SPA celebrates and respects differing approaches to learning as well as teaching pedagogy unique to each teacher and classroom.
Students in grades 3 and 4 have the opportunity to work in one of three classroom settings and benefit from two full-time teachers in each homeroom. At the same time, we feel very strongly that consistency across our three homerooms is very important. We ensure that every third- and fourth-grade student at SPA will experience:
A safe learning environment that supports social and emotional development. Daily morning meetings, flexible student partnerships, community goal setting, and classroom jobs for students help ensure that each student thrives in his or her classroom. In addition, each student has the opportunity to be the “Student of the Week” during their third-grade school year.
Curricular consistency, including learning activities that develop skills in organization, responsibility, and presentation in large and small groups. A central goal is to hear the voice of each student at least once a day. Our homerooms all use a language arts program featuring both fiction and nonfiction literature, discussion, and genre-based book projects. Grammar and spelling instruction is based on the context-rich Scholastic text. Writing is featured in a variety of ways in the classroom—including weekly journal writing (and eventually proofreading) using the child-centered Moffett philosophy. Our interdisciplinary social studies units and our mathematics program (based on the interactive McGraw-Hill program) also support our curricular goals for third- and fourth-grade students.
Regular communication with the home. We hold conferences with families before and during the school year. In addition, each homeroom sends home newsletters, students bring home weekly “Friday Folders,” and parent volunteer opportunities are featured throughout the year.