MCPS Standards for Extracurricula Activities - Elementary School

[Anonymous]

Our daughter is starting kindergarten next year and we're exploring MCPS as an option. We visited our local elementary school and they shared students only go to PE, music, and art only once a week; to the library/media room every other week. This schedule seems extremely limited, especially for PE.

Is this standard across other MCPS elementary schools?

Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

Yes. In some schools, library/media time is one of the specials and is thus once a week like the other specials.

[Anonymous]

In our MCPS elementary they have each special once a week - PE/media (library)/art/music/computer lab. They have recess daily. There's a petition to increase recess time thats been going around. It's not ideal, but I drop my boys off early and they play basketball/run around with friends. They also have lots of outdoor time at aftercare, plus sports practice.

[Anonymous]

Schools are hard-pressed just teaching basic reading and math at grade level. There just isn't time for these specials without kids falling further behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools are hard-pressed just teaching basic reading and math at grade level. There just isn't time for these specials without kids falling further behind.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our daughter is starting kindergarten next year and we're exploring MCPS as an option. We visited our local elementary school and they shared students only go to PE, music, and art only once a week; to the library/media room every other week. This schedule seems extremely limited, especially for PE.

Is this standard across other MCPS elementary schools?

Thanks in advance.

These are actually curricular activities. Meaning: they are in the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Schools are hard-pressed just teaching basic reading and math at grade level. There just isn't time for these specials without kids falling further behind.

They don’t even have time for daily science instruction. You get 45 minutes of either science or social studies, 4-5 days per week. Instrumental Music (band or orchestra for 4th and 5th graders) takes place during reading or writing or math or science, so children in instrumental music miss classroom instructional time and have to make up work they missed. Oddly, if a school has chorus for 5th graders, chorus doesn’t replace music. My 5th grader only had math 4 days a week, so chorus replaced math instruction. It’s bananas.

[Anonymous]

OP here s a sample schedule

Monday- STEM/STEAM activity in the classroom or computer lab coding
Tuesday- Art
Wednesday- PE
Thursday- Music
Friday- Library/Media Research

Recess every day. There are a few schools which may have two recess periods but people may or may not be willing to share those on here. There is a petition for more recess time. I do believe recess time should be longer but school is only from 9:00-3:25 with specials, lunch, recess that limits math, reading, writing, and science/social studies to one hour each.

[Anonymous]

I have not heard of any MCPS school that has PE more than once/week now. When I was in ES in MCPS we did have PE more than once/week. I don't remember if it was 2 or 3. But not now. PE, art, music once/week is standard. How the school schedules them and what additional "specials" they include if they want to make it a consistent time slot 5 days/week vary school to school. Often media center/library is also once/week, but there is more variation in that than in art, PE, music.

[Anonymous]

Are you planning on giving your child enrichment outside of school? Our school has recess twice/day, and a snack time between start and lunch, they also do coding once every week.

[Anonymous]

OP, you'll have to sign your child up for sports on the side, like most of us do. Ditto for music/arts/. Elementary school at MCPS is about reading/math.

[Anonymous]

I think the biggest problem is how they handle recess. The principal gets to decide and some (or many) constantly cancel recess. Indoor recess means staying at your desk playing a board game or maybe doing crafts.

The kids are kept inside in 40 degree and sometimes higher weather. This is an almost no FARMS school. No kid is without a coat and there are extra coats in the office in case anyone forgot one.
The para educators don't want to go outside and the principal goes along with it. The kids are kept inside if its not longer rainy but the ground may be muddy because the janitor doesn't want to clean up the mess. My K was in a private school and 2nd grader was in public school down the road. K was constantly able to have outdoor recess while my 2nd grader seldom got to go outside.

[Anonymous]

At our school, yes, but they are specials, not extracurricular. Extracurricular are after school through the PTA.

[Anonymous]

My kindergartner has art/music/PE/media/computer once a week, although they can visit the media center at other times individually to return a book and get a new one. The school was able to schedule two recesses a day, which I love. It's still the same total time as other grades (40 minutes), but it's broken up in a mid-morning recess, and then an afternoon recess. This is my second kid going through this school, and I wish my older one had had this schedule.

[Anonymous]

OP, realize that the art, music, and PE teachers are seeing every classroom in every grade each week - more than once a week just isn’t possible. I will say that when children are in the upper grades music can become a twice a week option - fourth and fifth graders at my child’s school have the option to add chorus and instrumental music to their day.