Academics

The UCFSD Elementary Visual Arts Curriculum is designed to address Pennsylvania Academic Standards and scaffolds knowledge from grade to grade. The program strives to educate our students in developing a lifelong interest in the visual arts. The foundation of our students’ art education involves participation in creative learning experiences, exposure to cultures, time periods, and various art styles. The students will also gain knowledge of how to work with various art media. This curriculum emphasizes creativity, enjoyment, and exploration. Preparing children with a well-rounded background and general understanding of fine art in the world around them is the goal of the curriculum.

Through each year of the elementary visual art curriculum, students will build upon their knowledge of the elements and principles of design as well as specific techniques. Projects are designed to strengthen learning across all subject areas. The visual art curriculum will help develop our students’ observational skills, critical thinking, cooperative learning, and their ability to approach problems from different perspectives. The program will cultivate creativity and discipline. Success in the visual arts program will lead to greater risk-taking in other subject areas and will help our students build self-esteem that will stimulate and facilitate academic learning.

In UCFSD Health and Physical Education, our philosophy is to introduce students to the positive aspects of fitness and health so they will become active for a lifetime.

Physical Education

At UCFSD, we believe that the elementary years are a time for experimentation, discovery, and decision-making. Since students will come to class with various abilities, interests, talents, strengths and weaknesses, one challenge is to provide every student with activities that will be developmentally appropriate to ensure success. A safe environment is also essential. Students will feel that it is alright to make mistakes and try new challenges. UCFSD Elementary Physical Education programs are partners in the students’ overall education process. 

Over the course of the school year, students will meet two days out of the six-day cycle for Physical Education class.  The programs administered are based on the Pennsylvania State Standards and developmental goals and practices.  Our programs are child-centered, success orientated, worthwhile, exciting, and fun!

Health

The goal of the UCFSD Elementary Health curriculum is to build students' knowledge, skills, and positive attitudes about staying healthy. Students attend Health class as a special area subject once a cycle in grades three, four, and five. Topics are aligned with PA Academic Standards and are designed to help students learn about their bodies and develop skills they will use to make healthy choices throughout their lifetime. UCFSD Elementary Health education provides skills-focused instruction that follows a comprehensive, sequential, developmentally appropriate Health education curriculum.

Delivery of lesson content relies heavily on a variety of technologies. Lesson presentations are digitally displayed, rich in multi-media. Many of the units are reinforced and assessed utilizing self-paced instruction in a computer lab environment.

Instruction within English Language Arts in UCFSD is rooted in the principles and practices of Structured Literacy. Elementary teachers utilize a combination of programs in addition to best practices in reading instruction, including Fundations and Heggerty within the primary grades, to build phonological awareness and an understanding of phonics. Teachers utilize the Reading Wonders program K-5to build students’ comprehension and reading and writing skills. Wonders is filled with exemplars, award-winners, and other high-interest literary and informational texts that range across many genres, eras, and cultures. As students engage with the Essential Questions, they’re gaining access to complex texts, collaborating with their peers, and becoming accomplished at writing to sources.

The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District Elementary Library program operates in four schools and is a combination of a Fixed Schedule and a Flexible Schedule. The libraries and their resources are available to students every school day.

Kindergarten-2nd grade has a fixed class during the six-day cycle, which is used for literature experiences, information literacy skills, and checkout.  These classes may also use the library during open slots for flexible scheduling needs. Classroom teachers have prep time during these classes.

Grades 3-5 have a scheduled checkout period during the six-day cycle, but information literacy classes and literature experiences are scheduled by the librarian and teacher to meet the needs of the classroom, students, and curriculum. The librarian is responsible for teaching the information literacy curriculum during classes scheduled in conjunction with the classroom teachers, which may be part of curricular projects. Each of the grades 3-5 classrooms completes several shared projects with the library. Classroom teachers stay with their classes during these lessons: these are not part of their prep time.

The curriculum for the elementary school incorporates literature and information literacy skills, which are based on the Big Six information literacy model and the AASL Standards for the 21st Century Learner. Skills are distributed across the grade levels on a scope and sequence document, but the librarian has a good deal of flexibility in choosing how to present material and which literature experiences they choose for each level. Librarians may work with individuals, small groups, or whole classes during a flex-scheduled day.

The elementary library program seeks to develop in students, lifelong learning skills and a love for literature, as well as prepare students to be responsible digital citizens.

i-Ready Classroom Mathematics is built on the Pennsylvania State Standards for Mathematical Content and Standards for Mathematical Practice. With a problem-based instructional approach, students are instructed on key concepts over multiple days to deepen understanding. Problem-solving uses a variety of strategies to increase mathematical flexibility with an emphasis on communicating mathematical reasoning and connecting math to everyday life.

The UCFSD Elementary Music Curriculum is designed to align with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards for the Arts and Humanities and the Core Standards requirements. This curriculum meets the developmental needs of Unionville-Chadds Ford students. All students participate in hands-on experiences through the Orff-Schulwerk methodology.  Students are exposed to music in different cultures, time periods, styles, and languages where they can make connections to the world around them. 

This curriculum accentuates creative learning with a strong foundation in music history and music theory techniques. It fosters student enthusiasm for music education. Each step in a student’s progression through elementary school builds upon previous learned materials in a scaffolding manner. The study of music enhances student growth in many subject areas. Most recently, music technology integration as been introduced at all grade levels. 

Uniquely, all elementary students in UCFSD have an opportunity to perform two times a year. Third grade students begin a recorder program as a foundation for the elementary instrumental program. This instrument is used as a teaching tool for basic theory and assists students in making an educated choice in an instrument selection for fourth and fifth grade. The elementary instrumental curriculum is a comprehensive program that fosters a foundation for the grades four-12 instrumental program. Elementary instrumental students perform challenging pieces from many genres.

The Science programs are based on phenomena-driven hands on instruction.

Instructional Materials:

• Mystery Science
• Twig

Mystery Science (K-2)  is an innovative, standards-aligned, hands-on curriculum that teaches children how to think like scientists. The phenomena-driven instruction helps kids to better understand and communicate about the world around them through writing, discussion, and exploration.

Twig Science (Grades 3-5) is aligned with NGSS. The program helps students investigate real-world phenomena through hands-on labs, 5E instruction (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate), and media-rich lessons. 

The Social Studies Curriculum prepares students to understand the forces that shape the communities, the culture, and government both in our country and in the world.

The Elementary IT program focuses on the key skills needed for our students to succeed in today’s technology driven society. The Technology program is aligned with the Pennsylvania Science and Technology Standards and the National Educational Technology Standards. The lessons and activities for K-5 are developed to enhance student technology concepts and abilities using scaffolding methods and techniques. Our core curriculum is based around the key areas of Computer Operations and Parts, Word Processing, Mulit-Media Presentations, Internet Use and Safety, and the use of Curriculum Related Software. These areas provide students with a firm foundation, which is evident in technology projects completed in and out of their classrooms. Students gain valuable hands on experience using the latest technology, which they can apply to their daily lives. The skills and concepts learned through the UCFSD Elementary Instructional Technology program foster problem solving and real world skills, which help prepare them for this digital age.

All students in the four elementary schools across the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District participate in district-wide screenings to determine their literacy skill levels. K-2 screenings are completed three times per year using DIBELS* and grades 3-5 screenings are completed three time yearly using the STAR Reading. Children qualify to participate in the district’s Title 1 Reading Support Program based on the results of these screenings and additional assessments. 

Title 1 Reading Support is offered as a supplement to the existing literacy program. Its purpose is to help students learn reading skills and develop strategies to become independent readers. In the Reading Support Program, students receive small group instruction focused on reading foundations with a highly qualified reading specialist. This support does not take the place of classroom reading instruction, but reinforces and supports the existing reading program.

* DIBELS: Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills