Curriculum Connection
K-5 Science and/or Social Studies -December 2021
Kindergarten Social Studies
In this unit students will be describing examples of scarcity and opportunity costs within their family and their community. Students will be able to decipher between a need and a want as well as describing examples of each.
In this unit, students will be looking at their culture and comparing their families from the past to the present. Students will be able to share stories, traditions, and bring in artifacts that describe their family's history.
1st Grade Science
In this unit, students will make observations to construct an evidence-based account that objects can be seen only when illuminated. They will also plan and conduct an investigation to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.
Explore 1: Activity: Reflection
Students listen to a fable and explore mirrors and how they are used.
Explore 2: Activity: What Do You See?
The students will explore the different ways light behaves when it hits various materials.
Explore 3: Inquiry Investigation: What Happens When Light Hits an Object
Students will plan an investigation to explore the behavior of light when it comes in contact with various materials.
In this unit, students will use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance.
Explore 1: Activity: Sound Stations
Students rotate through four different sound stations.
Explore 2: Inquiry Investigation: Sound System
Students discover how different materials affect the type of sound that is made.
2nd Grade Science
In this scope, students will use information from several sources to provide evidence that Earth events can occur quickly or slowly. This topic focuses on events that occur slowly, over a time period much longer than one can observe.
Explore 1: Scientific Investigation: Slow Change
Students explore how wind and water change rocks and soil.
Explore 2: Engineering Solution: Rain on the Rooftop
Students draw and design a model that will protect a flower bed and prevent seeds from washing away.
In this scope, students learn wind and water can change the shape of the land.
Explore 1: Scientific Investigation- Stop the Erosion!
Students will conduct an investigation comparing different ways to prevent wind and water erosion.
Explore 2: Engineering Solution- Save the Beach House
Students will use the scientific knowledge they gained as well as the 21st Century Skill of collaboration to design and construct a structure that protects a beach house from wind and water erosion of the land it sits on.
3rd Grade Science: Unit 2: Environments and the Traits of Organisms
Unit 2: Adaptations
Explore: Where Do I Live?
How do animal traits determine the environment in which it survives the best?
Explore 2: Build My Habitat
How do humans design habitats to meet the needs of animals?
Unit 2: Environmental Changes and Effects
Explore 1: Trouble in Paradise
How could fire, flood, and the building of a highway affect an environment?
Explore 2: New Habitat
What are some possible solutions to help organisms survive after an environmental change?
Anchoring Phenomena Event
How can an animal adapt to a new environment?
A Broadway producer is looking for a new play to bring to the stage. The producer wants the play to be based on an animal family’s struggles to adapt, in order to survive in a new environment, because their old environment was destroyed by humans. He feels the audience would enjoy one of these animals as the star of the show: a polar bear, cheetah, alligator, crab, tiger, monkey, bat, shark, lion, gazelle, butterfly, or eagle. Due to your recent study of environments and animal traits, the producer would like you to choose one of the animals above, and write and perform the play, to see if it has the potential of being a Broadway smash hit!
4th Grade Science Unit 2
Unit 2: Transfer of Energy in Collision
Explore 1: When Cars Collide
What happens when cars collide at different angles and speeds?
Explore 2: Let's Bounce
Is weight related to the amount of energy transferred to an object?
Explore 3: Collision Machine
How many different collision energy transfers can you make?
5th Grade Science and Social Studies
Unit 2: Mixtures
Explore 1: Expect the Unexpected
Students explore how a change in temperature and the production of gas are signs of a chemical reaction.
Explore 2: What's My Weight?
Students investigate what happens to the weight of a mixture during a chemical reaction.
Unit 2: Impact of Wars on the United States
Enduring Understandings:
● Describing the political, economic, and social causes and consequences of the Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Cold War.
● Describing the role of the government impacted the wars in the United States.
Engaging Scenario:
Students are to create an essay replicating the format of the I Survived series books. Students will select one war to describe how they “survived” the war. Students are to give background of the war and outcomes of the war. Finishing the essay with details about the lasting impacts of the war in our country. The students could use Book Creator, Story Bird, a physical book, etc.
Jennifer Wiley- Curriculum Specialist K-2
Email: wileyj@parkhill.k12.mo.us
Website: www.parkhill.k12.mo.us
Location: 7703 Northwest Barry Road, Kansas City, MO, USA
Phone: 816-359-6253
Twitter: @icjenwiley
Kim Fette- Curriculum Specialist 3-5
Email: fettek@parkhill.k12.mo.us
Website: www.parkhill.k12.mo.us
Location: 7703 Northwest Barry Road, Kansas City, MO, USA
Phone: 816-359-5750
Twitter: @kimElemCoach