Early Childhood Education The ACPS Early Childhood programs believe that children learn best in an inclusive, nurturing, and engaging environment that values the whole child. Our preschoolers will develop their interests and grow creatively through naturalistic and authentic play experiences that provoke their innate imagination and inclination toward investigation and inquiry. Teachers will support students' learning through intentional and effective interactions. Our learning experiences will be designed to develop a child’s cognitive, language, physical, socialemotional, and cultural identity no matter the learning setting. Learners in our programs will develop the foundation of lifelong intellectual dispositions, including habits of mind such as creative, critical, and self-regulated thinking and learning. By preparing the whole child and inspiring a love of learning through high-quality instruction, we will establish a child's strong foundation for school success. Humanities ● Fine Arts: Courses in dance, music, theatre, and visual arts will return to in-person instruction in the fall. ACPS will continue to follow current research in health and sanitation–distancing and masking if necessary to stop the spread of COVID-19. Competitive performances and statewide assessments in the performing arts are expected to resume. ● Health, Physical Education (PE), and Family Life Education (FLE): ACPS Health, PE, and FLE courses will return to in-person instruction in the fall. In addition, competitive sports will resume at the secondary level. ACPS will continue to follow current guidance from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Alexandria Health Department (AHD) on social distancing, masking, and sanitation to stop the spread of COVID-19 while deemed necessary. ● Social Studies: The social studies courses continue to emphasize students' learning to think and reason within the academic disciplines being studied. For example, rather than memorizing historical facts in isolation, students will learn to read and analyze primary and secondary sources to understand historical issues from a range of perspectives and to construct arguments with reasoned evidence. Similarly, students will investigate key economic; cultural; political; and geographic themes, skills, and concepts in order to understand how those phenomena shape the past and the present. Social studies students will learn about connections across time and place, understand how they are connected to multiple communities, and become responsible citizens who engage in civic action. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in unfinished learning for students, and ACPS will address unfinished learning by ensuring all students can access grade-level content and receive just-in-time instruction to bridge new learning throughout the school year. As with all other in-person classes, social studies teachers and students will follow the most current safety guidelines available. ● World Language: Instruction will continue to engage students in active learning of World Languages, using research-based best practices to foster listening, reading, speaking, writing, and cultural proficiency as well as what students CAN DO with the language they are learning.
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