SchoolHouse provides support for every type of curriculum and certified learning method.
We work with families to help them find what learning method best suits their children.
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The core academic curriculum can be based on the Remote Learning plans provided by your student's own school.
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These experiences are designed to be interdisciplinary explorations, bringing together Science, Humanities, Social Studies, and the Arts.
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Emphasizing independence, it views children as naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a sufficiently supportive and well-prepared learning environment.
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An interdisciplinary approach to learning where rigorous academic concepts are coupled with real-world lessons as students apply science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
See us in action!
Just wanted to let you know Michael Rivera has continued to impress me and our boys adore him. This has been a wonderful experience for Ezra and I know how hard it is to motivate 13 year old kids for 12 extra hours of school every week! I'm attaching a video of a science lesson...so much fun!
Alexis L.
Parent
Each learning pod is uniquely responsive and our teachers match the children's learning style, pace, and interest to the curriculum.
Overview
This syllabus was pulled from the Mulberry Lane learning pod at SchoolHouse. It is an example of what some of our kindergarten pods are learning. Of course your child's class syllabus may differ from the one below so please use this as a reference only and not an actual "set in stone" syllabus.
Work Study
There are several key skills I will be teaching:
- Letter Formation
- Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
- Sound Mastery
- Syllables
- Rhyming
- Vowels
- Blends and Digraphs
- Tricky Spelling Patterns: dr-and tr-
- Vocabulary - High Frequency Words
- Consonant Rimes -at, -in,-it and - an
- Short Vowels and Long Vowels with Silent E
Reading Workshop
- Launching Readers Workshop - Students will learn the importance of reading and rereading by looking closely at images and noticing the words.
- Reading with print strategies and sight words - Students will learn to search for meaning, use picture clues, begin to search visual information, use the sound of the first letter of a word and newly learned high frequency words and they will learn to develop persistence as readers when they feel stuck.
Writing Workshop
- Launching Readers Workshop - Students will learn phonemic awareness as they stretch out, listen to, distinguish and record the sounds in a word.
- Writing for readers - Students will be taught how to write their words better by learning to use vowels as well as sight words. Students will develop their story writing by thinking of a story, capturing it in drawings and words that span pages, and doing all of this in ways that they can as well as others read what they have put on the page.
Mathematics
- Unit 1 - Students will work on classification activities that allow students to analyze and observe their world and articulate their observations.
- Unit 2 - Students will explore two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes.
Social Studies
- We are All Unique - Students will look at what makes us all unique and similar.
- Holidays - Since we will have already discussed holidays and traditions we celebrate with our families, we will discuss the more American holidays and symbols in order to help develop a shared sense of history, community and culture.
- Civic Ideals - We will start this unit on what it means to be a good citizen.
Science
- Weather and Climate - Students will learn that Energy comes from the Sun. They will learn about shade structures and why they are important. Students will learn about the different seasons. They will also learn about different types of weather and how we should dress appropriately for it.
- Interdependent Relationships in Ecosystems - Animals, Plants and Their Environment. Students will learn what plants and animals need to survive and how they are interdependent.
Miscellaneous
There are several other things we will be focusing on during these first twelve weeks:
- We will be doing daily mind breaks where we take a few minutes each day to practice our breathing or yoga movements.
- Most Fridays we will be learning about a new artist and will practice doing artwork like theirs.
Overview
This is an example syllabus from one of our current 1st grade learning pods and is intended to lay out what your child may learn, do, and think about over their semester with SchoolHouse.
Phonics & Grammar
There are several key skills I will be teaching:
- Letter Formation
- Phonological and Phonemic Awareness
- Sound Mastery
- Phonics
- Vocabulary
- Irregular (trick) Word Instruction
- Fluency
- Comprehension Written Composition
ELA / Reading
- Reading Street Scott Foresman - Students will work in small groups to learn sight, high frequency, and wow words.
Mathematics
Students will learn to...
- Add and subtract with numbers
- Identify, sort, and draw shapes
- Count to 120 and learn place values (ones, tens, hundreds)
- Understand two digit numbers are a representation of a number of tens and ones
- Understand greater than >, less than <, and equal to = signs and meanings
- Understand lengths and measurements
- Tell time using analog and digital clocks
- Organize, represent, and interpret data with up to three categories
Science
- STEM and Mystery Science - based on student's interest
- Animal and plant defenses, light and sound, spinning Earth
Social Studies / Writing
- Character Education
- Writing Opinions - Students introduce a topic, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion, and provide a closing.
- Writing Informative/Exploratory Pieces - Students name a topic, supply some facts about the topic, and write a closing.
- Narrative Writing - Students recount two or more sequenced events, include some details about what happened, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.
- Participate in shared research and writing projects
Overview
Welcome to Mrs. Graham’s SchoolHouse! This document is intended to lay out what your child's 2nd grade pod may look like during their semester with SchoolHouse. Since every pod is unique your pod schedule, curriculum, and electives may differ from this syllabi.
Phonics & Grammar
There are several key skills I will be teaching:
- Vocabulary
- Irregular (trick) Word Instruction
- Fluency
- Comprehension Written Composition
- Editing & Revising
ELA
We will use a selection of mentor texts to focus on a particular theme, time of year, current event, SEL, history, and culture.
Reading list:
- What Do You Do With An Idea?
- Couldn't We Make A Difference?
- From Seed To Plant
- Where Do I Live?
- Two Bad Ants
- Two Bobbies
- The Spider and the Fly
- Grace For President
As we move into the holiday season of Christmas and Hanukkah, we will share our culture, tradition and religious meaning of each holiday.
Mathematics
Math study will build off of the Common Core Standards for 2nd grade, outlined by the school district.
This will include:
- Addition and subtraction of three digit numbers with regrouping
- Identify the name and value of coins
- Solving word problems involving adding to, taking from, taking apart, and comparing numbers
- > greater than,< less than,= equal to
- Ordering three digit numbers from least to greatest
Science
Science will build off topics of student's choice and mentor texts, including:
- Seeds & Plants
- Areas of water (oceans, lakes, ponds, rivers, cape, bay)
- Land formations
- Animal habitats
- Energy and matter
- Cause and effect
Students will also learn:
- To ask who, what, when, where, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details.
- To engage in experiments to prove or disprove a hypothesis.
- To use science language to support observations, state opinions, and construct arguments with evidence to support those arguments.
Social Studies
During the first few weeks we will focus on building our pod culture. What does culture mean? How is home school different from in the school building? What are our expectations for our Pod? What does it mean to be kind? Going forward we will read, discuss, view and have physical activities based on:
- Geography
- Economics
- Holidays
- Citizenship
- National Symbols
- Community
- Current Events
- Race/Ethnicity
Miscellaneous
There are several other things we will be focusing on during these first twelve weeks:
- Daily movement breaks
- Games (requiring strategy, taking turns, patience, and good sportsmanship)
- Video, music, art
Overview
This syllabi is pulled from one of our full-time enrollment pods. The schedule below is a brief outline of what the students will cover every day with a full class calendar attached at the bottom - with the full example.
Math
185 min /week
- MiniLesson & Math Workshop
- Speed Math
English Language Arts (ELA)
395 min /week
- Reading Workshop & Independent Reading
- Writing Workshop
- Reading Aloud
Science
180 min /week
Social Studies
180 min /week
Music
70 min /week
Art
70 min /week
Physical Education (PE)
225 min /week
Health
125 min /week
Overview
This syllabus is an excerpt pulled from Ms. Jancura's 4th grade pod and is used to show you what a fourth grade pod may look like. Please remember that each learning pod is unique to its students so although your pod may have a different core curriculum, extracurriculars, and schedule.
Area of focus overview
English Language Arts (ELA)
This year students will read a variety of literature for understanding as well as enjoyment. Reading instruction will include direct reading instruction, independent reading, reading aloud, and small group reading. We will begin by launching Reader’s Workshop, interpreting characters, and reading the world.
Word Study is founded in the oral and written language of the classroom and builds on the students’ inquiries and needs. We will begin by working on sentence structure; verb tense, subject-verb agreement, subjective vs. objective cases, and the subject and predicate of simple and compound sentences.
In fourth grade, students will expand their repertoire of writing genres, increase their writing skills, and study the craft of writing. The writing workshop will parallel the reading workshop in structure. It will include mini-lessons (direct instruction), independent writing, conferences and shares. The writer’s notebook will continue to be an important tool for authentic writing. Students will draft, revise and edit to produce quality pieces of writing. We will begin by Launching Writing Workshop, writing realistic fiction, and persuasive essays.
Math
We will build off of the Common Core Standards for 4th grade, outlined by the school district. This will include:
- Addition, Subtraction and the Number System: Large Numbers and Landmarks
- Multiplication and Division: Arrays, Factors and Multiplicative Comparison
- Multiplication and Division 2: Multiple Towers and Cluster Problems
Science
We will build off of topics from the student’s choices and mentor texts. Topics to explore:
- Energy Conversions: Blackout in Ergstown - Students take on the role of systems engineers for Ergstown, a fictional town that experiences frequent blackouts, and explore reasons why an electrical system may fail. They obtain information from science books and system models to learn about types of energy, energy sources, energy transfer, and energy conversion. They define engineering problems related to the town’s electrical system and design wind turbines using what they have learned about energy and matter.
Social Studies
During the first few weeks we will focus on building our pod culture. What does culture mean? How is home school different from in the school building? What are our expectations for our Pod? What does it mean to be kind? Going forward we will read, discuss, view and have physical activities based on:
- Native Americans: How are roles, responsibilities, and power defined in Native American cultures and government? How did Native American cultures influence and contribute to the development of New York and the United States?
- Colonial America: What are the motivations for and implications of colonization?
Miscellaneous
There are several other things we will be focusing on during these first twelve weeks:
- Daily movement breaks
- Games (requiring strategy, taking turns, patience, good sportsmanship)
- Videos, music, art
Overview
The syllabi below is an example of our standard 5th grade, part-time (3 days) learning pod. The syllabi is broken down into weeks and then further into individual days.
Week 1 | September 14-17
Monday
On Monday, the Waddle will get to explore all of the subjects, and continue culture building. In Science, students will learn about the Heart and circulatory system, including an experiment on pulse-racing and pulse-slowing activities. In English, we’ll receive back and revise our First Day of School prompts as well as jumping into our second writing prompt. Social Studies will consist of current events through reading and discussion of “The Week, Jr.”. In Math, we’ll get to explore how we all see math differently, tackle a few unique puzzles and complete our first “3-Act Task” (real-world problems explored formally and informally). Students will also receive their class jobs, and get to share about their weekend and lives (as will be a habit through our ongoing community circles).
Wednesday
On Wednesday, we’ll jump into the day with our quote of the week (on effort, this week!), before our first vocabulary and grammar challenge. Students and I will take time to conference and revise our prompt from Monday, as well as a more informal free-write using several technology drafting tools we’ll explore. Based on students’ questions of interest and topics they hope to explore from Monday, each will begin research and experimentation on a personalized topic. In Math, we’ll begin our class focus on place value with a math block, followed up by “Math Basketball” which is sure to be a student favorite. To keep building our strong positive culture, we’ll have fun a team-building activity and close by learning more about our digital portfolios and organization systems.
Thursday
On Thursday, the whole BBSDT team will be back together for a great close to the week! We’ll dip our toes into our first Document-Based-Question (DBQ) for Social Studies and use it as the focus for the day’s writing prompt. In math, we’ll continue to explore place value through decimals and ensure everyone is feeling good on content for school heading into the weekend. Friday will also feature our first student choice block, where students can choose from a menu of continuing scientific research, English exploration, geography and social students content, or math challenges. We’ll finish by receiving our first payday from class jobs, revisiting our Pod Crest and Name activity to affirm our values/culture, and have a shout-out filled closing circle.
Overview
Our mixed-grade pods follow curricula that are appropriate for each grade-level in the pod. Our teachers look for places where there are commonalities between grades and opportunities for students to collaborate while also providing individualized support for each student.
Week 2: September 7 - 11
mixed-pod: 1st, 3rd
Reading
This week we will launch the groundwork for our readers and writers workshops. Then we will begin our chapter read-aloud of Charlotte's Webb where students will focus on the plot, problem, solution, and character development.
Writing
1st grade
- Persuasive writing - 1st grade students will focus on completing the writing process and publishing a paragraph.
3rd grade
- Persuasive writing - 3rd grade students will focus on the importance of moving through each step of the writing process to produce high-quality work.
Phonics/Word Study
1st grade
- Alphabet - Students will finish their review of the alphabet, reviewing the formation of lowercase letters and the letters coordinating sound.
3rd grade
- Letter sounds - Students will do word sorts for the long A, long O, and long I sounds. There will be an end of week quiz to make sure students are able to properly write words with these spelling patterns.
Math
1st grade
- Addition - Students will work on creating addition problems within 10. Students will focus on number sentences using the addition and equal signs.
3rd grade
- Division & Multiplication - Students work to understand the relationship between division and multiplication. They will create multiplication arrays and then transfer their multiplication knowledge into an understanding of division.
Science/Social Studies
Our Science/Social Studies time is currently being used for beginning of year (BOY) assessments. As the assessments are administered individually, it takes a significant amount of time! As soon as all BOY assessments are complete, we will continue learning about our first Science unit on Waves, Light and Sound!
SMARTS
This week we are in Unit 1.3, where we will be learning about Cognitive Flexibility. Cognitive Flexibility is the ability to think flexibly and to shift perspectives and approaches flexibly. This process is crucial for students to learn new concepts. Cognitive flexibility helps students to combine ideas and concepts logically and to integrate major themes with details.
Social Emotional Learning
This week, students are learning about the character trait we will focus on for the month of October, Respectfulness. Students will learn the definition of respect is, and discuss why it is important to be respectful towards others.
We build the right school for you.
Your schoolhouse is designed around your family's needs. When you meet with a SchoolHouse counselor, we’ll ask about the interests, strengths, and needs that make your child unique.
Then we'll design the school around you. That means:
- The right teacher
- The right curriculum
- The right plan & tools
