CURRICULUM

Our curriculum is focused on meeting and exceeding the Minnesota academic standards set by the Department of Education. Our teachers find innovative and creative ways to teach to those standards while making each day exciting and building a love of learning in each child. Check each class page for more information about the specific class curriculum. 

Religious Education at Our Lady of Peace

Students at Our Lady of Peace attend daily Mass on Wednesday morning with Our Lady of Peace parishioners.

 

Beginning in fourth-grade students are able to train as altar servers and serve for our school Masses as well as weekend Mass. OLP students starting as early as Kindergarten take turns bringing up the gifts and reading at Mass.

 

Students are able to sing in our Mass choir once they are in second grade.


Kindergarten through eighth- grade students use the Alive in Christ curriculum to learn about their faith in the classroom setting.

 

In cooperation with Faith Formation at Our Lady of Peace Parish, our second-grade students prepare for the sacraments of Frist Penance and First Eucharist.


Students in eighth grade prepare for the sacrament of Confirmation.


All students participate in service throughout the school year.

Elementary School

Kindergarten
First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade
Kindergarten

The Kindergarten program at Our Lady of Peace School is designed to build the foundation for future learning. This is a wonderful year of development, discovery, and delight as we explore the world around us and the talent within us. We provide a safe, nurturing and challenging environment for growth not only intellectually, but socially, spiritually and physically.

Kindergarten Curriculum

Religion

As a Catholic community of learners, we strive to live our faith in the classroom. Kindergarten students attend mass monthly with the entire student body, participate in service projects to reach the broader community, and learn about the life of Jesus and the gifts that God has given us.  Christianity is a theme that is integrated into all the curriculum areas in kindergarten at Our Lady of Peace.
 

Language Arts

Kindergarteners are active learners. We use music, movement and our sense of touch to learn to skills we need to read and write. Kindergarteners are introduced to 24 high-frequency words and all consonant and short-vowel sounds. Small-motor skills are developed as we practice printing. Listening skills develop through daily Read Aloud time when students are introduced to many forms of literature.
 

Math

Patterns, shapes, measurement and number sense are all important parts of the Kindergarten Math curriculum. Students begin by sorting and classifying common items noting similarities and difference, move on to counting and gradually learn to add and subtract. Additional skills include telling time, identifying coins by name and value, and printing numbers through 31.
 

Science

Through inquiry and experimentation, students learn about the practice of Science. Students learn about Physical Science, Life Science, Earth and Space Science and the nature of science and Engineering. The culminating activity of the Life Science unit is the incubation and hatching of chicken eggs which usually produces a lot of excitement in addition to chicks!
 

Social Studies

Social Studies are addressed daily as we discuss current events, significant dates and people in history. We also compare the life of a Minnesota family today to the lives led by the early settlers and natives of Minnesota. Cultural similarities and differences among the settlers of North America are discussed and read about and our own family traditions and countries of origin are mapped.

First Grade
Second Grade
Third Grade

Intermediate and Middle School

Intermediate and Middle School at Our Lady of Peace prepares students for the interdisciplinary subject matter of high school and college. Each year students are matched with an individual advocate /adviser for academic and personal development so that each student is accountable to that faculty member. 

The curriculum is preparatory, but relevant to matters outside the classroom. Our faculty does an outstanding job of explaining the core curriculum as a building block to future learning while our specialists allow students to further develop the Spanish, Physical Education, Art, Music, and Technology skills that they have gained since primary school at Our Lady of Peace. Student evaluation is based on a set of clearly articulated standards and students are expected to achieve. 

All students participate in the Middle School Leadership Program - a program that develops the interpersonal and compassionate gifts inside our students. 

Religion
Language Arts
Math
Science
Social Studies
Religion

Coming soon...

Language Arts
Math
Science
Social Studies

Specialists

Our specialists are content experts in the areas of Spanish, Art, Music, Library/Media, Physical Education, and Technology. They provide Our Lady of Peace students with knowledge that educates the whole student. By spending focused time with our specialists, our students develop advanced creative, quantitative, kinesthetic, and real, practical skills that could serve them for life. We are lucky to have these specialists and our students are fortunate to flourish from their knowledge. 

Art
Information Literacy
Music
Physical Education
Spanish
Art

Our Lady of Peace Catholic School believes that art is a life-long process of interacting with the environment, expressing values, and integrating various cultures while reverencing God, persons, and nature through creative expression. Fostering art develops creativity, builds self-confidence, provides for aesthetic experiences, and transmits cultural heritage.  Art reaches students who may not be reached in other ways but also in ways that they are not being reached in other subjects.  The teaching of art serves as an instrument for learning about life, for it represents the past, interprets the present, and imagines the future.

Early Learners, Kindergarten, & First Grade

Students in ELP (Early Learning Program), Kindergarten, and First Grade will learn to use basic art materials correctly and to share art materials and supplies safely. They will be introduced to line, shape, color, texture, and pattern. Students will also be introduced to the concept of art as a means of expression.

Second through Fourth Grade

Students in the Second, Third, and Fourth grades will be re-introduced to basic elements of design (line, color, shape, texture, and pattern) as well as being introduced to the principles of design (space, balance, repetition, scale). Students will learn to make decisions and modify their ideas as they make artwork and begin to judge when their artwork is complete.

Fifth through Seventh Grade

Students in Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh grade will study the effect of cultural and temporal context on the appearance of artworks by analyzing pieces of art from various civilizations (Colonial and Early American; Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Medieval European; African, Asian, and Middle Eastern). Students will also learn about creating depth and volume in two-dimensional artworks through contour lines, shading, scale, positioning, foreshortening, and linear perspective.

Eighth Grade

Students in Eighth grade will learn about the history of art by focusing on various art periods and movements throughout history. They will also examine and draw objects placed before them in an attempt to distinguish between the object as it is actually seen and the object as it is known intellectually. Eighth-grade students will create objects of sufficient complexity as to require task analysis, time management, experimentation and adaptation, communication, and self-evaluation.

Information Literacy
Music
Physical Education
Spanish

Our Lady of Peace is a PeaceBuilders School!

PeaceBuilders is the research validated violence prevention and character education program that is a part of what makes Our Lady of Peace such a great place to learn and grow. The program has become a big part of what we do here and you can see it in action during lunch, on recess, in our classrooms and even at home.  Our Power of Peace Day, Peace Circles, and PeaceBuilders bulletin board help reinforce the curriculum.

Created for the young child, child, pre-teen, and teen, PeaceBuilders addresses risk factors, which predict violence, bullying and drug and tobacco use. Participation in PeaceBuilders reduces aggression, promotes language development, and teaches pro-social skills.

I am a PeaceBuilder.

I pledge. . .

 

To praise people,

To give up put-downs,

To seek wise people,
To notice and speak up about hurts I have caused,

To right wrongs,

To help others,

 

I will build peace at home, at school, and in my community each day.