Welcome to Elementary
Elementary: Kindergarten through 5th Grade
The TSD kindergarten through 5th-grade elementary program celebrates both languages, ASL and English, ensuring that our students learn, grow and belong.
We provide learning opportunities that builds on each child’s strengths. We aim to develop our students’ critical thinking skills, independence and advocacy skills through collaborative learning opportunities. We emphasize the process of learning. Through active involvement in student-centered classrooms, our students develop life-long skills. We tailor our curriculum to ensure our content considers our students’ bilingual language development in ASL and English.
Our English Language Arts Program follows the curriculum as outlined in the Texas Resources Systems, a curriculum widely used in the state of Texas. Our teachers tailor the delivery to ensure we provide materials and experiences that mirrors our students’ experiences and provides windows to others’ experiences. We carefully curate our reading materials to ensure a variety of perspectives are included. We incorporate anti-bias work in our curriculum. We use a structured bilingual grammar program that teaches our students ASL and English grammar. We also use Empowering Writers for teaching writing. Our ultimate aim is to develop confident bilingual students that have a love for literacy.
For math, we use the Origo Stepping Stones curriculum. The focus is on developing the students’ mathematical skills along with their thinking and reasoning skills. The curriculum is aligned with the TEKS. Social Studies is integrated in our morning meeting times for grades Kindergarten through third grade. The emphasis is on community building. We follow the Texas Resources Systems for Social Studies and Science. In fourth and fifth grades, our students study Texas and American history. When discussing our community and history, our teachers ensure our students are exposed to content from different perspectives.
We have grade level teams. Some grades have co-teaching teams. The co-teaching teams plan lessons together and provide differentiated instruction in all of the core classes. The grade level teams engage in curriculum study together to ensure their instruction is aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. For language arts and math, we use various data to determine flexible grouping based on the needs of the students.
We provide opportunities for our students to grow through a whole child approach. Our teachers work closely with a team of support staff, including a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) coordinator, counselors, Speech Language Pathologist and behavior support to ensure every child receives the support they need to succeed in the classroom. We work on SEL skills throughout the day, teaching students how to be a good school family, managing emotions and solving problems effectively. We also work closely with other service providers such as the Occupational Therapist and Physical Therapist to provide support when needed.
We aim to create an inclusive environment for every child and family. We recognize that a sense of belonging and connectedness is essential for learning. All families are welcome. We aim to ensure our curriculum is reflective of our community and world.
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