USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Hamilton > Town of Hamilton Annual Report 1958 > Part 10
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1. Elementary Grades, K-6
a. Kindergarten. All activities of the Kindergarten which pro- mote and develop the motor coordination of the child, the use of the small muscles, and the need for the printed or written symbol may be classed as activities fostering handwriting readiness.
b. Grade 1. Learning large and small letters in manuscript writ- ing (lettering), the correct formation of the numbers one through ten, and the writing of short phrases and announce- ments constitute the main emphasis in handwriting in the first grade.
c. Grade 2. Review and/or reteaching when necessary of the correct formation of manuscript letters and of figures. Cursive instruction is started.
d. Grade 3. The eight-year-old learns all cursive letters-longhand -(capital and small) and learns to put letters together to form words.
e. Grade 4. Special attention is given to handwriting so that all children may be able to write legibly and easily in cursive style (longhand).
f. Grade 5. Continued instruction in helping children to write legibly, neatly, and to develop their own style.
g. Grade 6. Children are expected to write legibly and well, to discover and overcome individual writing difficulties, to develop pride in good handwriting and neatness, and to become aware that writing reflects the personality and habits of the writer.
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ENGLISH LANGUAGE
1. Elementary Grades, K-6
a. Kindergarten. Some of the activities for developing language are : oral expression (dramatic play, play activities, conversa- tion, work periods, and speech training) ; written language (usually in terms of stories dictated by the children, letters, invitations, and copied phrases for Valentines, etc.) ; creative language (jingles, song, and short stories) ; literature (stories and poems told or read by the teacher as well as by the children, and simple dramatization of stories) ; and pantomine (rich experiences with the best in poetic literature).
b. Grade 1. Oral expression is developed through story telling, conversation, differentiating between various sounds and var- ious ideas, recognition of correct expression, pronunciation, enunciation, listening and contributing, poetry, and dramatiza- tion. Written expression is developed through uses of capital letters, uses of punctuation marks, copying from the board, and through independent writing. By the end of the year, some children are able to write one or more sentences independently.
c. Grade 2. Oral expression is developed through story telling, conversation, recognition of correct forms, pronunciation, enunciation, word study, choral speaking, and dramatizations. Written expression is developed through the correct use of capital letters, punctuation marks, the paragraph, and poetry writing. Neatness, legibility. Correct sentences, capitalization, and punctuation are emphasized in manuscript writing.
d. Grade 3. Oral and written expression include : use of capitals, punctuation, sentences and paragraphs; correct use of words, writing short stories ; letter writing; invitations and thank-you notes ; study of poetry ; alphabetizing ; and dictionary activities.
e. Grade 4. Here children learn to use dictionaries more easily, encyclopaedias, tables of content, glossaries, and indices. They also learn to recognize forms of speech; to write stories, poems, friendly and business letters; to use the telephone; to make simple outlines; to alphabetize more easily; to write book re- ports; and to observe the rules of correct capitalization, correct punctuation, and correct usage in general.
f. Grade 5. Emphasis on sentence structure, paragraph construc- tion, parts of speech, punctuation, capitals, outlining, note taking, correct work usage, business and friendly letters, in- troductions, reading and discussion of fiction, poetry, descrip- tion, explanations, reports, and stories.
g. Grade 6. Oral expression is developed through class discussions, reports, current events, plays and choral speaking. Written expression is developed through writing compositions, letters, poetry, note taking, and the making of outlines. Neat, legible handwriting is expected from all written work.
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SOCIAL STUDIES
1. Elementary Grades K-6
a. Kindergarten. Ideally social living experiences form the central core of the whole kindergarten program; but, in the planning and carrying out of these experiences or units, reading readi- ness, handwriting readiness, numbers, language, nature study, science, health, safety, art, music, and physical education are all emphasized wherever possible. Among the many kinds of social living experiences used in the schools are : school orienta- tion (getting acquainted with each other, with the teacher, with the classroom, with the school building, with the school grounds, and establishing a schedule pattern) holidays (Columbus Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, birthdays of Lincoln and Washington, Valentine's Day, Easter, May Day, Mother's Day) Indians; Pilgrims; American Flag; the calendar; time ; size and space concepts; home and community helpers; animal and farm life; circuses; science explorations; intensified read- ing readiness (see above) ; and visiting the first grade.
b. Grade 1. As the natural core of the whole program, these ex- periences involve the identification of first graders with the contributions to society of the home, school, and neighborhood. This includes the development of curiosity in natural science and the phenomena of one's own environment. Health and safety are emphasized wherever possible.
c. Grade 2. Centered on living together in the neighborhood and community. Emphasis placed on community helpers, food, cloth- ing, shelter, transportation, and communication. Much atten- tion given to democratic group work, leadership, and responsi- bility. All other subject areas are correlated with Social Studies, including science, health, and safety.
d. Grade 3. Centered on living together in our town and country. Emphasis placed on planning to work together; present-day Hamilton business activities in Hamilton, transportation, shop- ping and business centers, banks, political aspects, police force, fire protection, highway department, health services, recreation and churches. All other subjects are correlated with Social Studies, especially health and safety, and a science curriculum aimed at helping third graders to see into processes that are more removed from their immediate environment than those of their primary understandings.
e. Grade 4. Centered on exploring our country and the world (living together in the American colonies). They become aware of the world and its various climatic regions through books, maps and globes. They study Massachusetts today ; other coun- tries and peoples, with emphasis on their location, climate,
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industry, and people; the explorations of those people who found our country ; and the early American settlers.
f. Grade 5. Centered on living together in the United States, past and present, with special notice of Massachusetts throughout. American History is studied to impress upon the student the basic philosophy of our democratic government. The geography of America is studied with special emphasis on climate, weather, natural resources, transportation facilities, and the general characteristics of each area.
g. Grade 6. Sixth graders study the old world and its contribu- tions to society. The study includes Early Man, Early Cradle of Civilization as well as a study of the continents. Much use is made of maps, time lines, and reference materials. Demo- cratic relationships are stressed in class.
MATHEMATICS
1. Elementary Grades, K-6
a. Kindergarten. Number awareness is a requisite in the Kinder- garten program but is never an isolated lesson in itself. Every opportunity is utilized to help children see and sense the use- fulness of numbers.
b. Grade 1. The six-year-old's compulsion to count everything soon refines into the need for paging, telling time, shopping for mother, reading the calendar, temperature reading, skill games, and reading and writing the figures through 100. He learns some measurements as well as how to solve simple oral addition and subtraction problems that come up in his everyday ex- periences.
c. Grade 2. Fundamentals of addition and subtraction, problem- solving, money, time, simple weights and measures, and simple geometric forms are included. Social uses of arithmetic made clear through children's own experiences. A basic arithmetic vocabulary is taught.
d. Grade 3. Review of first and second grade work; addition, sub- traction, and simple multiplication; making change; telling time; measuring quantities, and simple fractions are all in- cluded.
e. Grade 4. Nine-year olds learn to carry in addition, borrow in subtraction, carry in multiplications, multiply three place num- bers, multiply mentally through the nines, understand begin- ning division, understand Roman numerals, understand graphs. and work with simple fractions and measures.
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f. Grade 5. Long division, multiplication by two and three num- bers, and the addition and subtraction of fractions. Stress is placed on the child's understanding of the meaning of each process before practicing it.
g. Grade 6. Includes fractions and decimals in all the funda- mental processes ; short division ; finding the average, area, and perimeter ; money relationship; graphs, scales; measurements. Number concepts developed through working problems men- tally, estimating answers, and devising problems from daily life situations.
SCIENCE
1. Elementary Grades, K-6
a. Primary Grades, K-3. In the primary grades Science is not taught as a separate subject but rather as a part of the Social Studies program. Whenever an opportunity develops for dis- cussing an aspect of science, it is seized upon for exploration.
b. Grade 4. Some of the units studied include : weather, moving things on land, moving in water, riding on air, you use air, plants and more plants, plants and seeds, insects that work together, climate, water, seasons, power, travelers around the sun, and neighbors in space.
c. Grade 5. The units studied are : explorers; exploring the world of molecules ; exploring solids, liquids, and gases; exploring the world of living things; exploring the farmer's world; water and conservation ; exploring inside the earth; mineral treasure ; machines ; exploring your growth ; how we get electricity ; how we use and control electricity ; and what will the weather be.
d. Grade 6. The units studied are: the news comes to us, news across time and space, the world of chemistry, a visit to the doctor, sunlight-the food maker, the changing earth, the uni- verse, the world of weather, and power today and tomorrow.
MUSIC
Throughout the ages, man has found music to be essential in voicing his own innate sense of beauty. Music is not a thing apart from man, it is the spiritualized expression of his finest and inner self. There is no one wholly unresponsive to the elevating appeal of music. If only the right contacts and experiences are provided, every individual can find in music some answer to his fundamental need for aesthetic and emotional outlet. Education fails its cultural objective unless it brings
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to every child the consciousness that his own spirit may find satisfying expression through the arts.
1. Elementary Music, K-6
All of the regular classroom teachers, with the help of one music supervisor, have been responsible for carrying on the music program in the elementary grades. They have spent anywhere from 20 to 75 minutes per week in each classroom in such basic music activities as: singing ; rhythms (free rhythmic responses to music suitable for activi- ties, folk and square dancing, and rhythm, instruments, themes and rec- ognizing the use of music by different groups and people) ; playing (rhythm instruments, triangles, drums, simple melody instruments, autoharps, etc.) and composing of original melodies and songs.
2. Instrumental Music in All Schools. During the past year instruction has been provided for band instruments from grade 4 through 12. A total of over 100 boys and girls receive weekly instruction in a variety of instruments. More time will be necessary for band.
ART
Art education particularly contributes to the general education of our children and youth in two important ways: PRIMARILY and DIRECTLY in enabling the child to unify within himself and express the WHOLE of his experience; and SECONDLY and INDIRECTLY it contributes through its capacity to make factual and skill learning more effective, more pleasant, and better understood.
Elementary Grades, K-6
Since we have had only one part-time special art teacher in the elementary schools during the 1957-1958 school year, most of the art instruction has been given by the regular classroom teachers. In most instances they have done a very creditable job, spending anywhere from 20 to 75 minutes per week at each grade level, using the art curriculum suggestions prepared by the special art teacher.
INDUSTRIAL ARTS
Industrial Arts is a subject in general education dealing with the interpretation of industry, that is, the materials, tools, processes, prod- ucts, occupations, and problems of industry. It is based on the activity method of instruction and is achieved through such learning activities as planning and constructing projects, experimenting with tools and materials, reading about industry, making reports, visiting and observing industry.
Children have almost lost the opportunity to participate in the
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fabrication of things that in the previous century were done in the home. It has become difficult for them even to observe craftsmen at work. They do, however, show considerable interest in tools, materials, and the HOW and WHY of things put together. Therefore, it may be wise for us to nurture this natural interest by providing industrial arts experiences - an opportunity for creating in concrete form some of the ideas our children and young people may have.
Elementary Grades, K-6
Industrial Arts is usually referred to as "construction and manipulation" activities in the elementary grades. To help give children a broad general foundation in concrete direct experiences as a basis for learning and understanding what they learn, such activities are inval- uable. Yet up to the present, relatively few construction activities take place beyond the Kindergartens and first grades. We need to work for more such activities in all of our elementary schools - primarily to provide better motivation for learning (through utilizing children's own purposes) and to add meaning for those understandings, skills, habits, and attitudes that we want our children to learn.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Elementary Grades, K-6
Our program of Physical Education includes Health, Safety, and Recreation - all of which are carried on by the classroom teachers in the elementary schools, without the guidance and help of a Physical Education Supervisor. Elementary Health instruction centers on per- sonal appearance and body cleanliness; proper clothing; nutrition and growth; digestion and elimination; care of ears, eyes, nose, and throat, rest, relaxation and exercise; posture; general physiology of the body, tobacco, and harmful drugs; prevention and control of disease; and wholesome personality in daily living. Elementary Safety Education emphasizes those safety practices desirable and necessary for the home, school, and community. Other elementary physical education activities include rhythms, dances, story plays, games, stunts, exercise, and both individual and team sports.
FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Elementary Grades, K-6
In those homes where a foreign language may be spoken and chil- dren have an opportunity to learn and use a foreign language at the same time they are learning English (before even coming to school), we believe to be the finest time to learn a foreign language. After a child has entered school, it is still not too late to teach a foreign language,
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provided there is a real need for it and an opportunity is available in the home or in the community for using it. Although we have had no formal foreign language program in the elementary schools during the past year, a few classroom teachers have been giving some conversational French and Spanish to their elementary classes.
CO-CURRICULUM
Some of the most valuable learning experiences for our children and young people are provided in programs of extra-curricular activities, which are a very important part of our educational program. Some of these co-curricular activities include :
Elementary Grade, K-6
The "extra-curricular activities" of the early grades include cele- brations of all kinds, art shows, science fairs, assembly programs, drama- tizations, special instrumental lessons, minor team sports, educational trips, picnics, safety patrols, student councils, and other such activities.
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COURSE OFFERINGS - HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL FOR 1958
MATHEMATICS
Ninth Grade College Math -
After reviewing the language of algebra as used in the seventh and eighth grades, the students shall be introduced to the concept of signed numbers. The details of using the four fundamental operations of arith- metic with algebraic equations and inequalities will be solved algebrai- cally and graphically. Ratio, proportion, and variation will be pre- sented with special emphasis on its use in geometry. Powers, square roots, and radicals will be studied in connection with the idea of irra- tional numbers. The fundamentals of numerical trigonometry will be developed to the point where simple triangle relations may be solved. The notion of absolute values will be used. Throughout the study of the above content, algebra will be treated as a study of mathematical structure rather than only as the development of manipulative skill in one particu- lar mathematical system. The concepts of set, statements, variable, rela- tions and functions as these are formulated in modern mathematics will constitute the background for introducing each new mathematical idea.
Tenth Grade College Math -
On the foundation of the informal, nondeductive geometry intro- duced in the seventh and eighth grades, high school geometry will be presented from the Euclidean point of view with less emphasis on memorization by rote and a greatly curtailed list of required theorems. The deductive method will be applied to the proofs of more commonly used propositions, but wherever possible the use of algebraic methods of proof will be instituted. Elementary analytic geometry will be developed from the beginnings laid down in the ninth grade. Every opportunity to develop special concepts will be exploited during the study of plane geometry and the time saved by using algebraic proofs will be used to present the most important concepts of solid geometry. The student who masters the subject matter of this course will be prepared to handle the work required in the mathematics departments of institutions re- quiring elementary algebra and geometry for admission.
Eleventh Grade College Math -
Third year mathematics in the high school will begin with an inten- sive review of the ninth grade algebra, with special emphasis on systems of equations, ratio and proportion, and imaginaries. Computation with logarithms, and the use of the slide rule and the binary system will be studied. Arithmetic and geometric progressions, the Binomial Theorem, determinants, permutations, combinations, probability, statistics, and rates of change will be presented for the first time. In trigonometry, reduction formulas, double angle formulas, half angle formulas, and the Law of Sines, Tangents, and tangent half angles will be used to solve oblique triangle situations. The student who masters the course content
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above should be prepared to take the less exacting courses offered by colleges and universities in the freshman year.
Twelfth Grade College Math -
Elementary analysis, probability, and statistical inference comprise the subject matter of the twelfth grade. Polynomial, power, exponen- tial, logarithmic, trigonometric, and inverse functions will be studied. The study of rates of change in the eleventh grade will be developed to an informal intuitive introduction to some concepts of calculus. Probability and statistical inference will be studied to the point where their appli- cation to the sampling techniques of modern industry may be understood. A student who masters the content of this course will be well prepared to take a standard course in calculus and analytic geometry in college first year mathematics.
Fundamentals of Arithmetic -
Primarily for freshmen. Students in this course should develop skill in the four fundamental operations adequate for ordinary life situations. The application of the fundamental operations cover the field of natural numbers and zero, fractions, and decimals. It includes an understanding of a place system of numeration with special reference to the decimal system and the study of other bases, particularly the binary system. Experience in handling very large numbers and very small numbers is included. The ability to apply measurement to practical situations is developed together with the ability to operate with and transform the several systems of measure. Experience is given in the practical aspects of every-day life such as those pertaining to loans, mortgages, insurance, taxes, and budgeting.
Business Arithmetic -
Primarily for sophomores. Students in this course will review the four fundamental operations of the previous course and will devote the majority of the time to improving their skills in handling problems of commission, interest, mark-up, percentage, loans, mortgages, insurance, and taxes.
General Mathematics -
Primarily for juniors and seniors. The course contains materials from the fields of arithmetic, algebra, and geometry, with the strongest emphasis on arithmetic. It is calibrated for the student not headed for college and/or of mediocre mathematical ability. Enough algebra is presented to familiarize students with the solution of simple equations. Informal geometry is included to help students gain an understanding of spatial relations in the home, shop, or factory, Number skills are maintained through diverse situations calling for fractions, decimals, and percents.
Seventh and Eighth Grade Math -
Students shall review the four fundamental operations with whole numbers and fractions, written in decimal notation and in the common
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notation used for fractions. If possible, they will be brought to an adult level in skill adequate for ordinary life situations in all the computational processes. They will be given an understanding of the decimal, binary systems, and should develop the ability to handle very small numbers (less than one ten-thousandth). In addition, students shall be introduced to the following subjects: The nature and use of the arithmetic mean. A knowledge of square root and the method of finding it when decimals are involved. The understanding of ratio as used in comparisons and in making scale drawings. Percent as an application of ratio, including percentage and base. Measurement in different systems of measure, and the transformation from one to the other, of common geometric figures and solids. The use of measurement in drawing to scale and finding lengths indirectly. Concepts of common geometric relationships includ- ing similitude and the Pythagorean relation. Graphs used to represent numbers and relationships. The use of symbols as placeholders for numbers. Simple expressions involving "variables."
SCIENCE
General Science -
The general science course is offered to give students the opportunity to explore all areas of science such as chemistry, physics, and biology according to their special interests. If the student has no specific interest he is invited to explore deeper into a possible area through the one re- quired project or a series of projects. In this way, the course will be challenging to both the future scientist and those not planning a scien- tific career.
Biology -
Offered to students in grades 10, 11, 12. The forms of plant and animal life, how they live, and their relations to man are studied. Human anatomy and physiology are considered in some detail.
Chemistry -
Offered to students in grades 11 and 12. The chemistry course pre- sents students with the opportunity to follow the scientific method in laboratory work and to cultivate sound habits of study and work while acquiring a knowledge of fundamental terms and concepts of physical science, atomic structure, the periodic table, chemical bonding, and a study of various elements and compounds in the light of these newly introduced concepts.
Physiology -
Offered to students in grades 11 and 12. This course is primarily intended for students interested in a career in nursing or the medical- technical fields. The purpose of the course is to better acquaint the student with the functions and construction of the human body. A com- plete study is made of the nine body systems showing their independent
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