Elementary Program
Principal's Message
Thank you for your interest in Grace Harbor School. We are a Christian school that offers your child the opportunity to excel. Each child is viewed as a gift from God and encouraged to use the gifts given him or her to reach their full potential. Every lesson complies with California State Standards as proven by our standardized test scores. In teaching the whole child we offer physical education, weekly Chapel, and computers in each classroom. Our children perform 2 musicals each year where each child is given an opportunity to shine. If you have any questions or to schedule a tour, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Kathleen DeSantis - Principal
Dress Code / Uniforms
The school uniform policy applies to all Elementary students. Uniforms help students focus on their studies instead of their wardrobe and encourage good discipline. School uniform colors: Navy Blue, Khaki and White.
Meal Service
A full-service caterer delivers affordable hot lunches to our school each Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Meals are prepared to be balanced, nutritious and appealing to kids. The current menu is available through the school office and parents may order one or all of the meals for the following month.
Curriculum
top ↑Kindergarten
Kindergarten children learn reading and writing skills through letter and sound recognition, rhyming, sight words and beginning to blend sounds. Our writing practice focuses on correctly forming letters while holding the pencil properly.
Math skills include counting to 100, patterns, recognition of geometric shapes, adding and subtracting, telling time and money value.
In science, we learn about staying healthy through proper nutrition, seasons, insects and their life cycle and growing plants.
Our social studies focus is on community and community people such as police officers and firefighters.
We round out our learning with Daily Bible curriculum and scriptures covering stories from creation to the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Children explore music through weekly chapel and participate in musical productions. As the children explore art, you can expect frequent masterpieces.
In Kindergarten, we recognize that play is of great importance during early education and we encourage the let's pretend, dramatic play which develops higher-level thinking, cultivates empathy and expands social skills.
top ↑First Grade
Students work toward reading and understanding grade level appropriate materials. They learn to generate and respond to essential questions, make predictions, comparisons and follow one-step instructions. They learn to identify elements of stories such as theme, plot, characters, beginning, middle and end of a selection as well as understanding the roles of author and illustrator and their contributions to printed materials. Our writing lessons include selecting a topic, using descriptive words, spacing and legible print.
In math students study number sense by learning to count, read and write whole numbers to 100, compare and order whole numbers, group objects by 1's, and 10's, know the value of coins, addition and subtraction facts to 20 and counting by 2's, 5's and 10's to 100. Students will learn to identify common geometric shapes, classify them by attributes and compare their values.
In Social Studies, our students will examine the geographic and economic aspects of life in their own neighborhood and compare them to those of people long ago. Student's exploration of science includes physical science, life science and earth science coupled with investigation and experimentation.
Daily Bible curriculum and scriptures for first grade focuses on the many gifts of Love that God has provided for us such as Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, family and friends. Students explore music through weekly chapel and participate in musical productions. As the students explore art, they will be providing you with treasures to cherish for a lifetime.
top ↑Second Grade
Students work toward reading aloud fluently and accurately with appropriate intonation and expression. Students learn common antonyms, synonyms, simple prefixes and suffixes and to identify simple multiple meaning words. They learn to use table of contents to locate information, recognize cause and affect relationships in text, follow two-step written instructions. Students learn to generate alternate endings to plots, identifying impact of the alternative as well as identify the use of rhythm, rhyme and alliteration in poetry.
In math students study number sense by learning to count, read and write whole numbers to 1000 and identify the place value of each digit, understand and use the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction to solve problems and check solutions. They learn multiplication table of 2's, 5's and 10's, simple fractions and recognize them as part of a whole, tell time to the quarter hour and relationships of time such as 60 minutes in an hour and determine the duration of intervals of time in hours. Students will learn to utilize patterns, bar graphs, charts and to identify features of data sets.
In Social Studies, our students learn about governmental institutions in the United States and other countries, stories of extraordinary people from history and their achievements, map skills, geography and basic economic concepts. Students exploration of science includes plants, animals, weather, space, matter and energy coupled with investigation and experimentation.
Daily Bible curriculum covers the Old Testament beginning in Genesis and includes a scripture memory verses for second grade. Students explore music through weekly chapel and participate in musical productions. As the students explore art, they will be providing you with treasures to cherish for a lifetime.
top ↑Third Grade
Students work toward reading aloud narrative and expository text with appropriate pacing, intonation and expression with an emphasis on fluency. Students increase their vocabulary knowledge, exploring complex words using sentence context and dictionaries. They broaden their use of table of contents and incorporate the use of glossaries and indexes to locate information in text. Students learn to distinguish the main idea, identify supporting details, extract significant information to address problems and solutions as well as follow simple multiple step written instructions.
The grade is an extensive developmental year in math. Students study number sense by learning to count, read, write, and round and to use expanded notations of whole numbers to 10,000. They learn multiplication facts to 12, relationship of multiplication and division to check results, multiple digit to single digit multiplication, division facts to 12, evenly divisible multiple digit division. Students will acquire knowledge of addition and subtraction of fractions, decimals, recognition and extension of a linear pattern by its rules, estimate and measure length, liquid, volume, weight and mass of objects. They will identify polygons, triangles, quadrilaterals, three-dimensional shapes and attain new skills to determine probability and statistics.
In Social Studies, our students study the basics of the three branches of government in the United States, the U.S. flag, the bald eagle, the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. Constitution, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Capitol and American Heroes that assisted in securing our freedom. Students will study California with an emphasis on the physical and cultural landscape of the state, including American Indians, the subsequent arrival of immigrants and the impact they have had in forming our society.
Student's exploration of science includes physical science, life science and earth science with in depth focus on the nervous system, plant world, vertebrates, invertebrates, deserts, oceans, ponds, forests and weather. Our curriculum encourages students to investigate and experiment, which prepares them for participation in the science fair at the end of the year.
Daily Bible curriculum offers a comprehensive, grade appropriate study of the lives of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, the book of Psalms and a scripture memory verse. Students explore music through weekly chapel and participate in musical productions. As the students explore art, they will be providing you with treasures to cherish for a lifetime.
top ↑Fourth Grade
Students work toward reading aloud and silently with grade appropriate fluency. They apply knowledge of word origins, derivations, idioms and use a thesaurus to increase their vocabulary. Students broaden their use of reference materials, which teach them to compare and contrast information on one topic from a variety of resources. They learn to distinguish between cause, effect, fact and opinion in expository text and to describe the structural differences in various types of imaginative literary text. Students learn to define and identify the use of similes, metaphors and hyperboles as well as follow multiple step instructions in a basic technical manual.
In fourth grade math, student's study number sense learning to count, read, write, and round and to use expanded notations of whole numbers to the millions. They use standard algorithms for multiplying a multiple digit number by a two-digit number and for dividing a multiple digit number by a one-digit number. Students use and interpret variables, mathematical symbols and properties to write and simplify expressions as well as using two-dimensional coordinate grids to represent points, graph lines and simple figures. They explore plane and solid geometric objects using the knowledge to show relationships and solve problems. Students acquire the knowledge to organize, represent and interpret numerical and categorical data to communicate their findings.
In Social Studies, our students study the state of California. They will discover California Indians and their economic activities, legends and religious beliefs. Students will study European settlements and the Spanish exploration and colonization of California. Our in depth mission study covers soldiers, missionaries, Indians, presidios, ranchos and pueblos. They will explore California history from the establishment of the Bear Flag Republic through the Mexican-American War, the Gold Rush and the Road to Statehood. Finally, students prepare a History Day project, which they present to a panel of various professionals for review.
Student's exploration of science includes physical science, life science and earth science with in depth focus on insects, birds, matter, energy, rocks, oceans and stars. Our curriculum encourages students to investigate and experiment, which prepares them for participation in the science fair at the end of the year.
Daily Bible curriculum offers a comprehensive, grade appropriate study of the life of Jesus Christ and the work of The Holy Spirit through the Gospels, Acts and Epistles as well as daily Bible reading and scripture memory. Students explore music through weekly chapel and participate in musical productions. As the students explore art, they will be providing you with treasures to cherish for a lifetime.
top ↑Fifth Grade
Students work toward reading aloud and silently with grade appropriate fluency and comprehension. They describe and connect the essential ideas, arguments, and perspectives of the text by using their knowledge of text structure, organization, and purpose. Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits the students' awareness of the audience and purpose. Essays contain formal introductions, supporting evidence, and conclusions. Students write narrative, expository, persuasive, and descriptive texts demonstrating a command of standard American English and the research, organizational, and drafting strategies.
In fifth grade mathematics, students master their facility with the four basic arithmetic operations applied to fractions, decimals, and positive and negative numbers. They use this knowledge to compute figures of statistics and probability. Students understand the concepts of mean, median, and mode of data sets and how to calculate the range. Students understand and work with ratios and proportions; they are able to compute percentages for tax, tips and interest. They use letters for numbers in formulas involving geometric shapes and in ratios to represent an unknown part of an expression and can accurately solve one step linear equations.
In Social Studies, our students study American History with an in depth focus on the development of the nation up to 1850, with an emphasis on the people who were already here, when and from where others arrived, and why they came. Students learn about the colonial government founded on Judeo-Christian principles, the ideals of the Enlightenment, and the English traditions of self-government. They recognize that ours is a nation that has a constitution that derives its power from the people, that has gone through a revolution, that once sanctioned slavery, that experienced conflict over land with the original inhabitants, and that experienced a westward movement that took its people across the continent. Studying the cause, course, and consequences of the early explorations through the War for Independence and western expansion is central to students' fundamental understanding of how the principles of the American republic form the basis of a pluralistic society in which individual rights are secured.
Student's exploration of science includes physical science, life science and earth science with in depth focus on atoms, molecules, elements and properties. They will study the structures for respiration, digestion, waste disposal, and transport of materials in plants and animals. Students will study the cause and effect of water and air movements on the Earth. Our curriculum continues to encourage students to investigate and experiment, which prepares them for participation in the science fair at the end of the year.
Daily Bible curriculum offers a comprehensive, grade appropriate study of the life of Jesus Christ and the work of The Holy Spirit through the Gospels, Acts and Epistles as well as daily Bible reading and scripture memory. Students explore music through weekly chapel and participate in musical productions. As the students explore art, they will be providing you with treasures to cherish for a lifetime.
