Academics
At Community Partnership School, our philosophy of education is grounded in our core values: Curiosity, Courage, and Compassion. These values drive our approach to teaching and learning and serve as guideposts for the community as a whole.
Our emphasis is on educating the whole child— paying attention to our students’ specific backgrounds, cultures, personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. Engaging each child as an individual, we address his or her social-emotional, academic, physical, and family needs. Each of these elements holds equal importance.
In order to implement our philosophy we have created small, intimate classrooms so that every teacher, student, parent/guardian, and volunteer can get to know one another and work together to maximize what’s best in our children.
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Our approach to literacy is comprehensive, with each grade level giving time to comprehension, phonics and phonemic awareness, writing, grammar and mechanics, spelling, handwriting, and vocabulary.
Across all grade levels our focus is on robust vocabulary development, deep thinking and conversation about texts, and a love of literacy. We create an equal balance between teacher-selected and student-selected texts. Students are encouraged to read aloud every single day, at every grade level. We are also intentional about choosing literature that supports our social-emotional pedagogy. Our social studies curricula is inclusive and reflects the identities of our current student body.
Materials Used
Heggerty Phonemic Awareness in Young Children (Pre-K-1st)
Handwriting Without Tears (Pre-K-5th)
EL Education (K-5th)
Wilson Fundations (Pre-K-3rd)
Spelling Connections by Zaner-Bloser (4th-5th)
Write Source (1st-5th)
Explorations in Nonfiction Writing (K-5th)
Step Up to Writing (1st -2nd)
Assessments
AIMSWeb Plus(K-5th)
ERB C-TAP (3rd-5th)
Teacher Created Reading and Writing Rubrics
Curricular Assessments (EL Education, Fundations, etc.)
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Across grade levels, we strive to cover mathematical content with depth as opposed to breadth. We focus on fewer concepts more deeply. While basic facts and computational skills are important to our curriculum, we put emphasis on developing strong number sense and conceptual understanding. Problem solving and math discussions are also a focus of the curriculum.
Materials
Dimensions Math (Pre-K-5th)
Everyday Counts (Pre-K-5th)
Math in Contexts (Pre-K-5th)
Bridges Intervention (K-5th)
Assessments
Teacher Created and Curriculum Based Unit Tests
AIMSWeb Plus
ERB C-TAP (3rd-5th)
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Science
At CPS, our science curriculum focuses on student inquiry. While we have specific content covered at each grade level, the final outcome expected for students is a sense of wonder, understanding of the scientific method, ability to ask questions, develop an investigation, and draw conclusions based on observations. The goal of our curriculum is that children leave CPS with a love of scientific inquiry and an understanding of careers that use science. We also see science as a wonderful opportunity to instill the growth mindset in our students, a focus of our social-emotional curriculum. We help our students learn that scientists have many trials and failures before they find success. We have a dedicated science teacher who meets with each grade level in our science lab. The science teacher also facilitates our annual Science Fair in which all children grades Pre-K-5th participate.
Materials
Full Option Science System (FOSS) Kits
Delta Science Modules
LEGO Education
AIM Education
LHS GEMS Science and Math
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Social Studies at CPS is centered on our core values: curiosity, courage, and compassion. We also integrate our social-emotional curriculum into our lessons. We begin in Pre-K and Kindergarten focused on “myself and others”. In first grade we focus on families, school, and our neighborhood. In second grade, the focus expands to our city, Philadelphia. In third grade, students study the state of Pennsylvania including the colonial period in our state and geography. Fourth and fifth grade transition to an integrated study of US History.
Each year as a school, we choose a different continent to study with the idea that when students leave CPS, all seven continents will have been explored. This is a student driven learning project culminating in a school wide fair showcasing the chosen continent. Each classroom chooses a country of focus. However throughout the school year, aspects of the continent studied will be highlighted through field trips, musical guests, and presentations.
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The Health & Wellness program at Community Partnership School is a comprehensive program that includes physical activity and health education with comprehensive nutrition and food education to encourage lifelong healthy habits for our students.
A core part of both our SEL and PE programs is that children need to be outside practicing both their gross motor and interpersonal skills. Our students will be on the playground daily in all types of weather.
Students attend Physical Education class twice a week. CPS emphasizes exercise and play while fostering awareness of the body. Students engage in games and physical activity designed to build physical agility, skills in teamwork and cooperation, and confidence. Physical expression is complemented by health education to help students gain a deeper understanding of their bodies and how to grow and perform at their best.
CPS has a partnership with the Health Promotion Council and all of our students receive a four-week module on nutrition including the preparation of healthy snacks.
In grades K-5th, all students participate in a six-week module of human development and sexual health. We encourage family partnership during these modules.