Tuesday, January 14, 2025 @ 5:15 PM
There are 26 letters of the alphabet, 44 different sounds, and approximately 150 different spellings for these sounds. In Kindergarten, students start by learning these sounds, then blending these sounds to make words. By January, they are reading connected phrases and simple sentences, and by the end of the year, vibrant characters come alive as they breeze through the adventures of chapter books like “Zack and Ann.” In 1st grade, students tell their own story. They are the character in their own personal narrative, writing about a special holiday or birthday, a favorite gift they ever received, or a significant personal achievement. Students use an editing checklist to peer-review each other’s work, commenting and providing feedback, before publishing their official final piece of writing.
Did you know that the average 6-year old knows 6,000 words? Our Early Childhood Cubsters have an ever-expanding vocabulary and cannot wait to come home and tell you all about plants and photosynthesis, how a meteorologist predicts the weather forecast, or the ancient legends of the Aztec Empire and Mayan civilization. During Knowledge, students actively listen to read-alouds like “King Midas and the Golden Touch” and answer Who? What? When? Why? Where? How? Sometimes they answer these questions by independently drawing a sequence of events, turning and talking with a partner, or participating in a whole-group discussion. Each grade level’s knowledge domains intentionally build upon prior knowledge. For example, Kindergartners study the five basic senses, and in 1st grade are ready to identify the skeletal, muscular, digestive, circulatory, and nervous systems of the human body.
Mathematics info coming soon!
Music info coming soon!
“Time to get fit, time to represent. T-E-P, what time is it?” Kindergarten students join Coach by chanting in unison to get energized for an active and fun workout during their daily PE block. After a student-led warm-up or stretch, teams cheer each other on while playing favorites like freeze tag; red light, green light; duck, duck, goose; or treasure island. In 1st grade, students hone in on their stability, flexibility, and strength with exercises like jumping jacks, squat jacks, scissor kicks, wall sits, burpees, and planks. Students learn about the history of games like soccer and monumental players that evolved its popularity throughout the world. Coach challenges students to be on their tippy toes like a ninja, developing speed and agility to dribble, pass, and shoot the soccer ball, while simultaneously learning breathing rhythm techniques that promote endurance.
During the Elementary Grades, students shift from learning to read to reading to learn! Students read classic tales including Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp and contemporary fiction such as The House on Mango Street, digging deep into the text to find meaning and explore theme. Students investigate characters, looking for ways that the characters change and grow, while also understanding how point of view can change the meaning of any story. Students learn that the dictionary definition isn’t the only meaning of a word; the figurative realm of similes, metaphors, and personification help students connect to the individual and collective hopes, dreams, and wishes communicated in the poem, Harlem, by Langston Hughes. Our independent readers also become super sleuths, turn keying their research into written pieces about a day in the life aboard the international space station or the contributions of inventors like Thomas Edison.
Writing info coming soon!
Knowledge of the World info coming soon!
Mathematics info coming soon!
It’s time to start playing instruments! Kids have their first long-term experience with an instrument by learning to play the recorder. Students earn their first recorder karate belt playing “Hot Cross Buns” and achieve black belt mastery with a performance of “Ode to Joy.” Elementary students still love to sing, too; their voices lift spirits and drift through the open air as they parade through the campus singing “Lovely Day.” Students learn about different styles of music around the world from the Carnegie Hall Musical Explorers, including South African Zulu, Cumbia, Georgian Folk, and Jazz. When they are not writing new lyrics to their favorite known songs, students rock out to “Vivir Mi Vida” and “Just the Way You Are,” which they perform on the ukulele. Freestyle Fridays end the week on a high note, allowing students the opportunity to express themselves through creative improvisation and composition.
PE info coming soon!
In ELA classrooms at the middle school, students acquire knowledge by digging into rich thematic questions through the use of authentic texts. From Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth in 5th grade to William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 8th grade, students journey through different realities and perspectives while exploring their own. We combine defined skill instruction and content knowledge, to prepare our students to clearly communicate with their own authentic voices.
TEP’s middle school math department works collaboratively across grade levels to create and build curriculum designed to promote conceptual understanding coupled with standards mastery. TEP’s middle school math team has consistently placed in the top 5 in NYC (out of all 373 ranked NYC public middle schools), based on students’ long term growth in math from 5th to 8th grade. We believe that math is not just a tool but a universal language that affords scholars economic mobility and develops leaders who are eager and equipped to tackle critical 21st century issues. Using data driven expert instruction and pedagogical experimentation, we will develop reflective learners who actively take risks and achieve at the highest level.
The Big Bang Theory, the COVID vaccine, and the heliocentric model. None of this knowledge would be discovered without curious thinkers. The quest for knowledge is part of human nature, and to derive and understand the various phenomenon that we observe is at the root of what science is about. Our students come into our classrooms with their own understandings about themselves and the world around them. Every student comes into our classrooms as scientists, whether they know it or not. In science, students are at the center of learning, whether they are dissecting owl pellets to figure out their roles within the food web, building electrical circuits to understand the flow of electricity, or predicting weather patterns. TEP’s vision is to develop scientifically literate students who can solve problems, critically analyze, and evaluate scientific statements in their daily lives. When students leave our classrooms, students will become leaders and agents of change within their communities, seeking to understand themselves and the world around them.
Do you have what it takes to be detective of history? What clues have Native Americans, Egyptian Kings, American Patriots, or African American freedom fighters left behind to help us figure out the most reliable story of what happened? Our 5th graders put on their detective hats and were introduced to historian skills, map skills, and using context to figure out the truth. 6th graders traveled around the world and explored the social structures, geographies, and artifacts of ancient civilizations in India, Greece, and China. 7th and 8th graders argued over, analyzed, and evaluated the causes and effects of various events and wars that shaped American history. Students are learning that history is not made up of just dates to memorized. History is something to be interpreted and evaluated based on the changing evidence we discover today.
TEP’s music department seeks to develop musicians by emphasizing skills and understandings that apply to both their instrument of specialization and the broader world they inhabit.
Performing: With an emphasis on technical proficiency, TEP trains musicians to perform with a high degree of skill on their chosen instrument.
Responding: TEP students are trained to analyze a wide variety of musical genres, and the cultures they reflect, and to be able to articulate the factors that lead to their perception.
Connecting: TEP places a high degree of emphasis on the experience of mastery in music, through which students develop self-efficacy, intrinsic motivation, and an appreciation of the effort needed to achieve success in any field.
TEP features a world-class PE program where students are encouraged to take chances in a supportive environment as they continue to enhance their personal level of Physical Literacy. Our state of the art facility provides the atmosphere and resources required to allow EVERY student to leave TEP with the confidence and competence to pursue any athletic endeavor of interest. Our curriculum provides a holistic approach to learning, which is designed to expose students to a wide variety of physical activities such as Invasion Games (basketball, soccer, football, lacrosse, floor hockey, etc.), net/wall games (volleyball, badminton, pickle ball, table tennis, etc.), target games (golf, shuffleboard, archery, etc) and general health pursuits (HIIT, strength training, yoga, etc.). This varied approach ensures that your child leaves the TEP PE program with a positive outlook on health, nutrition and fitness.
Thanks for reading about Curriculum!