Mission: The Mission of the Seacoast Charter School is to provideexcellence in core academics and the arts while cultivating theindividual qualities and strengths of each child.
At the SeacoastCharter School, arts and academics go hand in hand. We believe that the arts bring us joy, and when we feel joy, we learn more deeply andeffectively. Through a rich and varied arts program, our students learn to look closely, listen carefully, respond thoughtfully and work collaboratively. Opportunities for creative expression and independent thinking are an integral part of our rigorous academic program. The combination of challenging intellectual and artistic endeavors develops our students’ hearts and minds and enables them to live more fully in the world.
Goals: To carry out our mission, the Seacoast Charter School is guided by the following goals, as we plan our curriculum and engage in our daily activities:
Emphasizing the process of learning, as well as the product
We create an engaging learning environment through hands-on activities and interdisciplinary studies that supports the innate curiosity and unique talents of each individual. Our students are expected to complete high quality work, but our focus is as much on the learning process as the product. We believe thatstudents need to feel safe and empowered in order to take risks necessary for learning, and for growth to occur.
Incorporating the arts as a serious path to broader learning
We provide opportunities for students to develop their artistic intelligences both by infusing the arts throughout the curriculum, and by treating them as discrete, core subjects. Our arts program encourages an intensity of effort and focus that is healthy for learning. As our students engage in serious work in the arts, they are required to think critically, generate multiple solutions to problems, and pursue long-term goals.
Fostering individual growth, as well as community building
We foster a school culture that emphasizes responsibility and self-awareness. As we cultivate children’s individual voices, we promote a shared respect for each other, our community and the world around us. Our students develop their communication and leadership skills as they work together to raise questions, solve problems, and build a cohesive, productive learning community.
Building a strong home/school connection
We welcome and rely on family involvement. Children, families, school, and community form an interdependent system, and we value and utilize the tremendous resources available to our students through our parents and the greater community. We support and encourage a strong connection between learning at home and at school, which positively influences our students’ attitudes and achievements
Curriculum
We provide our students with opportunities to be active learners. As they are learning a new concept, it is important for them to test their understanding. This allows a teacher to see what a child knows and understands and what they need to work on. At SCS, we see mistakes as a learning opportunity. We create an environment where students feel comfortable taking risks, making mistakes and receiving feedback.
Learning takes time. Students need room to explore their understanding of concepts and to practice skills until they are truly secure in them. Often new learners grasp a concept and then lose it again. This means that they are still developing their understanding and will need to revisit the concept. Our teachers work together to ensure that our curriculum follows a coherent scope and sequence across the grades.
Math Our students attain a solid foundation in mathematical concepts through work with manipulatives and constant feedback from teachers. We follow the Everyday Math Curriculum which is built in a spiral allowing students multiple opportunities to become secure in a concept. Students who need less repetition are able to move through the program at an accelerated rate. We teach our students to use a variety of tools including a Student Reference Book (starting in third grade) which gives them the independence to relearn concepts and math vocabulary. We emphasize the memorization of addition and subtraction math facts in first and second grade and the multiplication and division facts in third and fourth grade. Students learn a variety of math games that give them opportunities to practice math skills until they become automatic.
Reading At SCS, students spend time each day engaged in actual reading—either by reading independently or listening to a book read aloud. We focus on reading across the curriculum, and reading a wide range of genres. For example, in social studies and science, students read expository texts and reference books to gather information for their research projects. While we believe there is value in learning to use the internet for research, we believe it is also important to know how to gather information from actual books. By the end of the year, our students are quite comfortable using an index and table of contents.
Writing We believe that students need to write in order to become better writers. Our approach to writing follows the John Collins Writing program, which is a multi-draft process in which students learn to edit their work for style, content and mechanics. They write across the curriculum and in a variety of genres including friendly letters, personal narratives, research writing, and fiction. Students are responsible for revising and editing their work, and they keep writing portfolios in order to manage their various projects, reflect on progress, and set goals for future learning.
Core Knowledge We follow the Core Knowledge Curriculum for Social Studies and Science. We find that students are naturally curious and ask many questions. We teach them how to find answers to their questions through research or by conducting experiments. Below is a list of some of the topics that will be covered this year in their Social Studies and Science classes:
Social Studies Curriculum
First and Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth and Sixth
What is a Civilization?
Mesopotamia
Ancient Egypt
Asia
The Americas
Mesopotamia
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome
Middle Ages
Islam
Ancient Africa
US History
Maya, Inca, Aztec
Renaissance
Exploration
Early Russia
Constitution
Westward Expansion
Pre-Civil War
Civil War
Science Curriculum
First and Second
Third and Fourth
Fifth and Sixth
Life Science (Earth, environment, habitat)
Nature Cycles
Human Body (body systems)
Insects
Electricity
Magnets
Inventors
Human body (Circulatory and Respiratory)
Chemistry
Electricity
Geology
Meteorology
Science Biographies
Plate tectonics
Oceans
Astronomy
Energy, heat and energy transfer
Human body (lymphatic, immune and reproductive systems)
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