Academics
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Primary School   PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION AT THIS The primary school curriculum emphasizes student centered, experiential and collaborative learning in a safe and welcoming environment. Each classroom has ample space and an abundance of attractive and challenging materials that encourage students to learn through active engagement with their physical and social worlds. Through direct experiences with physical materials, students construct their own knowledge about the world around them. Through membership in an intimate classroom community, students learn how to work together, share ideas, develop mutual respect and collaborate to solve problems. The THIS primary school curriculum recognizes the importance of children’s development as social beings as well as life long learners. The core curriculum includes language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, the Chinese language, music, art and movement and sports skills. As children progress through the primary grades, academic skills are introduced more formally, as each child’s learning strengths and differences are uncovered. Over the span of their primary school years, children gain a strong foundation in all core academic skills as they prepare to face the rigors of the middle and upper school curricula and become active members of the middle and upper school communities.
The primary school will consist of five self-contained classrooms, one for each grade level from first through fifth grade. In addition to the core teachers in each classroom, children will have the benefit of learning from specialist teachers in the Chinese language, art, music and physical education. Teachers specializing in English language proficiency will also be available to support children whose first language is not English.
The social studies curriculum serves as the core that runs through the entire educational program. The social studies curriculum begins in first grade with the individual child’s experiences of his/her world in the here and now. Students study their immediate neighborhood and the school community. In the second grade, students expand their study to the larger community and to the systems, services and geography that are necessary for this greater community to function. The curriculum gradually moves to the study of events from long ago and far away in the third, fourth and fifth grades. Children begin with the study of the history of a focus culture and expand their studies to larger and more distant areas and times. In the fifth grade, students study ancient civilizations and are introduced to anthropological concepts. In the earliest grades, students learn primarily from direct experiences with their immediate surroundings. Students take trips around the school and immediate neighborhood, interview people in these communities and re-create their discoveries through art, building and writing projects. As students mature in their ability to learn through more abstract sources, students begin to use books, museums, films, oral histories, newspapers and electronic media in their studies. Over time, increased emphasis is placed on process and skills of student directed research to answer students’ and teachers questions. Students work individually and in small groups to delve deeply into areas of inquiry that come from the students’ own questions sparked by the general curriculum topics. Through both direct experience and more abstract inquiry, students learn to make connections between their own experiences and historical events across many cultures. Students also gain a sense of the diversity among the many cultures in the world, both today and long ago.
Children develop a love of language and become independent readers and writers over the course of their primary school years. Students will be surrounded by words, stories, discussions, books, debates, poetry and dramatic productions in their classrooms. Students will learn to read, write and use language effectively for communication and exchange through a combination of formal instruction and in connection with the activities within the other core disciplines of instruction. All students in the primary grades will experience the power of language in communicating with others in authentic ways through class discussions, morning meetings, small group problem-solving activities and collaborative group projects. Students in all grades will have times for independent reading, small group reading and read-alouds. Students will read both fiction and non-fiction materials. As they mature, students will participate in teacher and student led literature groups, and studies of a series of novels focusing on themes such as identity, family and social values. Teachers in grades one and two will focus primarily on developing students reading fluency and will provide specific instruction on phonics, decoding strategies, spelling and word patterns, word parts, syllabication, and comprehension strategies. Students will engage in creative writing exercises and write personal autobiographies to further the development of their language skills. The emphasis will shift in grades three, four and five to developing students’ writing skills, and students will receive instruction in the writing conventions, punctuation, different genres of writing, grammar, spelling, editing and publishing. Teachers also focus instruction on expanding students’ vocabulary knowledge through both word work and reading. To encourage an appreciation of written and spoken language as a means for social and intellectual exchange, teachers will provide students with developmentally appropriate opportunities for reading aloud and independently and for writing independently and in collaborative groups on a multitude of topics, in each case, for pleasure and for information.
The mathematics program in the primary school focuses on students’ conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts. Students develop logical thinking and problem-solving skills as well as a command of math facts. Students apply mathematical concepts to the solution of real life problems involving money, measurement, telling time, estimation, mapping, spatial relations and probability and statistics. At each grade level, students review, consolidate and build upon the concepts and skills learned in prior grades. Across all grade levels, teachers use a variety of instructional methods to expand students’ conceptual understandings and computational skills. Students engage in investigations with materials, discussions, games, projects, and written work. Students gain competence and confidence through discussions and representations of their own math thinking and through sharing the math strategies of their fellow students. Students work in whole groups, small groups and individually on math projects throughout the primary grades. In the early grades, students use manipulative materials such as Unifix cubes and pattern blocks to explore relationships and patterns in numbers and geometric shapes. Through structured lessons, students gain a concrete understanding of abstract mathematical ideas. Students learn the fundamental concepts behind addition and subtraction, place value and geometric patterns and relationships. In the later primary grades, students move away from the concrete exploration of number relationships and patterns to more abstract understandings. Students gain a conceptual understanding of the processes behind multiplication and division and develop an understanding of the relationship among all mathematical operations (e.g., multiplication as repeated addition, division as the inverse of multiplication). Students master their addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts and extend their knowledge of these mathematical operations to solving problems involving multi-digit numbers. Students develop an understanding of fractions, decimals and place value and the relationship among these three mathematical concepts. Students expand their knowledge of geometric concepts, through activities involving measurement of perimeter, area and volume and analyzing the attributes of two- and three- dimensional spaces. Over time, students are encouraged to represent their mathematical thinking symbolically and to solve problems using mental math and estimation strategies. Teachers challenge students to discover the most efficient way to solve problems and to check their own solutions by using multiple strategies.
In trying to make sense of their world, children are natural scientists. They are constantly exploring the world around them, questioning what they observe and noticing changes in their environment. The science program in the primary grades focuses on the physical and biological urban environment in which the students live. The program emphasizes discovery and problem solving through direct experiences with this environment. To develop the skills of scientific inquiry, teachers and students focus on observation, recording, classification, pattern recognition and making predictions. Students gains respect for evidence and learn to think as scientists by forming hypotheses based on prior knowledge and testing these hypotheses through experimentation with materials and, in later grades, in a laboratory. In all grades, teachers promote students’ awareness of environmental issues such as conservation and preservation. The science curriculum in the early grades supports the social studies curriculum very closely. For example, students in the first grade take walks around the immediate neighborhood to notice the natural and physical built environment. Students represent their observations using various mediums, such as paints, craypas and clay. Students in grade two study the properties of water flow and electricity, leading to an understanding of urban plumbing and electrical systems. Growth and development are also studied in the early grades. Live animals may live in the classroom, depending upon the students’ interests. Seeds are planted in the classroom and students observe and discuss the progression of growth, comparing similarities and differences among types of plant life. As the students hone their scientific skills, they move to more intensive studies of the human body, light and sound, simple machinery, forms of energy and properties of matter. Students do field and library research, design and conduct experiments and communicate and represent their findings. Students are challenged to question their conclusions through direct experience with materials and to become flexible thinkers, responding to changing and expanding bodies of evidence.
Music in the Primary School |
