Curriculum Connections

After deciding on our school calendar, as mentioned in On Our Way, it was time to tackle curriculum.  This is an area in which I can easily get carried away…

or lost

This is also an area in which I had some extensive conversations with the Lord.  My experience in planning curriculum is ten years of 6th grade math.  Within my ten years we changed curriculum only once, so creating curriculum from scratch is not really in my comfort zone.  Also, the thought of planning kindergarten lessons in all the subjects made me quiver a little (maybe more than a little).

In the midst of the anxiety that was threatening to overtake me, I decided to lay it all down, and wait for an answer from the Lord.  After all, he knows us and the best path for our curriculum.  His answer –

make science and social studies the main focus

This made me laugh.  Oh how our Father knows each one of us.  The inside joke is that the two subjects I like the least, you guessed it, are science and social studies!  So, obviously in making these the main focus, I have no opportunity to slack on them or procrastinate.  Also, math and the language arts will easily fold into the science and social studies units.

So, I started with science.  In our school calendar we have six sessions.  Taking the Oklahoma Science Standards into consideration for some topic ideas and sequencing, here are the broad topics for each six week session:

Science Focus Areas:

• Session 1:  Force and Motion
• Session 2:  Energy
• Session 3:  Plants & Animals
• Session 4:  Weather & Climate
• Session 5:  Natural Resources/Habitat
• Session 6:  Learner’s Choice

Each of these large areas of focus will be broken down into grade level appropriate (student appropriate) activities to learn specific topics as well as including many opportunities to incorporate scientific skills, reasoning, and methods.

Each six week session will be planned in progression, so I will not have the whole year of curriculum on my shoulders all at once.  Posts containing more specific information about lessons, activities, and resources will come as they are developed.

And now for specifics…

 

Image courtesy of cooldesign / FreeDigitalPhotos.net