Learning Expectations

School’s hands-on Kindergarten curriculum will prepare your child for 1st Grade. The basis of our interactive curriculum is a seamless interdisciplinary education intertwined with an introduction to basic technology and computer skills.

A. Reading:

• Emphasizing phonics to teach short vowels and consonant sounds
• Logical/chronological sequencing
• Auditory/visual discrimination
• Classifying
• Rhyming
• Reading 19 phonics storybooks

B. Grammar:

• Developing oral expression
• Constructing asking/telling sentences
• Capital letters to start sentences and punctuation

C. Spelling and Vocabulary:

• Identifying word beginnings and endings
• Controlled vocabulary of short vowel words
• Key words

C. Writing/Composition:

• Developing fine motor control
• Option of printing letters, words, and simple sentences
• Use of graphic organizers

D. Math:

• Counting and writing numbers 0–100
• Patterns, shapes, and understanding data from pictures
• Properties of addition and subtraction
• Problem solving; graphing
• Ordering numbers
• Matching sets

E. Science:

• Seasons
• Five senses
• Space
• Differences among land, air, and water
• Weather
• Plants and Animals
• Natural Resources
• Health

CIS’s 1st Grade curriculum harnesses the joy parents feel watching their child develop into individual critical thinkers. Our engaging and challenging activities are designed to nurture a full range of phonemic awareness, phonics, comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, and fluency skills. CIS will help parents guide student through a distinctive and well-rounded curriculum and prepare him or her to express ideas in his or her own words.

A. Reading:

• Building a foundation for reading using the decoding process
• Emphasizing word analysis techniques
• Long vowels
• Digraphs
• Consonant clusters
• Vowel pairs
• Blends
• R-controlled vowels
• Compound words
• Synonyms and Antonyms
• Base words
• Préfixes, suffixes, syllabes, possessives, abréviations, and contractions
• Developing comprehension skills through consistent, controlled vocabulary used in appealing anthologies and phonics library book of stories, verbs, nouns, pronouns

B. Writing/Composition:

• Learning cursive handwriting, using CIS Script (the distinctive, easy-to-learn method of handwriting used in the CIS School
• Emphasizing simple lines and legibility
• Strengthening fine motor skills and attention to detail
• Forming letters, words, and simple sentences
• Simple punctuation

C. Math:

• Using numbers to 100
• Simple fractions
• Solid and plane shapes
• Money
• Equivalent amounts
• Fact Families
• Measuring
• Adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers
• Place value
• Problem solving
• Telling time

D. Science:

• Scientific method
• The sun, moon, and stars
• Shadows
• Seasons and weather
• Properties of matter, solids, liquids, and gases
• Forces and movement
• Living and nonliving things
• Growth and change
• Human systems
• Energy
• Land and water habitats
• Earth’s surface and resources

E. Social Studies:

• Exploring original read-aloud narratives that include biographies of well-known explorers
• Political figures, inventors, and leaders in American life
• Accounts of famous events (first Thanksgiving; Civil Rights movement
• Investigating the five themes of geography, compass direction, maps, symbols, globes, and physical features
• Developing the foundation of American civics and government (rules, authority, elections, voting
• Examining the basic economic concepts of needs and wants, work, production, markets and money; activities included

Our 2nd Grade homeschool curriculum fully immerses your child into the world of independent reading. Using our delightful phonics storybooks and reading anthologies, your child will develop strong reading comprehension skills to last a lifetime. Simultaneously, spelling practice, word and sentence dictation, and the rules of punctuation will help prepare your child to express his or her ideas in original composition pieces.

A. Reading:

• Reviewing word analysis techniques, long vowels, digraphs, consonant clusters, vowel pairs, blends, and r-controlled vowels.
• Developing comprehension skills.
• Building strategies for comparing, contrasting, predicting, inferring, and drawing conclusions.
• Identifying cause and effect.
• Summarizing.
• Recognizing topics, main ideas, and details.
• Reading appealing anthologies and phonics library book of stories.
• Developing critical thinking skills.

B. Writing/Composition:

• Practicing CIS Script as reinforcement of learning to read.
• Writing dictated words and sentences.
• Writing compositions.
• Practicing spelling and vocabulary.
• Learning rules of punctuation.

C. Math:

• Adding and subtracting 2- and 3-digit numbers.
• Money.
• Patterns in addition and subtraction.
• Measuring weight, capacity, and temperature.
• Problem-solving strategies.
• Telling time in 5-minute increments.
• 2- and 3-dimensional geometric figures.
• Fractions.
• Sets.
• Introducing multiplication and division.

D. Science:

• • Developing natural curiosity.
  • Questioning, investigating, experimenting.
  • Studying living things, our Earth, weather, matter, motion, and energy.

E. Social Studies:

• • Exploring original read-aloud narratives that include biographies of legendary Old-World figures, explorers, inventors, and leaders in American life, as well as accounts of famous events (Paul Revere’s ride, fall of the Berlin Wall
  • Investigating the five themes of geography, compass direction, maps, symbols, globes, continents, relative and exact locations, boundaries, and regions.
  • Extending the fundamentals of American civics and government (cooperation, accountability, conflict resolution, patriotism
  • Examining the economic concepts of goods and services, income, scarcity of resources, markets, and banking.

In CIS’s 3rd Grade curriculum, your child will explore literature and develop skills for organizational writing, all while delving into new concepts such as mythology and art history.

A. Reading:

• Reviewing phonics skills, structural analysis, syllabication, irregular plurals, suffixes, prefixes, and possessives.
• Reinforcing skills using anthologies, Reader’s Library, and Smiling Hill Farm.
• Identifying main ideas.
• Drawing conclusions
• Making inferences.
• Differentiating between fact and opinion.
• Making generalizations.
• Predicting outcomes.
• Reading biographies of famous Americans, including explorers, presidents and humanitarian leaders, scientists, writers, and artists.

B. Writing/Composition:

• Developing organized writing skills.
• Completing four lessons each week.
• Building skills in basic grammar, punctuation, correction, letter writing, and journaling.

C. Math:

• Addition, subtraction, multiplication (to 9s), and division.
• Reading and writing numbers with place values through 100,000s.
• Comparing fractions.
• Equivalent fractions.
• Decimals to hundredths.
• Pictographs and bar graphs.
• Coordinate points on grids.
• Tree diagrams.
• Rounding.
• Word problems.
• Roman numerals.
• Regrouping in addition and subtraction.
• Money, time, and temperature.
• Introduction to statistics, probability, and graphing measurement.
• Units of weight; volume; temperature.
• The metric and customary systems.

D. Science:

• Introduction to life cycles of organisms.
• Force and motion.
• Matter as a solid, liquid, and gas.
• Heat and light.
• The solar system.
• Erosion and natural resources.
• Animal ecosystems.
• Health and nutrition.

E. Social Studies:
Uses the textbook Communities—studying world and U.S.

• Learning about kinds of communities: rural, suburban, urban
• Moving to new communities and learning new customs.
• The meaning of good citizenship.
• Core values of freedom and roles as future guardians of America’s freedoms.

Our 4th Grade curriculum provides opportunity for students to exercise their creativity by writing original compositions. Students are also given the opportunity to divulge in new topics in science and technology. The reading curriculum relies on classic children’s literature and poetry, with lessons designed to increase comprehension, appreciation, and analysis.

A. Reading:

• Reading children’s classics.
• Developing critical thinking skills.

B. Writing/Composition:

• Using the four-stage approach to write factual, creative, and descriptive compositions.
• Organizing keywords into phrases using shape planners.
• Writing poetry and letters.

C. Math:

• Fluency and accuracy drills in four operations.
• Multiply, divide three digits.
• Understanding mixed numbers.
• Probability.
• Adding and subtracting decimals.
• Geometry.
• Comparing, adding, and subtracting fractions.
• Circle and line graphs.
• Measurement.

D. Science:

• Classifying living things
• Matter and scientific measurement.
• Electricity, circuits, magnets.
• Vertebrates and invertebrates.
• Water resources.
• Human body and motion.
• Rocks and fossils.

E. Social Studies:
Students have the option of using two different history textbooks:

• History: Using Child’s History of the World to conduct general survey of world history from earliest times to present; featuring a history workbook with outlines and enrichment activities.
• Social Studies: Using Regions, focus on geography, history, economics, and people who live in different regions of the U.S.

A. Reading:

• Reading children’s classics and Newbery Award winners.
• Developing critical thinking and comprehension skills.

B. Writing/Composition:

• Writing reports and original stories.
• Paragraphing.
• Outlining subjects from History, Reading, Geography, and Science lessons.

C. Math:

• Multiplying up to three digits.
• Geometry points, lines, and rays.
• Measuring angles.
• Adding mixed numerals and decimals.
• Multiplying and dividing decimals.
• Adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying fractions.
• Perimeter, area, volume.
• Statistics, graphing, and probability.
• Ratios and percentages

D. Science:

• Studying plants.
• Weather and climate.
• Energy.
• Matter.
• Earth and its resources.
• Ecosystems.
• The human body.

E. Social Studies:

• Surveying American history from ancient civilizations.
• Emphasizing early American Indian cultures and colonization
• The Revolution
• Westward expansion.
• The Civil War and its aftermath.
• Industrialization.
• Exploring the five themes of geography.
• Studying the United States by region, with focus on landforms, waterways, natural resources, parks, monuments, cities, state capitals, industry, agriculture, and climate.
• State reports.
• Extending map and globe skills.

A. Reading:

• Reading children’s classics and Newbery Award winners.
• Developing critical thinking and comprehension skills.

B. Writing/Composition:

• Writing reports and original stories.
• Outlining subjects from History, Reading, Geography, and Science lessons.
• Outlining subjects from History, Reading, Geography, and Science lessons.

C. Math:

• Multiplying up to three digits.
• Geometry points, lines, and rays.
• Measuring angles.
• Adding mixed numerals and decimals.
• Multiplying and dividing decimals.
• Adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying fractions.
• Perimeter, area, volume.
• Statistics, graphing, and probability.
• Ratios and percentages

D. Science:

• Studying plants.
• Weather and climate.
• Energy.
• Matter.
• Earth and its resources.
• Ecosystems.
• The human body.

E. Social Studies:

• Surveying American history from ancient civilizations.
• Emphasizing early American Indian cultures and colonization
• The Revolution
• Westward expansion.
• The Civil War and its aftermath.
• Industrialization.
• Exploring the five themes of geography.
• Studying the United States by region, with focus on landforms, waterways, natural resources, parks, monuments, cities, state capitals, industry, agriculture, and climate.
• State reports.
• Extending map and globe skills.

A. Reading:

• Using guided lessons to read children’s classics.
• Building critical thinking skills.

B. Writing/Composition:

• Writing original works.
• Research reports.
• Bibliographies.
• Narrative, expository, creative, descriptive, and persuasive writing.
• Poetry.
• News articles.

C. Math:

• Reviewing common mathematical operations, fractions, and decimals.
• Geometry.
• Measurement.
• Integers.
• Graphing.
• Statistics.
• Problem solving.
• Ratio and proportion.
• Percent, data analysis, and graphs
• Solving one- and two-step equations with integers.
• Coordinate graphing.

D. Science:

• Earth science.
• The weather.

E. Social Studies:
Students explore ancient civilizations from early humans through the Renaissance.

• The development of culture and societies.
• Early civilizations in Egypt, China, India, and Greece.
• Relationship between the past and present.
• Tools of historians.

A. Reading:

• Reading literary classics.
• Understanding literary devices.

B. Writing/Composition:

• Understanding literary devices.
• Writing letters, poetry, and book reports.
• Developing research reports.
• Interviewing.
• Paragraphing

C. Math:

• Reviewing skills.
• Pre-algebra.
• Equalities and inequalities.
• Variables and formulas.
• Patterns and number theory.
• Complementary and supplementary angles.
• Statistics.
• Permutations and combinations.
• Permutations and combinations.
• Multiplying and dividing integers.
• Pythagorean Theorem.
• Parallel and perpendicular line.
• Dependent events.
• Problem-solving skills.

D. Science:

• • Understanding the characteristics of living things.
  • Bacteria to animals.

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• Motion, forces, and energy.
• Sound and light.
• Human biology and health.

E. Social Studies:

• Comprehensive survey of world history after the fall of the Roman Empire.
• Critical analysis of political, economic, and social changes from ancient times to the American Revolution.
• Explore the essential elements, themes, and branches of geography
• Earth’s climate, environment and resources.
• Global populations and cultures.
• Governments and economics.
• Explore how geography shaped history and culture in Europe and Russia.