Curriculum

Kathryn Senor Elementary is committed to providing a quality, innovative education for the students of New Castle. When students leave KSE, they will have the skills needed for problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, and digital literacy. Students are given the opportunity to create online portfolios K-5 that demonstrate individualized learning. These portfolios will provide students the opportunity to showcase learning.

We follow the Colorado Academic Standards as our core curriculum and utilize various resources for each content area. See the individual content areas for specifics of what we teach.

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What We Teach:

English/Language Arts (ELA)

Kinder-2nd Grade

The ELA program in the primary grades is called Superkids. The reading materials feature characters that are kids in order to connect with the young readers. Superkids materials teach all areas of literacy: reading, spelling, grammar, and handwriting. This program uses a text approach built on systematic phonics. The materials combine rigor with fun. The Superkids in these teaching materials each have their own personality and hobbies they pursue that keeps elementary students interested and wanting to find out more about each character. While having fun learning about the Superkids, students are learning to read.

3rd-5th Grade

Our ELA program in 3rd-5th grade is ReadyGen. ReadyGen is a comprehensive core English language arts curriculum for Grades 3rd-5th built specifically for the Common Core Standards. The program uses deliberately organized text sets and routine-based instruction. The goal of ReadyGen is to build strong readers and writers through a lesson structure that develops an understanding of big ideas in social studies and science concepts through conceptually coherent text sets. Text sets are a collection of texts deliberately organized around these topics. At the core of ReadyGen is reciprocity between reading and writing to promote student thinking and understanding through citation of text-based evidence. Students write every day, and instruction is closely linked to reading, using the text as the model. Students will demonstrate their learning through performance tasks that integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening. The instruction in ReadyGen is carefully designed to develop an instructional path so that students are successful with these performance assessments.

Math K-5

KSE uses a resource written by Pearson called Investigations 3. Investigations is a K-5 inquiry based math program. However, our district is in the process of piloting three programs. Which are Eureka Math2, Bridges, and Reveal. These programs will be evaluated by district officials and teachers to determine what program we will adopt for the 2024-2025. We also use Bridges intervention to help meet students' needs. Currently the following groups are using these programs:

Kindergarten: Bridges Mathematics

1st: Eureka 2nd: Investigations

3rd: Investigations

4th: Bridges 5th: Bridges

Science

Social Studies

Health & Wellness/Physical Education

Our desire at Kathryn Senor Elementary is to provide an opportunity for our students to learn about health and wellness on a daily basis through a combined effort with our Physical Education (PE) class. In connection with our school garden and wellness team, the health and wellness class is hoping to provide students with “healthy application” to continue at home. This includes making healthy snacks, gardening, exercises and mindfulness. The program will benefit our community by providing an opportunity for students to learn about health and wellness alongside physical education. We will will utilize a resource called, Focused Fitness (www.focusedfitness.org). It includes, WelNet Software, Focus Fitness Curriculum, and Fab 5 Character Education. The use of these resources complements the Colorado Academic Standards of health, wellness, and physical education. Included in health and wellness is a focus on emotional health. The Fab 5 component enables a connection between the counselor, classroom teachers, and PE teachers to teach their students social and emotional concepts creatively and effectively. The lessons are very engaging and will keep students moving while mastering the knowledge and skills needed socially and emotionally.

Music

All students in grades Kindergarten through fifth grade will participate in General Music. Students will have music twice a week. Each grade will have a music performance sometime during the year.

The Colorado Academic Standards in music are the topical organization of the concepts and skills all Colorado students should know and be able to do throughout their preschool through twelfth-grade experience. The standards include expression of music, creation of music, theory, and aesthetic valuation of music.

Art

All students in grades Kindergarten through fifth grade will participate in Art. Students will have art twice a week throughout the year.

Exploration of visual arts and design processes is about invention, creation, and innovation. Building on the development of ideas through a process of inquiry, discovery, and research leads to the creation of works of art, and, whether using traditional materials or the latest technologies, prepares students to be independent, lifelong learners. Participation in the visual arts provides students with unique experiences and skills that develop important traits for success in the 21st century workforce. Studying art and design involves inquiry, posing and solving problems, perseverance, re-purposing, taking risks, and persuading and inspiring.