Academics

The Shrine Catholic Grade School curriculum follows the Archdiocese of Detroit Standards for all subject areas.

We believe for a child to meet their greatest potential, they need to feel important, accepted, and welcomed. In our Early Childhood Center, each child’s self esteem and emerging identity as God’s own child is affirmed. We believe that because each child grows at their independent pace, it is our job to teach them at their individual level of readiness. We build on the child’s own knowledge and questions through brainstorming, inquiring, classifying, and cooperating. All of this occurs through multi-sensory experiences while providing an atmosphere of playful learning and discovery at the same time!

The teachers and staff at Shrine Early Childhood Center understand that parental involvement is key to a child’s success in school. Frequent parent communication builds community and gives each child the greatest potential for success. As part of our communication, we are excited for our “daily wrap ups” at the end of each school day. This is a time for your child’s teacher to share with you all the activities your child participated in on any given day. The teachers will also share research-supported information backing up the daily curriculum.

For our evaluation tools, we use daily documentations, portfolios, and assessments. Parents will meet formally twice a year for conferences, yet an open communication will be ongoing throughout the year. We believe by providing students with these tools, they will be able to walk confidently from the preschool hallway into the grade school when their preschool experience has ended.

Q: What are Star Assessments?

A: Star Assessments are short tests that provide teachers with learning data. Star tests are computer adaptive, which means they adjust to each answer your child provides. This helps teachers get the best data to help your child in the shortest amount of testing time (about one-third of the time other tests take).

Your child may take a Star test for early literacy, math, reading, or other subjects of their teacher’s choice.

Q: What do teachers do with Star Assessments?

A: Teachers analyze the data they get from Star Assessments to learn what students already know and what they are ready to learn next, to monitor student growth, and to determine which students may need additional help. Star Assessments are heavily researched and scientifically proven to help teachers guide each student on his or her unique path to mastery.

Q: What do Star Assessments do for my child?

A: By pinpointing exactly what your child knows, teachers can personalize your child’s practice to keep them growing. Plus, short test times ensure your child spends more time learning and less time testing.

Q: Can we use Star Assessments at home?

A: No, Star Assessments are only used at school by teachers to gain insight to guide instruction. However, your child’s teacher may send home reports of your child’s Star results and growth.

Q: How can I help my child with their Star Assessments?

A: The best way to help your child with Star Assessments is to help them understand why they are taking the test: So their teacher knows exactly how to help them learn! For anxious children, it may be important to tell them that they cannot fail a Star test—as long as they do their best, the data generated from the test will help their teacher teach them more great things!

Q: Where do I go if I have questions?

A: Your child’s teacher is the best source of additional information about your child’s progress with Star Assessments. Renaissance is committed to protecting student privacy and will not share data with anyone outside your child’s authorized school staff.

Star Assessments’ Parent Reports

Here are some samples of the parent reports available in Star Assessments. Use these reports to share progress with parents during parent-teacher conferences.

Parent reports available in English and Spanish for Star Reading, Star Math, Star Early Literacy, and Star Custom provides a summary of student performance and a brief definition of scores.

Kindergarten Curriculum (PDF)

• Major Emphasis:  God, our Creator and Father, loves us
• Sharing the church’s stories, beliefs, scripture, and tradition
• Participating in public and personal prayer
• Creating a sense of community by spreading the ”Good News” in school, parish, and larger community
• Caring for God’s world
• Learning about Saints and religious holidays
• Understanding choices

• Naming upper and lower case letters, matching them to sounds, and printing them
• Using a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing (Six Traits) to describe an event, including his or her reaction to what happened
• Comparing adventures and experiences of characters in familiar stories
• Retelling familiar stories and talking about stories read to them using details from the text
• Taking part in classroom conversations and following rules for discussions
• Speaking clearly to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas
• Understanding and using questions words (i.e. who, what, where, when, why, how) in discussions
• Learning to recognize, spell, and properly use the little grammatical words that hold language together (i.e. a, the, to, of, from, I, is, are…..)

• Exploring patterns, sorting, and classifying
• Counting objects to tell how many
• Comparing two groups of objects  to tell which, if either, has more
• Acting out addition and subtraction word problems; drawing diagrams to represent them
• Adding with a sum of 10 or less; subtracting from a number 10 or less; solving addition and subtraction word problems
• Adding and subtracting very small numbers quickly and accurately (i.e. 4 + 1)
• Exploring shapes

• Exploring senses
• Exploring animals; plants; Earth’s land, air, and water; weather and seasons; the Scientific Method

• Exploring geography and maps; working together; rules and laws; rights and responsibilities; patriotic symbols; jobs, goods and services; how things change over time

• Gym, Music, Computer, Library, Spanish

1st Grade Curriculum (PDF)

• God’s creation and His gifts
• Ways to follow Jesus, the storyteller, the healer, and our savior
• Participating in prayer –how, when, and where
• Seven Sacraments
• The Holy Family
• The Trinity
• The Mass
• Learning about Saints and religious holidays
• Understanding and making choices

• Using phonics and word analysis skills to figure out unfamiliar words when reading and writing
• Describing characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details
• Gleaning facts and information from different writings
• Using Six Traits to write about a topic, supplying some facts, and providing a sense of opening and closing; producing and expanding complete,simple,and compound statements, questions, commands and exclamations
• Learning rules of capitalization, punctuation, and other mechanics of grammar
• Participating in shared research and writing projects
• Taking part in conversations about topics and texts being studied by responding tocomments of others and asking questions
• Describing people, places, things, and events with relevant details;expressing ideas and feelings clearly and with complete sentences
• Identifying the correct meaning for a word with multiple meanings through context
• Practicing correct formation of letters and numbers

• Solving addition and subtraction word problems in situations of adding to, taking from, putting together, taking apart, and comparing
• Adding with a sum of 20 or less, and subtracting from a number 20 or less
• Fluently memorizing addition and subtraction facts to 10
• Understanding place value to 100
• Using place value to add and subtract two digit numbers
• Measuring lengths of objects by using a shorter object as a unit of length
• Making composite shapesby joining shapes together and dividing circles and rectangles into halves or fourths

• Exploring living and non-living
• Exploring a wide variety of topics including plant and animal habitats, natural resources, matter and energy, forces –push & pull, magnets, solar system, hygiene...

• Exploring geography and maps; families;citizenship; laws; voting;jobs, goods and services; Americans long ago and now

• Art, Gym, Music, Computer, Library, Spanish

2nd Grade Curriculum (PDF)

• Understanding and participating in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist
• Understanding that Jesus leads by His example
• Developing an understanding of the three persons of The Trinity
• Reading the Bible
• Participating in prayer -  personal and public
• Understanding the parts of the Mass
• Learning about the role of saints and holy people in our faith
• The Great Commandment and the Law of Love
• Learning how to be stewards of God’s creation

• Giving close attention to details, including illustrations and graphics
• Using text features to locate key facts/information efficiently
• Determining the lesson or moral of stories, fables, and folktales
• Using Six Traits to: write creative stories with a clear beginning, middle and end; write an opinion about a book using supporting details
• Producing, expanding, and rearranging sentences
• Participate in shared research projects
• Taking part in conversation by linking comments to those of others and asking questions to deepen understanding of the topic
• Continuing to study sounds, letters, and words to construct meaning of text
• Developing an understanding of parts of speech and mechanics of grammar

• Solving challenging addition and subtraction word problems with one and two steps
• Fluent memorization of addition and subtraction facts up to 20
• Quickly and accurately adding and subtracting two digit numbers
• Understanding place value in three digit numbers
• Using understanding of place value to add and subtract three digit numbers
• Measuring and estimating length in standard units and solving addition and subtraction word problems involving length
• Building, drawing, and analyzing 2 and 3 dimensional shapes to develop foundations for area, volume, and geometry in later grades

• Exploring the growth and change of living things, habitats, rocks and soil, land and water, solids, liquids and gases, properties of matter, habitats space and weather, matter and energy, dissecting owl pellets and sheep eyes.

• Exploring and decoding maps; understanding communities, laws, and government; discovering the regions of the United States

• Art, Gym, Music, Computer, Library, Spanish

3rd Grade Curriculum (PDF)

A Glimpse of What your Child Will Be Working on in Third Grade

Religion

• Revelation of God as the Creator of all that is good, the Bible is His word, and the Church is God’s people
• Understanding that the Church is the Body of Christ and continues Jesus’ work on Earth through guidance of priests, bishops, and the Pope
• Understanding that the Holy Spirit makes us one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church; helps us make good choices and develops our conscience
• Understanding that the Seven Sacraments come from Jesus and give us grace
• Participation in prayer – public and personal
• Participation in the Liturgy of the Word at Mass
• Discovering the significant impact of St. Therese and her little ways

• Reading closely to find main ideas and supporting details in a story
• Describing logical connections within text, sequencing, and cause and effect
• Using Six Traits to write comparisons, opinions, and explanations that group related information that contain facts and details
• Using Six Traits to write stories that establish a situation and include details and a clear sequence of events that describe actions, thoughts, and feelings of characters
• Independently conducting short research projects
• Reading stories and poems aloud fluently
• Distinguishing the literal and non-literal meanings of words
• Continuing the development of mechanics of grammar

• Multiplying and dividing up to 10 x 10 quickly and accurately, including knowing the times tables fluently by memory
• Solving word problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
• Understanding fractions and relating them to whole numbers
• Measuring and estimating weights and liquid volumes and solving word problems involving these quantities
• Finding areas of shapes and relating area to multiplication

• Understanding the Scientific Method and science as inquiry
• Exploring Life Science -  plants/photosynthesis, ecosystems, food chains/webs; health; animal behavior and habitats
• Exploring Earth Science – landforms, soil types and conservation; minerals/rocks/fossils, natural resources, water cycle. Solar system, moon phases
• Exploring Physical Science-matter, force and motion, energy

• Exploring Native Americans, Jamestown, Revolutionary leaders, immigration, and notable Americans
• Understanding Core Democratic Values and their affect in communities, economics, and government

• Art, Gym, Music, Computer, Library, Spanish

4th Grade Curriculum (PDF)

A Glimpse of What your Child Will Be Working on in Fourth Grade

Religion

• Developing an awareness that we are the Body of Christ through our service to one another
• Recognizing the importance of free will and the ability to think, love, and choose
• Exploring the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes
• Participation in the Liturgy of the Word at Mass
• Participation in prayer – personal and public
• Exploring the Gospels – stories of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection
• Discovering how saints and holy people provide inspiration

• Describing the basic elements of stories, characters, events, and settings by drawing on specific details in the text
• Paying close attention to key features of informational books and articles:  understanding main and supporting ideas; comparing and contrasting information; explaining how the author uses facts, details, and evidence for support
• Independently conducting short research projects on different aspects of a topic using evidence from books and the Internet
• Reporting orally on a topic or telling a story with details and facts
• Using Six Traits to write effective summaries, book reports, and descriptions of characters of events with correct grammar, capitalization, and punctuation
• Building understanding of relationships between words and nuances in word meanings

• Using whole number arithmetic to solve word problems, including problems with remainders and problems with measurement
• Adding and subtracting whole numbers quickly and accurately (numbers up to one million)
• Multiplying and dividing multi-digit numbers
• Understanding and applying equivalent fractions
• Adding, subtracting and multiplying fractions and solving related word problems
• Understanding simple decimals in terms of fractions
• Measuring angles and finding unknown angles in a diagram

• Using the Scientific Method and science as inquiry
• Exploring the systems of the human body
• Exploring organisms – living/non-living

• Exploring Michigan geography, government, economics, culture, and history
• Analyzing current events
• Understanding Core Democratic Values and their affect on civilization

• Art, Gym, Music, Computer, Library, Spanish

5th Grade Curriculum (PDF)

A Glimpse of What your Child Will Be Working on in Fifth Grade

Religion

• Locating and understanding chapters and verses of sacred scripture
• Participating in prayer -  public and personal
• Exploring Cardinal Virtues, Beatitudes, Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy and the Seven Sacraments
• Participation in the Liturgy of the Word at Mass
• Growing in faith through exploration of the life of Jesus and his mother, Mary
• Listening to God to learn His plan
• Exploring the lives of the saints as role models

• Summarizing the key details of stories, dramas, poems, and nonfiction materials, including their themes and ideas
• Identifying and judging evidence that supports particular ideas of an author meant to change a reader’s point of view
• Integrating information from several print and digital sources to answer questions and solve problems
• Using Six Traits to write stories, real or imaginary, that unfold naturally and developing the plot with dialogue, description, and effective pacing of action
• Expanding, combining, and reducing sentences to improve meaning, interest, and style of writing
• Recognizing purpose of literary devices (i.e. exaggeration, figurative language)
• Applying rules of grammar and mechanics in all writing
• Coming to classroom discussions prepared and engaging fully and thoughtfully with others

• Adding and subtracting fractions with unlike denominators and solving word problems
• Multiplying and dividing fractions and solving related word problems
• Generalizing place-value system to include decimals and calculating with decimals to the hundredths place
• Multiplying and dividing whole numbers quickly and accurately
• Understanding the concept of volume and solving word problems related to volume
• Graphing points in the coordinate plane (2 dimensions) to solve problems
• Analyzing mathematical patterns and relationships

• Exploring Physical Science including physical and chemical properties of matter, atoms and their parts, molecules, compounds, Periodic Table of Elements, Newton’s Laws of Motion, forms of energy, fossil fuels and alternate forms of energy

• Western Hemisphere including Mayans, Olmecs and Aztecs; early Civilizations; Canada, United States, Mexico and South America

• Art, Gym, Music, Computer, Library, Spanish

Art
Grades 1 through 6 attend art class once a week for forty minutes.  The Art Curriculum is based the planning and creation of projects using the seven elements of art with a variety of media.  Students also identify artists, works of art, and study the integration of art into culture.

Music
Kindergarten attends music class twice a week for thirty minutes each. Grades 1 – 6 attend music class once a week for forty minutes.  The Music Curriculum includes students learning rhythm, melody, harmony, form, tone, expressive qualities, music history and culture, through singing, playing percussion instruments, playing the recorder, movement, and dance.

Computer
Grades K through 6 attend computer class once a week for forty minutes.  Grade 5 attends two times per week.  The Computer Curriculum includes basic operation and concepts of the computer, use of the computer as a tool for problem solving and decision making, research, and communication.  Productivity tools such as Notebook software, Kid Pix, Power Point, Inspiration, etc are learned as well as the social, ethical, and human issues of computer use.

Physical Education
Kindergarten attends gym class twice a week for thirty minutes each.  Grade 1 attends gym twice a week for forty minutes each.  Grades 2 – 6 attend gym class once a week for forty minutes.  The Physical Education Curriculum includes fundamental movement skills, basic life skills, team building (social) skills, knowledge of rules, techniques, and strategies as well as safety instruction.

Library
Kindergarten visits the library once a week for thirty minutes.  Grades 1 through 4 visit the library once a week for forty minutes.  The Library Curriculum includes organization of a library including the Dewey Decimal System, care of books, story-telling, research skills, identification of literary genre, decision making regarding choice of books to read, and support of classroom and school-wide projects.  Grades 5 and 6 attend library to check out books and for special projects like research papers.

Spanish
Kindergarten has Spanish class for thirty minutes every other week.  Grades 1 through 5 have Spanish class once a week for forty minutes.  Grade 6 has Spanish two times per week.  The Spanish Curriculum includes the alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors, prayers, Spanish culture, vocabulary, and conversational communication.