Chess Instruction

Through the joint efforts of the Principal and the PTA, a half-year of chess instruction is been incorporated into classroom instruction in Grades 2 and 3. We collaborate with Senior Life Chess Master  Tag Taghian of Let’s Play Chess.

Arts Collaborations

Our school is deeply committed to the arts and we are very proud of our arts curriculum, which is supported by our PTA and school funds.  This year we will continue a variety of arts collaborations, where visual and performing teaching artists work with children and staff, including with:

• American Ballroom Theater’s Dancing Classrooms (ballroom dancing)
• Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) African Dance and Music residencies
• City Lore visual artists-in-residence program and family arts workshops
• Metropolitan Opera Guild residency
• New Victory Theater pilot ‘spotlight’ residency and education partnership

Music Collaboration

PS 29 has an elective lunchtime instrumental program (band) and chorus for children in Grades 3-5 through a collaboration with the Brooklyn/Queens Conservatory of Music (BQCM).

• Band. Students choose among flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and percussion. throughout the year, students learn note reading rhythmic skills, posture, breath support, ensemble, and style. Beginning students are separated into individual instrumental groups while they achieve a basic proficiency on their instrument. Later in the year, students form the larger concert band in preparation for the year-end performance.
• Chorus. Students sing, learning breath support, articulation, good vocal habits, part singing, and ensemble skills. Repertoire may include popular, jazz, and classical music.

Schoolwide Enrichment Model

Over the past few years, P.S. 29 has been implementing the  Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM). This model, which is based on the work of Joseph Renzulli and his associates (The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented) at UCONN, looks at differentiation of instruction and how we meet the talents, interests and abilities of all of our children.  It supports the vision that schools are places for talent development as well as challenging and enjoyable high-end learning.

Enrichment Clusters

We will continue to place great priority this year on developing opportunities for enrichment at P.S. 29.  We believe that all of our students have varied interests and strengths that need to be made known and nurtured.  We will continue to implement our cycles of enrichment clusters (based on student interest) for all grades.  Grades 1 & 2 will participate in a ten-week cycle from October through December.  Grades 3-5 will participate in a ten week cycle from January through March.  Finally, Kindergarten will begin their ten-week cycle in April and end in June.

Brown Bag Lunch Series

In addition, we are excited to continue our  brown bag lunch series; curriculum compacting (a model that focuses on students who, through a pretest, demonstrate mastery of a particular unit of study in math prior to actually being taught the material, and who then engage in an interest-based project that is monitored by the classroom teacher while the rest of the class participates in the regular curriculum); and math enrichment.  Our literacy curriculum is by its very nature, completely differentiated, and so curriculum compacting is not employed in reading and writing.