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Welcome to Balboa
Academy Elementary School!
Elementary School is an exciting time
full of learning and fun. We welcome you to be active
participants in your child’s classroom. We hope that
your child has a successful and productive school year.
Uniforms:
Elementary students will wear burgundy school tee shirts and
blue P.E. shorts or blue P.E. pants on Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday, and Friday. On Wednesdays, Elementary
Students will wear burgundy polo shirts with khaki skorts,
shorts, or long pants. Students will also use polo
shirts and khaki pants for school pictures, field trips and
school programs. Tennis shoes may be worn daily.
Students who have Balboa Academy Special Event Dragon tee
shirts can wear them on Fridays.
Supplies:
The school will provide all textbooks
and most materials, and supplies. However there are a
few personal supplies and materials that each student will
need to bring. Each child needs to bring a lunch
box or buy lunch and a back pack large enough to hold their
homework, books and lunch box.
Click here for list of
school supplies,
School
hours: 8:00 am -12:45 pm Monday-
Friday for Kinder and 8:00 am -12:45 pm Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday, and Friday and 8:00 am to 12:45 pm on Wednesday.
Transportation: Morning arrival: Car
riders may be dropped off at the front of the school at 7:45
am. Car and bus riders may enter the building at 7:45
and go to their respective classes.
Afternoon
dismissal: Teachers will escort
children to their buses. Please make sure there is
someone to receive your k to 2nd grade child at the bus
stop, the bus driver will return these children to school if
there is not an adult to meet them. It will be the
responsibility of the parent to pick the child up at school
if they are returned. Car riders will wait in room 24
for parents to collect them. Cars will be permitted to
enter for pick up when the buses have departed.
Play dates:
If your child is planning to go home with another student
after school, both parents must send a written note letting
the teacher know the plan.
School telephone/ Website/
Email: The school telephone number is
302-0035. The fax number is 302-0030. The
teacher work day is from 7:40 am – 3:40 pm. The school
website is www.balboaacademyweb.org.
All teachers are best contacted through e-mail.
Addresses are first initial followed by last name and
@balboa-academy.org.
Homework policy:
The
value of giving homework varies from the younger to older
grades. Teachers in Pre-K through
second grade are asked to think
carefully about homework assignments. There is no available
research that identifies any academic advantages to giving
students homework in these early
years. Secondary
students benefit most academically from homework exercises,
given that it's a good assignment and they have the right
conditions in which to do homework. Total time allotted
for homework is computed based on the
formula 10 minutes times the grade level (i.e. grade 3 = 30
min, Grade 6 = 60 min.
Homework should never
be the cause of conflict between parent and child. Our
goal is to assign meaningful homework which gives students
the opportunity to increase understanding. It is our
belief that the quality
of the assignment is more important than quantity of
homework assigned.
Library Check-outs:
Your child will have a check-out days each week.
If they do not return the books before the next check-out
day they will not be able to check-out a new book.
Parents will be responsible if a book is damaged or lost.
Report cards or other school documents will be held until
the library is reimburse.
Specials: Each
week all students will attend P.E. Mon, Tue. Thu,& Fri,
(kinder twice a week), Art, Music, Computer Lab, and
Library.
Birthdays: lunch
time
celebrations can be arranged through
the teacher. Please coordinate with your child’s
teacher before the birthday. We suggest bringing
cupcakes and napkins. If you decide to bring a cake
please remember to bring plates, forks and napkins.
Candles and matches are optional. No gifts, clowns,
magicians, piñatas, or hard candies are permitted.
Invitations:– If you send invitations to a
birthday party to be passed out at school please make sure
that either the whole class is invited, or all the girls or
all the boys. No hard feelings!
We look forward
to working together to make your child’s education at Balboa
Academy
year a happy
and memorable one!
Curriculum:
The Elementary School curriculum is very
similar to most US public and private schools. All
curriculum, textbooks and materials are US. All our
classroom teacher are educated in U.S universities and
receive extensive continuous educational training
through Balboa Academy's teacher development classes.
All are native English speaking.
Kindergarten Curriculum:
Literacy:
Open
Court Reading
is a comprehensive literacy program that covers:
Letter Recognition, Print/Book Awareness, Phonological and
Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Comprehension and Fluency,
Writing. Themes for Kindergarten include: School,
Shadows, Finding Friends, The Wind, Stick to It, Red, White,
and Blue, Teamwork, By the Sea.
Vocabulary
development
fosters comprehension. As students learn new vocabulary
through our reading, they are able to use this language to
enrich group discussions. Group discussions help students
understand what they have read, which is the primary purpose
of reading.
Our students will take part in the
writer’s workshop, a program developed by Lucy Caulkins.
Through our units of study, the students will learn to write
words, sentences, and stories.
Mathematics: We use
the Everyday Math program developed by the University of
Chicago along with other resources to teach our math
curriculum. This curriculum is aligned with U.S.
national standards for the teaching of mathematics.
The following units are taught: Readiness, position and
Classify, Sorting, Data and Graphs, Patterns, Numbers to 5,
Numbers to 10,Numbers to 20, Numbers to 100, Money,
Measurement, Time, Addition Concepts, Subtraction Concepts,
Geometry and Fractions.
Teachers will use whole group and small
group instruction as well as partners to teach.
Children will use a variety of manipulatives to help master
skills.
Science and Social Studies:
Our Science and Social Studies programs are integrated into
our reading program and are also aligned to U.S. national
standards.
Art and Music: Art
and music are integrated throughout the curriculum.
Spanish: The Spanish
program is an oral language program only to prevent
confusion in development of English reading and writing
skills.
First thru Fourth Grade
Curriculum
Literacy:
The Open
Court Reading program uses the
sound and spelling patterns as the cornerstone to help
students learn how sounds are put together to make words.
This way, students will acquire reading fluency by blending,
which is the key strategy students must learn to open the
door to the world of written language.
Vocabulary
development
fosters comprehension.
As students learn new vocabulary through our reading, they
are able to use this language to enrich group discussions.
Group discussions help students understand what they have
read, which is the primary purpose of reading.
Students
participate develop writing
through the Workshop approach
based on the work and research of
Lucy Calkins.
Our program teaches the writing process: developing ideas,
drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. We also teach
the 6+1 Traits of Writing:
ideas, organization, word choice, voice, sentence fluency,
conventions, and presentation. Students will become writers
this year, creating their own stories.
Mathematics: We use the
Everyday Math
program developed by the University of
Chicago. This curriculum
is aligned with U.S. national standards for the teaching of
mathematics.
Science:
Our
Science
programs are aligned to U.S.
national standards. In Science, students study the
following units:
First grade: Weather,
Properties Water,
Sun and Moon,
Plants and Animals (behavior
and heredity), and
Forces and Motion, Second
Grade: Third Grade: Forth Grade:
Science labs are a integral part of the science curriculum.
Social Studies:
Our Social Studies units are
integrated with our reading series. Through their
readings, students explore the following concepts: First
Grade: Celebrations, (traditions and holidays), Community
and neighborhood, Transportation and Journeys;
Second Grade: Third
Grade: Forth Grade:
Spanish:
Each grade is leveled in Spanish ability into three classes:
beginning, intermediate,
and native speaking. Spanish class are a 5 day a week
class with a native Spanish speaking teacher
Art, Music, Computer Lab,
and Library: These are
specials that the student will attend once a week.
Updated
09/06/2010
Copyright ©
1999 - 2009 Balboa Academy all
rights reserved
Apartado 0843-02777 Panama, Panama - Fax (507) 302-0030- Tel (507)
302-0035
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