Academics
Academics at Lowell Elementary
At Lowell, we believe that learning should be a challenging and joyful experience. We know that students who are learning academic skills and content at a level that is just right for them will be engaged and enjoy their own visible growth.
Reading and Writing
This year, we are excited to introduce McGraw Hill Emerge as our newly adopted K-5 English Language Arts curriculum! Emerge helps students grow as confident readers, writers, speakers, and thinkers through engaging, grade-level learning experiences. Throughout the year, students will explore thematic units that build knowledge about interesting topics across science, social studies, and literature, helping them make connections between what they read and the world around them. Each day, students will participate in whole-group instruction and daily small-group learning (Focus Groups), where teachers provide targeted instruction and support based on individual learning needs. With rich texts, meaningful discussions, vocabulary development, and regular reading and writing practice, Emerge is designed to help every student build strong literacy skills while fostering curiosity, critical thinking, and a love of learning.
Math
In Math, we use the EnVision curriculum. The scope and sequence and alignment across grade levels ensures that all students learn the important skills and concepts they need to understand for each grade, and also helps engage students in mathematical thinking every day.
The way brains use logic to understand numerical representations of our world is a language – a different way of thinking than the language of words or pictures or music. When students use their brains in new and different ways it’s not only fun and exciting, it also helps prepare them to look at their world with more ways to understand what’s going on. We believe strongly that all brains are math brains, and our communities benefit from students who are mathematical thinkers.
Science
Science is taught using the Amplify curriculum. These science materials are phenomenon-based and include investigative hands-on experiments and opportunities to practice reading, problem-solving, and math in practical situations.
Social Studies
Our Social Studies curriculum helps students understand social interactions and political movements in developmentally appropriate ways. Social Studies is a place where students can practice thinking critically about why things happen and ways they could be better. We use the Washington State Since Time Immemorial curriculum to study the history and cultures of the Northwest Tribes as a way to connect history to the present and to understand the place we live in rich ways.
The Arts
Lowell has a special relationship to art and music instruction, and we are lucky to benefit from having enthusiastic practitioners to teach every student. We have a full time art and music teacher, and they build new ways of thinking, seeing, and listening to their world. We also have strong partnerships with community organizations such as the Seattle Children’s Theater and the Seattle Art Museum, who bring additional arts experiences to the school. Weekly instrumental music is offered on Wednesdays for intermediate-grade students who wish to participate.
Physical Education
We have a robust Physical Education program at Lowell and have a full time PE teacher. We have also partnered with Playworks, a non-profit organization that helps us to purposefully include physical education in our recess times, working on games and activities that allow students to see exercise and teamwork as an enjoyable part of every day.
Social Emotional Learning
We use the RULER Approach for teaching emotional regulation skills and Second Step Curriculum for teaching students tools to interacting with others in social situations. We work to improve social and emotional skills in every context at school by using PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports) to teach students ways to behave successfully in every part of our building. We use a shared language of behavior reinforcement (the Dragon CREST) so that students know exactly what adults are talking about when we offer praise or provide them with little reminders.
As a staff, we engage in ongoing professional development in trauma-informed practices collaborate to best support students who have experienced poverty, homelessness, and/or Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs). This year our staff is continuing to partner with WA-Bloc to deepen understanding and implement Restorative Practices.