Summer Learning Program

Math

The KCKPS Kindergarten summer program marks the next exciting step in math for kindergartners—addition and subtraction! Students begin to harness their practiced counting abilities, knowledge of the value of numbers, and work with embedded numbers to reason about and solve addition and subtraction expressions and equations.

English Language Arts

Kindergarten students will gain essential readiness skills using Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) materials, which focus on building students' background knowledge and academic vocabulary. 30 minutes each day will be devoted to Tiered Reading Instruction. Students will receive targeted direct instruction in letter sounds and phonemic awareness. Engaging, hands-on, and multi-sensory learning activities will promote individual student growth and success in early reading foundation skills.

Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning drives student engagement and achievement through real-world project-based learning. Students will engage in projects built around a specific job/industry and ask the students to transfer their knowledge of concepts and skills learned in the classroom to a real-world scenario. Kindergarteners might take on the roles of playground inspectors, event planners, weather reporters, landscape architects, farm designers, and more!

Math

The KCKPS 1st grade summer program serves as a bridge from problem solving up to the number 10 to work up to the number 100 as students begin to solve addition and subtraction problems involving double digit numbers. In the past, students were encouraged to move beyond the strategy of "counting all" to the more efficient "counting on." Now, they will go beyond that to learn decomposition and composition strategies, like "make a ten" or "take away from ten."

English Language Arts

1st grade students will build background knowledge and extend their academic vocabulary through the use of Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) materials. 30 minutes each day will be devoted to Tiered Reading Instruction. Students will receive targeted direct instruction in advanced phonemic awareness and basic phonics skills. Engaging, hands-on, and multi-sensory learning activities will promote individual student growth and success in early reading foundation skills.

Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning drives student engagement and achievement through real-world project-based learning. Students will engage in projects built around a specific job/industry and ask the students to transfer their knowledge of concepts and skills learned in the classroom to a real-world scenario. 1st-graders might take on the roles of musicians, puppeteers, horticulturists, astronomers, healthcare workers and more!

Math

The KCKPS 2nd grade summer program expands students' skill with and understanding of units by bundling ones, tens, and hundreds up to a thousand with manipulatives, like straws. These place value bundles are discrete sets so that one unit can be grabbed and counted (100, 200, 300, etc.).

English Language Arts

2nd grade students will build background knowledge and extend their academic vocabulary through the use of Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) materials. 30 minutes each day will be devoted to Tiered Reading Instruction. Students will receive targeted direct instruction in advanced phonemic awareness and phonics skills. Engaging, hands-on, and multi-sensory learning activities will promote individual student growth and success in reading foundation skills.

Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning drives student engagement and achievement through real-world project-based learning. Students will engage in projects built around a specific job/industry and ask the students to transfer their knowledge of concepts and skills learned in the classroom to a real-world scenario. 2nd-graders might take on the role of volcanologists, geologists, park designers, public health educators and more!

Math

The KCKPS 3rd grade summer program builds directly on students’ previous work with multiplication and division. Students study multiplication through all factors from 0 to 10, as well as multiples of 10 within 100.

English Language Arts

3rd grade students will build background knowledge and extend their academic vocabulary through the use of Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) materials. 30 minutes each day will be devoted to Tiered Reading Instruction. Students will receive targeted direct instruction in advanced phonics skills and fluency. Engaging, hands-on, and multi-sensory learning activities will promote individual student growth and success in reading foundation skills.

Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning drives student engagement and achievement through real-world project-based learning. Students will engage in projects built around a specific job/industry and ask the students to transfer their knowledge of concepts and skills learned in the classroom to a real-world scenario. 3rd-graders might take on the roles of transportation engineers, nature center educators, plant biologists, road engineers, entrepreneurs and more!

Math

The KCKPS 4th grade summer program uses students' place value understanding with visual representations to solve multiplication and division problems with multi-digit numbers. Students develop an ability to reason about the methods and models chosen to solve problems with multi-digit factors and dividends.

English Language Arts

4th grade students will build background knowledge and extend their academic vocabulary through the use of Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) materials. 30 minutes each day will be devoted to Tiered Reading Instruction. Students will receive targeted direct instruction in advanced phonics skills and fluency. Engaging, hands-on, and multi-sensory learning activities will promote individual student growth and success in reading foundation skills.

Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning drives student engagement and achievement through real-world project-based learning. Students will engage in projects built around a specific job/industry and ask the students to transfer their knowledge of concepts and skills learned in the classroom to a real-world scenario. 4th graders might take on the roles of dinosaur hunters, river rafting guides, erosion management specialists, earth scientists, wind and solar energy system installers and more!

Math

The KCKPS 5th grade summer program extends students’ understanding of addition and subtraction of fractions from earlier work with fraction equivalence and decimals. This new learning marks a significant shift away from the elementary grades’ centrality of base ten units to the study and use of the full set of fractional units from 5th grade forward, especially as applied to algebra.

English Language Arts

5th grade students will build background knowledge and extend their academic vocabulary through the use of Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) materials. 30 minutes each day will be devoted to Tiered Reading Instruction. Students will receive targeted direct instruction in advanced phonics skills and fluency. Engaging, hands-on, and multi-sensory learning activities will promote individual student growth and success in reading foundation skills.

Project-Based Learning

Project-based learning drives student engagement and achievement through real-world project-based learning. Students will engage in projects built around a specific job/industry and ask the students to transfer their knowledge of concepts and skills learned in the classroom to a real-world scenario. 5th-graders might take on roles of astronomers, botanists, civil engineers, chefs, foresters, arborists and more!

Art, Music, and PE offerings will provide summer school enrichment by strengthening student's fundamental skills and creativity. Students will have opportunities to develop their interests through participatory learning activities in Art, Music, or PE for a holistic experience.

There will also be opportunities at each grade level for on-site or off-site extended experiences.

Math

Math 6 provides opportunities for students to engage in some of the major concepts of 6th grade mathematics through visualization, play, and investigation. Collaboratively, students will work through rich math tasks such as visualizing and isolating unit rates in tiling patterns. As students develop deeper understanding around mathematical ideas, they will be encouraged to extend and generalize their ideas through reasoning and justifying around topics such as encountering negative numbers, finding and using unit rates, reasoning with proportions, and using symbols to describe the world.

English Language Arts

The Integrated Reading & Writing 6 Summer Course will focus on culture and identity. Students will connect their experiences with those presented in literature and poetry to analyze text structure, author's purpose, and using evidence to support ideas. Culminating activities include a personal narrative and original spoken word piece. (Note: an alternate summer school curriculum focused on imagination and creativity is in development). All students will have an opportunity to gain additional literacy skills based on their individual needs through an engaging teacher-directed elective or through a personalized digital resource.

Math

Math 7 provides opportunities for students to engage in some of the major concepts of 7th grade mathematics through visualization, play, and investigation. Collaboratively, students will work through rich math tasks such as analyzing artwork using percentages. As students develop deeper understanding around mathematical ideas, they will be encouraged to extend and generalize their ideas through reasoning and justifying around topics such as seeing proportional relationships, understanding percentages in the world, operating with opposites, and using algebra as a problem solving tool.

English Language Arts

The Integrated Reading & Writing 7 Summer Course will connect to Geography and Biology with concepts to explore ecological failures and consequences. Readings, discussions, and activities will center on a range of topics like the Radium Girls, cancer clusters, and recent local issues. Activities include connecting ecological horror movies to real problems and writing a flash fiction piece about zombies. (Note: an alternate summer school curriculum focused on generations and culture is in development). All students will also have the opportunity to gain essential literacy skills based on their individual needs through an engaging teacher-directed elective or through a personalized digital resource.

Math

Math 8 provides opportunities for students to engage in some of the major concepts of 8th grade mathematics through visualization, play, and investigation. Collaboratively, students will work through rich math tasks, such as visualizing the growth relationship between degrees Celsius and Fahrenheit. As students develop deeper understanding around mathematical ideas, they will be encouraged to extend and generalize their ideas through reasoning and justifying around topics such as proportional and linear relationships, the ins and outs of functions, and discovering Pythagoras.

English Language Arts

The Integrated Reading & Writing 8 Course will focus on the Criminal Justice system. Questions like, “Should teens convicted of serious crimes be tried as adults?” and “Should co-conspirators face the same consequences as the ring leaders/masterminds?” Students will research and discuss age-appropriate crimes to write and present arguments with a claim and relevant supporting evidence. (Note: an alternate summer school curriculum focused on invention and creativity is in development). All students will also have the opportunity to gain essential literacy skills based on their individual needs through an engaging teacher-directed elective or through a personalized digital resource.

In this course students will experience the diversity within our community. They will be introduced to the languages spoken and taught within KCK and learn how speaking more than one language connects people.

Have you ever wondered why we sometimes see different things when we look at the same object? In this project, we will work to discover the answer for that. How can a student see their reflection in what seems to be a mirror while a teacher sees the student on the other side? We will collaborate to explore and explain this puzzling event by creating and testing scale models and conducting science investigations.

Art, Music, and PE offerings will provide summer school enrichment by strengthening student's fundamental skills and creativity. Students will have opportunities to develop their interests through participatory learning activities for a holistic experience.