Curriculum

Academic Excellence with a
Challenging Curriculum

St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School achieves academic excellence with a challenging curriculum and a variety of instructional strategies. Teachers differentiate instruction to the needs of their students. Teachers use whole group and small group instruction, hands-on activities, inquiry and discovery, project based learning, class discussion, cooperative learning, and authentic assessments. Technology has become a strong component integrated in all areas of the curriculum.  Core subjects taught at St. Vincent are religion, language arts, mathematics, science, social studies/history, Spanish, art, music, physical education, and technology and STEM.

Religion is the primary focus at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School.  In our school the Catholic faith permeates every content and all facets of the classroom and instruction. Teachers make concerted efforts to teach all content through the eyes of the Catholic Church, integrating the faith into the daily lives of the students and allowing for a Catholic world view.  St. Vincent religion curriculum is aligned to the Diocese of Peoria Religion Curriculum Guide for Catholic Schools.  The curriculum is developed around the four pillars of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: Creed (what we believe), Sacraments (how we celebrate), Christian Living (how we live), and Prayer (how we pray). These standards provide the instructional framework for the content of the Catholic faith while enriched with Sacred Scripture and the teachings of virtues, morals, and social justice.

St. Vincent’s language arts curriculum includes reading, writing, phonics, spelling/vocabulary and grammar.  The reading curriculum emphasizes the development of phonics, phonemic awareness, word analysis/vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Writing instruction is a developmental process that stresses focus, elaboration, organization, and conventions. Students write for a variety of purposes. The phonics, spelling/vocabulary, and grammar curricula promote proficiency in reading and writing.

Problem solving and fundamental math concepts are at the heart of the math curriculum at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School.  A wide variety of math manipulatives are used to assist math instruction and provide a visual understanding of concepts. Pre-algebra and algebra is offered in the middle school.

The science curriculum in the primary grades focuses on the teaching of life science, earth science, and physical science. Teachers engage students in activities that utilize the scientific method and build upon process skills with special emphasis in hypothesizing, observing, analyzing, problem solving, and drawing conclusions. The middle school has science lab which is used to actively engage students in sixth through eighth grade in genetics, cells, weather, plate tectonics, volcanoes, chemistry, physics, and life science.

The social studies curriculum encompasses United States and world history, civic, economics, and geography. Teachers use maps, diagrams, guest speakers, and technology. Field trips and Junior Achievement volunteers help to bring global and local views into the classrooms.

Spanish is offered for pre-kindergarten through eighth graders. Second through fourth grade engage in acquisition of basic vocabulary once a week. Fifth and sixth graders attend Spanish class twice a week. Seventh and eighth graders attend Spanish class three times a week. The fifth grade curriculum consists of building vocabulary, and learning simple sentences and phrases. Sixth through eighth grade subject matter builds on previous years, extending vocabulary usage with adjectives and conjugation of verbs.

Students at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School express themselves creatively through art. Teachers include crafts and art projects into their weekly curriculum. St. Vincent has recently acquired a full time art teacher to implement an art program in kindergarten through 8th grade.

The music curriculum at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School is centered around praising God through church music. Students receive music class weekly where songs are sung, instruments are presented, and basic music theory concepts are taught.

Physical education is offered to students twice a week. During this time game techniques are taught with emphasis on teambuilding and sportsmanship. Curriculum includes both health and fitness.

While the integration of technology exists in each classroom and content area, St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School also offers technology courses that assist students in technological literacy. This curriculum is aligned to the National Education Technology Standards.

STEM is the intentional integration of the individual disciplines of science, technology, religion, engineering, the arts, and math in order to assist students in the development of communications skills, critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration built on a foundation of our Catholic faith. Learn more about our STEM curriculum initiative here.

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