Sandy Hill Elementary School

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About Sandy Hill Elementary

Instructional Programs

PBIS

Sandy Hill Elementary is in its third year of participation in Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports, PBIS. Our goal is to help each child develop self-discipline. Together the home and school share the responsibility for developing good citizens. The PBIS program is based on our philosophy of recognizing positive contributions of students. Each teacher has a clearly defined classroom discipline plan that informs students of classroom rules, consequences and rewards. Cooperative learning standards are used in all classroom and non-classroom settings. Behavior checklists are also used during every aspect of the school day. Excellent behavior is recognized and rewarded with positive weekly behavior slips, weekly “bee” awards, and monthly “bee” drawings. In addition, a grand finale BeeHavior Assembly is held in June.

MathWings

The Dorchester County Board of Education adopted the MathWings program in August 2000. MathWings was developed at Johns Hopkins University. The program integrates the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Curriculum and Evaluation Standards, cooperative learning standards, skills practice and reinforcement. Problem solving, written and oral communication and daily routines are key components of the MathWings program. Daily lessons include opportunities for students to use manipulatives before they progress to pictorial and abstract mathematics concepts. Although teamwork is essential to the MathWings program, individual accountability and assessment are daily requirements. In addition, Sandy Hill students in grades 3-5, work daily to master addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts.

Houghton-Mifflin

Sandy Hill Elementary uses the Houghton-Mifflin reading series for instruction in the areas of phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency. Our students are exposed to a variety of genres. They are also engaged in Language Arts skills through this series.

Our reading program is supplemented by several intervention programs. These include: Early Reading Intervention, SIPPS (Systematic instruction, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words), Elements of Reading, Read Naturally, Phonics Boost and Phonics Blitz. Self-selected reading is encouraged at home each night to build fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and confidence in reading.

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