Grades 3K-2

Our Pre-K teachers are implementing the New York City 3-K for All Interdisciplinary Explorations. These thematic units are designed to create and promote strong connections between school, scholars and their families as they engaged in comprehensive, in-depth, play-based learning across domains. The topics and activities in the Explorations Units begin with routines and learning about the classroom, the community and their world acknowledging that each child is unique and can succeed. The Explorations Units are grounded in Guiding Principles of the Early Learning Outcomes Framework which include the following domains: Approached to Learning, Social Emotional Development, Language, Communication and Literacy, Mathematic Development, Scientific Reasoning and Perceptual, Motor and Physical Development.

Our Pre-Kindergarten students are learning through the implementation of the Explore Units and the Building Blocks math curriculum. The Explore Units provides for the development of inquiry and critical thinking. The Units of study provide opportunities for content exploration and skill building that are aligned with the NYCDOE Kindergarten Social Studies and Science Scope and Sequence. The Units promote inquiry, language development, and problem solving skills through thematic based learning center activities, which promote interaction with students, use of purposeful play, and development of new vocabulary, incorporation of culturally responsive books, content-based texts, and strong family engagement practices. The Building Blocks math curriculum focuses on developing a good sense of numbers using concrete objects including concepts of correspondence, counting, cardinality, and comparison and describing shapes in their everyday environment

Harcourt Into-Reading is the ELA curriculum for grades K-5. Into-reading is a comprehensive student centered literacy program with a focus on social-emotional learning and growth mindset that supports the development of our scholars’ literacy skills. This curriculum is aligned to the Next Generation Standards and provides a flexible balanced approach with a focus on small group instruction. Into-Reading includes culturally relevant and ethnically diverse text that builds on reading, writing and discussion.

The Kindergarten curriculum focuses on the development of phonemic awareness, phonics, isolating and blending phonemes, basic reading skills, vocabulary development, concept of print and sentence structure as set forth NGS.

The First grade curriculum focuses on the scholars’ reading skills such as decoding, developing reading fluency, vocabulary development, reading comprehension and writing skills.

The Second Grade curriculum focuses on the development and improvement of our scholars’ phonics skills, reading comprehension, vocabulary development and knowledge of written genres.

Our Math curriculum, en Vision Math, for grades K-5 is problem-based learning aligned to the New Generation Standards and the 5 Math Practices aiming to deepen scholars’ conceptual understanding. This curriculum supports scholars’ understanding of math concepts through problem-based instruction, small group engagement and visual learning that focus on reasoning and modeling.

Our students are learning Social Studies through Civics for All. The units of study are aligned to the New York State K–12 Social Studies Framework, the New York State Next Generation English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies Learning Standards, and the New York City K–12 Social Studies Scope & Sequence. The curriculum encourages students to consider their role in society by promoting their new understanding of government. Furthermore, the Civics for All curriculum begins by establishing a shared understanding of American ideals amongst kindergarten through second graders.

In Kindergarten, the students receive instruction on the following topics: My School and School Community Self and Others Geography, People, and the Environment Families, Change, and Time.

In First Grade, the students learn about Families and Communities are Important, Families Now and Long Ago, Our Community and Community Economics.

In Second Grade, the students receive instruction on the following topics: Our Community’s Geography New York City Over Time Urban, Suburban, and Rural Communities Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities.

Amplify Science is a highly engaging, experiment-based program for grades K–5 that includes the latest practices in science teaching and learning, as well as interactive digital tools and hands-on activities, to teach students how to think, read, write, and argue like real scientists and engineers.

The Amplify Science units engages our scholars in relevant, real-world problem where they are encourage to investigate scientific phenomena, engage in collaborative work and discussion and develop models or explanations in order to arrive at solutions.

The Kindergarten Band includes units such as Needs of Plants and Animals where students take a role as scientists in order to figure out how a community garden provides for the needs butterflies and the production of food/vegetables for human consumption. The second unit Pushes and Pulls encourages out Kindergarten students to become machine engineers in order to investigate the effects of forces and motion of an object allowing students to construct a foundational understanding of why things move in different ways. On the third unit, Sunlight and Weather, the students gather data from models of the sun and earth’s surface and observe how sunlight causes changes in the temperatures of different surfaces.

The First Grade Band includes Animals and Plants Defenses. In this unit, the students are to play the role of marine scientists to explore how plants and sea animals create structures to defend themselves from predators. In the second unit, Light and Sound, the students take on the role of light and sound engineers as they explore the cause and effect relationships to learn about nature of light and sound. In the third unit, Spinning Earth, the students learn how to record, organize and analyze observations of the sun and other sky objects as they look for patterns in order to make sense of the cycle of daytime and nighttime.

The Second Grade Band includes Plants and Animals Relationships. This first unit encourages the students to role-play as plant scientists to investigate how trees have an impact on animal survival. The students are able to solve the mystery through observing, collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data. In the second unit, Properties and Materials, the students are challenged to crate bonding material and present an evidence-based argument for why their glue mixture will be good to be used in school. On the third unit, Changing Landforms, the students play the role of geologists while investigation earth erosion and its impact overtime.