Once a week, the faculty and student body in grades on through five gather together in the Worship Center to express devotion to our Lord through praise and worship. Biblical truths and principles of life are taught by our staff, pastors, and guest speakers. We welcome parents to attend with their children and worship with us.

Bible study is an integral part of the school curriculum at Willamette Christian School. We approach Scripture in such a way that a child will discover and be able to apply the relevance of the Bible and its principles to everyday situations and experiences. Students study in the classroom environment, where we use a variety of approaches and techniques to discover Biblical meanings and principles. Praise and Worship is an important facet of our Bible Time. Students will learn a Bible verse each week, NIV version. Throughout the year the curriculum focuses on the lives of various Bible heroes. Students see how God had a plan and purpose for each character and how God dealt with His people when they chose to disobey Him. Interwoven into each lesson is a Godly character application designed to stimulate character development within the student. The curriculum includes a mission focus, as well. The story of "Timmy and Tina" who are make-believe missionary children in Guatemala is interwoven throughout the curriculum.

Willamette Christian School utilizes the ACSI Bible Curriculum as a guideline for Biblical scope and instructional sequence. The following Bible characters and related character traits are studied in our second grade curriculum:

    * Moses - humility, courage, diligence     * Ruth - loyalty, loving servant

    * Joshua - obedience                              * David - facing giants

    * Daniel - confidence, faithfulness            * Nehemiah - cooperation

    * Job - controlling the tongue, patience    * Miriam - responsibility, praise

    * Esther - wisdom, unselfishness              * Abraham - listening, honesty, prayer

    * Elijah - trust, boldness                          * Martha - belief in God

    * Christmas - hearing God’s message      * Peter - self-control

    * Jesus - mercy, compassion                   * Paul/Barnabas - encouraging

    * Easter Story - resurrection

Willamette Christian School utilizes a phonetics-based program for teaching reading. Besides building the necessary background for word attack skills and confident reading, phonics trains students to listen carefully, to develop good habits of thinking, analyzing, organizing, memorizing, and applying important facts and rules. The A Beka workbook, Letters and Sounds 2, provides daily seat work activities to reinforce the phonics concepts vital to the mastery of reading skills.

To help each child cultivate a love for reading, we offer a variety of quality reading selections by A Beka Books. The reading program promotes the development of intensive phonics instruction, reading comprehension, and thinking skills through character building stories and reading materials. Each student also reads several enjoyable novels: Pilgrim Boy, dealing with the Mayflower expedition, dangers of the wilderness, and the preserving hand of God; No Longer a Nobody, dealing with a young boy discovering God’s love; and Carolina’s Courage, a story of a pioneer girl learning how to give things away and what is important. Along with classroom reading, students have the opportunity to participate in a ready incentive program. They are able to earn special rewards for reading outside of school.

Part of God’s plan for our lives includes the ability to communicate with one another and with God. Writing requires accurate spelling. Thus, spelling becomes an important part of the communication process. Writing allows the transfer of information over space and time. This ability is unique to humans and is a clear reflection of the nature of God. WCS works to create lifelong spellers. Students need to have a grasp of spelling rules as well as a knowledge of how to spell basic to advanced words, not just for Friday tests, but in everyday work. We use a variety of methods to accomplish this goal, the main resource being Rebecca Sitton’s Sourcebook Method. This method is based on the top 1,200 most frequently used English words. The program uses a wide variety of interesting games and lessons to practice synonyms, homonyms, and other word groups. Words are graded in a context taken from everyday writing, "cloze" tests, and dictation. We also utilize the ACSI Spelling Bee lists in the first semester. Words are also studied from various content areas. Students will study words pertinent to current units being studied.

Each day two sentences from Daily Oral Language are presented to students. The sentences contain errors in punctuation, capitalization, and usage. Through classroom discussions, students review previously learned skills and learn new applications.

In addition, the children receive daily practice in the principles of language in both written and oral communication. The workbook, Language 2, introduces second graders to written language. Grammar, creative writing, reading comprehension and thinking skills are integrated. Concepts learned in the first grade are reinforced as students continue training in the following areas:

        *Capitalization/punctuation                         *Prefixes/suffixes

        *Working with compound words                *Rhyming words

        *Recognizing and punctuating sentences      *Singular possessive words

        *Writing complete sentences                       *Antonyms/synonyms

        *Forming plurals/word usage                       *Alphabetizing

        *Letter writing/creating writing                     *Contractions

Students solve verbal or representational analogies daily, which enables students to understand the connecting relationships between words. In the process, students develop skills in critical and creative thinking, vocabulary, and test taking skills.

The A Beka writing curriculum provides a workbook, Writing With Phonics 2. Cursive writing is taught and reinforced. Daily practice provides work in handwriting, phonics, spelling, and creative writing with additional work in vocabulary building, capitalization, and the use of prefixes and suffixes.

Students receive mini-mental exercises weekly involving number sense, patterns, estimation, mental mathematics, and geometry through the Daily Mathematics series. Critical thinking skills are incorporated into daily problem solving, which helps students see the connections among a variety of math topics. Problems emphasize real-world situations, reinforcing the importance of mathematics in student’s daily lives.

The A Beka math curriculum is used as the core textbook. This is a complete math program that provides daily activities, including oral drills, the teaching of new material, the practice of new material, and review of basic facts. Games are used to reinforce math skills learned during lessons. The mathematics curriculum teaches students to believe in absolutes, to work diligently to get right answers, and to see the facts of mathematics as part of the truth and order that God has built into the real universe. Listed below are many of the skills the second graders will learn:

        *Addition/carrying             *Calendar/time                      *Subtraction/borrowing

        *Roman numerals              *Multiplication                       *Rounding

        *Place value                      *Fractions                             *Counting

        *Abbreviations                  *Order                                  *Terminology

        *Clock time                       *Simple division                    *Money

        *Problem solving               *Story problems                    *Estimation

        *English/metric measure     *Simple graphs and Charts

SCIENCE

Science is the study of God’s order, provision, and general revelation as discovered in His physical creation. The science and health program at WCS offers a comprehensive study which gives the students understanding of the content and processes of life, physical and earth sciences. The following units are studied, utilizing Bob Jones University Press textbook, Science for Christian Schools, and teacher-created supplemental materials, including the Channel 8 Weather School:

        *Plants: garden planning and types of plants

        *Growth: physical, insects, plants-field trip to farm

        *Rock and Roll/Earth Science Unit - Students will make their own rocks; study

          differences in soil, rocks have different properties and different uses. (Simply

          Science)

        *Body Systems: bones, cartilage, muscles, dinosaur skeleton project

        *Energy and Magnets: polar regions, positive/negative, hands-on activities

        *Environment: habitat of animals and plants

        *Dental Health: parts of teeth, dental hygiene

        *Birds: life cycle, habitat, physical appearance (Simply Science)

Willamette Christian’s history program is presented with the firm conviction that "the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof." History, therefore, is a revelation of God in His dealings with man and the universe.

Through the use of the Bob Jones University Press Heritage Studies 2 and the teacher supplemented materials, students learn about God’s plan for communities and why we need rules and laws. As they discover the difference between needs and wants, they learn that God is our Provider. The following units are studied as themes:

        *Communities: leaders, elections, rules and laws, helpers

        *Our World: map skills, continents, oceans, countries and cultures

        *Our Country: states, regions, U.S. residents, historical events, colonial time period

        *Revolutionary War time period.

        *New World: Pilgrims, Indians

        *Presidents: a study of US history using 43 Presidents

Geography is interwoven with the study of history, and review questions throughout the text help to test comprehension.

WCS students participate in a multimedia Spanish curriculum. Viva el Español is a complete language development program designed for teaching Spanish in elementary and middle schools. The main objectives in our Spanish program guide students through the development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, with a special emphasis on communicative activities to create actual and practical uses of the language. While learning Spanish, students also explore the culture of the Hispanic world. Viva el Español makes learning Spanish fun and creates a positive attitude toward learning languages and experiencing a different culture. They also learn Bible verses in Spanish

We design art classes at Willamette Christian School to stretch the imagination of the children and challenge their creativity. Our curriculum introduces children to great artists, their works, various art techniques, and a wide selection of art products. This is accomplished through the use of theme units such as Holidays, A Trip Around the World, and mixed mediums. Students learn about color mixing, shading, texture, size and color value. Foil art, origami, crayon rubbings, gingerbread houses, pop-up cards, and soap carvings are just a few examples of the fun and exciting projects we offer to our art students.

A general introduction to computer terms and basics begins the class. An overview of mouse movement and entering and closing programs is reviewed. A typing program, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 5, is the primary teaching tool by which students are taught correct finger placement and usage for the keyboard.

During special seasons, holidays, etc., they learn to make posters and cards from the Print Artist 3.0 program. Corel Word Perfect Suite 7 is also utilized to create "word art" and to learn word processing. Once a month students have the opportunity to type that month’s memory verse. Occasionally there will also be opportunity for the fourth graders to play educational games.

God created music as a gift for us. In turn, we must use it for Him. Music is a skill that must be trained and developed, and in doing so, students will learn music as an avenue to praise and worship God. Melody, harmony, and rhythm will be points of study, with community resources being used to help enhance this program. Students will learn to listen, write, read, and lead others. Participants in the music program will go on field trips and minister to others in our community. Willamette Christian School students will perform a yearly Christmas Musical.

Fitness and skill development are the primary goals of the P.E. program. Students participate in exercises to promote cardiovascular endurance, muscle strength, and flexibility. Basic motor and manipulative skills are sequenced or combined for greater movement challenges. Games, relays, and drills are designed to enhance skill related fitness or specific sport skills. Partner and group activities are used to meet growing social needs, while emphasizing individual development.

Throughout the year there are opportunities for students to participate in various ACSI sponsored academic competitions with students from other Christian schools. Competitions at the classroom level select second grade representatives from WCS for the ACSI Spelling Bee and Speech Meet. More activities are available in the upper grades, beginning with the addition of the Math Olympics in third grade.

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