Our Curriculum - A Year in the Life

Kids reading books Learn about our curriculum and how it intertwines with a typical "year in the life" at Ladera.

Kindergarteners

Kindergarten is the new adventure! Students learn to share, play fair, put things back where they found them, clean up their desk, don't take things that don't belong to them, keep their hands and feet to themselves, say "please, thank you, excuse me" and "I am sorry," and most importantly, the GOLDEN RULE.

In Kindergarten this year at Ladera, the children learned to be students. They learned their letters, sounds, letter writing and are now beginning readers and authors. In math, the children mastered patterning, sorting, counting by ones, twos, fives, and tens, addition and subtraction to 10, telling time to the hour, and problem-solving. The program is rich with games, manipulatives, and current research-based meaningful and integrated activities that promote optimal learning while challenging children at their ability level. One example of how the integration of reading, writing and math is used to make connections is demonstrated through the creation of written story problems that conclude with an addition or subtraction equation.

1st Graders

First grade is a wondrous year filled with tremendous growth. Our language arts program has three components. First, language activities increase phonemic awareness, which is the ability to hear sounds that make up words. We practice spelling rules, and learn sentence structure by writing in journals and adding poems to poetry journals. Second, we develop print awareness and study story elements through fiction and non-fiction stories. Some literature themes are: Poetry, Things That Go, and Journeys. Third, we gain comprehension through questioning and response to the material we read.

Math concepts are learned through a spiral curriculum. New concepts are taught several times throughout the year and then repeat in more depth as your child moves to another grade. Ideas are shared through discussions and reinforced with exciting games. Some first grade concepts are: money, time, geometry, and counting.

Citizenship, American Symbols, Famous People and National Holidays are a few of our Social Studies Units. First graders enjoy many memorable events that connect history and culture with the help of our taste buds! Our Thanksgiving feast is delicious and an African market and lunch is always included during our study of African animals and culture.

This past year we were fortunate to experience two live performances. We saw "Junie B. Jones" at the Civic Arts Plaza and Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" right on our own stage at Ladera. This greatly influenced our own performance of "Anansi the Spider." It was thrilling for first graders to perform for such a large audience. The MPR was overflowing with proud parents!

Ladera's First Graders have also started a garden. We are growing fruits and vegetables such as beans, squash and tomatoes. It is exciting observing and charting the garden's growth.

2nd Graders

Second grade is the time to refine and deepen previously taught skills while students move towards independence in all subject areas. For example, reading becomes something students do independently for enjoyment as they learn more comprehension skills and discover the joys of chapter books.

In second grade, we saw dance performances at the Civic Arts Theater. We walked to Trader Joe's for our Social Studies Unit. We performed "Character Matters" for the students and parents. We used Step-Up to Writing to help us take our sentences and began to turn them into paragraphs! We wrote friendly letters, personal narratives, and descriptive paragraphs. We used math number stories to enrich our curriculum. We had hands-on projects and experiments for our Science Curriculum.

3rd Graders

Third grade is the "gateway" to the upper grades; therefore it is a year that requires a higher level of responsibility from the students for their own learning. This year our third graders were busy exploring, discovering, experiencing and learning a variety of topics through hands-on, minds-on student-centered activities. They attended the symphony, visited the Hansen Farm and the Leonis Adobe Museum.

The kids participated in the Garden Show Play and an oral biographical book report. Using such strategies as "Step-Up to Writing", the students focused on the development of a paragraph with a topic sentence, detail and supporting sentences and a conclusion. They have been learning a range of skills from reviewing place value and math facts to multiplication and division with the integration of problem-solving using many math games to make the learning fun.

4th Graders

Fourth Grade is filled with fun and excitement as students learn how to make decisions, establish their identity as learners and develop new friendships. During this year the students became less concerned about themselves and more dependent upon others to support them in reaching goals, yet at the same time still craving structure and guidance. They experienced the core curriculum in a dynamic and challenging learning environment that sought to facilitate the district's motto of "High Expectations Equals High Achievement". Hands-on activities and a variety of methods/algorithms were used to teach students to problem-solve and learn mathematical concepts.

Using Step-Up to Writing, the students learned more strategies to write powerful paragraphs, summaries, responses to literature and narrative stories, all along preparing them for the State's STAR Writing Assessment. Reading became the tool used to now access information for further learning as well as for leisure time enjoyment.

Taking field trips provided opportunities to learn outside as well as inside the classroom by exposing the students to the rich California history that living in Ventura County offers. The curriculum became connected to real-life with field trips to the San Fernando Mission, Gene Autry Museum, and one on-site trip that brought Historical Interpreters with an emphasis on panning for gold and the old 49'er days. Our play "Gold Dust or Bust" was an entertaining and informative way for the students to learn and demonstrate California history.

The "National Parks Day" not only taught Science, Social Studies, English Language Arts and Research Skills about our state of California to fourth grade but also presented the park information through hands-on activities that the rest of the Ladera students participated in as a culmination to their studies. The fourth grade students work in cooperative groups to prepare a presentation about one of six National Parks that the other students later enjoyed along with the experience of the talking to a Ranger with his Parks' van. The fourth grade year culminates with a trip to OIvera Street.

5th Graders

Fifth Grade is an exciting year! Teachers team-teach, which allows students to begin to experience the secondary approach to learning and move away from the self-contained classroom. During this fifth grade year the students spend time learning how to learn, managing their time and finding their organizational tools for future success. Students connect skills learned from previous years to produce quality projects that make the curriculum content meaningful and real life.

Fifth graders work hard all year long making the connections to real-life so that all of the previously taught skills will stand ingrained in their minds as they moved forward into the secondary world of education. Public speaking, drama and oral presentation are a large part of the curriculum. The fifth graders are extremely busy all the way to the last minute of the school year doing such project-based learning activities as the following (but not limited to):