Inspiring Imagination 2023-24

Parents and Students Welcome to the 2023-24 School Year! Your child's homeroom assignment was emailed on August 1st, and we want to clarify that student ability grouping is based on subject-level classes, not homerooms. Our theme this year is "Inspiring Imagination" and there will be many inspirational projects throughout our school year.

With regards to ability grouping, please remember that most students at Thorp are above grade level. But for those of you who may have questions: Our Comprehensive Gifted Program students typically score above the 90th percentile on standardized tests, and accelerated program students score above the 80th percentile. Students in our general program score above the 40th percentile. However, we prioritize meaningful and challenging learning for all students, by focusing on student created projects and challenging problem-solving in every subject. Test scores are just an indicator of the school's progress compared to national norms.

This year, we do have a new Reading Curriculum by Houghton Mifflin called "Into Reading" for grades K-5 and "Into Literature" for 6-8. "Math in Focus" will continue as our textbook for Math instruction. Students in 5th - 8th will continue using the SEPUP curriculum while students in K-4 will continue using Scholastic Science, Studies Weekly and teacher created curricula. In Social Studies for grades 5-8 we will continue using Houghton Mifflin for World and American History. Students in grades K-4 will use Studies Weekly as well as historical novels such as the “I survived” series.

Special classes include music, art, programming in STEAM, Health, PE, and Spanish. We will send out an email next week about our after-school and after-care programs.

This year we aim to reduce screen time and encourage hand-written work in order to ensure that students are creating their own work and not using programs like ChatGPT! We also want to promote independent reading so please make sure that your child has stories and novels that interest them for their daily independent reading during their flexible periods. We will also promote their independence and executive functioning by checking grades each Friday. Parents, we hope you’ll make that a habit at home as well.

Please remember that school starts on August 21st at 7:30 AM for all students, except Kindergarteners who start at 9:00 AM on the first day. Coffee and treats will be provided on the first day by Friends of Thorp and the Thorp PTA. Please come out and join us. Dismissal will be at 2:30 PM on the West Field.

For more information, visit our school website or if you have any questions please email us at [email protected]. See you soon!

Welcome to 2023-24 School Year

Show Transcript

hi parents and students welcome to the 2324 school year you should have received your child's homework assignment it was email today and we want to clarify stupid ability grouping is based on subject level classes and not home rooms so I know that the special programs like like an accelerator programs will be based on their instructional classes theme for this year's going to be inspiring imagination and there are going to be a lot of inspirational projects that'll be that'll be happening throughout the year. Please remember that most of the students at 4 at or above grade level for those of you who may have questions or comprehensive gifted program the students in that program typically score above the 90th percentile and for those students were in the accelerated program that again happens in small groups in science and reading and social studies and those are in small groups and typically the students that are in the accelerated program for scoring above the 80th percentile regardless of test scores make sure that our students know is that we prioritize meaningful and challenging learning for everyone we focus on students created project and really meaningful and challenging problems in order to make sure that that students are in and really thinking regardless of other academic ability this year we do have a brand new reading Curriculum by Houghton Mifflin and it's called into reading for grades K-5 and it's called into literature for grades six through eight this goes well with our math and focus curriculum it's also my Houghton Mifflin as well as our social studies curriculum for students in grades three through eight all those textbooks are online and it's a One-Stop shop for students where they can access all of their textbooks in one place students who are grade in social studies are typically using something called studies weekly and I know a lot of our teachers are also bringing in historical fiction novels in that happens basically from grades 2 through 8 I'm terms of our science instruction for students in grades fifth through eighth we're going to continue using acupuncture in which really emphasizes the scientific method as well as students permutation and for students in grades K-2 for we will continue using our Hands-On science teachers are using studies Weekly's other teachers are using their own created materials but I do know that there is a strong emphasis on experimentation and having students develop the scientific method Kingsburg Social Club we will again have music art scheme Health PE and Spanish once again our goal is to make sure that we have well-rounded students and by having a special programs and having very robust program just beyond the core subjects this year we're also hoping to reduce some of our screen time man. That's really important specially after the pandemic so we are going to be limiting the amount of time that students are on screens especially during their flexible. One of the things that we're going to be doing is we're going to be using our computer-based learning only an appointment right we're not going to be introducing topics on the computer but I actually just giving students the ability to practice like for example in this feels very well with her Math in Focus the lessons will be introduced in the classroom by the teacher but then they make find specific example to to help students with things like the dividing fractions or or something like up figuring out two step equations it's really important that our also read right so we want you to talk to your child and see if you can find different stores different novels that they may want to read throughout the school year so that because we're going to be doing a lot of independent reading throughout our flexible. and finally I want to remind everybody that school starts on August 21st everybody's going to start at 7:30 with the exception of kindergartners on that first date or kindergartners going to be coming in at 9 so please make sure that you that you prioritize walking to school if you guys can park in the neighborhood that would be very helpful and also makes it a special day for all of your children at 2:30 we dismiss and I cannot wait to see all of you guys

Published August 1, 2023 Print