Elementary

English Language Arts for Grade 2 focuses on Reading and Writing. Through independent reading and read aloud exercises, we practice skills and strategies to ensure comprehension, enable interpretation, and develop vocabulary. In Writing, we explore basic conventions of English grammar, including punctuation and parts of speech, as well as spelling.

2nd Grade Social Studies in English expands on the simple idea of “Community” introduced in 1st Grade, helping students develop the basic knowledge and skills to explore the broader concepts of history, culture, economics, government, and civics. Students will also deepen their understanding of their place in the world through a focus on geography, and particularly, the use of maps.

Math in English for Grade 2 focuses on more complex addition and subtraction relationships and strategies, including place value explorations of tens and ones, grouping by 2, 5, and 10, odd and even numbers, and patterns to 100, and deepens student’s investigation into data collection and graphing as well as measurement and geometry. Key concepts are reinforced and connected to the real world by working with money.

Science in English for 2nd Grade is focused on the physical environment, here on Earth and in space. Students will participate in group projects that they will present to other students and parents during the yearly science fair.

English Language Arts for Grade 3 focuses on Reading and Writing. In Reading, we build on skills addressed in the 1st and 2nd grades, while introducing new skills, to ensure students fully understand key literary elements, such as characters, plot, and theme, develop reading comprehension that enables them to determine the main idea, a sequence of events, and cause and effect. Students explore making text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections. A focus on phonics skills to decode words supports vocabulary and spelling development. In Writing, we teach and reinforce the conventions of standard English grammar and usage, including parts of speech, verb tense, punctuation, and capitalization. Students will practice these by writing narrative pieces, opinion pieces, informative or explanatory texts, as well in their personal Writer’s Notebooks.

3rd Grade Social Studies in English deepens understanding of the part of the world in which we live. Students explore the varied territories and landscapes of North America—from mountains to seascapes, rural towns to big cities—as well as the structure and function of the U.S. government.

Math in English for Grade 3 focuses on ensuring students can fluently add and subtract within 1,000 and understand the attributes of two-dimensional shapes, while introducing multiplication and division of whole numbers and the concept of fractions as numbers, including fraction equivalence and comparison. Students apply these tools to solve problems of time, capacity, mass, area, and perimeter.

Science in English for 3rd Grade focuses on two key areas: Identifying the states of matter and observing the changes of the states (e.g., solid to liquid to gas); and the characteristics of the living world (e.g., stages of life, food chains, and food webs).

English Language Arts for Grade 4 covers three areas of competency: Reading, Writing, and Grammar. In Reading, students work with a range of genres from realistic fiction, historical fiction, biography, fables, expository text, fiction, and poetry, developing sufficient accuracy and fluency to support overall comprehension, as well as to determine a theme, describe in depth a character, setting or event, and compare and contrast narrative points of view. Throughout our reading work, students develop and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. In Writing, students learn to produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. We start off the year with a personal narrative, followed by a cross-curricular research piece related to social studies, and poetry, persuasive essays, and biographies round out the year. Students strengthen their writing skills, as needed, through focused efforts in planning, revising, and editing. Grammar is focused on ensuring students can (1) use their knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening, (2) demonstrate an understanding of figurative language, word relationships, and nuances in word meanings, and (3) determine meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases.

4th Grade Social Studies in English focuses on the early history of the North American continent. Primary areas covered include: (1) The Mayan, Aztec, Inca, and Native American Civilizations, (2) When Three Worlds Meet: Interactions of Native Americans, European Explorers, and the Slave Trade, and (3) New Amsterdam: Daily life in the Colonial Era.

Math in English for Grade 4 focuses on developing problem-solving and reasoning abilities, going above and beyond computational abilities. Three critical areas are covered: (1) multi-digit multiplication and dividing to find quotients with multi-digit dividends, (2) fraction equivalence, addition and subtraction of fractions with like denominators, and multiplication of fractions by whole numbers, and (3) analysis and classification of geometric figures based on their properties, such as having parallel sides, perpendicular sides, particular angle measures and symmetry.

Science in English for 4th Grade employs a hands-on discovery approach to science that promotes the implementation of the scientific method and encourages students to think critically and reason scientifically. Topics covered include (1) Plants and animals in their environment, (2) Properties of Magnetism and Electricity, (3) Properties of Water, and (4) The effect of Natural Events on Earth.

English Language Arts for Grade 5 covers five areas of competency: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Grammar, and Vocabulary.
In Reading, students develop the ability to read in fine detail through discussions, illustrations, character studies, invented text revisions, and reading comprehension exercises. Students become adept at seeking evidence in the text to support their ideas and personal responses to the books and passages, as well as making inferences. In Writing, students practice the arts of fact and fiction writing. They learn both how to write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information, and to express themselves creatively, crafting narratives of real or imagined experiences and events. As a vital part of developing their language skills, in Speaking and Listening, students will engage in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly. Grammar study is integrated into our reading and writing work or else in contextualized grammar exercises. In all cases, the goal is to sensitize students to the presence of grammar and mechanics in all aspects of expression, particularly as we find them in everyday texts of various kinds. The expansion of Vocabulary is addressed through weekly spelling activities as well as in our reading work, as students continue to develop their word decryption strategies, such as seeking clues in the context to understand the meaning of a word and looking for roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

5th Grade Social Studies in English is comprised of two areas of study: History and Geography. In History, students continue the study of North America undertaken in the 4th Grade, with a particular focus on the early years of the United States. Major historical eras covered include (1) Colonial Life to the American Revolution, (2) The Birth of a Nation and Westward Expansion, (3) The American Civil War, (4) World Wars I and II, and (5) Immigration and Social Change. In Geography, through the use of both primary and secondary sources, students conceptualize the landforms of the United States and the division of the groups, past and present, who share them.

Math in English for Grade 5 in large part covers fractions. Students learn to convert improper fractions, work with mixed numbers in performing the four operations, hone the techniques of rounding and estimation, and become familiar with the concepts of probability and ratio. Working with word problems is a key element of coursework, focused on helping students learn to identify the information needed to complete a given problem.

Science in English for 5th Grade builds from the content categories required in the French program, fostering an overall perception of science as a means to understand the world and man’s effect on Earth’s resources. Students learn to implement the scientific method, working independently, in pairs, or in groups, to draw meaning from informative texts or hands-on activities. Presentations to their peers then provide an opportunity to fix knowledge in students minds through the act of explaining to others.