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Every teacher at each grade level seeks to foster academic achievement and stimulate critical thinking. We want our students to constructively question the world around them. By giving our students the ability to analyze critically and objectively, we can be confident that they will seek to change what they conclude needs changing and to defend and strengthen that which needs preserving. To develop and enhance this process, each grade has a community service project built into its curriculum. We also look forward to each student’s participation in both our Annual School Art Show and Lower School Poetry Magazine, celebrations of our students’ creative expression. The goals of the Lower School curriculum can only be achieved through a full partnership of parents, teachers, and administrators.
The Language Arts curriculum in the BFS Lower School employs a variety of approaches to ensure that children acquire proficiency in reading, writing, and oral presentation as they develop a love of literature and learn self-expression skills through the written word. Each student is encouraged to develop confidence as both a reader and an author, capable of communicating information and creative ideas. Students are introduced to a wide variety of literary genre, including literature representing diverse cultures. Recognizing that not all children learn in the same way, reading skills are taught through a variety of approaches that combine the building of sequential-skills and a whole-language program, including:
Writing experiences are closely connected to reading. If the focus in reading work is a genre such as folk tales or poetry, students may subsequently write in that genre themselves. In the classrooms:
Lessons are designed to build writing process skills, while spelling and handwriting are taught within the context of the child’s own writing. Handwriting, spelling and grammar and language conventions are also taught through a program of sequentially introduced skills coordinated throughout all Lower School classes. Workbooks are used to introduce and reinforce these skills.
The Lower School math curriculum follows the principles and standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Investigations in Number, Data, and Space, a standards-based math curriculum, provides the structure and sequence at each grade level. The content in kindergarten through fourth grade includes number and operations, geometry, measurement, and data analysis. The processes of problem solving, reasoning and proof, connections, communication, and representation are developed throughout Lower School. Children develop greater understanding of mathematics through the use of manipulatives, free exploration, and teacher-directed activities. Once conceptual understanding is achieved, students practice basic operations through games, individual and group-collaboration problem-solving applications, computer exercises, and paper and pencil tasks. Children practice quick recall of facts. Students learn that while computations may have one right answer, multiple strategies may be used to discover the solutions. Problem solving may include sorting, classifying, making graphs, exploring geometric relationships, measuring, applying logical reasoning, making predictions, devising strategies, and collecting, organizing, and interpreting statistical information. The Lower School Science program is based on children’s natural curiosity about their world and their need to explore, ask questions, and search for answers. Through a wide range of scientific experiences and opportunities children develop their skill at using the scientific process:
The primary goal of the curriculum is to help students learn to think scientifically. Topics covered at each grade level include seeds, magnets, metamorphosis, classification, simple machines, water cycle and electricity to help students develop a solid core of scientific knowledge. Science studies are often integrated with Social Studies topics. Instructional materials include appropriate reading material, films, visual aids, lab materials, and animals for life-cycle studies. Field trips are an important part of the curriculum. The curriculum is enriched by the resources of the city, such as the Aquarium, seashore, Museum of Natural History, the environmental Sloop Clearwater, and Prospect Park. Trips outside the city include visits to farms and an overnight camping experience for 2nd through 4th graders.
The Social Studies curriculum in the Lower School is premised on a progression of awareness and understanding that gradually expands a child’s view of self and the world. At the kindergarten level, children explore the concepts of self, family, and school community. The first grade class studies systems and institutions in our neighborhood. Brooklyn (its geography, landmarks, and ethnic groups) is the topic for the second graders. The third grade learns about Native Americans, and fourth graders engage in a study of the New World and the settlement of New Amsterdam. Social Studies emphasizes human interdependence within communities, fostering a respect for different cultures and responsibility for the environment. The Information Technology and Media Literacy Curriculum at Brooklyn Friends begins in the third grade. Third and fourth grade students use computers and information technology resources throughout their curriculum and have one formal class session a week, where they are introduced to the computer as a tool in their learning process. We focus on a broad range of skills, including network navigation, touch-typing, and working with multimedia. These focus areas support the development of logical-processing skills and higher order thinking. Students are guided in the appropriate and responsible use of information technologies and resources. Children in the Lower School are exposed to the concept of community service through their classroom curriculum as well as through projects organized by the Lower School community service coordinator. Projects include fundraising and collections for charitable organizations such as the Coalition for the Homeless, C.H.I.P.S., City Harvest, and the YMCA’s shoebox gift project. Second graders have prepared dinners for the homeless at a local synagogue’s shelter and for the Brooklyn Meeting’s weekly dinners. Third graders have been involved in a horticultural project planting trees in Prospect Park. During their study of the Hudson River, last year’s fourth graders sponsored a “readathon” and donated all proceeds to an organization which benefits the Hudson River. All children take part in a variety of activities. In the recent past these have included: collecting for Penny Harvest and UNICEF, creating Friendship Kits for the American Friends Service Committee, and a community project where parents and students have worked side by side to build flower boxes for the Fort Greene homeless shelter and children’s bureaus for the Auburn Shelter. The Lower School curriculum is enriched by the specialist classes offered for further exploration of creative expression and movement. These classes include music, physical education, art, woodworking, dance, and library. Students also receive exposure to Japanese language and culture. Students visit the Pre/Lower School library on a weekly basis for literature-enriched experiences that focus on the joy of reading and the selection and use of books for research and pleasure. The mission of the Pre/Lower School library program is to ensure that students become effective users of ideas and information. This is accomplished by providing relevant resources, current technology, and programming which integrates classroom curricula with the instruction of research skills. No less important is the need to promote a love of quality literature, thus encouraging students to become lifelong readers for enjoyment as well as critical thinkers. In the library, students not only listen to stories read aloud, they actively participate in storytelling, bookmaking, puppet making and dramatizations in connection to the literature, social studies, or science curriculum. Students also learn how to conduct and evaluate research in both print formats, including encyclopedias, atlases, dictionaries, and online databases, including Proquest. They are provided with guided instruction in the use of the Internet, both in formal small groups and during independent study. The library sponsors an annual fundraising book fair in the fall and promotes special events weeks such as Children’s Book Week (November) and National Library Week (April), among others. The library is always ready to welcome guest authors, illustrators, storytellers and readers of any age. Recent guests have included the celebrated authors Jacqueline Woodson, Vera Williams and Brian Pinkney.
In the dance program, students explore the elements of dance, build their movement vocabulary, and work together to create original dances. Dance units are often connected to science, social studies or language arts curriculum. In kindergarten and first grade, students learn fundamental locomotor movements and make dances based on poems, stories, seasons and classroom themes. The focus is on developing body awareness and partnering skills. Second graders investigate the different ways water moves as well as the body coordination of ocean animals. In third grade, students explore spatial formations and create a dance based on a Native American myth. Fourth graders present the annual Halloween Dance in the fall and at the end of the school year, perform an original dance for the entire Lower School. Children experience many types of music as they learn the elements of music: dynamics, tempo, rhythm, pitch, timbre, form, texture, and harmony. The program is a composite of the Kodaly, Orff, and Dalcroze methodologies through which experiential learning and improvisation is followed by music literacy. Singing and movement are integrated in the classroom through games, and students learn to read and sight-sing music through solfege and hand signs. In the kindergarten and first grades, children explore different ways to perform beat and rhythm and begin to read rhythmic notation. The older classes continue their introduction to rhythmic and melodic notation by reading and writing known songs and by notating their own compositions. In fourth grade students learn to play the recorder.
The art program at BFS seeks to develop each student’s innate creative abilities by encouraging individual self-expression and visual awareness. Students explore design, shapes, color, textures, composition, balance, and both abstract and representational themes through a variety of media that includes paints, cray-pas, pencils, markers, printmaking, papier maché and collage. Students in grades K-4 meet weekly with a visual arts specialist, building with increasing depth and complexity toward a greater understanding of art. Challenging open-ended problems are presented, connections are continually made to art history of all cultures, and children are taught to analyze their own work and the works of others in media that include a variety of drawing materials, watercolor and tempera paints, printmaking, collage techniques, sculpture in papier maché, clay, assemblage and wire. Sample projects include:
Children in grades 1-4 have PE twice weekly, kindergartners once a week. The program is aimed at total body fitness and physical development as well as cooperative play. Specific skills that are taught include listening, following directions, awareness of space, agility, manipulative skills, endurance, strength, and socialization. Kindergarten children play in an environment that promotes success for each individual child. Students are taught skills through structured play. Focus is placed on large motor movements, such as galloping, skipping, tagging games, and jump-rope. First/Second Grade students are introduced to more advanced ball-handling skills that form the foundation for volleyball, soccer, and basketball. Students take part in cooperative games, gymnastics, track activities, running and dodging games. Learning social skills is an integral part of the physical activities and is an important element in the success of the class. Third/Fourth Graders’ skills have become more refined and activities are focused on actual sports. Many of the sports activities are modified to enhance team play, skill development and group cooperation. Children learn rules and apply strategies that they’ve formulated.
The BFS woodworking program combines manual skills with visual arts concepts. In grades K-4 each class begins the year with a directed project, to learn and reinforce such skills as sawing, hammering, measuring, using a square accurately, understanding wood dimensions, and increasingly complex mathematical concepts. Examples of these first directed projects are:
The directed project usually takes one-third of the school year, laying the groundwork for the following two-thirds where the students independently design their own projects. The design process leads them to pay attention to the mathematical and engineering aspects of design as well as the aesthetic ones. In addition to the above skills, emphasis is placed on problem solving, cooperation, respect of materials and tools, and the ability to work independently. Students in grades 1-4 are exposed to Japanese language and culture by a native Japanese teacher. Through games, stories, books, songs, and food, the students are given a chance to develop an understanding of the culture and language of a Pacific Rim culture. In the Lower School, the purpose of homework is to reinforce skills that are introduced during the school day and to encourage independent thinking and problem solving. Homework is designed to encourage students to take increasing responsibility for organizing their time and efforts in getting work done.
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Brooklyn Friends School, our goal is to bring out the best in each
student. Essential to knowing and developing that potential is
a varied exposure to both the traditional academic disciplines
that foster literacy and numeracy, as well as the artistic disciplines
that enhance the ability to affect change. Thus, in the Lower School
we focus on developing skills as a platform for positive self-esteem.
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