St. Bridget of Sweden School Curriculum
The St. Bridget of Sweden School (St. BoSS) Curriculum is designed to prepare students to be Good Catholics as well as College and Career Ready. Each course of study promotes students' Catholic identity, shaping them to be models of Christian living. We provide students with a curriculum that is rigorous and rich in all disciplines. We are working to fulfill the promise of a quality Catholic education that develops the whole child: mind, body and soul. Operating under the guidance of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, St Bridget of Sweden School follows the Course of Study developed by the Department of Catholic Schools. This curriculum meets and exceeds the curriculum requirements for the California State Department of Education. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles periodically reviews and updates curriculum. It's our ministry as Catholic educators to embody our faith in everything we do. We model and teach children how to form a personal relationship with Jesus and build a foundation for lifelong learning and discipleship. All students are provided with age appropriate courses: Religion, Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music, and Physical Education. Field trips are scheduled throughout the year.
Faith
Religion classes and faith formation are the foundation of the entire school program. The mission, philosophy, and vision statements reiterate the original mission of the school: provide an atmosphere conducive to the maximum development of all students, enabling them to become excellent, competent and productive adults who make ethical and moral decisions and contribute meaningfully to society. Catholic values, teachings and traditions are integrated throughout the curriculum and the school program. Students and faculty work together daily to learn, pray, and play in an atmosphere of love, respect, and community. Religion curriculum at St. BoSS follows the Religion standards for elementary schools of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Our Curriculum
Early Education (TK-1)
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• Identify self and my family as belonging to God’s family.
• Identify the Bible as a special book about God.
• Dramatize the stories about Jesus from the Bible, i.e. The Last Supper, The Christ Child in the Temple, The Good Samaritan.
• Demonstrate how we show our love by using kind words and positive actions.
• Participate in prayer alone, with family and in class and at Church.
• Identify the saints as God’s special friends who are part of the family of the Church in heaven.
• Discover that God has made each student special and that individual differences are gifts from God.
• Understand when we help our family and friends we are showing love to others like Jesus did.ext goes here
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• Exhibit curiosity and interest in learning new vocabulary (e.g. ask questions about unfamiliar vocabulary).
• Describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear (e.g., what person, place, thing, or idea in the text an illustration depicts).
• Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding.
• Confirm understanding of a text read aloud or through other media by asking and answering questions about key details and requesting clarification if something is not understood.
• Distinguish shades of meaning among verbs describing the same general action (e.g., walk, march, strut, prance) by acting out the meanings.
• Use reading strategies to determine central themes, develop understanding, identify and utilize various text features, determine key ideas and describe connections.
• Become proficient readers with the capacity to comprehend texts across a range of types and disciplines.
• Identify basic features of print such as the alphabetic principle, phonological awareness, phonics, decoding, and blending.
• Write opinion pieces, informative/explanatory texts, narratives and should participate in shared research and writing.
• Participate in collaborative discussions, communicate effectively using a variety of tools to demonstrate efficient relay of information. Produce complete sentences appropriate to the task and situation.
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• Counting and Cardinality
• Operations and Algebraic Thinking
• Measurement and Data
• Numbers and Operations in Base Ten
• Geometry
• Numbers and Operations
• Count groups of objects to 10 in order to solve a problem.
• Immediate recognition of numbers in a group without counting.
• Manipulate actual, physical objects to represent the problem when working on a solution
• Use measurement vocabulary when describing the attributes of objects.
• Recognize shapes in their real-world environment.
Primary (2-5)
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By the completion of second grade, students will:
• Recognize that there are three Persons in one God: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that make up the Holy Trinity.
• Show an understanding of the Resurrection, that God raised Jesus from the dead.
• Identify and define the seven sacraments as signs of God’s love and the means to strengthen our relationship with God.
• Understand the Real Presence of the Risen Jesus in the Eucharist under the form of bread and wine.
• Express that we are given the gifts of free will and that our choices affect the lives of others.
• Explain that God created us to know, love and serve Him.
By the completion of third grade, students will:
• Recognize the Commandments as rules God gave us because he loves us.
• Explain that people are called to forgive others and work toward understanding.
• Explain the major seasons of the liturgical (Church) year.
• Recognize conscience as a guide to distinguishing good and evil.
• Identify Mary as an intercessor for us with God.
• Articulate that all people are called to holiness by living their lives close to God.
By the completion of fourth grade, students will:
• Describe the Holy Spirit as proceeding from both the Father and Son as perfect love and wisdom.
• Define sin as choosing to turn away from God and examine sin’s effect on our lives.
• Recognize the Mysteries of the Rosary are meditations on different events in the life of Christ and his Blessed Mother.
• Compose prayer from each of these categories: blessing and adoration, contrition, petition, intercession, thanksgiving and praise.
• Identify the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.
By the completion of the fifth grade, students will:
• Understand that the Church teaches that Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man.
• Identify and describe the major liturgical feasts and seasons of the Church year.
• Identify all human life as sacred and precious to God, made in God’s image and likeness.
• Understand that faithfulness to prayer and worship helps us to lead a moral life.
• Identify that the Church teaches that we must work for a more just and fair society and world.
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By the completion of second grade, students will:
• Use an inquiry process to locate, evaluate and use sources based on accuracy, authority, and point of view to explore a question/topic and synthesize and share findings and give appropriate credit/ citation.
• Select and use appropriate format to effectively engage the target audience in a topic, point of view, argument and/or creative work.
• Analyze and evaluate information, ideas, or objects to develop a point of view, make predictions, or draw inferences.
• Identify and define a problem-situation and work through a procedure to determine viable and appropriate solutions and next steps and carryout as applicable.
• Generate and develop ideas, solutions and connections to create something original/ novel that is meaningful or useful.
By the completion of third grade, students will:
• Students will use text presented orally and visually to engage in collaborative discussions with peers.
• Students will learn to write in cursive, and will learn and apply spelling patterns and standard English language conventions.
• Use vowel digraphs and diphthongs. • Compare and contrast historical fiction from various cultures.
• Understand the use of dialect within literature.
By the completion of fourth grade, students will:
• Through reading a diverse array of literature and informational text, students are expected to analyze the structure of the text, compare and contrast, and refer to the evidence in the text, to interpret, integrate, explain, and describe their reading perspective.
• Students should show an ability to write informative, opinion and narrative pieces with clear and coherent writing.
• Using the writing process, students will develop and strengthen their writing skills.
• Research skills should be practiced over an extended period of time, using evidence from various text to support, analyze and reflect the research.
• Students should participate in a range of class discussions, posing specific questions, paraphrasing text and giving support for their opinions.
• Instruction should focus on correct punctuation, capitalization, multi-meaning words, and figurative language.
By the completion of fifth grade, students will:
• Demonstrate a command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
• Summarize a written text read aloud or from information presented in a variety of media and formats, including visual, quantitative, and oral.
• Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in the story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic and be able to summarize the text.
• Write arguments to support claims in analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
• Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation; additionally, produce more substantial research projects demonstrating understanding of the subject.
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By the completion of second grade, students will:
• Represent and solve problems involving addition and subtraction.
• Work with equal groups of objects to gain foundations for multiplication.
• Relate addition and subtraction to length.
• Work with time and money.
• Represent and interpret data.
By the completion of third grade, students will:
• Understand properties of multiplication and the relationship between multiplication and division.
• Use place value understanding and properties of operations to perform multi-digit arithmetic.
• Develop understanding of fractions as numbers.
• Geometric measurement: understand concepts of area and relate area to multiplication and to addition.
By the completion of fourth grade, students will:
• Use the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems.
• Gain familiarity with factors and multiples.
• Generate and analyze patterns.
• Understand decimal notation for fractions, and compare decimal fractions.
• Draw and identify lines and angles, and classify shapes by properties of their lines and angles.
By the completion of fifth grade, students will:
• Write and interpret numerical expressions.
• Perform operations with multi-digit whole numbers and with decimals to hundredths.
• Convert like measurement units within a given measurement system.
• Geometric measurement: understand concepts of volume and relate volume to multiplication and to addition.
• Graph points on the coordinate plane to solve real-world and mathematical problems.
• Classify two-dimensional figures into categories based on their properties.
Secondary (6-8)
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By the completion of sixth grade, students will:
• Explain that at the end of time, Christ will return and we will be held accountable for how we responded to the gift of faith and helped to build the Kingdom of God.
• Trace the unfolding of God’s revelation through the history of the Chosen People - the Jews.
• Describe each of the seven sacraments as entrusted to the Church.
• Indicate how the Decalogue relates to current moral issues and leads to greater understanding of the Gospel through the Great Commandment.
• Discuss evangelization as central to the mission of the Church in which we all have a role.
By the completion of seventh grade, students will:
• Recognize that the Bible has both divine and human authorship initiated by God to reveal the truths God intends.
• Investigate the fruits of the Sacrament of Baptism to include forgiveness of all sins, birth into a new life, and a share in Christ’s three‐fold mission as priest, prophet, and king.
• Explain how a well‐formed conscience is developed through the knowledge of Scripture and Church doctrine as well as the witness of Church leaders and faithful role models, past and present.
• Explain the importance of Christians taking an active part in public life and promoting the common good.
• Discuss the call to religious life in the Church which is identified in two forms: active and contemplative.
By the completion of eighth grade, students will:
• Understand that Jesus’ paschal mystery, that is his life, passion, death, resurrection and ascension, are central to Jesus’ mission on earth and the fulfillment of revelation.
• Explain that the context of moral decision‐making within the Catholic Christian tradition reflects the values of human dignity, God’s grace, the virtues, the Holy Spirit, and the teaching of the church.
• Understand that our beliefs are sound and rooted in Apostolic Tradition and Sacred Scripture, as entrusted to the teaching office (Magisterium) of the Church.
• Describe the progress and continuation of the Church’s mission through ecumenical councils, including, but not limited to: the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon, Vatican I, Vatican II, Fourth Lateran, Trent, Constantinople, and Ephesus.
• Communicate that our respect of other Christians means that we can both recognize what we share in common but that we also need to be honest about how we differ.
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By the completion of sixth grade, students will:
• Use of the process in research writing.
• Use of the process in essay writing.
• Voice and tone in writing emphasized.
• More Focus in Fiction, Genre, and Literary Elements.
• Use of Grammar integration.
• Collaboration, oral presentations, speeches, and technology components incorporated regularly.
By the completion of seventh grade, students will:
• Students will be able to write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.
• Students will analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or issue under study.
• Students should demonstrate understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings.
• Students should acquire and use accurately grade-appropriate general academic and domain-specific words and phrases; gather vocabulary knowledge when considering a word or phrase important to comprehension or expression.
By the completion of eighth grade, students will:
• Students use their knowledge of word origins and word relationships, as well as historical and literary context clues, to determine the meaning of specialized vocabulary and to comprehend the written word.
• Students read a good representation of narrative and expository text (e.g., classic and contemporary literature, magazines, newspapers, online information).
• Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits students’ awareness of audience and purpose. Essays contain formal introductions, supporting evidence, and conclusions.
• Students progress through the stages of the writing process as needed.
• Students write and speak with a command of Standard English writing mechanics including correct grammar and usage that is appropriate to this grade level.
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By the completion of sixth grade, students will:
• Understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems.
• Reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities.
• Represent and analyze quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables.
• Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume.
• Develop understanding of statistical variability.
By the completion of seventh grade, students will:
• Analyze proportional relationships and use them to solve real-world and mathematical problems.
• Use properties of operations to generate equivalent expressions.
• Solve real-life and mathematical problems using numerical and algebraic expressions and equations.
• Draw, construct and describe geometrical figures and describe the relationships between them.
• Use random sampling to draw inferences about a population.
• Investigate chance processes and develop, use, and evaluate probability models.
By the completion of eighth grade, students will:
• Know that there are numbers that are not rational and approximate them by rational numbers.
• Work with radicals and integer exponents.
• Understand the connections between proportional relationships, lines, and linear equations.
• Define, evaluate, and compare functions.
• Understand congruence and similarity using physical models, transparencies, or geometry software.
• Understand and apply the Pythagorean Theorem.
In addition, advanced eighth grade students are offered a higher level course in Algebra. That course of study includes the following units:
• Relationships Between Quantities and Reasoning with Equations
• Linear and Exponential Relationships
• Descriptive Statistics
• Expressions and Equations
• Quadratics Functions and Modeling
Goal: Social emotional development, faith formation, introduction to reading, writing, letter/number recognition
Goal: Develop self management skills, evangelization, develop computation and fluency skills, critical thinking and development of self-guided learners.
Academic Program
The Academic Program includes a rigorous and balanced curriculum that nurtures not only cognitive/thinking skills but also the religious, creative, expressive, artistic, imaginative, social, and personal lives of the children. We want our students to be creative and original thinkers who use their imaginations as they grow in their basic skills. We guide them to be flexible and adaptable, able to initiate as well as apply their knowledge and understanding in new and unfamiliar situations. These skills and competencies are not easily measured on any kind of standardized test; rather, they are the foundation for our students’ future.