Our Curriculum

With a renewed commitment to Catholic education, the faculty and staff at St. Raphael have spent the last two years updating the curriculum for English/Language Arts and Math for all grades. This new standards-based curriculum aligns with the national standards recommended by the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA), and incorporates development of critical thinking as well as imagination.

The new English/Language Arts and Math curriculum stretches our students in the core skills of reading and mathematical understanding.  We have devoted extra instructional time for students, as well as additional teacher training, to help our students meet the academic demands of this ambitious plan for learning.  The changes we made to our curriculum have helped us to increase our standardized test scores in every subject, at every grade level.


Social and Emotional Development

Knowledge of self
  • Children exhibit self-awareness through self-respect, personal preferences, and knowledge of personal information.   
  • Children develop self-control, follow simple rules and daily routines, accept transitions, adapt to different environments, and express feelings through appropriate gestures, actions and language. 
  • Children develop personal responsibility, care for personal and group possessions, and begin to accept the consequences of his/her own actions. 
Knowledge of Others
  • Children build relationships of mutual trust and respect with others, respect adult leadership, and seek comfort and security from significant adults.
  • Children develop friendships, use courteous words and actions, and respect similarities and differences among people.
  • Children work cooperatively with other children and with adults, share ideas with others, begin to examine a situation from another's perspective, asks questions, and show interest in learning new things and trying new experiences.
Approaches to Learning
  • Children initiate interactions with others, make decisions independently, and develop independence during activities, routines and play.
  • Children exhibit creativity, imagination and a willingness to try new ways of doing things.  Children use imagination to generate a variety of ideas, and exhibit a sense of humor.
  • Children have a positive self-image and view himself/herself as competent.  Children show confidence in expressing his/her own ideas and opinions. 
  • Children display persistence, sustain attention to a task or activity appropriate to her/his age, pursue challenges, and cope with frustration.
  • Children use problem-solving skills alone and in cooperation with others.

Religious and Spiritual Development

  • Children exhibit an awareness of God as Creator and of Jesus, His Son.
  • Children participate in prayer.
  • Children retell some Bible stories.

Literacy

Symbolic Development: Represents feelings and ideas in a variety of ways.
  • Children represent feelings and ideas through pretend play, music and movement, art and construction.
  • Spoken/Expressive Language:  Uses language to communicate ideas, feelings, questions, or to solve problems.
  • Children use language to communicate and are understood by others.
  • Children initiate and respond appropriately in conversation and discussion with adults and children.
  • Children use complete sentences of varying length.
Listening/Receptive Language:  Listens for different purposes.
  • Children follow simple directions.
  • Children listen responsively to books and stories.
  • Children listen to and engage in conversations with others.
  • Children respond to questions.
Written Language:  Uses writing as a means of communication.
  • Children experiment with writing tools and materials. 
  • Children use scribbles, shapes, pictures and letters to write.
  • Children tell others about intended meaning of drawings and writings.
  • Children use a variety of resources to facilitate writing.
Knowledge of Print and Books:  Applies early reading skills.
  • Children show interest in reading and books. 
  • Children exhibit book-handling skills. 
  • Children pretend to read easy or predictable books or tries to read along during his/her favorite part of story.
  • Children respond to text.
  • Children read environmental print and symbols.
  • Children identify some alphabet letters. 
  • Children recognize that print represents spoken words.
  • Children develop a sense of story.
Sounds of Language:  Attends to sounds in language.
  • Children repeat rhymes, simple songs, poems, and finger plays.
  • Children participate in word games.
  • Children discriminate some sounds in words.

Physical Development, Health and Safety

Physical Development and Coordination
  • Children control body movements, demonstrate coordination as they move from one point to another, and use large muscle movements to manipulate objects.
  • Children use fingers and hands to accomplish fine motor tasks and use tools in a functional manner.  Children exhibit coordination of facial muscles. 
  • Children exhibit sensory, body, spatial, and temporal awareness in their environment.
Health and Safety
  • Children practices healthy behaviors and personal hygiene.
  • Children participate in daily physical activity and exhibit body strength and endurance.
  • Children practice safe behaviors, follow adult directions during emergencies, and know how and when to seek help.

Science

Physical Science
  • Children use one or more of their senses to explore physical properties of objects and materials.
  • Children experiment with objects, materials, and simple tools to gather information and observe reactions.
  • Children ask questions about objects and materials and talks about the physical world.
  • Children identify problems involving physical properties of objects and materials, make predictions based on prior experiences with objects and materials, and experiment to produce desired effects.
  • Children represent observations of the physical world through pretend play, music and movement, art and construction.
Life Science
  • Children talk about plants and animals and show interest in plant and animal changes.  
  • Children use their senses to observe the natural world and investigate characteristics of living things by asking questions. 
  • Children recognize that living things have needs and identify problems involving living things.
  • Children represent observations about living things through pretend play, music and movement, art and construction.
Earth and Space
  • Children show interest through questions and experimentation with properties of earth and space.
  • Children identify problems involving earth and space and make predictions based on knowledge and experiences.
  • Children represent observations about earth and space through pretend play, music and movement, art and construction.

Mathematics

Number and operations:  Children demonstrate an understanding of numbers and numerical operations.
  • Children use number to show quantity.
  • Rote count at least to 30
  • Count objects up to 20.
  • Recognize and name one-digit numerals.
Children use language to represent number of objects.
  • Use ordinals first through fifth, and last.
  • Compare groups of objects, using terms like more/less, same.
Children solve problems using number.
  • Demonstrate understanding of one-to-one correspondence (e.g. place one animal in each truck, give each child one cookie.)
  • Recognize a number of objects (up to four) without counting.
  • Recognize formation of pips on a number cube (dice) and connect it with number.
  • Match sets.
  • Spontaneously count for own purposes.
  • Explore meaning of addition and subtraction by using concrete objects.
Children use numerical representation.
  • Begin to write one-digit numerals.
  • Discriminate numerals from letters.
  • Recognize numbers in the environment (e.g. address, clocks, calendar)
  • Geometry and Spatial Sense:  Children develop knowledge of spatial concepts.
  • Children investigate positions and locations.
  • Use positional words (e.g. in/out, over/under, between, up/down) to describe.
  • Follow directions that use positional words.
Children explore shapes and color in the environment.
  • Explore and talk about basic shapes in the environment (e.g. circle, square, triangle) and recognize their real-world purpose.
  • Name and identify basic colors.
  • Explore three-dimensional shapes by building with blocks and other materials.
  • Explore connections between two- and three-dimensional forms (e.g. sphere and circle, cube and square)
  • Identify symmetry.
  • Use simple shapes to make designs, patterns, and pictures.
  • Use puzzles to demonstrate part-to-whole relationship.
Patterns and Relationships:  Children understand patterns, relationships, and classifications.
  • Describe patterns in the environment. 
  • Represent patterns in a variety of ways.
  • Show an awareness of attributes of objects through sorting, grouping, ordering, and classifying.
  • Begin to represent data in pictures and drawings.
  • Order and stack objects by size. 
Measurement:  Children apply concepts of measurement.
  • Explore the use of nonstandard objects for measurement.
  • Compare and order objects according to measureable attributes (e.g. length, weight).
  • Demonstrate understanding of basic temporal relations (e.g. sequence of daily routines).
  • Understand basic calendar concepts.
Exploring Data:  Children use mathematical knowledge to represent, communicate, and solve problems in their environment.
  • Use emergent mathematical knowledge to solve problems that arise in mathematics and in other contexts.
  • Use communication to organize and clarify mathematical thinking by discussing, listening, and asking questions during activities.          
  • Recognize that mathematics is used in a variety of contexts in all disciplines, and apply mathematics in practical situations and other disciplines.
  • Use media and technology to reinforce concrete mathematical information (e.g. explore shapes and patterns).
  • Interpret charts and graphs.

Click on any of the following links to open a PDF with the curriculum for that subject.

Kindergarten

Students in Kindergarten at St. Raphael the Archangel School will achieve the following art goals:

Goals:

  • Demonstrate the ability to follow visual and verbal directions
  • Demonstrate the ability to work cooperatively in a group
  • Demonstrate the ability to use art tools in a safe manner
  • Demonstrate the ability to visually identify colors, lines, shapes, textures, and forms
  • Demonstrate the ability to appreciate beauty in nature and the environment

Content: Knowledge/Skills/Values

  • Name and identify colors, particularly primary colors
  • Find and reproduce lines in the environment
  • Recognize and produce geometric and organic shapes
  • Use shapes to create patterns
  • Identify and describe difference in various textures
  • Demonstrate proper use of scissors and glue
  • Make a rubbing of a given object
  • Demonstrate an understanding that forms can overlap in a given area
  • Demonstrate a respect for each others art work
  • Identify basic elements of art in works of art

Click on any of the following links to open a PDF with the curriculum for that subject.

1st Grade

Click on any of the following links to open a PDF with the curriculum for that subject.

2nd Grade

Click on any of the following links to open a PDF with the curriculum for that subject.

3rd Grade

Click on any of the following links to open a PDF with the curriculum for that subject.

4th Grade

Click on any of the following links to open a PDF with the curriculum for that subject.

5th Grade

Click on any of the following links to open a PDF with the curriculum for that subject.

6th Grade

Click on any of the following links to open a PDF with the curriculum for that subject.

7th Grade

Click on any of the following links to open a PDF with the curriculum for that subject.

8th Grade