An elementary classroom should do two things at once: know the child by name and push the work by design. AISJ Elementary pairs four core subjects (literacy, math, science, and social studies) with six specialist classes that run from STEAM to Languages and Art. The standards behind it are Common Core, AERO, and NGSS. The daily experience is hands-on inquiry.
Four core subjects
Literacy
Reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Literacy runs on Common Core ELA and AERO ELA standards, taught through named programs rather than improvisation: KinderWriting, Firstie Writing, and Ready Writing for young writers; Magnetic Reading Foundations and Magnetic Reading for fluency, comprehension, and the connections between subjects.
Math
Conceptual understanding and number sense. Children do not memorize their way to number sense. Scholars move from concrete objects to drawings to abstract notation, explaining their thinking at every step, because a method you can explain is a method you own.
Science
Hands-on inquiry and NGSS/AERO Science. Science here is something you do with your hands before you name it. Units of inquiry cross subject lines, and the explorations are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and AERO Science.
Social Studies
Responsible global citizenship. In a school of 68+ nationalities, social studies has live material in every classroom. Scholars analyze their own world and the worlds of others, map the relationships among Earth, people, and systems, and practice being informed citizens instead of just reading about them.
Six specialist classes
STEAM
Build it, test it, explain it. From Pre‑K 2 through Grade 5, STEAM means making things: hands-on experiments, collaborative projects, problems without an obvious answer, and creative expression through the arts.
Music
Listening, singing, movement, and instruments. Music literacy from Pre‑K 3 through Grade 5 is built the way musicians actually learn it: listening, singing, moving, and playing melodic and choral instruments.
Languages
Native Arabic and Arabic as a Foreign Language. Arabic-speaking scholars go deep (reading, handwriting, spelling, grammar, comprehension, dictation, conversation, composition, and literature), while Arabic as a Foreign Language gives everyone else a real start: letters, sounds, vocabulary, reading, writing, spelling, and speaking.
Culture and values
Islamic Studies and Arabic Culture. Islamic Studies supports Grades 1 - 5 through Quran, Hadeeth, worship, the life of Prophet Mohammed, religious stories, morality, and values. Arabic Culture gives non-Muslim students cultural awareness and understanding of Saudi Arabia.
Physical Education
Fitness, motor skills, and movement. PE is sequential by design: fitness and motor skills built in order, safely, with movement treated as the foundation for physical and social development alike.
Art
Media, design, culture, and expression. Scholars make original work in varied media while picking up the grammar of the discipline (elements of art, principles of design) and connecting it to grade-level topics and the culture around them.
