K-5 Curriculum


Goals and Philosophy

Primavera School was established in the belief that the greatest gift we can give our children is a lifetime love of learning, a responsible concern and respect for others and the environment, and a flexible, personalized, challenging, and safe learning experience.

Our curriculum from preschool through 5th grade is structured to provide a positive educational experience for each individual child. We believe that students learn best by doing. The curriculum fosters high academic achievement by fostering a balanced “whole-child” approach—intellectually, physically, emotionally, and socially.

The staff at Primavera care about each child and support children and families with a curriculum that encourages exploration, interaction, experimentation, creativity, and critical thinking. Therefore, our curriculum model is one where:

(1) Children are actively involved in their learning through play, interaction, and direct exploration of materials and ideas.

(2) All materials, lessons, and activities are developmentally appropriate.

(3) Children are encouraged to make good choices and participate fully in the learning process.

(4) The curriculum involves continuous observation, nurturing individual learning styles, setting children up for successful learning, and promoting self-directed learning and self-confidence.

Meeting Children’s Needs

Appropriate curriculum respects the fact that young children can’t sit still for long periods of time, and thus, it provides for active physical play and periods of more restful, quiet activity since this pattern is compatible with children’s physical needs.

To meet children’s psychological needs, our teachers provide a responsive, relaxed, and comfortable small classroom environment where children feel safe and know that their teachers are there to protect and support them. Children need a sense of belonging not only with their classmates, but also with the larger Primavera community.

Our staff does this by acknowledging and recognizing the value of children making choices, by providing multi-age learning opportunities, supporting whole school activities and performances, and providing many opportunities for parental involvement.

Curriculum Goals

Language Arts

  • Become independent readers and critical thinkers.
  • Experience a love, appreciation, and enjoyment of reading.
  • Progress as listeners, speakers, readers, and writers.
  • Emphasize writing applications throughout the curriculum.
  • Structured grammar program, peer editing, and revision process.
  • Vocabulary, spelling, and phonics with Rebecca Sitton Spelling.
  • Phonetic and whole language approaches to reading.
  • Use of literature based/controlled vocabulary readers in K-2.
  • “The Daily Five” reading block: Read to Self, Work on Writing, Read to Someone, Listen to Reading, Word Work.
  • Exposure to great literature and award-winning books and novels.
  • Analyze, interpret, evaluate, and discuss works of literature.
  • Opportunity for oral presentations and public speaking.
  • Handwriting Without Tears K-5th for handwriting instruction.
  • “The Daily Five” language arts program is a way of structuring our reading block so every student is independently engaged in meaningful literacy tasks. The research based tasks are ones that will have the biggest impact on student reading and writing achievement, as well as help foster children who love to read and write. Students receive explicit whole group instruction and then are given independent practice time to read and write independently at their instructional levels while the teacher provides focused, intense instruction to individuals and small groups of students.

Mathematics

  • Bridges in Mathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) is the basis of the math program in Kindergarten through 3rd grade.
  • Key Curriculum Press materials are used in the 4th—5th grade classrooms.
  • The instructional level in mathematics is a determining factor for a child to participate in math at another grade level.
  • Goals at every grade level include an emphasis on problem solving, reasoning, number sense, computations, and connections.
  • Emphasis on manipulatives, thematic connections, and real-world applications.

Science

  • Hands-on, multi-faceted, inquiry-based approach.
  • Emphasis on the scientific method, hypothesis, and experimentation.
  • Class participation in school-wide Science Fair.
  • Curriculum uses books as resources and lab-based exploration.
  • School-wide community garden project involving recycling of waste, rainwater capture system, composting waste, organic gardening methods, planting, harvesting, and selling produce to the community.
  • Participation in “Project Wet,” (water education) and “Project Learning Tree” (Environmental education) activities school-wide.

Social Studies

  • Encourage curiosity about the world, past, present, and future.
  • Enable students to explore, experience, and form opinions about their world.
  • Kindergarten through 2nd grade focuses on community, individual rights and responsibilities, understanding concepts of history, national symbols, historical figures, and holidays. Map skills and a basic understanding of the economy are also part of the curriculum.
  • Social studies is integrated with other curricular disciplines such as reading, writing, and current events.
  • 3rd through 5th grade focuses on the early explorers, the American pioneers, the American Revolution, Civil War, Native Americans, Arizona history, geography, natural resources, and state research projects.
  • Emphasis in the upper grades on constructing and interpreting maps and other geographical tools to organize information about people, places, and environments.

Physical Education

Activities for physical education are on a rotating basis and are also chosen by the classroom teacher at the start of every school year.

  • Emphasis on being “fit for life,” and developing physical fitness in many areas.
  • We teach healthy eating habits and the importance of physical exercise.
  • Recess occurs before school, in the morning, after lunch, and again after school.
  • Kindergarten: Gymnastics instruction once a week at the YMCA and team building exercises.
  • 1st grade: Swimming, creative movement, and dance.
  • 2nd grade: Swimming, creative movement, and dance.
  • 3rd grade: Swimming, dance, tennis, yoga, movement, and hiking.
  • 4th grade: Swimming, dance, tennis, yoga, movement, and hiking.
  • 5th grade: Swimming, tennis, fencing, creative movement, and dance.

Music

  • Our music program provides opportunities for performance and enjoyment of music as a regular group activity.
  • Performance opportunities include the Winter Holiday Program, Graduation Program, Christmas and 4th of July Parades, and individual class programs.
  • Music classes feature vocal instruction, experiences with Orff instrumental ensemble and rhythm instruments, and recorder lessons in 1st-5th grade.
  • Vocal instruction includes unison, 2 and 3 part rounds, and songs with melody and harmony.
  • Orff instrumental ensemble experiences feature xylophones and glockenspiels.
  • Students are taught musical terminology, music history, and musical styles, composers, and aural/visual recognition of orchestral instruments.
  • Songs are chosen for each grade level to enhance the students’ social studies, science, and foreign language lessons, particularly emphasizing multiculturalism.
  • Curriculum is built around the Orff-Schulwerk music instruction methodology, with lessons that include singing, playing, listening, and movement.
  • Participation in the annual Music Memory Concert for 3rd-5th grades.

Fine Arts

  • Our Fine Arts program consists of the Visual Arts and the Performing Arts.
  • The Prescott Art Docents and Youth Speakers Bureau send art docents into our 1st-5th grade classrooms on a monthly basis to teach the art standards and make thematic connections to our social studies curriculums.
  • The fine arts program emphasis is on creativity, art appreciation, art history, and principles of design and form.
  • Opportunities to learn about famous artists and world cultures.
  • Exploration of different media including printmaking and ceramics.
  • Participation in quarterly class presentations for parents.
  • Class presentations at the Holiday Program and at the Graduation program for parents.
  • Performing and drama experiences are incorporated into the curriculum at all grade levels in the form of skits, plays, choral readings, musical performances, and oral presentations.
  • Children attend frequent musical, dramatic, and instrumental performances by professionals at Yavapai College Performance Hall.

Foreign Language

  • Beginning in preschool, children learn Spanish, French, and Sign Language as part of their regular curriculum.
  • Becoming aware of other languages gives students the opportunity to stimulate that part of their brain when they are most receptive to learning another language and prepares them for becoming a part of the global community.
  • Language instruction emphasizes a communicative approach emphasizing music, informal conversation skills, acquiring new vocabulary, and having fun with the language.
  • 4th and 5th grade curriculum adds more reading and writing skills in addition to speaking and listening.
  • The program strives to enhance the cultural experiences of students.

Character Education

Our character education program begins in preschool and is an integral part of our behavior expectations at Primavera. We aspire to model and teach the following 8 key traits for character development.

  • Honesty
  • Respect
  • Patriotism
  • Kindness
  • Courage
  • Responsibility
  • Feelings and Emotions
  • Self Worth

    • Our teachers follow a curriculum in the “Character Education Studies Weekly” which uses historical figures (like Abraham Lincoln) that highlight key character traits (like Responsibility) and then makes connections to the real world today thus helping students make a difference at home, at school, and in their community.