Elementary School

​Kindergarten - 5th Grade

The School Day
Our elementary school offers an academic program based upon both United States and Dominican standards.  Students in Kindergarten to 5th grade receive half of their academic instruction in English with their homeroom teacher and half in Spanish with specialist subject teachers.  This balance gradually shifts towards them having more specialist teachers in upper elementary to prepare them for the transition to middle school, while the lower elementary students are with their homeroom teachers for most of the day.

​​Arrival: 7:30 - 7:59am
​Dismissal: 3:15pm

Math
Building a strong foundation in mathematics is a priority for our elementary students at JCS.  Throughout elementary school, students have math class every morning.  As well as teaching problem-solving, logical reasoning, and critical thinking, math also teaches children that with resilience and perseverance, they are capable of achieving their goals.

We believe that math should go beyond the textbook so our teachers use a variety of manipulatives as well as centers, songs and other activities to make math more accessible for their students.  We also use a platform called Numbots and Times Tables Rockstars to practice mental math and parents can connect to this from home to give their children additional practice.

Literacy
When our students enter elementary school, learning to read and write in both English and Spanish is one of their main focuses.  In kindergarten through to 2nd grade, students practice phonics every day to learn the relationships between the letters and their sounds as well as the skill of blending those sounds together to read full words.  As the students progress through elementary school, they develop their reading fluency and comprehension, enabling them to become independent readers.  Students also learn to write independently, going from simple words to complex paragraphs as they progress through the grades.

Our elementary teachers also read aloud to our students on a weekly basis.  Reading stories aloud fosters a love of reading for children, giving them an opportunity to enjoy a story without the associated difficulty of reading it for themselves.  It also exposes students to a wider range of vocabulary and introduces literary concepts, such as characters, setting and more.

English Language
Our elementary program is built to support our students to become fluent English speakers by the time they graduate from elementary school.  Targeted vocabulary lessons expose the students to a wide variety of words from ones they will need to communicate on a daily basis to more advanced and specialist terms that will allow them to access high level texts and conversations.  Students learn English grammar to know how to form their own sentences and paragraphs correctly and they practice their oral fluency every day with each other and their homeroom teachers to build their confidence.  Students may join us in lower elementary from other schools without knowing any English, but by upper elementary, our students should be able to express themselves clearly and fluently, both orally and in writing.

Bible
Faith and character development are integral parts of our elementary program. Through age-appropriate Bible lessons, children learn about God’s love, kindness, and Christian values.  Stories from the Bible are shared in ways that captivate the children. These lessons provide a foundation for moral growth and spiritual understanding in a nurturing and inclusive environment.

Social Emotional Learning
Every elementary class has one lesson a week of SEL to help them learn to identify and manage emotions.  What they learn in these classes teaches them to be independent, solve problems, relate to others, manage conflicts, and much more! ​

Art & Music
Art and music are important parts of our elementary school experience.  These lessons teach creativity and an ability to express oneself in a way that no other class can.  Students have the opportunity to explore many different media from paints to clay and maracas to tambourines.  Parents have the opportunity to see their children perform on stage every year in our Christmas show.

Science, Social Studies & Dominican Ciencias Sociales
Science, social studies, and sociales classes are essential for helping our students to understand the world around them.  Elementary science involves fun experiments and hands-on activities to see first-hand how things work.  It's important for us to provide the foundations that students need for our rigourous high school science program.  As an international school, we believe that it is important for our students to understand the cultural context they are growing up in both in the Dominican Republic and in the world.  As such, our students learn about Dominican history, georgraphy and civics with a local teacher as well as US and world history and geography with their homeroom teacher.  Our goal is to set students up to go out into the world with an ability to understand those around them whether they grew up next door or on the other side of the world.   

PE & Motor Skills
Elementary students have two PE lessons per week and Kindergarten through 2nd grade have an additional motor skills class.  These lessons give the children a strong foundation to prepare them for playing any sport that interests them in the future.  They develop their coordination, build their core strength, learn to work together and take turns, and many more important skills.

Computer Science
From 1st grade, our students are gradually introduced to computer science with lessons in our dedicated computer lab.  We are proud to be one of the only schools in Jarabacoa to introduce our students to computer science from such a young age.  We believe that computer literacy is incredibly important for the graduates of the future so our students start learning to use word processors, create presentations and even program all while they're still in elementary school.