions are compared to show how animals have special abilities
• Students develop the idea that sound is an actual thing, a form of energy and can be measured in many ways, including through visualizing music
• Students largest unit of study encourages students to think about the energy that things need to move.  From creating a Rube Goldberg machine to understanding roller coasters, this energy unit engages students in physics in a fun and hands-on way

Washington State Learning Standards: NGSS Standards for Fourth Grade

Curriculum: Mystery Science

Content Learned Trimester 1:

• Birth of Rocks

Content Learned Trimester 2:

• Human Machine
• Waves of Sound 

Content Learned Trimester 3:

• Energizing Everything

Fifth Grade students explore 4 areas of study:

• Zombie Guacamole, about how our landfills work, where our garbage from Tacoma goes, and what we can do to make a difference
• Students are introduced to a year-long study on the Salish Sea, including understanding salmon migration, our Southern Resident Killer Whales, and engage in local-based projects to improve our environment
• Brainy briny!! This hands-on life science unit has students engage in raising brine shrimp and measuring a variety of levels to understand things we can’t see with our eyes
• Students engage in learning about the solar system.  They learn about the how the earth is moving, orbits, patterns in the night sky, gravity, and could there be life on other planets

Washington State Learning Standards: NGSS Standards for Fifth Grade

Curriculum: Mystery Science, EarthGEN (Zombie Guacamole), Junior SeaDocs (Salmon Migration), Brainy Briny (Foss)

Content Learned Trimester 1:

• Zombie Guacamole
• Introduction to Salish Sea

Content Learned Trimester 2:

• Watery Planet
• Salmon Migration

Content Learned Trimester 3:

• Brainy Briny
• Spaceship Earth

Curriculum: Smithsonian STCMS

Content Learned: 

• Unit 1: Weather and Climate Systems
• Unit 2: Structure and Function
• Unit 3: Genes and Molecular Machines

Curriculum: Smithsonian STCMS

Content Learned: 

• Unit 1: Matter and It's Interactions
• Unit 2: Energy, Forces and Motion
• Unit 3: Ecosystems and their Interactions

Curriculum: Smithsonian STCMS

Content Learned: 

• Unit 1: Earth's Dynamic Systems
• Unit 2: Energy Waves and Information Transfer
• Unit 3: Space Systems Exploration

Curriculum: currently under adoption

Content Learned Semester 1:

• Unit 1: Ecosystem Interactions, Energy and Dynamics
• Unit 2: Evolution: Biodiversity and Deep Time
• Unit 3: Biological Evolution

Content Learned Semester 2:

• Unit 4: Genetics and Molecular Biology: Cells to Organisms
• Unit 5: Energy and Matter in Organisms and Ecosystems
• Unit 6: Ecosystem Stability and Climate Change

Curriculum: currently under adoption

Content Learned Semester 1:

• Unit 1: Combustion, Heat and Energy in the Earth System
• Unit 2: Atomic Structure
• Unit 3: The Periodic Table

Content Learned Semester 2:

• Unit 4: Chemical Bonding
• Unit 5: Chemical Reactions
• Unit 6: The Chemistry of Climate Change and Ocean Acidification

Curriculum: Patterns Physics

Content Learned Semester 1:

• Unit 1: Inquiry & Patterns
• Unit 2: Texting & Driving
• Unit 3: Energy & Engineering

Content Learned Semester 2:

• Unit 4: Engineer a Shoe
• Unit 5: Waves & Technology
• Unit 6: Electricity, Power Production, & Climate Science
• Unit 7: Space & the Universe