Curriculum
Common Core Standards
The Common Core is a set of nationally recognized academic standards in mathematics and English language arts/literacy. These learning goals outline what a student should know and be able to do at the end of each grade. The standards were created to ensure that all students graduate from high school with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in college, career, and life, regardless of where they live.
Additional Learning Standards
In addition to adopting the Common Core State Standards in reading and mathematics, the District of Columbia has adopted challenging learning standards that define the knowledge, concepts and skills that students should acquire at each grade level. Visit the Office of the State Superintendent of Education site to view the standards for:
- Arts
- Early Learning
- English Language Development
- Health and Physical Education
- Science
- Social Studies
- Technology
- World Language
Early Learning
Beers ES Pre-K classrooms utilize Creative Curriculum© which includes developmentally appropriate goals and objectives for children within four areas of development: social/emotional, physical, cognitive and language and are aligned to the DC Early Learning Standards.
Beers ES Pre-K classrooms implement the Building Blocks© math curriculum. Building Blocks is a nationally recognized, evidence-based curriculum that develops young children’s early mathematical knowledge by embedding mathematical learning throughout the day through hands-on, playful learning experiences. The Building Blocks curriculum is designed to help young children develop important thinking, reasoning, and problem-solving skills while also building their understanding in the core areas of early math learning:
- Number Sense
- Operations
- Measurement
- Geometry
- Patterns and Algebra
- Data Analysis and Classification
Utilizing the Building Blocks curriculum, our Pre-K students will develop their mathematical thinking and learning through play in our classroom centers, hands-on, teacher-led mathematical experiences, dramatic play, songs, and stories.
Throughout the day, our teachers are observing children and gathering information about their skills and understandings to guide their planning. These observations, along with students' work, are documented in our assessment platform Teaching Strategies GOLD. Three times a year, using the information captured in GOLD©, our teachers determine where each child is in their development in a variety of objectives or standards and share the information with families.