Grades K-5

Meet the Staff

STEP Academy Elementary Curriculum Overview

Math

STEP Academy students do math for a minimum of 65 minutes daily. STEP Academy teaches the Minnesota Graduation Standards through Pearson Envision Core Curriculum. Envision Curriculum is organized into clusters of connected topics and lessons. Students learn to see relationships, ask questions, and try different approaches. Problem-based learning drives students to engage in productive struggle.

Reading

STEP Academy students read and write every day. They participate in language arts activities for a minimum of 120 minutes daily. STEP Academy teaches the Minnesota Graduation Standards through the Core Knowledge Curriculum and Fountas and Pinnell’s Guided Reading. Core Knowledge Curriculum is a well-rounded, knowledge specific curriculum that imparts needed knowledge working to overcome inequality of opportunity.

Social Studies

STEP Academy teaches the Minnesota Graduation Standards through the Core Knowledge Curriculum in grades K-5 and the Minnesota History Northern Lights Curriculum at sixth grade. In grades K-5, the integration of social studies content with the reading and writing processes that occur in the Core Knowledge Language Arts Framework allow students to authentically apply their knowledge and skills strengthening their abilities to access social studies content.

Science

STEP Academy teaches the Minnesota Graduation Standards through Pearson Interactive Science Curriculum. Elementary interactive science features four levels of inquiry. Lessons begin with activities that insight students’ curiosity and get them thinking, then the lesson builds upon that foundation with directed and guided inquiry activities, and finally completes the structure through open-ended inquiry activities, allowing students to extend and evaluate their understandings.

Phyed, Art, Technology, & Arabic

STEP Academy students participate in specialist classes each week. Students in grades K-6 all have phyed twice per week. Students in grades K-4 have art twice per week, and students in grade 5 and 6 have technology class twice per week. In addition, Arabic is a Friday class for students in grades 2-6.

Character Education

Character education is an important piece of the STEP Academy program. Teachers explicitly teach the values that represent the STEP Academy slogan: PRIDE- Personal Responsibility, Respect, Integrity, Determination, and Excellence. These values are reviewed and practiced for each school setting. Beyond these values, STEP Academy fifth and sixth grade students participate in a Kindness Retreat that builds community, kindness through actions, and bullying prevention.