Heartwood Curriculum

Kindergarten through second grade is a time for children to discover the joy in learning through hands-on, engaging lessons. These years are also when strong reading and mathematics skills begin to be developed.

To introduce, and support, the skills of reading and writing, teachers in these grades use the Fundations program. This program is rooted in the research behind how children read and write. Second grade will use Jump Into Writing to expand on their writing skills.

To teach mathematics, teachers will use the Eureka2 math program in grades K-8.

In science students in these grades will learn about the following topics:

Kindergarten:

• How plants & animals meet their needs to survive

• Weather Patterns

• The relationship between the needs of different plants or animals and the places they live

• Impact of humans on the land, water, air, and/or other living things in the local environment

• Energy, sunlight, and heat

• Push/pull forces

First Grade:

• How plants & animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs

• Sunlight, shadows, moon phases

• Waves: Light and Sound

Second Grade:

• Pollination, plant needs, seed dispersal, diversity of life in different habitats

• Earth events, landforms, erosion

• Properties of matter

In social studies, students will learn about:

Kindergarten:

• Identify home, school, and places in the community

• Recognize community helpers

• Practice basic civic behavior (sharing, following rules)

• Needs vs. wants

• Recognize past vs. present in students’ own lives

• Compare daily life of children in other countries

First Grade:

• Use maps of school and town

• Identify simple landforms (hill, river, lake)

• Class and community rules

• Responsibility and group decision-making

• Producers and consumers. Recognize the role of money and saving

• Global folktales and celebrations

Second Grade:

• NH landforms, ecosystems, weather

• Roles in local government

• Natural resources → goods/services

• Jobs and earning money

• Local Indigenous peoples and early settlers

• Indigenous peoples globally (Māori, Ainu, Sami)

Grades 3-5 are when students are able to take all of their foundational skills and apply them to more complex topics while maintaining joy and a love for learning.

In third grade, students continue their learning with phonics using the Fundations program. They will begin learning to read and write in cursive.

In grades 3-5 students also begin reading for information, rather than learning how to read. Teachers will use the Arts & Letters curriculum to teach reading skills, vocabulary, and writing.

For math the Eureka2 curriculum will be used K-8.

The following science topics will be taught in each grade:

Third Grade:

• Organisms, life cycles, traits, and survival

• Weather, climate, natural hazards

• Forces, motion, and magnets

Fourth Grade:

• The internal structures of plants & animals

• Animal senses

• Weathering, rock formations, patterns of Earth’s features, and natural resources

• Energy transfer

• Waves and their applications in technologies for information transfer

Fifth Grade:

•  Matter movement in ecosystems

• Properties of matter, gravity, and energy

• Earth systems, geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and/or atmosphere, distribution of water on Earth.

• How humans protect the Earth’s resources and environment

The following social studies topics will be taught in each grade:

Third Grade:

• Map migration to/from NH

• Scales & symbols on a map

• Governance structures; civic engagement

• NH industries (maple, logging); supply chains

• NH Indigenous history; colonial life

Fourth Grade:

• Physical & human geography of colonial NH

• Compare colonial & modern civic life in NH & beyond

• Trade patterns, economic decision-making

• Examine historical document

• NH in colonial era, Revolution, early statehood

Fifth Grade:

• NH vs. other regions; human impact on land

• Rights and responsibilities of NH citizens

• NH economic decisions: farming, tourism, forests

• NH in the 1800s, Civil War impact

• Industrial Revolution in NH and Europe

In grades 6-8 students begin to guide their own educational experience. All of the skills students have learned in years prior will support their ability to have hands-on and immersive middle school experience.

While in sixth grade, students will have one teacher for every core subject. As students move up to grades 7 and 8, they will begin to experience a departmentalized model, with three teachers.

The Eureka2 math curriculum will continue to be used through grade 8.

ELA will be taught using a literacy-based comprehensive program.

Science will be taught using an inquiry and project-based model using the program Green Ninja.

Social studies will be taught using the immersive program called TCI Social Studies Alive.

Students in grades 7 & 8 will also have “Experiential Fridays” 7 times per year. On these days, students will take trips to local places to expand and apply their learning.