Curriculum Connections
Program of Studies: Primary Education “Big Ideas”
See Also: Academic Expectations | Core Content
- Inquiry and Research
The inquiry process is an authentic method of learning that includes activities such as self-selecting topics, formulating authentic questions, gathering information, researching resources, crafting experiments, observing, interviewing, evaluating information, analyzing and synthesizing data, and communicating findings and conclusions. - Forming a Foundation in Reading
Forming a foundation in reading requires readers to develop and apply basic reading skills and strategies across genres to read and understand texts at the appropriate grade level. This involves reading a variety of texts at the word, sentence, and connected text level across all content areas. - Writing Content
To communicate effectively, students should be able to write for a variety of authentic purposes and audiences in a variety of forms, connecting to prior knowledge and the student’s understanding of the content. In their writing, students should be able to create a focused purpose and controlling idea and develop ideas adequately considering the purpose, audience, and form. - Speaking, Listening, and Observing
Speaking, listening, and observing are fundamental processes which people use to express, explore, and learn about ideas. The functions of speaking, listening, and observing include gathering and sharing information, persuading others, expressing and understanding ideas, and selecting and critically analyzing messages. - Data Analysis and Probability
Students pose questions, plan and collect data, organize and display data, and interpret displays of data. - Personal Wellness
Wellness is maximum well-being, or total health. Personal wellness is a combination of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social well-being. It involves making choices and decisions each day that promote an individual’s physical well-being; the prevention of illnesses and diseases; and the ability to remain mentally, spiritually, and emotionally healthy. - Nutrition
Proper nutrition is critical to good health. - Biological Change
The only thing certain is that everything changes. Elementary students build a foundational knowledge of change by observing slow and fast changes caused by nature in their own environment, noting changes that humans and other organisms cause in their environment, and observing fossils in or near their environment. - Economics
Economics includes the study of production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Students need to understand how their economic decisions affect them, others, and the nation as a whole. - Consumer Decisions
Individuals and families need to make consumer decisions due to the numerous products/services on the market, multiple advertising techniques, and the need to make responsible financial decisions. - Career Awareness, Exploration, Planning
Career awareness, exploration, and planning give students the opportunity to discover the various career areas that exist and introduce them to the realities involved in the workplace. Many factors need to be considered when selecting a career path and preparing for employment. Career awareness, exploration, and planning will enable students to recognize the value of education and learn how to plan for careers. The relationship between academics and jobs/careers will enable students to make vital connections that will give meaning to their learning.
Kentucky Academic Expectation Connections
See also: Program of Studies | Core Content
- 1.2: Students make sense of the variety of materials they read.
- 1.3: Students make sense of the variety of things they observe.
- 1.4: Students make sense of the various messages to which they listen.
- 1.10: Students organize information through development and use of classification rules and systems.
- 1.11: Students write using appropriate forms, conventions, and styles to communicate ideas and information to different audiences for different purposes.
- 2.4: Students use the concept of scale and scientific models to explain the organization and functioning of living and nonliving things and predict other characteristics that might be observed.
- 2.13: Students understand and appropriately use statistics and probability.
- 2.31: Students demonstrate the knowledge and skills they need to remain physically healthy and to accept responsibility for their own physical well-being.
- 2.33: Students demonstrate the skills to evaluate and use services and resources available in their community.
- 2.36: Students use strategies for choosing and preparing for a career.
- 5.1: Students use critical thinking skills such as analyzing, prioritizing, categorizing, evaluating, and comparing to solve a variety of problems in real-life situations.
- 5.2: Students use creative thinking skills to develop or invent novel, constructive ideas or products.
- 5.3: Students organize information to develop or change their understanding of a concept.
Kentucky Core Content Connections
See also: Program of Studies | Academic Expectations
- ELA P1-1: Students will pose questions to obtain ideas and information for authentic purposes.
- MA-EP-4.1.1: Students will analyze and make inferences from data displays (drawings, tables/charts, tally tables, pictographs, bar graphs, circle graphs, line plots, two-circle Venn diagrams). DOK 3
- PL-EP-1.1.6: Students will describe how an individual’s behavior and choices of diet, exercise, and rest affect the body. DOK 1
- PL-EP-1.1.7: Students will identify strategies and good hygiene practices (e.g., hand washing, brushing teeth, using tissues) that promote good health and prevent diseases. DOK 1
- PL-EP-4.1.2: Students will identify jobs relating to Kentucky’s Career Clusters and describe these jobs/careers.
- PL-EP-4.1.3: Students will identify how academic classes (e.g., reading and writing) relate to various jobs. DOK 1
- RD-EP-2.0.4: Students will interpret specialized vocabulary (words and terms specific to understanding the content). DOK 2
- RD-EP-2.0.5: Students will identify the correct sequence. DOK 1
- SC-EP-3.4.3: Students will describe the basic structures and related functions of plants and animals that contribute to growth, reproduction, and survival. Each plant or animal has structures that serve different functions in growth, survival, and reproduction. For example, humans have distinct body structures for walking, holding, seeing, and talking. DOK 2
- SC-EP-4.6.1: Students will describe basic relationships of plants and animals in an ecosystem. Plants make their own food. All animals depend on plants. Some animals eat plants for food. Other animals eat animals that eat the plants. Basic relationships and connections between organisms in food chains can be used to discover patterns within ecosystems. DOK 2
- SS-EP-2.1.1: Students will describe cultural elements (e.g., beliefs, traditions, languages, skills, literature, the arts). DOK 1
- SS-EP-3.1.1: Students will define basic economic terms related to scarcity (e.g., opportunity cost, wants and needs, limited productive resources—natural, human, capital) and explain that scarcity requires people to make economic choices and incur opportunity costs. DOK 2
- SS-EP-3.3.1: Students will define basic economic terms related to markets (e.g., market economy, markets, wants and needs, goods and services, profit, consumer, producer, supply and demand, barter, money, trade, advertising). DOK 2