First Grade Program
In keeping with the Blue School mission, as the children travel on their academic journey the creative arts will play a vital role in scaffolding the children’s learning and social emotional development. As our children advance from Kindergarten to First Grade, creative play and social interaction grow to encompass the children’s developing academic skills. Utilizing open-ended questions, provocations and creative arts experiences, the children will engage in academic learning to meet the goals of our integrated curriculum strands.
Literacy learning will be focused on each child’s individual developmental level while providing opportunities for movement beyond this level and encouraging the child take ownership of their own academic path. Literacy instruction will range from sound and word study to book making and creative writing opportunities where the children are the authors, the poets and the music makers of words.
Mathematics learning will work towards developing the children gaining literacy of number sense. Utilizing Blue School values the children will embark upon an exploration of numbers, what they are, how numbers work together and numeracy application in our everyday lives.
Science and social studies learning will bring the children into the global world. As members of an eco-friendly school, the students will be able to consider the world outside Blue School. Drawing on our local environment, the children will explore the diversity of our world beginning with our school community and letting the journey unfold as the children consider the community outside Blue School windows to the greater New York City neighborhoods and even to the world beyond the United States.
Second Grade Program
Second-grade students at Blue School explore learning through an integrated curriculum that emphasizes the importance of educating the whole child for the challenges of the 21st century. While we identify and address theneed for children to have a strong academic foundation in the areas of math, science, social studies, literacy and foreign language, we also provide our second graders many opportunities to pursue their individual educational journeys through the creative media of studio art, music, movement, and dramatic arts. Social and emotional learning remains an essential part of the curriculum during second grade since this is a time when peer cultures and relationships both inside and outside the classroom develop, change, and become more complex. As children acquire a deeper understanding of interpersonal relationships and the responsibilities of global citizenship, the curriculum and pedagogy expands to embrace and celebrate empathy and compassion.
In accordance with Blue School’s mission, the curriculum fosters a sense of wonder and curiosity while teachers engage children in their personal interests that support and cultivate a love of learning. As their confidence and self-reliance grows, second graders are challenged to expand their imaginations and become independent thinkers. Over the course of the year, students identify, develop and take ownership of their personal style of learning while recognizing there is not just one right way to acquire a skill, but many. Acknowledging that each child learns in unique ways, teachers provide the tools to scaffold the learning for children and encourage them to discover and reflect upon new ways of problem-solving while acquiring knowledge as a class, in small groups, and in one-on-one instruction.
Teachers take great care to assess and cultivate the development of each child’s individual skills and interests. As the school year unfolds, they challenge second graders to take charge of their own learning from a safe, nurturing base. At select moments, teachers step back and entrust students with the freedom to explore their world, take risks, and acquire the skills necessary to be successful in new environments. Throughout this process, the Blue School welcomes and encourages parents as active participants and collaborators in this exciting journey.