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Welcome!
Ridgefield Public Schools provides engaging, relevant, and personalized learning experiences so all students can pursue their interests and prepare for life, learning, and work as global citizens. In our elementary schools, we are dedicated to helping every child grow through engaging, meaningful learning. Our goal is to spark curiosity, support every student’s academic and social-emotional well-being, and build a strong sense of community. Aligned with State and National Standards, our curriculum integrates social-emotional learning alongside essential problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, giving students the confidence to explore their interests and succeed.
How We Teach
Our classrooms are active, welcoming spaces where teachers guide and facilitate learning. We focus on:
Differentiated & Responsive Instruction: Because every child learns differently, lessons are designed using small groups and targeted practice so everyone is both supported and appropriately challenged. This responsive approach recognizes that students will not all arrive at the same place at the same time, ensuring each child receives the guidance needed to grow at their own pace.
Real-World Connections: It is essential to build real-world relevance into students' learning. Lessons include connecting concepts taught in the classroom to real-world situations and applying their knowledge in meaningful ways.
Keeping Track of Progress
A variety of tools to get a complete picture of how students are progressing and to guide responsive instruction are used:
Formative Assessments: Teachers gather real-time information through daily conversations, observations, and classroom activities.
Summative Assessments: Unit tests, comprehensive projects, and standardized assessments inform mastery and understanding over time.
Helpful Feedback: Teachers provide specific feedback and set shared goals with students.
Accessing the Curriculum
These foundational principles directly support our district-developed curriculum, which you can explore by clicking on the grade-level tabs below.
CURRICULUM AT A GLANCE
CURRICULUM AT A GLANCE
Literacy
Literacy
Key Elements of Elementary Literacy Instruction
A strong foundation is built through a curriculum designed to foster a lifelong love of reading and writing.
The Science of Reading and Writing: Instruction is grounded in a proven body of research to ensure effective, evidence-based language, reading, and writing development.
Structured Literacy Approach: Lessons provide explicit, systematic, and cumulative instruction in these core pillars.
Reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension
Writing: structure, development, and conventions
Instructional Model: Teachers implement a research-based I Do, We Do, You Do framework to guide students clearly from direct instruction to independent, intentional practice. Instruction spans various literary genres, ensuring students read and write informational, opinion, and narrative pieces.
Authentic Practice & Feedback: A high volume of reading and writing, combined with student choice, allows children to build confidence, explore diverse perspectives, and cultivate growing independence. As a core part of daily instruction, students receive targeted, ongoing feedback from both teachers and peers to help them refine their skills and grow.
Classroom Libraries: The goal is to build confident, flexible readers by providing access to a variety of text types that balance foundational skills with a joy for reading. Early readers begin with decodable books to practice specific phonics skills and familiar classroom texts to build fluency through independent rereading. Teachers blend these structured materials with authentic picture books so that readers engage with rich, connected text. As reading skills progress, children transition to authentic literature through independent and partner reading, text sets, and book clubs. Teachers also use these books as mentor texts during writing instruction.
Learn more about Reading Instruction at RPS.
Learn more about Writing Instruction at RPS.
Mathematics
Mathematics
Key Elements of Elementary Mathematics Instruction
A strong foundation is built through a curriculum designed to foster essential mathematics by making sense of complex problems, reasoning abstractly, and persevering through productive struggle. By modeling with mathematics and constructing viable arguments, students learn to use tools strategically, attend to precision, and apply structural patterns to the real world.
Research-Based Comprehensive Approach: Instruction is grounded in proven research, providing explicit, step-by-step lessons in the core components of mathematics: conceptual understanding, computational fluency, and real-world application.
Conceptual Understanding: This is the understanding of a concept that explains the "why" behind how the math works through concrete and visual models.
Computational Fluency: This represents the ability to solve problems flexibly, accurately, and efficiently by building a strong understanding of number sense.
Real-World Application: Concepts are connected to everyday situations, helping students see their relevance and apply problem-solving skills to the real world.
Instructional Approach: Lessons are designed to build conceptual understanding through a four-step learning cycle that guides students through a progression of inquiry and intentional instruction.
Explore (Anchor Task): Lessons begin with an open-ended problem where students explore concepts hands-on using manipulatives or visual models.
Structured Lesson: The teacher provides explicit instruction to help students connect their discoveries to formal math concepts.
Practice: Students build skill accuracy through a blend of teacher-guided small groups and independent practice using various learning tasks.
Reflect: Lessons close with a journal entry or reflective activity to solidify what students learned that day.
Authentic Practice & Independence: A high volume of intentional practice, combined with student choice, allows children to build confidence and develop independence. As a core part of daily instruction, students receive targeted, ongoing feedback from both teachers and peers to help them make growth.
Learn more about Math Instruction at RPS.
Integrated Studies
Integrated Studies
Integrated Studies connects key concepts across disciplines to help students explore and understand real- world core ideas through an inquiry-based lens. This approach is called "integrated" because lessons include the application of reading, writing, and math skills through centralized themes, topics, or essential questions. This comprehensive approach brings together two core disciplines of content learning:
Social Studies: Students build foundational knowledge across four disciplines: history, civics, geography, and economics. Framed around essential questions and enduring understandings, lessons prompt students to research, analyze sources, and write about their findings.
Science: Students investigate real-world phenomena across four major domains: physical science, life science, earth and space science, and engineering and design. Students apply math skills to measure and analyze data, while using reading and writing to interpret scientific texts and communicate their discoveries.
Essentials
Essentials
Alongside core academics, the Essentials Program offers a variety of special area classes designed to inspire creativity, foster lifelong wellness, and expand global perspectives. Through hands-on exploration in the arts, physical movement, language, and science-technology-engineering, these programs encourage students to think critically, collaborate, and apply their learning to other domains.
Library Learning Commons: Offers a school-wide hub for reading, research, digital citizenship, and media literacy instruction.
Music: Highly supportive ensembles and general classes that build musical aptitude and foster a culture where students feel safe taking risks and showcasing their abilities through performances.
Physical Education & Health: Dedicated to lifelong wellness. Students engage in lessons that encourage healthy social and physical movement.
Visual Arts: An art studio environment emphasizing creative problem-solving, self-expression, and choice of mediums.
World Languages: Students build foundational communication skills, cultural competency, and global awareness by studying Spanish.
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