Wonderwood Curriculum for Building Knowledge

Curriculum Overview

Outlines the structure, goals, and key features, providing a summary of Wonderwood educational philosophy.

Week 1: Maps

Introduces essential learning habits as children explore maps, their surroundings, and creative ways to build knowledge.

Week 2: Communities

Children will explore the concept of communities, building on last week’s map activities by asking who we live with and near.

Week 3: Food

Last week we explored what people need to thrive in communities. This week we are turning our
attention to food, a basic need that also brings people together and ties these two topics
together.

Week 4: Countries

Last week, we explored how food powers us and connects us. This week, we zoom out to learn more about the world around us—its many different countries, cultures, and ways of life. Even though people may live in different places, eat different foods, or speak different languages, we are all human and we all have things in common.

Week 5: Travel

Last week, we explored how people live in different countries around the world. This week, we’re focused on why we travel. Children will consider why people travel, what skills and knowledge are needed to make travel possible, and what they gain from it. We will explore how we travel in more depth when we discuss Transit in Week 7!

Week 6: Energy

Last week, we explored travel: where we go, why we go, what we need to do to make it happen, and how it connects us to the world. This week we’re digging deeper energy, which makes all that travel possible. From food that fuels our bodies to sunlight, batteries, wind, gasoline, and engines, energy makes motion happen!

Week 7: Transit

Last week we explored energy and engines and what makes things go. This week, we are shifting to how people move: how they travel near and far, and how transit has changed over time. From walking to wheels to high-speed trains and space flight, we'll investigate the history of human movement and the human inventions that help us go farther, faster!

Week 8: Construction

Last week, we explored transit. This week, we will look at the structures, systems, and inventions that make this movement and much of modern life possible. From bridges to building to roads and tunnels, we’ll ask: How do we build the things we rely on every day?

Week 9: Machines

Last week, we explored construction and the systems people design to support modern life. This week, we shift our focus to machines that help us build, move, and lift with greater power and efficiency.