MCPS elementary school curriculum

[Anonymous]

I never see my kid needs to do homework at home, and there's never a book/workbook sent home. I know she is a first grader, but when is kid required to do homework at home or if there are any books be sent home to review for exams?

Do elementary school teach social study, science, geography, foreign language or history at later grades? I am confused with the curriculum in mcps. I am not from here.

[Anonymous]

The only homework in ES is to 1) read for 20 mins a night and 2) (sometimes optional) do the Eureka math homework problem set--and in first grade I imagine the math is not done.

[Anonymous]

For math, MCPS uses the Eureka curriculum. There is a workbook with homework sheets (usually one per night Mon-Thurs) but many teachers send the pages home one at a time instead of having the kids bring the workbook home.

For reading, homework assignments vary. I have a 2nd grader and a 4th grader--one had to do daily reading and document it in 1st grade, and the other had assigned texts for the week to read at home.

They do social studies and science in 1st grade.

While I am sure this varies by school, there is not a big emphasis on homework in the early grades.

[Anonymous]

Science is not taught till 4th or 5th grade. It was the last class of the day and lasted about 20 minutes. Just enough time to take attendance and get ready for dismissal. It was the first class to be cut if some other activity was going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Science is not taught till 4th or 5th grade. It was the last class of the day and lasted about 20 minutes. Just enough time to take attendance and get ready for dismissal. It was the first class to be cut if some other activity was going on.

. Science is definitely taught before 4th or 5th grade it’s just not a everyday subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Science is not taught till 4th or 5th grade. It was the last class of the day and lasted about 20 minutes. Just enough time to take attendance and get ready for dismissal. It was the first class to be cut if some other activity was going on.

. Science is definitely taught before 4th or 5th grade it’s just not an everyday subject.

In the earlier grades, science and social studies lessons are sort of merged into reading and math.

So math problems might help them understand a science concept, or they might read and discuss books or short stories about nature, outer space, American history, etc. it’s not until 4th and 5th that they get separate classes in either one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Science is not taught till 4th or 5th grade. It was the last class of the day and lasted about 20 minutes. Just enough time to take attendance and get ready for dismissal. It was the first class to be cut if some other activity was going on.

. Science is definitely taught before 4th or 5th grade it’s just not an everyday subject.

In the earlier grades, science and social studies lessons are sort of merged into reading and math.

So math problems might help them understand a science concept, or they might read and discuss books or short stories about nature, outer space, American history, etc. it’s not until 4th and 5th that they get separate classes in either one.



Also wrong. Science lessons happen for 4 consecutive weeks and then Social Studies for 4 weeks and then back to science. Pretty stupid IMO

My 2nd grader bring home a week of HW every Monday. 3 Eureka Math HW sheets and a page of “heart words” to copy and then write in sentences. We are also supposed to read 20 min/day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Science is not taught till 4th or 5th grade. It was the last class of the day and lasted about 20 minutes. Just enough time to take attendance and get ready for dismissal. It was the first class to be cut if some other activity was going on.

Science is terrible in elementary school in MCPS. It’s lumped in with Social Studies so they alternate. And MCPS got rid of so many of the fun Science activities (butterflies, etc).

The MS teachers at our MS lament the fact that MCPS science is just so bad in ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never see my kid needs to do homework at home, and there's never a book/workbook sent home. I know she is a first grader, but when is kid required to do homework at home or if there are any books be sent home to review for exams?

Do elementary school teach social study, science, geography, foreign language or history at later grades? I am confused with the curriculum in mcps. I am not from here.

Kids who speak English as their first language do not get any foreign language instruction in ES in MCPS. The only exception is if your kids gets accepted into a Language Immersion program, which has very limited seats.

Kids who are ESOL do get a bilingual education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Science is not taught till 4th or 5th grade. It was the last class of the day and lasted about 20 minutes. Just enough time to take attendance and get ready for dismissal. It was the first class to be cut if some other activity was going on.

Science is terrible in elementary school in MCPS. It’s lumped in with Social Studies so they alternate. And MCPS got rid of so many of the fun Science activities (butterflies, etc).

The MS teachers at our MS lament the fact that MCPS science is just so bad in ES.

My daughter’s MS science teacher wasn’t too complimentary about the MS curriculum, either.

[Anonymous]

I have a 1st grader. She is supposed to read 15 minutes a night at home and do 1 page from the Eureka math book (we were sent a copy home at the beginning of the year). However this is all optional. She sometimes gets a random assignment here and there as well - decorate a turkey and write a sentence about it.

[Anonymous]

Many parents do not want hw in the youngest grades so the schools try to accommodate. ..optional things or just reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never see my kid needs to do homework at home, and there's never a book/workbook sent home. I know she is a first grader, but when is kid required to do homework at home or if there are any books be sent home to review for exams?

Do elementary school teach social study, science, geography, foreign language or history at later grades? I am confused with the curriculum in mcps. I am not from here.

Kids who speak English as their first language do not get any foreign language instruction in ES in MCPS. The only exception is if your kids gets accepted into a Language Immersion program, which has very limited seats.

Kids who are ESOL do get a bilingual education.

What are you talking about? MCPS provides English instruction for all kids. ESOL is not designed to teach Spanish or any other language besides English. That is why it is called ENGLISH as a second language. These kids are bilingual because they learned their native language at home from their families. You are just angry that "poor" kids can have something your child doesn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many parents do not want hw in the youngest grades so the schools try to accommodate. ..optional things or just reading.

Correct! In my house we don’t do homework until fourth grade (and then only math). It’s just busy work. We do read at least 30 minutes a night, sometimes more.

[Anonymous]

OP— why don’t you ask your child’s teachers these questions? It’s November. By this point you should know who they are? They can answer all your questions.