Cluster Teachers

Physical education at PS 81 is the place to be! The physical education curriculum is aligned with New York State Standards and the NYC Scope and Sequence Chart. This is a comprehensive and creative curriculum where units and lessons are focused on locomotor and manipulative skills, thematic units, safety management, nutrition, social/emotional wellness, rhythms and dance, aerobic fitness, muscular endurance and strength, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility. Units also cover sports such as basketball, baseball, soccer, football, etc. Students engage in cooperative and team building activities where they learn life lessons/values, build character and relationships as well. At the end of the year, there is a big dance festival that brings the whole school and community together. There is also Field Day where students participate in fun activities with their friends and teachers. Our goal is to introduce students to a variety of skills, games, and sports that they can use at home, in the park, or on a team. We encourage ALL students to participate and give their best effort in the gym as well as the classroom. As physical educators, we want to increase physical activity among the children. We want to help young children develop into physically literate individuals and help them live healthy active lifestyles. PE can help boost academic achievement, which is why children can really benefit from it. Even when life is hard, children need to always try their best and work hard in life. Through play, they can learn how to overcome challenges. Overall, students develop positive attitudes to physical activity and its importance to living healthy active lifestyles. For PE, please remind your children to wear proper footwear and clothing for PE. Boots, crocks, flip flops and dress shoes are not easy for PE and not safe!

In the areas of Music and Drama, Grades K to 5 will have the opportunity to explore a variety of different types of music including: Historical, Patriotic, Holiday, Seasonal, Classical, Jazz, Broadway, and Nursery Songs.  The students will be encouraged to identify the composer’s purpose; motivation behind a song; the tone/mood of the song; learn new vocabulary words; learn techniques that will help the students memorize a song; how to interpret and perform the song; read some short biographies of composers’ lives; appreciate the genre of music and be able to identify characteristics of the genre of music studied.  The students will read and act out plays and participate in creative movement.The students will also be performing a variety of shows including the Fall Show, The Holiday Show, The Patriotic Show and the 5th grade Commencement.

The Spanish Program is aligned with Common Core Standards and Standards for Foreign Language Learning. The Spanish curriculum is vertically designed and implements social emotional learning with multiple points of entry; such as inquiry based discussions (ex. What is language?), technology, sharing circles, and project based learning. The overall objective is for students to apply basic greetings and write in Spanish using previously learned vocabulary. Through movement activities, drama, and conversational stems students practice conversational Spanish.  There is an added emphasis on student centered learning. Students with a Spanish-speaking background lead student discussions and conversations. Students work individually and in groups while using checklists and rubrics to reinforce the new Spanish words and phrases. In addition, students participate in presentations about famous Hispanic Americans and Spanish-Speaking countries. 

Our computer lab has 32 iMac workstations available for our students use! Students visit our computer lab with their class each week. Students practice mouse skills and typing, work on digital media projects and coding activities, and learn how to research the internet safely. Grades 3 through 5 learn how to use Google Drive and are assigned a google user account.  All students are given log-in information to access Reading and Math programs. Some of the websites we use are: i-Ready, Raz-Kids, Zearn, and Freckle. They are encouraged to use these websites at home. Please reach out to Mrs. Knecht for any questions or assistance at DKnecht@schools.nyc.gov.

Project Based Learning is a vertically integrated program based on the social studies/civics state standards.  Projects are designed with a focus on transferring knowledge, making abstract connections and using content in real-world scenarios.  Embedded in the projects are instruction, facts and key concepts in history, civics, writing and social/emotional learning. Visual and oral expression are a key component of the students’ product. Projects are designed to promote classroom community spirit, and knowledge of civics. Some projects require individual work, others require cooperative group work, while some require a combination of individual and cooperative work. Projects are on-going and might require six or more sessions to complete. Projects end with a class share out to facilitate students learning from each other.