Science Curriculum Guide

Assessment throughout the kindergarten science curriculum includes formative assessments embedded within each unit part, summative assessments at the conclusion of each unit, benchmark assessments to measure understanding of key concepts, and alternative assessments that provide varied demonstration pathways. Formative assessments are organized by unit part and focus on students' ability to observe patterns, plan investigations, analyze data, construct arguments from evidence, and communicate solutions. Summative assessments include performance tasks such as creating a poster to protect rainforest plants and animals, designing a playground cover for sun and weather protection, writing a story from an animal's perspective, and creating a game using pushes and pulls. Benchmark assessments require students to illustrate life cycle stages, provide evidence-based claims about weather preparation, label habitat models, and create force-and-motion models. Alternative assessments offer creative options including storytelling about an animal living on Mars, hands-on experiments with sunlight and temperature, habitat matching using physical characteristics, and ramp investigations to demonstrate speed and distance concepts. The same assessment menu applies across all five units, with specific formative assessments tailored to each unit's content.

The curriculum provides comprehensive accommodations and modifications for five student populations across all units. Students with IEPs receive vocabulary repetition, picture-supported materials with labels, multi-sensory instruction, audio and video recording options, one-to-one teacher assistance, adapted tools and materials, and preferred response modes including drawing, dictating, and oral responses. Students with 504 plans receive environmental accommodations such as preferential seating, presentation modifications, hands-on activities, and recorded results for study guides and class discussion. Multilingual language learners receive bilingual picture dictionaries, vocabulary in native and English languages, visual supports with many visuals and words, graphic organizers, simplified tasks with partially filled-in papers, and tiered vocabulary instruction progressing from concepts in the primary language to English. Students at risk of school failure receive simplified and repeated instructions, word-and-picture matching activities, echo vocabulary practice, hands-on demonstration opportunities, handouts, individual schedules on the desk, and small group or partner work. Gifted and talented students engage in knowledge-deepening activities, written and constructed products such as writing stories about plant growth, leadership behaviors such as daily weather reporting, vocabulary songs, and tiered vocabulary instruction progressing from concrete to abstract examples. In addition, the PYC references NGSS Appendix D modifications including structuring lessons around authentic questions related to student interests and community, providing multiple representation modalities, connecting students with people of similar backgrounds, using project-based science learning, and restructuring lessons using UDL principles.