What are they doing in there, anyway? Here's a peek into the classrooms:

PRE-K
Our classroom is a laboratory for learning about human relationships. Our children play and work with others, make choices and encounter the consequences of these choices, figure out how to enter play situations with others, negotiate social conflicts with language, and develop countless other skills that promote a child's sense of well being. The language of play has a strong direct connection to reading and writing. Talking a lot and engaging in quality, vocabulary-rich conversation builds a solid foundation for reading and writing. Through readalouds, drawing pictures to tell stories, and writing captions, children see connection between spoken language and the printed words. Preschoolers continually make observations, construct mathematical ideas based on their experiences with the environment, and begin to draw conclusions in order to construct knowledge around mathematics. In science they observe changes through various approaches, including looking at seasonal changes, observing seed growth, caring for classroom pets, and exploring the five senses and our environment. Trips are an essential component of our program and give us the opportunity to enrich our themes covered in class and to explore the cultural wealth available to all.

KINDERGARTEN
Kindergarteners start the year off by using pictures to write stories about their own lives. They develop early literacy skills and build confidence by reading and re-reading familiar storybooks and poems. As they increase their knowledge of letters and letter sounds, the students begin adding words to their writing. They also begin moving into just right books books they can read independently. Throughout the year, the students read and write in a variety of genres, including personal narrative, animal non-fiction, how-to books, poetry, letters, and more. Math curriculum focuses on counting, comparing, patterns, and geometry (shapes). Science and social studies curriculum includes Fall, School, Snail, and Playground studies.

FIRST GRADE
First graders study authors, including Ezra Jack Keats, Tommy DePaola and Angela Johnson, as reading and writing mentors. They do daily shared and independent reading, word study, partner reading, and personal narrative writing. We set our reading and writing routines in the first unit. The rest of the year is spent on writing small moments, poetry, non-fiction, and fiction. The year ends with informational writing, such as how to tie my shoes, and students make a memory book about their recollections of 1st grade life. Math begins with concrete practice games and manipulatives and moves to the abstract, including addition, subtraction, statistics, and geometry and measurement. As part of the integrated social studies and science curriculum the children study the fruit and vegetable market, from the farm to the city: retail, wholesale, jobs, transportation, and communities. It culminates in a research project on a fruit or vegetable that the child selects. We also study the life of Martin Luther King and other Freedom Fighters. The class conducts a Neighborhood study and ends the year with a Butterfly study.

SECOND GRADE
Second Graders grow as readers this year through small guided reading groups, whole class read-alouds, author studies, and chapter books. Students work in partnerships to strengthen their ability to talk about books and engage in interactive reading. Second graders are paired with reading mentors from upper grades. Writing is coordinated with 2nd grade reading curricula so that reading narratives complement the writing of our personal stories. Our nonfiction reading helps 2nd graders become better nonfiction writers, just as reading poetry makes them better poets. Most importantly, 2nd graders are asked to reread their writing so they can learn to edit for sense, spelling, and punctuation. Social studies is woven into our year through the core curriculum Look at the City. Units include City Jobs & Services, Transportation, the Post Office Study, the Brooklyn Bridge Study and the History of Colonial New Amsterdam. Social Studies is taught through literature, teacher-designed and document-based materials, field trips, parent participation, poetry, and music. Each unit ends with a hands-on project. Second graders are enriched in countless challenging math activities and explore science in the classroom through a Tree Study and an Animal Life Cycle Study.

THIRD GRADE
Third graders begin to develop a global perspective by expanding their view of the world. First they gain a more sophisticated understanding of maps and then they delve into how geography and climate affect how people live. With these concepts, children then study China and Africa in depth. Mathematics consists of expanding on their developing number sense. We encourage the children to work efficiently, using multiple strategies to solve problems. In addition to addition and subtraction, children begin to develop a basic understanding of multiplication and division, measurement, geometry, and fractions. In literacy, students become more independent and work on higher level comprehension strategies and writing skills. In addition to the personal narrative, non-fiction and realistic fiction genres, children learn how to write literary essays based on theories they have about characters in their books. Throughout it all, 3rd graders get prepared for the statewide testing in January and March.

FOURTH GRADE
Social studies begins with mapping, the geography of New York, and Native Americans, especially the local Iroquois and Lenape tribes. Next they move into Colonial America and the American Revolution. Fourth graders have just finished literary essays and will now be writing realistic fiction. They will also be reading in mystery or historical fiction book clubs. Fourth grade math started with geometry, data collection and place value, moving on to multiplication and problem-solving. They are now learning about fractions, decimals and percents. The fourth grade trip is open to discussion.

FIFTH GRADE
Math includes fractions, decimals and percentages as well as geometry. In writing, 5th graders study essay writing, historical fiction, personal essay, literary essays, and fiction and non-fiction. Students are currently finishing up their study of westward expansion and will move to the Civil War and the way of life during that time and Reconstruction. The year finishes with students learning about immigration and culminates with a trip to Ellis Island. The kids are busy researching, learning, and making connections between themselves and the children that lived long ago. As a nice complement and one that supplements their knowledge of the genre, the kids are reading Charley Skedaddle, a historical fiction about a young boy during the 1850s who runs away to join the Civil War. Classes have also focused on topics involving black history and Freedom Fighters.

Compiled by parent Nasoan Sheftel-Gomes, with the help of the teachers.