St. John School
Academics
With our talented, fully accredited educators, we see to it that every child succeeds to the best of their abilities.
Proven
Academic Excellence
STAR Testing
Research-based Star Assessments is highly rated as both a screening and progress monitoring tool. It helps educators identify and prioritize student need, drive appropriate instruction, set realistic goals and track progress throughout the year. This ensures all students are on the right path toward future success.
3 & 4 Year Old
Preschool
We create a welcoming environment where we offer a wide range of activities meant to introduce the proper relational and social skills of respect and care while exploring the basics of early literacy as well as both mathematical and scientific thinking.
What do the students learn in class?
- An alphabet letter each week that covers phonics and writing.
- Shapes/Colors/ Numbers/Introduction to math concepts with counting, graphing and sorting.
- Social skills by creating independence, a positive self-image through play and cooperative learning with peers.
- Community relations with a food drive for the St. John Food Pantry through “Stuff the Turkey Campaign”
- Big Buddy/ Little Buddy. Children are partnered up with a higher grade to provide older peer role modeling.
- Seeds religion activities that follow the Gospel in church. It is age-appropriate and geared specifically for 4-and-5-year-olds.
What kind of activities do they do?
- With the letter of the week, a letter page is created for their alphabet portfolio (PreK-4). The alphabet portfolio goes home at the end of the year with all their hard work. A table of contents explains what was done for each letter. A letter song is sung daily. Letter formation and phonics as a new letter are presented each week. The range of development is wide and children need time to develop fine motor skills through painting, cutting, drawing and play dough experimentation.
- In the PreK-3, letters and numbers are talked about, but the curriculum is geared toward social experience.
Do children receive any special learning? (i.e. one-on-one time, students spotlight, extra help learning to read)
- As the children become confident leaving mom and dad, and when they are adjusted to the routine of school, assessments are done on the basic skills of letter recognition, shapes, colors and numbers. Children are also screened for physical delays.
- If a child is delayed with speech, a specialist from the Little Chute School District comes in to observe and provide additional services.
- Each week a child is chosen for Special Person of the Week. The week will include special activities to celebrate that child.
What works best in the classroom environment?
- Smaller class size gives children more one-on-one time.
- We promote a positive classroom environment while providing a quality program with developmental appropriate activities throughout the day.
- We incorporate God’s message into our daily schedule, i.e. kindness, love and understanding.
Kindergarten
In Kindergarten, students can approach things with compassion and grace, and our teachers lead by example to be like Jesus and incorporate faith and into all aspects of learning. Our students grow immensely in Kindergarten, learning the social and academic skills needed to succeed in school as well as in life.
Details
Religion: Monday through Thursday we dedicate time for learning about our Catholic faith, and every Friday we are privileged to attend all-school mass.
Math: We use the Math Expressions program to grow our math skills and the students have fun helping the character Puzzle Penguin who often gets confused.
Reading & Writing: In our Reader and Writer’s workshop we use the Lucy Calkins program where students work independently or with a classmate, and it includes daily phonics and handwriting. We also use an interactive notebook for additional guidance with letters and writing.
Science: We use a curriculum called Little Thinkers to learn about senses, animals, properties and force and motion.
Social Studies: Also a Little Thinkers curriculum where we learn about communities, citizenship, holidays around the world, our world and life long ago vs. today.
Our busy days include additional experiences and skills by attending Music, Spanish, Art, Computer, Library and Physical Education classes.
We also have a classroom library area and a free choice area where students can play with Lincoln Logs, Legos and play food to use their imaginations freely.
Activities
- Pep Rally for God performance (Friday of Catholic Schools Week)
- Hot Dog Day (monthly)
- Christmas concert
- Spring concert
- Little Chute Fire Department field trip
- Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony
1st Grade
In first grade, our focus is to build skills both socially and academically throughout all subject areas as well as independence especially with reading and mathematics.
Details
Reading: Our guided reading instruction and literacy center allows students to explore and practice writing, manipulate sound and spelling patterns, develop vocabulary and learn various reading strategies needed to become fluent, independent readers.
Writing: Our Writer’s Workshop program supports and develops communication skills, stamina, spelling and fine motor skills through handwriting.
Math: We work on developing and enhancing fundamental skills in addition and subtraction facts, number sense, patterning and problem-solving.
Science: Students learn through hands-on activities about living organisms, the weather, states of matter and force/motion.
Social Studies: Activities in Social Studies (and Science) focus on making connections through knowledge, strategies, skills and vocabulary.
Religion: We learn about the sacraments and what the church believes, celebrates, lives and prays.
The first grade classroom has a book nook with books to read in school and books they can bring home as well as access to Epic Books! online. There is also a prayer corner to allow the students to take a break and talk to God about their feelings.
Activities
First graders have the opportunity to host special event days focused on Language and Creative Arts for the special people in their lives on:
- Grandparent’s Day in November
- Donuts for Dad in February
- Mother’s Day Tea in May
2nd Grade
The second-grade year is one filled with many accomplishments spiritually, morally and academically. We are more independent and responsible workers, but most of all we receive the wonderful gift of grace through the sacraments of Reconciliation and Communion.
Details
Reading:
- Strong phonic skills
- Spelling program with words that use the phonics rules.
- Develop reading skills like developing inferences and comprehension skills
- Non-fiction text features: headlines, captions, bold and italics
Math:
- Adding & subtracting to three digits, with and without regrouping
- Place value and number sense to 1,000
- Telling time to five minutes
- Money identification and word problems
- Data collection and analysis
- Measurement
- Simple fractions
- Geometry
Science:
- Matter and its interactions
- Plants, animals, and life cycles
- Our changing Earth
Social Studies:
- What is a community? (community and home)
- Where is my community and what is it like there? (geography)
- How do citizens live and work together in a community? (government)
- How do communities change? (history)
- How can we as a citizen affect a community? (history, being a good citizen)
- Goods, services, needs and wants (economics)
Religion:
- Sacramental Preparation for Reconciliation and First Eucharist
- Parts of the Mass
- Catholic Social teachings
- Become the best versions of ourselves
- Enhance prayer life and focus on character
Activities
- Field Trip to the Little Chute Windmill
3rd Grade
Our goal is to help our third graders grow socially, academically and spiritually as they get ready for 4th grade, 5th grade and beyond. Students take on more responsibility for their organization and continually work on how to collaborate effectively with a team and partners for cooperative learning.
Details
Reading: Our comprehensive literacy block includes learning in centers, guided reading, and interactive read alouds. It allows students to explore and grow in listening, speaking, reading independently and with others, writing and exploring word patterns and vocabulary.
Writing: Our writing workshop program allows students to explore different ways to organize and elaborate on their thinking while exploring different genres of writing. Cursive is continually taught throughout the year until we are fully writing in it by the end of the year.
Math: Students work diligently on learning and solidifying their multiplication and division facts, as well as improving our number sense, solving real-world problems, geometry, measurement, telling time and graphs.
Science/Social Studies: Science and Social Studies are a time to explore current issues and the world around us, including the Midwest culture and history, mapping skills, simple machines, plants and animals and more.
Religion: Religion is alive in all parts of our day, but during our set class time we spend the time in meaningful formal and self-lead prayer, the church and its history and how to be disciples of Christ.
Activities
Third grades’ special activities and field trips make our year very exciting!
- Grandparent’s Day in November
- Ledgeview Caves (The trip most third graders look forward to the most)
- Milwaukee Discovery building (with our 6th grade buddies)
4th Grade
This is a time of tremendous independent growth as well as social and emotional growth. Our fourth-grade curriculum is faith-centered, where religion is integrated throughout all areas of learning not just religion.
Details
Reading/Writing: We focus on developing reading skills, proficient writing and grammatical skills as well as developing and extending student vocabulary skills. Through writer’s workshop, we encourage independent reading and writing skills.
Math: We focus on multiplication, division and fractions. We currently work with the Math Expressions Curriculum, which is designed to offer students various methods of learning mathematical concepts.
Science: Our curriculum presents students with an opportunity to explore animal habitats, species and kingdoms.
Social Studies: We explore Wisconsin History and the Geography of the United States. We also explore Native American culture and the exploration of the developing and evolving America.
Religion: We focus on a deeper understanding of the Ten Commandments, the Liturgical church year and participating in Reconciliation. We also develop a closer, personal relationship with the Holy Trinity: God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Activities
- Van Handel Dairy Farm
- Madison’s State Capitol
- Holy Hill
- Grignon Mansion
5th Grade
Fifth grade is an exciting time for our students here at St. John School. The students are diving deep into their social, emotional, cognitive and spiritual growth. The children are educated on how to portray admirable skills and qualities such as: responsibility, organization, compassion, kindness, service, honesty and so much more.
Details
Reading: Jean Baptiste Girard once said, “By words we learn thoughts and by thoughts we learn life.” Students dive into deeper and more meaningful texts that they can really connect with. Reading develops the mind as our understanding of the written word increases. We work on the skills and strategies that children need in order to be successful consisting of five essential components:
- Read to self
- Read to someone
- Listen to reading
- Word work
- Writing
Writing: Our Writer’s Workshop framework is based on the idea that students learn best when they write frequently, for extended periods of time, and on topics of their choosing. The goals of this program are for the students to develop the skills of a writer, such as taking ownership of their own writing, learning and accepting guidance from experienced writers, and to support, and be supported by a community of peers. This framework supports all children regardless of where they are at in their writing journey.
Math: Our students are pushed to think analytically and investigate the truth of the world around us. Students dive deeper into fractions, algebraic thinking, measurement, geometry and statistics.
Science: Our units consist of plant and animal structures, interactions of living things, Earth and its resources, weather and climate and properties of matter, motion and energy.
Social Studies: We focus on how our country was built, and we explore topics like the first Americans, life in the colonies, westward expansion, and many more.
Religion: We have student-led prayer, bible study and a lesson on how we become more like Jesus in the Sacraments. This program is rooted in scripture and is faithful to the tradition of the Catholic Church. Our religio
Middle School
St. John Middle School provides our students with an excellent academic and religious education allowing them to prepare for high school.
Math
We use CPM (College Preparatory Mathematics), and this curriculum uses problem-based lessons, collaborative student study teams and spaced practice with course concepts. Each student is given a key role, and over the course of three years they will learn to master each role:
- Facilitator/team leader: Helps the team get started on the problem or task by reading it aloud.
- Task manager: Keeps the team focused on the math problem, makes sure everyone is involved and monitors the team.
- Resource manager: Gets necessary supplies, calls the teacher over if the team has a question, explains how far they got and where they are requesting help and makes sure the team has cleaned up.
- Reporter/Recorder: Shares the team’s results, makes sure everyone is on the same page and presents to the class the team’s findings or assigns each person their role in a group presentation.
Science
Our science classes are divided by content: 6th grade focuses on Physical Science, 7th grade focuses on Life Science and 8th grade focuses on Earth Science.
- All three of the classes are a mix of traditional educational methods which include reading, writing, group work, project-based assessments, demonstrations, cross-curricular activities and appropriate field trips.
- Activities include time-honored favorites such as engineering an egg drop apparatus, a trip to the zoo and launching model rockets high into the air.
- Diversity and inquiry are the driving points in our science classes.
- Students will not only master scientific methods of inquiry and subject matter but will also advance in those tools needed for future success, such as note-taking, reading for comprehension, inference, teamwork, leadership and social skills.
- Faith is an important part of our classroom. Understanding that our Faith and science coexist is something we strive for with all our students.
Language Arts
Through the study of the English language, students increase their communication skills by focusing on these areas:
- Grammar: Studying grammar raises students’ awareness of the rules of the English language. It helps them to communicate more effectively by developing a varied and interesting style of speaking and writing.
- Spelling: Students work with strategies they can use as they encounter spelling new words – not only with regular focused lists but also with words they encounter in their daily lives. This not only helps improve students’ writing, but also their reading fluency as they make connections between letters and sounds.
- Writing: Students use a multi-step writing process to develop, revise, evaluate and improve their written work. Within that process, students view writing samples and pieces of literature to discuss the qualities of good writing and how to improve these areas in their own writing. This includes idea development, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and presentation. Overall, students gain the ability to express themselves more clearly in writing.
Liturature
During the school year we work on developing our vocabularies as well as participating in an in-depth analysis of literature through themed short story units, novels, mythology and Shakespearean plays. The following are example activities we may use:
- Class Discussion: Sharing thoughts and ideas, making predictions, asking questions and connecting with what we are reading are all important parts of the literature class. Through discussion, overall comprehension is monitored and strategies are implemented to clear up uncertainties.
- Vocabulary Development: Broadening one’s vocabulary is essential in developing both written and verbal communication skills.
- Responding to Literature: We will work on going beyond summarizing by making connections between our selections and real-life, putting ourselves in our characters’ shoes and delving into what may happen beyond the story. We will be working on expressing our responses not only orally but also in writing.
- Independent Reading: Students are expected to read independently for a minimum of 20 minutes five times a week. While some class time is set aside most weeks for silent reading and book report check-ins, it is expected that students always have their books with them in case they have a spare moment during the school day.
Social Studies
In U.S. History, we deal mainly with the time period of early explorations (1400 AD) to after WWII (1960’s).
- We discuss the principles that our country is founded on and the important characters in history that helped create it.
- We use inquiry in history to understand all the events and causes and to identify all the aspects of the history from the viewpoints of everyone involved.
- We use hands-on learning opportunities to experience history on a hands-on level.
- We study the diverse peoples that make up our history, from the indigenous first Americans, to the migrations of war-torn refugees after World War II.
- The ability of our students to take a 360-degree look at history and to be aware of how the past has and will continue to influence the present is of utmost importance.
Religion
We focus on interacting with the Bible as much as possible. Our goal is to produce students with a firm understanding of what the Bible actually says as opposed to some of the common misconceptions that exist in modern culture. 6th grade focuses on the Old Testament, 7th grade focuses on the New Testament and 8th grade focuses on how the church has grown and evolved since the time of Christ. Highlights for the year include:
- Service work for our greater community
- Student-led masses
- Stations of the cross
- Participation in Feeding America
- 7th grade traditionally hosts a special event during Advent called A Day in Bethlehem
