“Bringing Good News” is the Archdiocese of Baltimore Religion Curriculum for Elementary Schools. This standards-based curriculum serves as a guide, a road map for both teachers and students as they embark on a journey, which will provide them with the knowledge and understanding of the faith as witnessed in the teachings and the traditions of the Catholic Church. The curriculum is built on the Six Tasks of Catechesis: Promoting Knowledge of the Faith; Liturgical Education; Moral Formation; Teaching to Pray; Education for Community Life; and Missionary Initiation and is aligned with the Assessment of Catholic Religious Education (IFG:ACRE).

By the completion of fourth grade, students will master a variety of skills including:

• Describe the Holy Spirit as proceeding from both the Father and Son as perfect love and wisdom.
• Define sin as choosing to turn away from God and examine sin’s effect on our lives.
• Recognize the Mysteries of the Rosary are meditations on different events in the life of Christ and his Blessed Mother.
• Compose prayer from each of these categories: blessing and adoration, contrition, petition, intercession, thanksgiving and praise.
• Identify the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.

By the completion of the fifth grade, students will master a variety of skills including:

• Understand that the Church teaches that Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man.
• Identify and describe the major liturgical feasts and seasons of the Church year.
• Identify all human life as sacred and precious to God, made in God’s image and likeness.
• Understand that faithfulness to prayer and worship helps us to lead a moral life.
• Identify that the Church teaches that we must work for a more just and fair society and world.

The curriculum for all elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore include the following units:

• Counting and Cardinality
• Operations and Algebraic Thinking
• Measurement and Data
• Numbers and Operations in Base Ten
• Geometry
• Numbers and Operations

Catholic educators never forget that our schools exist to bring our students to Christ. By continuing to implement new standards that are challenging, we work to fulfill the promise of quality Catholic education that educates the whole child, both mind and soul.

By the completion of fourth grade, students will master a variety of skills including:

• Use the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems.
• Gain familiarity with factors and multiples.
• Generate and analyze patterns.
• Understand decimal notation for fractions, and compare decimal fractions.
• Draw and identify lines and angles, and classify shapes by properties of their lines and angles.

By the completion of fifth grade, students will master a variety of skills including:

• Write and interpret numerical expressions.
• Perform operations with multi-digit whole numbers and with decimals to hundredths.
• Convert like measurement units within a given measurement system.
• Geometric measurement: understand concepts of volume and relate volume to multiplication and to addition.
• Graph points on the coordinate plane to solve real-world and mathematical problems.
• Classify two-dimensional figures into categories based on their properties.

The English Language Arts Curriculum for the Archdiocese of Baltimore is designed using the Catholic, College and Career Ready clusters as its foundation. Through literature, this course of study fosters students’ Catholic identity, shaping them to be models of Christian living for others. This curriculum is fully integrated with our Catholic faith. We provide students with a curriculum that is rigorous and rich in literature, oral and written language, grammar, writing, vocabulary, informational literature, and multimedia/technology.

By the completion of fourth grade, students will master a variety of skills including:

• Through reading a diverse array of literature and informational text, students are expected to analyze the structure of the text, compare and contrast, and refer to the evidence in the text, to interpret, integrate, explain, and describe their reading perspective.
• Students should show an ability to write informative, opinion and narrative pieces with clear and coherent writing. Using the writing process, students will develop and strengthen their writing skills.
• Research skills should be practiced over an extended period of time, using evidence from various text to support, analyze and reflect the research.
• Students should participate in a range of class discussions, posing specific questions, paraphrasing text and giving support for their opinions.
• Instruction should focus on correct punctuation, capitalization, multi-meaning words, and figurative language.

By the completion of fifth grade, students will master a variety of skills including:

• Demonstrate a command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
• Summarize a written text read aloud or from information presented in a variety of media and formats, including visual, quantitative, and oral.
• Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in the story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic and be able to summarize the text.
• Write arguments to support claims in analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
• Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation; additionally, produce more substantial research projects demonstrating understanding of the subject.

The following subject areas are currently under revision across the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and if you would like more information regarding these standards and essential skills please contact the school directly.

• Science
• Instructional Technology
• Social Studies
• Visual and Performing Arts
• Physical Education/Health
• World Languages