1) At Washington Elementary, we
boast a caring and committed staff that believes that every child is a
learner and will succeed. We help our students develop the skills they
need to be lifelong learners through our CORE Knowledge program. CORE
Knowledge focuses on helping children establish strong foundations of
knowledge in the areas of language arts, history and geography, math,
science and the fine arts. Each grade level builds upon the previous
grade level’s understanding, going more and more in-depth, every year.
We are in our third year of CORE implementation and our teachers remain
committed to a fully implementing this program and empowering kids with
the knowledge that comes from it. In addition, we continue to work to
ensure that the CORE curriculum meets district expectations and state
standards.
2) Through our balanced literacy
program, students receive guided reading and writing instruction every
day, as well as phonics, vocabulary and comprehension instruction that
specifically emphasizes the skills that get kids to read. Our writing
curriculum teaches students the technical parts of writing, including
how to make good word choices and how to formulate thoughts into
paragraphs. Students practice writing through descriptive, persuasive
and narrative writing assignments.
3) Both our social studies and
science programs immerse students in exciting units about the world, the
past and present and the wonders of physical, earth and life sciences.
By learning about other countries and cultures, students come to
appreciate the richness of the American society. In science, students
use their power of observation to form hypotheses and conduct
experiments to find out if they were right.
4) Each of our teachers has
developed an art program for their students that gives them access to
instruction on color, shape, form, foreground and background. Through
our wonderful music program, students learn about rhythm, beat and how
music can be composed and played. In addition, through music
appreciation, students learn about famous composers and their music.
Students have the opportunity to participate in bell choir, vocal choir,
band and orchestra programs during and after school.
5) We are truly a school where
parents, teachers and students are partners, and we see parental
involvement as a two-way street. We invite parents to participate in the
life of our school and, as a school, we want to support our parents in
any way that we can. We encourage parents to know how their student is
being taught and how he/she is performing. Our ultimate goal is to
provide kids with the opportunity to be anything they want to be.
