Elementary

Our Elementary (Grade 1 - 5) aims to make learning relevant and meaningful to students by adopting an inquiry-based, integrated curriculum, which focuses on the whole child as a learner. We recognize that children come to us as distinct individuals with unique experiences, backgrounds, abilities, and interests. Our teachers promote cross-cultural understanding and differentiate instruction to meet students’ varying needs, abilities, and learning styles. We provide a balanced educational program within a safe, stimulating environment so that each child can learn and grow to his/her greatest potential.

As a cohesive team, teachers work together to have high expectations in the character of the students. By emphasizing a different character trait each month, teachers, staff and administrators have a great forum in which to discuss and model positive values to mold students into productive global citizens.

Co-curricular Education

Colegio Maya believes in the holistic nature of children and integrates the arts in Music, Drama and Art classes, as well as Physical Education, Library, and Technology. Through these courses, students are exposed to musical instruments, theater, multiple art techniques and concepts, sports, physical fitness and adventure units, books from multiple cultures, as well as robotics and coding. Teachers also work together to integrate these components into the regular classroom, creating special projects and inquiry units. We also place a high value on becoming people with positive character traits. Students develop and practice building positive character through unstructured time.

First page of the PDF file: ElementaryLearningProgram20232024

Literacy

Colegio Maya places a high priority on helping children develop strong competencies and conceptual understandings in literacy. These are developed through an underlying foundation of Balanced Literacy; the philosophy and framework for how we approach literacy instruction here at Colegio Maya. This framework is built on a research-based understanding that the most effective literacy instruction incorporates a balance of the following components:

Reading:

Reading Aloud
Shared Reading
Guided Reading
Independent Reading

Writing:

Modeled/Shared Writing
Interactive Writing
Independent Writing

While these components will look different from grade to grade, we believe they are essential in developing a strong foundation of literacy competencies and conceptual understandings that lay the groundwork for children’s continued success in their learning journey.

Numeracy

Colegio Maya has adopted Bridges in Mathematics, along with Number Corner from the Math Learning Center. Student achievement is continuously monitored through a comprehensive assessment program rich in diagnostic and formative assessment tools that Colegio Maya teachers use to differentiate instruction and meet individual students’ learning needs

Bridges in Mathematics is a comprehensive curriculum that equips teachers to fully meet standards for mathematics in a manner that is rigorous, coherent, engaging, and accessible to all learners. The curriculum focuses on developing students’ deep understandings of mathematical concepts, proficiency with key skills, and ability to solve complex and novel problems. Bridges blends direct instruction, structured investigation, and open exploration. It taps into the intelligence and strengths of all students by presenting material that is as linguistically, visually, and kinesthetically rich as it is mathematically powerful.

The Math Learning Center is a nonprofit organization based in the United States. The founders spent several years traveling to schools to observe classrooms and visit with teachers and students. Over time they developed a research- based philosophy that emphasizes building a deeper understanding before engaging more abstract concepts. The curriculum is a living document continually updated and improved through collaboration with teachers.

Number Corner, a “pathway to fluency”, is a skill-building program that revolves around the classroom calendar, providing practice as well as continual encounters with broader mathematical concepts in 15–20 minutes of daily engaging instruction

(Source: Bridges in Mathematics)

Inquiry

Inquiry is a process by which teachers guide students to create their own understanding of the world in which they live. With the teacher’s help, students formulate meaningful questions they want to learn the answers to, explore the evidence they find, construct and test theories of why and what happens as a result, demonstrate their learning of the topic, and then reflect and act upon what they have learned. Many times, the resulting action comes in a form that connects to the student’s own community and world. Service Learning Projects begin in the inquiry units.

Students who experience inquiry learning “come to understand that they are able to acquire the knowledge they desire, in virtually any content domain, in ways they can initiate, manage, and execute on their own, and that knowledge is empowering”

(Kuhn, Black, Keselman & Kaplan, 2000)

Service Learning

Service Learning is an integral part of our curriculum and provides opportunities for students to develop their skills, talents, and interests in real-world, hands-on contexts. Students are encouraged to look through a sustainability systemic lens, using Compass Education tools with the goal of creating positive change. Through the Five Steps of Service Learning (investigation, preparation, action, reflection, and demonstration) students come to understand that the positive impact they can have on the world is directly related to ‘glocal’ (global-local) issues. What students learn in the classroom, combined with their prior knowledge and understanding of the world around them, coupled with their skills, talents, and interests is how they are encouraged to pick a project in which they can have a sustainable, long-lasting, positive impact.

Logo Image

Logo Title

In This Section